The Healing Power of Sugar: The Ghost Bird Series: #9 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series) (17 page)

“I have this place in mind,” he said. “Hang on, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

I leaned over to check his speed. “Are we in a hurry?”

“I want to stop by and grab some food,” he said. “Don’t make me tell you—it’s a surprise.”

I was glad he seemed so upbeat. There was a new excitement in him, as he sat straight, eyes wide, both hands on the wheel. “Don’t forget your seatbelt,” I said.

He looked down quickly, like he didn’t believe it wasn’t on. “Whoops,” he said, slowing down as he pulled the seatbelt over and clicked it into place. “You sound just like Kota.”

I giggled. “My voice doesn’t sound like his.”

“I mean the way you make it sound nice. You’re just reminding me. You aren’t telling me off for forgetting like North does.”

I settled into my seat, my head turned to look at him. “He did seem a little harsh on you yesterday.”

“That was pretty nice for him, actually,” he said. He brushed a hand over the steering wheel, tracing his fingertips along the grooves. “He can get really mad sometimes. Or paranoid. Lately, he’s been asking where I’m going every time I move, even if I’m on the way to the bathroom. And he keeps talking about…” He paused and then his shoulders relaxed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to vent.”

“No,” I said, reaching to touch his elbow. I held onto it, encouraging.

He sighed and looked down at my hand for a moment. He shifted and grabbed my hand, tucking it between his arm and his ribs, hugging it a little as he resumed driving. “I need a third hand, I think.”

I was a bit uncomfortable with my arm stretched out, but I left it there, happy that he was open to being touched. “I’ve missed you,” I said, and then blushed hotly, even though it was true. I hadn’t seen him or been around him like this in a while.

The smile on his lips broadened, and he tightened his arm against his body, squeezing at my hand. “I could tell yesterday. You don’t usually call me.”

I looked at the dashboard, trying to work up some courage. Mr. Blackbourne had once said that to get the guys on my side, I had to be completely honest. It had become easier to talk to Gabriel about nearly everything. I was working to get that way with North, and the others as well.

It was time to spill my thoughts as honestly as I could to Luke.

“I’m not used to all the attention,” I said quietly. Tears teased my eyes but I tried to make them go away and be brave. “My parents never wanted to hear what I had to say.”

“They’re gone, Sang,” he said gently. He released my hand and sat up a little in his seat. His turned to me. “You don’t have to be like that anymore.”

“I know,” I said, trying to smile, even thought my lower lip trembled. “And then there’s trying to figure out my place in the group. With school and where I had to hide from Mr. McCoy and with everyone following us. And now worrying about everything that’s happening…” I pressed my lips together and then put my fingers over my mouth, taking a moment to calm myself. “Sorry,” I said through my fingers. “It’s hard to explain.”

“I understand,” he said with a soft smile. “I’m a little nervous, too, now that it seems like stuff is going down. And we’re not even there.”

“No,” I said, feeling like I hadn’t explained what I needed to at all and wanting to make my point before I got too distracted talking about what was going on. “I mean, I was just trying to say that I’d been thinking of you and wanted us to spend time together. I don’t want you to think I wasn’t thinking of you.”

There was a long silence between us. “Are you okay?” he asked, slowing the car and looking over at me every few seconds.

I hesitated but then asked, “What do you mean?”

“You don’t usually talk like this.”

“We…aren’t…alone a lot?” I said.

“You’re usually so quiet,” he said. Then he smiled and refocused on the road. “Sang, you sit in the group and we all talk around you. Maybe I’m just not used to hearing your voice so much. You get in a good couple of sentences, but never a lot.”

“Sorry.”

He glanced over at me. “No, no. Don’t be sorry. You should talk more. I never hear your voice much but I love it.”

“Oh,” I said quietly, my heart fluttering. “Luke…” I searched for something to say.

