Velvet (31 page)

Before I could even blink, Adrian had crossed the room and slammed his brother violently against the wall. “Shut up,” he demanded him in a voice so low I almost couldn’t hear.

Julian just rolled his eyes, looking bored. “This is exactly what I’ve been talking about.”

Adrian looked livid, though his voice was calm. “Do not threaten me.”

“I don’t need to threaten anyone.” Julian laughed. “I don’t need to say a word. You’ll see how this ends, eventually. The difference between us is that I don’t disillusion myself about this shit.”

I felt someone grip my hand. It was Lucian. Adrian’s eyes flicked over in our direction for a moment, and then back to his older brother. Finally, he released him. “You’re pathetic.”

Julian adjusted the neck of his shirt. “And you still don’t understand. You really don’t. The day’s gonna come, bro, and it’s going to suck.” He winked at me over Adrian’s shoulder. “No pun intended.”

Adrian pointed at the door. “Get out.”

Julian looked at me over Adrian’s shoulders. Finally, he left.

I let a few moments pass as Adrian stood silent and still. “Adrian?”

He didn’t turn around. “Do not talk to me right now,” he murmured, voice was shaking with rage.

I took a step back like I’d just been slapped.

“Damn it, Caitlin; stop
feeling
that!” He whirled toward me, eyes blazing silver. “This isn’t about you.”

“I didn’t say it was,” I replied, blinking back sudden tears. “I didn’t say anything at all.”

Adrian glared at me a moment longer, then leaned forward with his arms against the table, head bowed. Lucian hugged me, his face pressed into my waist. We stood there like that for an entire long, silent minute. Finally, he stood up, refusing to face me, eyes normal and gray again. “Come on; I’m taking you home.”

I didn’t move. “Adrian, please talk to me.”

He headed for the door. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“What just happened?” I asked, trying to sound resolute although I was terrified. I’d never seen him angry before, and it reminded me how very not human he was.

He leaned his forehead against the door and breathed. “Just Julian being an ass, as usual.”

It was a vague answer, but it was an answer. I wasn’t going to push him. “Okay.”

I walked up to Adrian and stood there. He turned slowly to face me. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, and brought his hand up like he was going to brush his fingers through my hair, but thought better of it and lowered his hand. He blinked and repeated his apology. “I’m sorry. If you can, just forget what you saw. It’s not important.”

I searched his face, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze for more than a moment.

“Adrian,” I began, but didn’t know how to finish.

He looked agonized for a moment. “You feel…” He seemed to search for the right word, but couldn’t find it. He closed his eyes. “I can’t do this.”

“What do you mean?” I whispered.

He opened his eyes. “Nothing. I mean nothing. Come on, I should get you home.”

He reached for the door and I reached for his arm, stopping him. “Will you tell me someday? What this is about?”

He finally met my gaze. “Maybe. One day.”

I nodded, and let go of his arm.

Adrian turned back to his little brother. “Frankie, why don’t you stay here this time?”

Lucian looked sad, but didn’t protest.

We drove back in silence, without even the sound of the radio to distract me from the weird stress emanating from Adrian. When we reached my house, he parked and leaned back, closing his eyes.

I turned in his direction, careful not to touch him. “I’m sorry if I’ve caused any tension between you and Julian.”

“Caitlin, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for,” he replied without moving a muscle.

“In that case,” I continued, “I apologize on behalf of life.” He opened his eyes and peered at me strangely. “For dealing you cards from a completely different game than the rest of us,” I clarified. “It’s kind of impossible to win that way.”

It was a weird way to put it, but he seemed to get what I was trying to say. I opened my door, but he stopped me before I could actually get out of the truck.

“What time do you want me to pick you up for Trish’s party?”

I tried to plaster a happy smile over the unease I felt. “How about nine?” I suggested. “I think the party starts sometime after that.”

He nodded. I closed my door. Once he pulled away and I was back inside, all I could think was,
What the hell just happened?

15

FIVE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

“Please be careful,” Rachel said for the hundredth time that evening. She was determined to dress me up for the party, so I was currently sitting on the toilet seat waiting for her to finish curling my hair.

“I will,” I promised her. Again.

