The hall was about ten minutes past the roller rink, even closer to the hot springs inside the caves, which I almost detoured to go to instead of the party. I'd only been once, but it was on my bucket list of things to do before college. It would be too noticeable if I wasn't at the party, though, and the quiet drive left me alone with my thoughts. I needed a plan, something so I could set goals to achieve, or else I wouldn't have any success being on my own.
There was enough money in my bank account for a first and last month's rent somewhere. As of today, utilities could be set up in my name without a co-signer—I was an adult in five hours—and now, I had to make adult decisions. Adults had to work, and, if they planned to have a life worth dreaming of, went to school or training or something. Even then, a post-secondary diploma didn't guarantee a job according to the career fair we'd had at school a couple of weeks ago.
The pressure of my foot on the gas pedal lightened as realization dawned: leaving would screw me over. It was only a week. Maybe I could skip graduation and take off with my diploma? And leave my parents disappointed? Being absent from graduation would be more noticeable than missing my party, and no way would Suzie be able to pull off taking my place unless she knew how to fool my parents. It's not like we could share a diploma.
If I waited just one more week, I would buy time to leave unnoticed, but if I waited for summer to end, I could go to college. Damn. Could I jeopardize my future, end up as some waitress in a sleazy bar with plans to put myself through school?
No.
What about my mother? I couldn't leave my dad while she was in the hospital or not know that she was getting better. Would Mike, Gabe, and Raffy know what's wrong with her? How to fix it? If there was a chance that they did, how could I walk away? Leave town without a conversation with all or even just one of my boys? No.
But Tucker's was catering my party.
They would be there, which would be the perfect opportunity to pull them aside for a chat without having to put myself in the position of being alone with them, though for some reason I still wouldn't mind if it was with Mike. How could I still have feelings for someone I knew couldn't be human? And what about Gabe?
Feelings could wait until after my mother was better.
My speed picked up as my decision was made: I would wait out summer and go to school far, far away where my presence wouldn't cause anyone that I loved any harm. My bag was already packed and hidden. If anything else happened?
I was ready to go.
*****
As one of the first cars to arrive, aside from those in back belonging to whoever was working, I parked in the closest stall to the main doors of the hall, just along the side. It secured an easy getaway, should I need it. I looked in the mirror a final time to make sure that when I found Suzie, she couldn't complain about anything being ruined. The stranger in my reflection remained intact. I grabbed the shoes Suzie had left me from the passenger seat, as well as the shoes she'd forgotten for herself, and stepped out, staring up at the sun with contempt for the cheery mood it was in.
Despite the adversity I felt to the cloudless sky, the beauty here was almost enough to crack my grumpy exterior as I realized that the two years since I'd been here last hadn't compromised that.
The building was square with a castle rock stone exterior. It was one story high with a bulge at the center of the roof for it glass-domed ceiling in the main hall. The yard was lush and green, and each blade of its grass danced with the glisten of the sun on the three sides not part of the parking lot. The path leading to the arched main door was stained glass that seemed to shimmer, glowing from within. The solid double-doors, black, were smoothed and unblemished. On either side were French doors, identically positioned, that opened to granite patios closed in by beautifully carved stone like flattened cement blocks placed evenly on the ground. I didn't know what its images depicted, but I knew each had meaning, their creator taking such care from conception to birth.
I opened the door and slid inside, the weight too heavy to hold ajar for long. The door slammed behind me, hitting me in the back and nudging me forward. If I could live here, I would never leave. Breathing deeply, I sucked in with appreciation, and let the soft scent of the hot springs infused with the garden in the back sing to me like a lullaby of appreciation.
"There you are!"
Following the sound of her voice, I turned and looked through the doorway leading into the main room that expanded from the hall. Suzie, walking barefoot on the polished onyx floor, skipped to my side. She'd already dressed for the party in a gown of snow like an ancient Greek Goddess. Strapless, it was a snug fit, and flared at her waist to swirl around her legs where it reached mid-thigh in front and fell to just past her knees in the back.
"I brought your shoes." I pushed them in front of me but looked back to the main door with a final thought of running away. But, knowing Suzie, now that she'd seen me, she'd follow. I turned back and smiled. "You look gorgeous, by the way."
She looked like she wanted to yell at me but sighed. "Come on. You have to get dressed so that I can fix the damage done to your hair."
"My hair is fine." I lifted my hand, but paused when she glared, and dropped it to my side.
"No, it isn't." Her gaze fell to the back of my head. "Your pins are coming lose."
"Does that mean I can take them out? You have them so tight, my head is numb."
She rolled her eyes and motioned for me to follow her into the only room on the left, opposite the bathrooms, and just before the coat check counter. If the hall had been a face, the room would be its imperfection—mole, a chipped tooth. It was the flaw in its façade that crumbled its symmetry. It was still beautiful, with antique furniture for a dressing room sitting area. It was the kind of room brides prepared in at a church before going to promise their vows to their groom.
We stepped through and the floor turned from black to white, gleaming bright from the sun shining through two iron-plated windows on each side of the room. On the right were two chipped white vanities, one with a crack running diagonally across its mirror. On the left, a couch of red fire, two chairs of murky water, and a table mediating at their core.
"Stop gawking and get dressed, Aly. It's already six and people will be coming soon." She handed me a garment bag, turned me by my shoulders, and pushed me towards the black dressing screen at the far-right corner of the room. "Your dad has already confirmed with the manager and headed back to the hospital, and I still have to fix your hair."
She turned to the mirror and began fiddling with her own perfectly arranged pile of waves so that the curls streaming down lay soft against her bare shoulder. I sighed.
The sooner it began, the sooner it would come to an end.
YOU ARE READING
Fate's Return (Twisted Fate, Book 2)
Fantasy"Something is special about you. I don't know what they know, but you need to prepare. Okay? Can you do that for me?" David's words stayed with Alyssa, though she doesn't remember hearing them, and has forgotten her brush with Death, the in-between...