“Oh no, I broke it,” he said with a chuckle. He reached out, poking me in the ribs. “Come on. Start again. You were talking about…uh…how you weren’t really close with your parents? And then it’s been hard to adjust? Tell me what it was like before us.” He took back his hand and put it back on the wheel. “Tell me what you did all day back then.”

I started out slowly, trying to explain to him what life had been like before the boys. It wasn’t always punishments like he’d known. There was loads of time where I never even saw my mother, or even my father or sister. I went to school, worked on schoolwork at home, read books to pass the time, took walks.

I told him all this, and then he started shaking his head. “What about when you weren’t doing anything?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“You spent a lot of time just hanging about, right?”

“Yes.”

“What did you think about?”

I paused. “I don’t know… Lots of things.”

“Like the future?” he asked. “What it would be like to get away?”

“Kind of,” I said, nervous to tell him about my old daydreams. “Honestly…it’s silly.”

“No. Don’t stop. Say it.”

I remembered what Mr. Blackbourne had said about being honest—this was probably the kind of thing he’d been talking about. “I used to think about…one day going to school and not feeling so shy. That I could walk up and just talk to someone like it was no big deal.”

“You wanted friends?” Luke said in a quieter voice. “That’s all?”

I blushed, feeling silly, but went on. “I spent a lot of time alone, even at school. No one sat next to me at lunch. At recess, I would sit and watch everyone else playing. I’d sit on the swing alone…or by the time I got to middle school, I’d go to the library and avoid being around anyone.”

“Aw…Sang,” Luke said. He sighed and shook his head. “Hang on. We’re almost there.”

I’d been concentrating so hard on what to say to him, that I hadn’t watched where we were going and was surprised to find us pulling off the interstate and in an area I wasn’t familiar with.

“Now we just have to find a place to park,” he said, pulling onto a road with a little traffic. “I hope it isn’t too busy. Shouldn’t be on a Monday.”

We drove on about another mile before he pulled the car into a strip mall. A few of the shops were empty, but there was still a bar, an Army recruiting station, a Chinese takeout place, and a gym, so there were still people going back and forth, mostly to the bar and gym.

I was worried we might have been followed by Mr. Hendricks and his team. Luke didn’t appear fazed though and parked the car. He got out, hurrying around to open my door. “Can’t forget to do this part,” he said with a smile.

I got out and he closed the door behind me. The light jacket and thin skirt weren’t enough to keep out the chill. I dipped my hands into the pockets of the jacket and held on tight to myself.

“Cold?” he asked, taking me by the elbow, guiding me beside him.

I shrugged, not wanting to worry him. “I’ll live.”

“Just wait until we get to the house,” he said. He looked up to the sky. “Looks like it might rain.”

I didn’t see any rain clouds, just some white puffs high up in the sky. We weaved through cars and headed toward the shops. He crossed his arms over his chest, over the T-shirt he wore, like he was cold, too.

When we got to the sidewalk, Luke pointed to the door of the Chinese food place. “You like Chinese, right?”

I had to shake my head and shrug, with a small smile. “Never had it,” I said.

Luke opened his eyes wide and his mouth formed an o. “Saaang,” he whined. “I have to fix this. I know you’re a clean slate and everything…but I still assume…” He sighed and hurried in front of me to pull open the door.

The restaurant was smaller than other places they’d taken me to. There were oriental paintings in nice frames along the wall, and several rows of tables with chairs. It smelled good, like roasting meat and spices, different than the heady stuff I’d smelled before in fast food places.

An Asian woman stood by the counter. She spotted Luke and smiled, then started reciting. “Hello! One order of beef and broccoli, no broccoli, one order of barbecue beef, one order of pork
lo mein
noodles?”

“Sounds good to me,” he said with a smile and approached the counter, leaning his elbows on it. He looked at the paper menus stacked in a pile near the cash register. “You’ve got duck today?”

“Yes, yes,” the woman said, her short black hair falling into her eyes as she nodded. “And I have new shrimp toast.”

Luke made a face. “Shrimp toast? That sounds awful.”

“No, no, you’ll like it.”

