Angelic

Ev ~ 7

The room I was staying in was grand and comfortable: the walls were painted a soft scarlet; tall bookshelves lined the wall beside the door, with a small desk and a reading lamp next to them; the carpet was soft and thick; there was a couch that faced the floor-to-ceiling window, so you could relax and enjoy the view of the city; and even the bed was four-poster Queen, with a thick, warm comforter, plush pillows, and matched the color of the walls.

But no matter how comfortable the room felt, it just wasn't familiar, and that, I decided, was why I couldn't sleep that night. I gave up tossing and turning around one in the morning, deciding that even staring out the window and looking at the moon and counting the stars wouldn't help me fall asleep. Besides, it wasn't like the New York sky was that clear anyway--just another thing that made me miss home.

I got out of bed, grabbing my phone and putting on a pair of shoes before walking out the room. I wandered the institute first, thankful I had paid attention to all the turns Izzy had made when she was showing me around, otherwise I would have gotten lost quickly. I found a long hallway that dead ended into a floor-to-ceiling window with a windowsill below it. I decided this was as good a place as any.

I sat down. For a while, I just watched the busy streets, people still wide awake and going as fast as if it were midday. I supposed that saying was true, then: this was The City that Never Sleeps.

Eventually I pulled out my phone, dialing the number without giving it a second thought.

"Ev?" Hearing his voice again, while I had spent the last twenty-four hours not knowing when I would be able to again, was such a relief that for a moment I couldn't make anything come out of my mouth. Hearing someone speak the familiar, comforting words of German took me by surprise, too. It had only been a day, but there had been so many English conversations that I even began to long to speak my native tongue. "Hello? Ev, you there?"

"Yes." I replied in German, seeming to relax a little bit.

"How's America?" He asked.

"It's..." Fantastic. Great. I wanted to tell him that it was amazing, that he would never see anything like it, but I couldn't. He was my best friend, my brother in a way, and I couldn't lie to him. "It's not like home."

"Of course not." He responded, not missing a beat. "I'm not there."

I almost laughed, but found that I couldn't. The mood suddenly felt somber. My chest felt like it was being crushed by a heavy weight that I couldn't move and only worsened when I tried to breathe. "Kai." It was only a whisper, and it wasn't really meant for him to hear, but saying his name felt like a release, like the heavy weight on my chest was slightly lifted just by saying that one syllable. "I miss you."

There was a pause, and for a moment I expected him to respond with something sarcastic, but he just sighed and said, "I miss you, too, Ev. But we'll see each other soon."

I closed my eyes, biting the inside of my cheek. I wasn't going to see him soon, not at all. "I'm not coming home for a while, actually."

"How long?" There was a slight panic in his voice, like he didn't want his worry to worry me.

"Warner said... A year. I won't be back for a year." I confessed.

"How sick is your grandmother?" He asked, and the lie I had to tell him about why I was coming to America came flooding back. The reminder of lying to him was like a slap to the face. It felt like I had betrayed him, and yet he would never find out.

Warner's words rang through my head: The Council believes only the best of our kind can become Elite. They don't consider a girl who parties four nights out of the week and makes friends with mundanes a serious enough candidate.