The Pull of Destiny (57 page)

“I’m better, auntie. My
friends from school came to visit me. Shazia bought me some Neosporin.”

CiCi’s aunt smiled at Shazia,
who smiled back. “Hi Shazia. I haven’t seen you in a while. How are you?” she
asked warmly.

“I’m good, Mrs. Grant.”

“And this is my friend Luke,”
CiCi continued, pointing to me. “Luke, this is my Aunt Kelly.” She smiled. “Or
Mrs. Grant if you nasty.”

I stuck my hand out
automatically. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Grant.”

Shaking my hand, CiCi’s aunt
gave me an evaluating look. “You too, Luke. I’ve heard quite a bit about you. I
hope you’re being a better friend to my niece now?”

I shot CiCi a quick look but
she had suddenly become very interested in staring at the threadbare carpet.
“Yes, Mrs. Grant. And she’s a very good friend to me too.”

CiCi’s aunt smiled. “That’s
good. Do you guys want anything to eat or drink?”

“Oh, we were just leaving.
Homework and- stuff to do,” Shazia put in.

And people to avoid, namely
Nate.

“Thanks for visiting Celsi.
I’ll be in the kitchen.”

She left the room and all
three of us heaved a collective sigh of relief.

“I honestly thought I was
going to have a heart attack,” Shazia admitted, still fanning herself.

“You guys should really go.
If Nate finds you here....”

CiCi’s voice trailed off as
she bit her lip nervously.

“We’re leaving. Stop biting
your lip, though. It looks like it already hurts.” Shazia slung her bag over
her shoulder and hugged CiCi. “Call me and Rob later, kay?”

“Okay, I will. Thanks, Shaz.”
She turned to me and hugged me as well. “And you too, Luke. Thanks for
following Shazia. I really appreciate it.”

I closed my eyes, not wanting
to let her go as I rubbed her back through her tank top. But I had to.

As Shazia and I walked down
the stairs once we had left CiCi’s apartment, I fished my phone out of my
pocket and called Troy to pick us up. I was still boiling over everything.
CiCi’s bruises, her cousin’s douchebagness, her Aunt Kelly’s blindness- it was
all making my head spin.

“I hate that he does that to
her!” Shazia burst out, stamping her foot. “Celsi’s the sweetest person ever!
Why does Nate hate her like that?”

I knew why, but I couldn’t
betray CiCi’s trust. No way was I going to tell Shazia that the reason Nate
hated his own cousin was because he blamed her for the death of his daughter.
Then again, Shazia probably wouldn’t believe me.

So I just shrugged. “How are
you getting home?” I asked her, as two rambunctious little boys ran past us up
the staircase.

“I’ll call a cab.”

Running a hand through my
hair, I shook my head. “I’ll give you a ride, drop you off.”

“Really?” Shazia smiled at
me. I smiled back. “Thanks, Luke.”

“No problem.”

We walked in silence for a
while. “I’ve never seen Celsi like that before,” Shazia mused, almost to
herself. “So down, so ready to give up.”

“Yeah. Me too.” Sighing, I
stuck my hands in my jeans pockets. Seeing CiCi so miserable wasn’t something I
wanted to repeat. And it was all because of me. Guilt niggled at my insides.

“She’s always the one who
cheers me up when I’m sad, but I couldn’t even do the same for her.” Shazia
threw me a sideways glance. “But you did, Luke. Thanks for following me. I’m
glad you were there.”

I grinned. “You’re welcome.
Even though you’re being there cheered her up too.”

“Okay, fine, it was a good
thing we were both there,” Shazia conceded, smirking at me.

We got in the backseat of the
car and Troy started to drive to the El Hamed’s penthouse.

I was humming along to ‘Seven
Nation Army’ on the radio, enjoying the comfortable silence, when Shazia
suddenly spoke.

“How long have you known
you’re in love with her?”

My head snapped around to
look at Shazia so quickly I knew I’d definitely pulled a muscle.

I stared at her as she fixed
me with an even look, her brown eyes serious. “What?” I asked, my voice almost
a rasp.

Shazia smiled knowingly. “You
heard me. But if you want to pretend that you went temporarily deaf, I’ll
repeat myself. How long have you known that you’re in love with Celsi?”

I opened my mouth to say
something along the lines of ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about’ but
closed it just as quickly. The smug look on Shazia's face was grating, but not
as grating as the tiny inkling I was getting that once again, she was spot on.

Finally, I shook my head,
forcing a laugh. “I’m not in love with anyone. What-,” I started.

Shazia interrupted me.

“I saw the look on your face
when she opened the door and you got a look at her bruises. I saw how happy you
looked when she started smiling. I saw how tight you hugged her when we were
leaving, like you never wanted to let her go.” Shazia smiled, patting my hand.
“I saw the look in your eyes right before you kissed her.”

“Shazia,” I groaned, leaning
my head back against the cool leather seats. This was way too much to deal with
right now.

“Okay. Maybe I took it a
little too far with the love thing,” Shazia said, a teasing grin on her face.
“I’ll pull it back. Seriously though, do you like Celsi? As in, like her like
her, not like her just as a friend?”

Like her like her? We weren’t
back in the third grade, were we?

I opened my mouth and Shazia
waved a finger in the air. “Honest truth, now. I’ll know when you’re lying.”

So I bit my lip and decided
to tell her the honest truth about the feelings that had been building up in me
ever since I asked CiCi to the gala. “Maybe,” I said quietly, avoiding Shazia's
eyes. “Maybe I do ‘like her like her.’ Happy now?”

“Don’t put this on me,”
Shazia protested, a giddy smile on her face as she clapped her hands together
in glee. “I
knew
that you loved Celsi, I’ve been
trying
to tell
her for the longest time and now I have proof!”

