The Pull of Destiny (15 page)

“I hope so.” Luke
stretched his arms over his head. “That would be sweet. You know what, scratch
nurse. You should be a motivational speaker.”

I smiled, pleased. “Or I
could be both,” I said. Silence for a second. “When are you getting started on
your list?”

“ASAP.”

“Well, if you need any
help with it, you know where to find me,” I said and almost slapped myself.

Again with the kind
offers, Celsi!
What was
with this guy, making me have random outpourings of niceness? Damn him, it must
be the Irish Spring.

He looked surprised, then
pleased. “I’ll hold you to it,” he said lightly. “Sorry for messing up your
lunch.”

“Huh?” I said blankly.

“I mean, you came here to
play, right? And I just hogged up your time. Sorry.”

“No worries,” I said.
“Talking to you was- fun.”

“Yeah, but I feel bad for
screwing up your lunchtime regime. Play something for me.”

“Say what?”

“On the piano. Play me a
tune,” he explained affably. A naughty grin on his face, he nudged me. “That’s
what friends do for each other.”

I laughed. “You are off to
a really bad start,” I said, wagging my finger in his face. “That’s abuse of
your friendship powers.”

“Sorry,” he said
sheepishly, the wicked grin still on his face, speeding up my heart rate.

“You’ll have to take a
rain check. I- don’t have my sheet music with me,” I lied. I play by ear. The
real reason I didn’t want to play for Luke is because I was very self-conscious
about my piano playing skills. It took me a couple of months to find the nerve
to play for Aunt Kelly and I lived with her, for Pete’s sake! Luke was going to
have to wait till I trusted him not to laugh at me. To change the subject, I
said, “Are you feeling better?”

He stood up, stretching
lazily again. His t-shirt rose up, giving me a peek at his Pokémon boxers and I
clapped a hand to my mouth to hide my smile.
Luke’s just chockfull of cute
surprises.

“Yeah, actually, I am,” he
said over his shoulder, meandering over to the drum set in the corner.

I nodded thankfully.
“Robyn’s meds are quick acting,” I commented, glad that they had worked for
him. Turning on the bench to face the piano, I picked up the compress and slid
it into my bag.

“Hey, you know we got a
piano at home, right?” Luke asked from behind me.

“Yeah, I saw it,” I
replied, deciding not to bring up the elbow to the nose thing again. Now that
we were ‘friends’, such things were better forgotten. Curiously I asked, “Do
you play?”

He snickered derisively.
“Me, play the piano? God, no! The only person who even touches it is Faith. She
thinks she’s some maestro. She makes the keys a bit sticky, but its fine.”

I shuddered slightly. Did
the Astor’s realise how rare their piano was? Why would they let anyone get the
keys sticky? And who was Faith, anyway?

“You should come play it
one day. It’s just crying to be played.” I felt and heard Luke come up behind
me and swallowed as he slid his hands onto my shoulders and leaned down till
his lips were right by my ear. “I mean, the keys are practically dying to be
touched.”

Squeezing my shoulders
once, he stood upright again. “See you later.”

I turned around, just in
time to see him saunter casually out of the cubicle, whistling as he stuck his
hands in his pockets. Meanwhile, the back of my neck was still tingling and my
mind was racing.

Did Luke Astor just
invite me over?

CHAPTER 8

start of
something new.

Celsi’s
Point of View

“This event is
turning into a circus,” Shazia remarked as she pressed the end button on her
phone and slid it into the pocket of her blazer.

“What is it
now
?”
Robyn asked her, picking pieces of lint off of her black pants. It was after
lunch and we were walking to our lockers to collect some books.

“You know I
told you about my cousin, the fashion designer?” Shazia started, pushing back
her thick hair with both hands and looking quite frustrated.

Robyn pursed up
her lips. “Is she the one who’s holding a fashion show?”

Shazia nodded.
“Yup, that’s her. She’s launching a line of children and teen wear and she
asked me and Ahmed to be models.”

I slung an arm
around her shoulder, hugging her to me. “This is the first step to fame, girly!
Why don’t you look happy?” I joked.

Shazia wasn’t
the type of girl to get excited about doing things like modeling. She was a
feminist and was often known to rail against the ‘oversexualisation of our
youth’ in Social Science. The only reason she had agreed to be in her cousin’s
fashion show at all was because her mother had made her. But Shazia didn’t give
in without a fight.

“Trust me, I
was getting used to the idea of modeling Aisha’s clothes, until I saw them,”
she said, her voice laden with doom. I giggled.

 “Um- isn’t
Aisha the one who failed Art?” I remembered. Shazia nodded glumly.
Her
clothes are probably awful.

“Do tell! Are
they ugly?” Robyn asked curiously, unconsciously smoothing back her curly hair,
just in case she happened to run into Todd.

I wasn’t sure
how someone who failed art could go on and actually become a fashion designer.
Only
in America
. And only if you have more money than you know what to do with.

“Ugly isn’t
quite the word to describe them.” Shazia shuddered prettily while Robyn hooted
with delighted laughter. “Let’s just say that they have to be seen to be
properly appreciated.”

“Aw, poor
baby,” I said in a soothing tone. “You’ll make the outfits work. You got
style.”

Shazia grinned.
“The people I really feel sorry for are the kid models. Aisha’s making them
dress up like mermaids. That’s why I said it’s turning into a circus.”

We all giggled.

“I don’t know,
she could be on to something,” I conceded, a teasing grin on my face. “10 years
from now, maybe we’ll be dressing our kids in a bikini tops and tails and
sending them to school.”

Now
that
would be a sight.

“Celsi, you’re
a trip,” Robyn joked, pulling my ponytail gently.

