“Congratulations Dora. You really did well tonight.” I shook a hand.
“Congratulations Dora. I hope you win.” I shook another hand.
“Congratulations Pretty Dora.” I maintained the bland smile on my lips, and shook another hand.
“Congratulations Dora. Don’t let them push you down! You hear?” I nodded at the more than hundredth person that had met and shook hands with me. My hands were getting sore and sweaty now.
Couldn’t they settle for waves? I wondered, gesturing at Diana with my eye, that she extricated me from the seat where I had been asked to stay in, to shake hands with those who were pleased with my success. There were so many unfamiliar faces I had to shelve into a part of my memory for remembrance.
No member of the Queen’s family had come to congratulate me, however, not even Raul. I wasn’t sure how to feel about his choice. I had thought he would have a better understanding. Seemed he was one that kept grudges. He should keep up with that. I might blow his head off should he come close to me again.
“Congratulations.”
I fixed the smile on my lips again, as I shook hands with another unfamiliar face, a teenage male who was shining his teeth. He was student of the magic school; his badge pointed that out.
The dude held my hand for a minute longer, whilst his hands gave me suggestive messages that disgusted me. Immediately, I increased the temperature of my hand, to free myself from his leering act. He wisely said nothing as he dropped my hand and walked away from me.
Just then, Diana and Levina sauntered to me, past the throng of community members around me, and dragged me away from their grip.
“She will be back soon, people. She needs to fulfilll an oath.” Levina explained the lie with a laugh that had the people laughing too, at the youthful exuberance which they understood. They also understood that I might not be back, and started to disperse. But I knew, as I turned and noticed them dispersing, that wherever they saw me tomorrow, a hand would be stretched out for a handshake. And that was okay.
“Wheew! Thanks girls, you saved my life…not easy being a celebrity.” I said, heaving in deeply, my hand splayed on my chest, as if to regulate my breathing pattern. My words only caused Diana and Levina to laugh, amused that I was complaining by day zero.
“The status would hold for more than a year, and yet you are weeping when the first day hadn’t started? You wanted to win, yeah…well there you have it..” Diana spoke, chuckling softly when I glared at her.
I switched the glare to Levina when the latter laughed harder. “You caused this. If you hadn’t put my name in the box, I wouldn’t have bothered, I wouldn’t have been in this situation.”
Levina shrugged her shoulders. “Forgive me, my lady.” She did a bow with utmost flourish to finish the play.
I scoffed, and turned away from her, a smile dangling on my lips. Even though I wasn’t sure of my stand on the sudden celebrity status, I was happy to have won at something for the first time in my life. I hadn’t won at anything back in the pack. In the pack, I had been a loser all around.
“So, this is where you have been hiding out?”
I swiftly swerved away from my friends to the voice that had come from behind me. Adam. And thanks the gods, he was alone. I didn’t think I could deal with the three Lycan boys now. He was spotting an unsure smile on his face, quite understandable considering the sharp look on Diana’s face, her smile and joviality absolutely gone.
“What are you doing here, Adam? You want another dose of gratitude?” I asked, deftly masking my face with alooofness, even though there was a little leap inside me at the sight of him.
Adam chucked softly and shook his head. “Not at all. I was just walking around the area, when I heard you talking with your family. You are Levina, right?”
Levina’s mouth fell slightly open, not believing that the Lycan prince knew her name.
“Yes, she is. What is that to you?” Diana asked, before Levina could recover herself to speak.
“Nothing really. Just wanted to be sure I had her name correct. I heard you are the one that had been charge of Dora’s campaign. Nice thing you had going….”
Levina blushed, and turned away, causing Diana to palm her forehead. I found it funny. What happened to Sinclair?
“Diana, can you take Levina to her father?”
A joke we shared among ourselves now, when matters arose, pointing at the overprotectiveness of Mr Lethon and the fact that Levina couldn’t do much without a consent from him.
Levina huffed. But she took Diana’s hand and started to leave, knowing that I wanted to be left alone with Adam. However, Diana wasn’t interested in leaving.
“I would rather stay here, Dora…I don’t trust him.”
Adam raised his two hands up, “I won’t hurt her, I promise.”
Diana wasn’t moved, not until I winked at her. “I will kill him, if he tries anything stupid. I promise.”
Only then did she turn away with Levina and walked out of the little clearing behind the hall. This was dangerous, being alone with Adam, and I don’t know why I was letting myself into this situation.
“Why did you send them away? You could have easily sent me away, instead of them. Do you want to spend time with me, Dora?” Adam asked, stepping into my space.
My breathing hitched when he placed his index finger under my chin.
“Is this me trying anything stupid, because I don’t want to die yet…”
I chuckled then, the tension on my shoulders easing away, especially when he stepped away from me. His question made valid sense though. Why hasn’t I chased him away? Why did I senf my family away? It was not like he had mentioned to speak with me privately.
“I just want to be a friend, Dora. I know you feel that need too. I won’t touch you either, unless you want me to. Just don’t hate me. I can’t bare it. I don’t know why.” Adam whispered, as if to himself, dragging my attention to his words, and then to his lips.
He wouldn’t touch me unless I wanted it? I wasn’t sure why I didn’t like the resolution; probably because I might never ask him to touch me. I would rather bit my tongue; never mind that I wanted him to touch me, despite the past, the complicated past that turned more hazy with every passing day. Would my revenge still hold?
He wanted to be a friend. Could I do that?
‘El…could I do that?’
‘I’m not sure, Maya. I don’t think I can stop you either from being friends with him if you choose to. Just be careful with your emotions.’
Careful? I can be that. ‘Thanks El.’
“Can we find somewhere to sit, I’m tired.”
Adam looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. He must have noticed the tug of smile on my lips, because he breathed out in relief, nodded, and with a gesture of a gentle man, pointed to a dark path.
The smile on my lips vanished then, as I was taken back to my last day in the pack, when he had led me to my death.
“Dora, are you okay? Your hands are shaking. You are afraid of the dark? Don’t worry I will protect you.”
This was phrased as a joke, but I didn’t buy into it. I was afraid of Adam going commando on me.
‘There’s no need for that. You have me now.’
I sighed deeply, and started walking into the darkness, without answering Adam’s question.
“Here, I think there’s a bench around here. I saw it earlier, when we came for the meeting.” He said, after a few minutes of walking under the light of the barely quarter moon.
There was no lights here, but I wasn’t afraid.
I found the chair, before he did, and sat down, looking up at the tree which acted as a shade over the bench. Where was this? I hadn’t been to this area of the school.
When Adam took the space beside me, my heart beat quickened again, and I knew he was aware of it, because he sighed the next second, and shifted away.
“I won’t harm you, Dora.”
I said nothing to that. How do I tell him that the spiking of my heart rate hadn’t been because of fear, but anticipation for his touch? We hadn’t rested in that silence for a minute when we heard the sounds of approaching footsteps.
“Someone is coming.” We both whispered at the same time, chuckling softly at the sync.
“What do we do?” I knew from the sounds of the feet that the intruder wasn’t anyone I knew well enough.
Adam looked at the tree then. “Can you climb?”