The Guardians (29 page)

“Good, I’m glad to hear it.”

Chapter Twenty-Five: ELIJAH

Abby and I sat wrapped in each other’s arms until long after the sun went down. Finally, she looked at her watch. “I better get home. Daddy is probably wondering where I am.”

“I’ll walk you.”

She grinned. “Always the gentleman.”

Hand in hand we started up the street. We were almost to her house when we saw a strange car in the driveway.

“I wonder who that is?” Abby asked.

Sensing something was wrong, I followed her on into the house. The sound of voices in the living room sent Abby skidding to an abrupt stop in the foyer, causing me to bump into her.

Seated on the couch across from her father were the Peterson’s. They rose and smiled warmly when they saw Abby frozen in the doorway. I shuddered. Their smiles were a little too friendly, like they wanted to butter Abby up. “Hello sweetheart,” Mrs. Peterson said.

“Hi,” she replied, still rooted to her spot in the foyer.

David noticed her hesitation. “Abby, Mr. and Mrs. Peterson just wanted to stop by to say how excited they are about the baby.”

Mr. Peterson nodded. “Yes, we couldn’t be more thrilled.”

An uncomfortable silence filled the air. I turned to Abby. “Um, I better go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She nodded.

I hated leaving her with them. She seemed so frail and tiny as I walked past her to the door. When I got home, I didn’t go inside. I sat down in the front porch swing, anticipating Abby’s arrival. My heart told me she would want to talk. I didn’t have to wait long.

As soon as the Peterson’s taillights faded into the distance, I heard her footsteps on the walkway. She looked surprised when she saw me in the swing. “I figured you might need to talk.”

She nodded and hurried up the porch steps. Without a word, she eased down next to me. Bolstered with newfound confidence, I didn’t even second guess myself when my arm wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her to me. We sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally, she sighed. “I just didn’t expect them to be there. I mean, it’s hard enough seeing them on Sundays, but for them to be at my house…” I took her hand in mine, squeezing it supportively.

She drew in a ragged breath. “I know I can’t keep the baby.”

“Oh?” I replied, realizing the less I said the better.

“It doesn’t make any sense to keep it. If I give it to the Peterson’s, I know it’ll have a good life with a mother and a father who will love and care for it. They’ll give it a better life than I ever could.”

I remained silent by her side, tracing small circles on her hand with my fingers as the words kept fumbling out of her mouth. “And I’ve got my whole life in front of me. Who would honestly want to be a mother at sixteen?”

“Well, seventeen,” I interjected.

“Yeah, that’s true. I will be seventeen when I have it, but seriously, seventeen is still way too young. I’m supposed to go away to college next year with a pretty awesome cheerleading scholarship. I sure as hell wouldn’t be able to do that if I kept the baby. I’d have to stay at home and go somewhere close by.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not to mention I’d probably have to go to school part time and work to support me and the baby since I know Landon will be a jerk and not help out.”

“Hmm,” I murmured.

“And how awful would it be keeping a child that will be nothing but a reminder of the biggest mistake of your life?”

Once again, I didn’t say anything. Instead, I remained silent to let her get everything she needed to off of her chest.

“And everybody keeps saying I’d be throwing my life away if I keep this baby. I’d have to grow up a lot faster, and life as I knew it, would be over.”

“Who’s ‘the everybody’ you’re talking about?” I asked.

“My dad and Kim and some of my other friends.” She shook her head. “They just don’t seem to get that with mom’s death, I’ve already had to grow up way too fast. I mean, sometimes I wanna scream that a baby isn’t going to make that much of a difference.” Abby glanced up at me to gage my response, but I kept my face expressionless. “But yeah, it probably would make a big difference.”

Once she finished, we sat in silence for a few minutes. “Abby, I guess you realized I didn’t say much about what you should do.”

A nervous laugh escaped her lips. “Yeah, I noticed you were even more uncharacteristically silent than usual.”

I smiled. “I just want you to know I’m here to listen whenever you need me to. I’ll support you in whatever decision you make. I just can’t make that decision for you.”

Abby nodded. “I know that, and I also appreciate that.” She sat up and draped her arms around my neck. “Thank you so much, Elijah.” Her breath hovered over my ear as she whispered, “I love you
so
much.”

I smiled as she pulled away from me. “I love you, too, Abby.”

A coy expression came on her face. “Then will you do something for me?”

“Why don’t I like the sound of this?”

She laughed. “It’s just a little favor.”

I raised my eyebrows. “What is it?”

“I’ve put off my first obstetrician’s appointment for a long time. I’m supposed to go tomorrow. I know my dad would rather die a thousand deaths than to go with me, and I really don’t want to ask Kim or Andrea.” Her blue eyes pleaded with me. “So will you go with me?”

I wasn’t exactly sure, but something within me thought it might not be a great idea. But as usual, my heart overrode everything else. “Sure, I’ll go with you.”

Her eyes brightened. “Thank you.”

Chapter Twenty-Six: CASSIE

While I should have been busy writing my character analysis paper on
Orpheus and Eurydice
, my mind kept wandering to Zach. My thoughts weren’t necessarily with him because of Lucius and his demon kiss. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I thought of Zach plenty—way more than I ever had before Homecoming. I don’t know what was more bizarre, me thinking of Zach in
that
way or the fact that a demon was putting
those
kind of thoughts into my head. I couldn’t imagine what evil deeds Lucius had to put on hold just to put thoughts in me. The only good thing was I could recognize
why
the feelings were there, and that I wasn’t truly a love-sick teenager.

