The Angel

Chapter 5

"False alarm. It was just a really bad fever."

Lilac scratched the back of her neck as she stood before Elizabeth and Alec. She felt like she was in the middle of a courtroom pleading her case. In reality, she was being questioned why she was already back to school after the event of the day before.

Honestly, she felt like a hassle: Her parents had flown over from their business meeting in Belgium to check up on her... right before flying right back once they had spoken to the doctor. And not only that, but Alec had been pacing back in forth in the waiting room for more than half the time. (Other than that, he was eating or asleep. She'd woken him up at two in the morning, and he even had to carry her down the staircase and to the car.) Lilac even had to have a ride to school out of the hospital via taxi. After a bit of rest, she had to speak with the doctor, and that took forever. She arrived just before lunchtime.

So yes -- she was definitely feeling guilty, and that made her heart drop like a twenty ton boulder to the bottom of her stomach. Now was one of those times she hated a part of human nature: the nature of nervousness.

"Alec is going to murder you," Elizabeth silently mouthed to Lilac behind her hand.

"Yeah... I know," she mouthed back. "I feel like Alec is the strict mom friend..."

"I hope you both realize that I can tell what you're saying," Alec muttered, hissing with an irritated glare. If looks could literally kill, Lilac would have dropped dead on the ground right then and there.

Lilac lifted her hands in feigned surrender and took one step back. "I guess I kinda interrupted your guys' lunch, though... Sorry."

"Lil', it's fine. Alec was just worried," Elizabeth reassured the shorter girl, smiling a little.

"He looks more like I just wasted a million hours of his lifetime."

"I have ears," Alec interrupted. "Lilac, were you even really that sick?"

Of course she was.

Lilac gulped and looked down at her hands, playing around with her fingers. "I guess not..."

He shook his head, obviously disappointed. "What happened?"

"Just some random fever," she answered truthfully.

"Lilac, that was definitely no ordinary feve--"

"I'm fine now, Alec. Really."

Suspicious but not suspicious enough, Alec let her off the hook. He waved his hand dismissively -- a rather formal motion that Lilac considered only to be used during meetings or if she was generally ending a conversation with someone of a higher rank than her. Considering the fact that this was Alec she had been speaking to here, it actually... annoyed her.