“When’s the
show?” I asked Shazia. “And tell Aisha not to be stingy with the invites. This
is probably the only chance I’ll get to see kids dressed like mermaids apart
from Halloween.”

Probably not
even Halloween. Last time I checked, the Dollar Store didn’t stock mermaid
costumes.

Shazia patted
my arm. “She gave me and Ahmed two invites each. You can come, but you have to
promise not to make me laugh when I’m on the catwalk,” she warned me.

I nodded
brightly. “I’ll try my best not to.” Giggling, I added, “Shazia strutting her
stuff on the catwalk. Who would have thought it?”

“The only
reason I’m even doing this is because I love Aisha,” Shazia declared.

“And because
your mom forced you to do it,” Robyn put in.

Shazia nodded.
“That too. But mostly it’s the whole love thing.”

I cocked my
head to one side. “I can’t believe Ahmed agreed to be a model,” I said
musingly.

“It was kind of
easy for Aisha to convince him. She just told him it would score him points
with the ladies and he was in.”

“Isn’t he
dating Wendy?” Robyn asked absently. Shazia and I exchanged knowing looks.
Robyn knew full well that Ahmed was dating Wendy. She knew practically
everything about every single relationship at our school. She was just nosy
like that.

“They have an
open relationship,’ Shazia snorted. “I mean, what’s the point of saying you’re
exclusive if you continue to date other people?”

She shook her
head in disgust. Shazia didn’t like many of the things that her brother got up
to. Sometimes, I thought she didn’t even like her brother. Then again, if I had
a brother as jerky as Ahmed, I probably wouldn’t like him much too.

“When’s the
show?” I asked again, preempting a rant against Ahmed.

“Next week,”
Shazia replied, a resigned tone in her voice.

Robyn pouted.
“Aw! I wanted to go,” she wailed.

“There’s
nothing stopping you from going. I
do
have two invites,” Shazia told
her, giving me a look as if to say ‘you see what I have to deal with?’

“I have to go
to the stupid charity gala with my dad,” Robyn explained petulantly.

I shot my BFF’s
a mock glare, making the time out sign with my hands. “Okay, both you guys are
getting on my nerves,” I said, pointing at Shazia. “You don’t want to be in the
fashion show.” I turned on Robyn, stabbing a finger in her direction. “And you
don’t want to go to the ball. Do you know what I would give to be at either
place?” Grabbing Robyn by the shoulders, I shook her till she burst out
laughing. “Do you?”

“Ah, save your
theatrics for drama class,” Shazia said dismissively, my act not fazing her one
bit. “If you can be in two places at once, you are so welcome to take our
places.”

Robyn nodded in
agreement. “Yeah. An evening with old rich guys looking down the front of my
dress is something I’m not looking forward to.”

I sighed
dramatically, closing my eyes. “Alas, I’ll probably be at home, reading on that
night. Just me, a book and some hot chocolate.” I shrugged. What was I saying,
that sounded pretty appealing! So what if I didn’t have much of a life, at
least I enjoyed myself!

I felt a tap on
my shoulder and swiveled around, only to find myself looking at a handsome, all
too familiar face.

Luke.

“Hey,” he said,
grinning at me, his hands stuck in his pockets.

“Hi!”
Take
it down a notch
. “Uh, how are you feeling?”

Because
yesterday wasn’t good to him at all. But here he was, a big smile on his face,
looking remarkably healthy and happy. And he was talking to me! In the middle
of a busy hallway while students pushed past us on their way to get to wherever
they were going, some looking curiously at me and Luke as they passed. In front
of Robyn, the biggest gossip at Dalton! This wasn’t going to end well for me.

Luke shrugged.
“I’m alright,” he said. “I got some more of that medicine, plus I got some
sleep last night, so I feel human again.”

Behind me,
Robyn asked, “Did the medicine work for you?”

Eavesdropper.

Luke waved over
my shoulder at her, a grin on his face. “So good. Thanks, Rob. Hey, Shazia.”

I heard a
mumbled ‘hi’ from Shazia (she’s always shy around her brothers friends) and a
hearty ‘no problem,’ from Robyn.

Ignoring the
weird looks we were getting, Luke leaned in closer to me.

“So, I was
kinda wondering- about yesterday, you know?” he started, looking unexpectedly
apprehensive as he licked his lips. Because of me? Luke Astor was nervous
around me? Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

I went the
positive route, took it as a good sign and grinned. “That doesn’t qualify as a
sentence. In fact, it doesn’t even mean anything.”

Luke snickered,
showing off his perfect teeth. “You know,” he said. “You offered to help me
with my list.”

I blinked. “Oh.
Oh, yeah.”

As if I had
forgotten about that. But I mustn’t lie to you, I thought he wouldn’t remember.
It had just been one of my random spontaneous speeches and I was positive that
he wouldn’t take me up on it, but- here he was.

Luke scratched
his head, giving me a puzzled look. “Or where you just being nice?”

I shook my head
immediately. “No, I meant it,” I assured him. “But- I thought
you
were
just being nice when you said you’d hold me to it.”

Note to
self- try not to remember everything that emerges from Luke Astor’s perfectly
shaped lips. Note to self- stop staring at Luke Astor’s perfectly shaped lips.

“I don’t say
things that I don’t mean.” He paused for a second, bit his lip, and then
grinned. “Well, usually.”

I processed
this piece of information. “Oh. Okay.”

“So, I was just
wondering if you were free anytime soon, we could get started? I mean, you
could look over my list and- I don’t know, just check it out?”

The shy look
was on his face again, and I sighed. How could I say no to this guy? And why
would I want to? Besides, it wasn’t as though he was asking a lot from me.