So tonight as I wrote Orpheus’s name, the corners of my mouth tugged at a smile, and I thought about Zach’s first reaction to the story. We were in our World Literature class, trying to make our way through the massive study guide our teacher had assigned.

Zach shook his head as he looked over the questions. “You know they totally jacked this guy’s name from the movie,
The Matrix
.”

I didn’t bother arguing that the story was thousands of years old and therefore could not have plagiarized a modern movie. Instead, I asked, “What’s
The Matrix
?”

Zach’s eyebrows flew upward. “You’ve never seen
The Matrix
?”

“No.”

“Geez, you really have spent too much time doing missionary work in the jungles.”

I smacked his arm playfully. “Let’s get back to the study guide, okay?”

“Fine with me. You know, I’m actually digging this Orpheus guy.”

“Really?”

“First of all, he’s known for being a killer musician,” Zach said.

I grinned. “Now I see where you’re going with this.”

“You mean you’re not in to him?”

“Not exactly.”

Zach dropped his pen and peered incredulously at me. “How is that possible? I mean, the guy is willing to go to the ends of the earth, the underworld in fact, for his one true love. I thought chicks totally dug that kind of sacrifice stuff.”

I wrinkled my nose. “It is romantic, but at the same time, I can’t forgive him for his tragic flaw.”

“And what would that be?”

I rolled my eyes. “Duh, impatience! I mean, the guy was told he could have his love back as long as he wouldn’t turn around and look at her until they got out of the Underworld. So he’s so in love with her that he just has to look back? That fact alone totally discredits him for me.”

Zach smiled. “Uh-huh, I think I get some underlying symbolism here that you’re not admitting to.”

“And what’s that?”

“Sex.”

“Is that right?” I asked.

Zach nodded. “Orpheus is so consumed by his love and passion that he can’t wait to look at Eurydice. Most guys are so consumed by sex they’re willing to forsake a great girl or relationship.”

“Wow, I’m impressed with your literary analysis.”

“I aim to please.”

Now, a few days later as I struggled on the essay, I also struggled keeping my mind off Zach. Like Sophie had told me, I wasn’t consumed by thoughts of him because of the chasteness of Lucius’s kiss. I shuddered thinking what it might have been like if Lucius had been able to kiss me on the lips or do anything else.

Suddenly, my fingers stopped typing in midair, and fear washed over me. Zach was in trouble.

I stumbled out of my chair and then began pacing around the room as images began forming in my mind.

Empty beer cans littered the floor around the kitchen table. In a rage over something inconsequential, Bruce knocked plates to the floor. He started bringing his hand around to hit Annie when Zach shielded her. Bruce’s fist exploded into Zach’s cheek. The next punch brought Bruce’s ring banging across Zach’s eyebrow, slicing the skin open
.

As I saw them pushing and shoving, I started for the door. Then I skidded to a stop and froze. I couldn’t go to him; he was coming to me.

I stood in the middle of the bedroom, wringing my hands. A bang outside my window caused me to jump. I whirled around to see Zach smiling at me through the pane of glass.

I raced over to the window and threw it open. “Hey Romeo, ever heard of the door?”

“Uh yeah, but since it’s almost eleven, I didn’t want to have to explain anything.”

I glanced down at the enormous drop below the tree limb he perched on. “Did you stop to think how I would explain your mangled body if you’d fallen?”

“I wouldn’t have fallen.” He grabbed my arm, and I helped pull him inside.

The front of his shirt was covered in blood from the cut above his eyebrow. We stood in silence for a few minutes, neither of us knowing what to say.

“Is it okay I came here? I mean, will you get in trouble for it?”

I bit my lip. I knew Gabriel wouldn’t be thrilled with the prospect of Zach standing in the middle of my bedroom. Okay, thrilled was a mild understatement. He would be
livid
at the prospect.

He exhaled noisily. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go. If AJ saw what Bruce had done, there’d be no stopping him. He’d go over there and take Bruce on. I couldn’t let him do that. And you know how Lauren is spending more time with her Dad now.”

I nodded. Of course, I knew a lot more about how Lauren was spending her time than Zach did. Her roller coaster of emotion started to even out a little when I finally pestered her enough to reach out to her father. Between that and her budding relationship with Zach, things were looking up for her.

The feel of Zach’s hand on my arm brought me out of my thoughts. “Besides, you’re the only one who really understands me. You’re the only one I feel comfortable seeing me like this.”

His words melted whatever reserve I had about him staying. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

“Whatever you say,” he said, following me into the bathroom. He hopped up on the counter as I searched in the cabinet for Peroxide, cotton balls, and gauze.

I held a washcloth under the stream of steamy water. When I brought it to his eyebrow, he flinched. “Sorry,” I said.

“It’s not your fault.”

I tenderly worked the cloth across the open cut. “What started it?”

Zach shrugged. “Nothing really.”

I caught his eye, and he growled low in his throat. “A freakin’ steak. He got pissed and went psycho just cause his steak was cold. It didn’t matter his drunken ass didn’t wake up in time when Mom cooked it.”

Once again, I didn’t know what to say. Words seemed to float above me, and I couldn’t grasp onto them. “I’m sorry,” I murmured again.

“Yeah, well, he only good thing about it was Taylor was at the movies with some friends.”

I poured the peroxide onto the cotton ball. “This is going to sting a little.”

When I pressed it to the open cut, he clenched his teeth. “Sting just a little? That was a gross misrepresentation,” he hissed.

I shook my head at the size of his cut. “It’s deeper than I thought. You’re going to need stitches.”

“Ah jeez, I can’t go spend five hours in the emergency room for two tiny stitches,” Zach moaned.

“You’re in luck. I can do them for you.”