She began curling another piece distractedly. “I know it’s just Stony Creek, but people still drink on New Year’s Eve and the roads are very slick.”

“I promise we will not be drinking tonight.”

She bit her lip, looking very mom-ish and concerned as she fussed with my hair. “I know, but other people might be.”

“Adrian’s a very careful driver,” I reassured her. “If someone looks like they’re driving all crazy, he’ll pull over.”

I felt like I should be annoyed, but I kind of liked that she was worried about me.

Rachel released my hair from the curling iron and picked up another strand. “You and Adrian seem to be pretty happy with each other.” It was more of a question than a statement.

I shrugged. “Yeah. We are.” Just not in the same way most couples were, since we were not, in fact, a couple.

Rachel tested the strand of hair with her finger and decided it wasn’t quite hot enough yet. “So how serious are you two?”

I frowned. “We’re not about to get engaged, if that’s what you mean.”

“Well, I mean more … are you two …
together
?”

I stared at her, trying to figure out where she was going with this. “We’re dating.”

She took a deep breath and looked way more awkward and nervous than I’d ever seen her. “Okay, let’s go for the blunt approach. Are you two having sex?”

I blinked.

I blinked again.

And then I burst into laughter. I had to dab at my eyes before my mascara got all smeared.

“I know I’m not your mom,” she said, looking flustered, “and I’m not here to cast judgment on you if you are … doing … that, but I just want to make sure you’re being safe.”

“Is this, like,
the talk
?” I asked, trying not to giggle, and totally failing. I decided to spare her the embarrassment of having this conversation. “No,” I said adamantly. “We are not having sex. I will let you know if we do.”

She still looked kind of awkward and nervous, but relieved, too. “Good. You have your whole life to live without worrying about being physically intimate with another human being.”

I nodded gravely but on the inside I was laughing again—Adrian wasn’t exactly a human being.

“There,” she said, releasing the last strand from the curling iron. She ran a comb through my hair, twisting the individual strands into larger, more elegant curls. “You’re all set.”

I hopped off the toilet cover and stood in front of the mirror. And had another Green Thing moment. I forgot that underneath normal, plain Caitlin was a more sophisticated, somewhat less-plain Caitlin. It also helped that Rachel had done my makeup; she was wicked good with eyeliner. As much as I was interested in fashion, I hadn’t exactly mastered makeup yet—Mom hadn’t worn any, ever, so I’d tried to copy what I saw in magazines and
Vogue
shoots, to very, very limited success. Most of the time I went really simple: foundation, mascara, ChapStick. Tonight, though …

Norah passed by in the hallway, stopped, backtracked, and looked in. “Is prom early this year?” she asked, staring at me.

“Is it too much?” Rachel asked her daughter, looking worried.

“No,” Norah said. “I’ve just never seen Caitlin look so…” She trailed off as if the reflection in the mirror spoke for itself.

“Thanks, Norah,” I said, and meant it.

“Adrian’s here,” Norah said suddenly, turning. Wow, how had she heard that?

“Hurry up and get dressed!”

I ran into my room and threw off my bathrobe. Careful not to mess up my makeup or frizz my hair, I tugged the dress over my head and looked at myself in the full-length mirror hanging on the inside of my wardrobe. It was a knee-length black dress with a square-cut neck and sheer, wrist-length sleeves. I slid on my Halloween stilettos and contemplated what coat to wear. My regular jacket would look awkward over this outfit.

There was a knock at the door. “Come in,” I called, rifling through the wardrobe a little frantically.

“I thought you might not have anything to wear with that dress, so I dug this out,” Rachel said, stepping through my door. In her hands was a black, floor-length wool coat.

“That’s gorgeous,” I breathed.

“I bought it on a whim when I lived in the city,” she said, holding up the coat to me. “Don’t have much use for it now.” I slid my arms through the champagne-pink satin lining.

“You lived in New York?”

She smiled. “A long time ago. I’d won a few beauty pageants in high school; thought I wanted to be a model.”

I had not known this. “Why’d you leave?”

Her smile grew. “I met Joe. My car broke down in Stony Creek on my way to visit a friend and he happened to be the only one around for miles. I fell in love with the town, and I fell in love with him. After that, I didn’t want to be anywhere else.”