“I said maybe, Shazia!” I
looked at her with unease. “Yo, positively don’t tell CiCi
anything
about this conversation. It never happened.”

“But it did happen,” Shazia
said primly as the car rolled up to her place.

She opened the door,
trilling, “Thanks,” to Troy, and skipped up the sidewalk, me in hot pursuit. I
caught up with her as she walked into the foyer of their expensive building.

“Shazia, don’t tell her.
Please,” I begged, not sure why I was begging. I knew how I felt about CiCi,
but I didn’t want her to know yet. Not until I had sorted out all my mixed up
and confused feelings towards her. And once I did, I wanted to be the one to
tell her.

“She should know, don’t you
think?” Shazia asked, hand on her hip. I nodded.

“Yeah. I agree. And I’ll tell
her, don’t get me wrong. I’ll tell her soon, but for now- can this just be
between you and me?”

Pursing up her lips, Shazia
gave me a calculating look. “You don’t like to rush into things, don’t you?”

“Not without knowing its
right.”

She smiled sweetly at me.
“Trust me on this one, Luke. This is as right as it gets.”

I was starting to think the
same way too, but I still didn’t want to jack things up before things even
started.

“Can you promise me not to
tell CiCi anything?”

“Only if you promise me that
as soon as you get your act together, you’ll tell her. She deserves to know.
With everything that’s going on in her life, this would make my girl so happy.”

“I’ll tell her. I swear.”
Putting a hand over my heart, I quipped, “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Okay.” Shazia smiled.
“You’re a good guy, Luke.”

I chuckled at Shazia's
earnest face. “And you’re a great girl, Shazia.” I pulled her into a hug.
“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she whispered,
looking up at me as I let her go.

I jogged back to the car and
closed my eyes, my head pounding like crazy. Too many thoughts to process. But
the main one, the main one was admitting to myself that what Shazia had said
was true. I didn’t just ‘like like’ CiCi. Somewhere along the line, I had
fallen in love with her. And it scared the shit out of me.

CHAPTER 23

kiss the girl.

Luke’s
Bucket List: Kiss someone mid-sentence. Make out in an elevator.

Luke’s Point
of View

If someone had
told me that by the end of this eventful day I would a) succeed in knocking two
things off my list, b) smear the Astor name (again) and c) get into a fight, I
would have laughed in their face.

However, all
those three things actually did happen, and I have Ahmed to blame. Of course, I
say blame coz how crazy would I be if I thanked the guy responsible for getting
me expelled? But a huge pat on the back was definitely in order for Ahmed
because when it came down to it, he was also indirectly responsible for the
best part of my day.

Speaking of
which, my day started off, like all my days do recently, with a lecture from my
dad. A ‘why didn’t you show up to therapy’ lecture, to be exact.

He was lying in
wait for me when I ambled into the kitchen that morning, trying my best to
ignore the throbbing in my head that had kept me awake most of the night. My
mouth was dry and the bright light hurt my eyes, but all I could think of was
what I could pull today to put a genuine smile on CiCi’s face. Hey, it was
better than thinking of why even Robyn’s migraine medicine, undoubtedly the
strongest headache medication I’d ever tried, had stopped working for me.

“I’m getting
sick of your stunts, kid,” dad started without warning.

I almost
jumped, bumping my hip into the kitchen table as I jerked around in the
direction of his voice. How the hell did he get here so fast? Just a few seconds
ago I swear I heard him bellowing on his phone in the parlor. Yet somehow, he
was leaning against the stainless steel fridge, his arms folded over his chest
and a scowl on his face. Classic ‘time to give Luke a hard time’ stance. What
did I do now?

Oh, right, I
missed therapy. Damn big mouthed therapist couldn’t let me skip one session
without blabbing to dad...

“Uh...,” I said
warily, grabbing an apple from the fruit basket on the table and preparing to
make a speedy exit if things got ugly. It was obvious that things
were
going to get ugly, since recently I couldn’t deal with dad and have the
conversation stay civil, but I figured if he flipped on me, I could probably
throw the apple at him and run. Or something.

“Do you pull
shit like this on purpose just to piss me off or are you naturally this messed
up?” I bit my lip as he took a step closer, his eyes narrowed. “I just finished
talking to Doctor Hayman, and what do you think she said?”

Great. He was
playing 21 questions now.

I spread my
arms, deciding to explain myself or die trying. “Dad, I swear I have a
legitimate reason for missing therapy yesterday.”

Chuckling
sarcastically, dad shrugged. “Do tell. One thing you actually know how to do is
lie.”

My fists
clenched involuntarily, such was the effort it took not to fling the apple at
his annoyingly smirking face.

“Okay,
yesterday I was faced with a dilemma. Go to therapy or go comfort a friend of
mine who got- hurt.” I almost sighed as I saw the look of total disinterest on
dad’s face. He didn’t care about why I missed therapy. All he wanted to do was
shout at me and start his day off right. Still, I persevered till the end.
After all, I didn’t have a thing to lose. “What do you think I did?”

Sneering, dad
shrugged. “Tell you the truth, I don’t care what you did about your ‘dilemma’,”
he replied, proving me right as he made air quotes with his fingers. “All I
know is, once again, your therapist is billing me exorbitant fees for your
cancelled sessions and I’ve had it!”

“Why don’t you
just cancel Doctor Hayman and see all the money pile up?” I asked wearily. All
he cared about was his money. Didn’t he know that he couldn’t take it with him
when he died? “She doesn’t even do anything to help me! All she does is text
and play Sudoku for an hour. Your money goes down the drain whether or not I
show up at therapy.”