“Okay, I guess. I’m trusting you,” he said and motioned to me. “And whatever she wants.”

I had no idea what to pick. I felt pressure to do it quickly as they both looked at me, waiting. I was dazzled by the pictures above the counter, the ones in light boxes showing different items. And then I looked at the paper menu; there was so much more. I turned to Luke, shrugging. “What’s good?”

Luke tilted his head and pressed his lips together, leaning into me as he studied the menu. “Girls usually like the sweet and sour chicken.”

How many girls did he know that he brought to get Chinese? I suddenly didn’t want sweet and sour chicken. “You got all beef items? Are those good?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I like the barbecue.”

The woman leaned over the counter and pointed at the paper menu. “Not had Chinese before? Try this,” she said, although I wasn’t really sure what she was pointing to. She turned and motioned to the display. “Honey chicken. And I’ll throw in some Sesame beef to try.”

Honey chicken sounded like a safe bet and the picture looked good, with fried pieces of chicken in an amber sauce. I didn’t know what sesame beef was, but I’d try it. “Okay. Sounds good.”

“Egg rolls?” She asked Luke.

Luke made a face and shook his head. “Do you have any of the good wontons? The ones with the meat? Not the crab though, the actual meat stuff.”

“I just made some,” she said and then left us to go through a clear plastic curtain into the kitchen. Two Asian men stood in an aisle between two stoves, working back to back. The woman started shouting at them, in what I presumed was Chinese, speaking very fast I wondered how the men understood her. They must have, though; one of the men replied and then started reaching for items on the counter.

Luke tugged me toward the rows of tables.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s have a seat while we’re waiting.”

“They’ll bring it out to us?” I asked, unsure the procedure and feeling awkward to step away from the counter. Shouldn’t we pay something now? The woman had gone into the kitchen. Maybe that was normal.

“Sure,” he said. “Don’t worry. They’ll take care of everything.” He pushed back a seat that faced the counter and sat in it. I sat across the table, facing the door and the wide window out toward the parking lot.

Luke fixed his hair, redoing a sloppy man-bun at the back of his head. “I broke your clip,” he said. “And I think Gabriel stole the other ones. He really hates those things.”

“I’m running out,” I said, pointing to the one in my hair now. “This is my last one.”

Luke chuckled lightly. “Next time I think of it, I’ll pick up some more. Maybe dozens.”

I smiled widely. “Gabriel might yell at you for encouraging me.”

He shrugged, and leaned in, his shoulders bunching over the table. “He’ll get over it. And it’ll be great to see his face.”

I could just imagine Gabriel getting very upset at seeing more clips, when he was probably counting down until he was sure I didn’t have any left. They did mysteriously disappear from time to time, more than what Luke took for himself.

“So, our first real date, and we’re getting Chinese food,” Luke said, still leaning forward, his elbows on the table. It felt like he was trying to get closer to me, but the table was in the way. “I really hope you like it. Otherwise, a year from now, you’ll be suffering with stuff you hate.”

“A year?” I asked. “What’s in a year?”

“Don’t you want to remember our first date?” he asked. “Have a one year anniversary?”

I blinked at him. “For a first date?” I said it, but without really asking, but more out of surprise, as I’d had first dates with a couple of the guys, but they never mentioned this. Could I remember each first date and the exact day it happened? Did it mean when they said official first date or…

“You can have it for any occasion you want,” he said. He leaned back with an arm slung over the back of his chair. It was a position I’d seen in magazines; it showed off his shoulders and made them appear wider. His shirt was smoothed out over his chest, and his collarbone was more prominent. “We could have one every week,” he said, drawing my attention back to his face. “First date, first time we met…what was that, three months ago?”

I lowered my eyes to the table. The way he spoke was like we’d been dating for those three months.

He knew about the situation with Lily and what that meant. Did the easy way he was talking to me now about dating mean he approved of it?

His silence made me feel like he was waiting for an answer. “Maybe? It feels like longer.”