“Rachel,” I began, and she looked at me. I didn’t know exactly how to say this. “A while back, Joe mentioned that he knew why you and my mom stopped talking. If there’s really a reason why I never met you guys before my mom died, would you tell me, sometime?”

She pressed her lips into a thin line, and I couldn’t tell if she was sad or angry. After a moment, she smiled. “Yes. But not tonight. Now go on, I bet Adrian’s waiting.”

She pushed me gently out the door and I tried not to trip going down the stairs wearing the high heels and the bulky coat. I reached the bottom, looked up, and realized that Adrian was standing there, next to the door, watching me with a small smile on his face. He was wearing his usual understated designer jeans, but he’d put on nice shoes and beneath his coat I could see a collared shirt. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who’d sort of dressed up.

When I reached him, he bent down and kissed me on the cheek, whispering, “You look beautiful.”

I blushed and mumbled, “Thank you.”

“I expect you to take care of Caitlin,” Joe warned.

Adrian leaned back and met his gaze. “I will. I promise.”

For a moment, I was sucked back into the nightmare—the one where I’d fallen asleep in my father’s arms and woken in Adrian’s; the one where he’d promised my dad the exact same thing he’d just promised my uncle.

Joe nodded gravely. “I’ll hold you to that. Remember, I know where you live.” Rachel smiled and dug her elbow into her husband’s ribs, hard. He sighed. “All right; get out of here and have fun.”

“Good night!” I called out over my shoulder and shut the door behind me. It was snowing and despite the heavy coat, I shivered. “Sorry about that.”

Adrian held out his arm and I latched on to it as we picked our way to the truck. He opened the passenger door and helped me in.

We listened to Frank Sinatra on the way to Trish’s house without saying a word. It was surprisingly pleasant to just lean next to him in the dark, in silence. Soon, we reached Trish’s house. Before I even had time to knock, it flew open.

“Happy New Year’s!”

Trish enveloped me in a bear hug and invited us in. Music was playing from somewhere in the house and streamers were hung from the ceiling. I saw all the girls, plus Ben and a few boys, as well as Trish’s parents and brothers. We took our coats off and Trish threw them in the downstairs guest room. When I turned back, Adrian was staring at me.

“What?” I asked, looking down at my dress, horrified that I’d spilled something or that my underwear was showing.

“Nothing,” he said, and looked quickly away. “You thirsty? I’m thirsty.” He steered us over to the snack table and poured me a glass of punch. Trish was passing by and I caught her arm.

“This isn’t … special punch, is it?” I muttered so only she could hear.

She grinned. “Sadly, no. My parents would kind of notice if I spiked the refreshments.”

I smiled and let her go. When I looked at Adrian again, he was refilling his glass.

“Are you okay?” I asked, touching his arm.

He glanced down at my hand, then back up at my face. “I’m fine.”

“Okay,” I said, puzzled.

“Caitlin?” a voice behind me asked. I turned and looked at a girl standing in a midnight-blue dress, her white-blond hair pinned back in a French twist.

“Yes?” I asked.

She blinked. I looked at her again more closely.

“Jenny?
”

She smiled a little. “Trish helped me get ready.”

Not only was she wearing a dress instead of a washed-out, thrift-store sweater, she was also wearing makeup, jewelry, and heels. She was Jenny, but she was
Jenny
.

I gave her a startled hug. “You look amazing!”

She blushed.

“Hello, Caitlin,” I heard someone say behind me. It was Jack, Jenny’s twin. He nodded to Adrian in greeting.

Before I could reply, someone else joined our group.

“Hey,” Mark said, standing in slacks and a rumpled, paint-spattered shirt with his hair pulled back in a loose French braid. He looked like a scoundrel, in a romantic way, and Jenny blushed at the sight of him.

“Mark, right?” Adrian asked.

“That’s right. And you’re … Abram? Ayden?”

“Adrian.”

He nodded as if he remembered now. He looked at me, then Jenny, then Jenny’s brother. “I’ve already met Caitlin and Jenny, so you must be Jack.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Mark.”

Across the circle, I could see Jenny turn even redder. I even held my breath a little.