Dark One- The Khiara Banning Series Book 1

Twenty four

Going back to school somehow feels almost wrong considering we only have a couple of weeks back until winter break begins, and also, oh yeah, because I’ve begun intense training after school on the days I don’t work by Liam, Vicky, Cael, Lisa (who is also training Tristan, considering he only found out his heritage recently) and Cara, who is getting some training from everybody else as well.

We’re really a motley crew if ever there was one. How cliché!

It’s now Wednesday. Damien never bothered showing up to classes this week, having stolen my necklace, and Vicky has dropped all of her I-hate-you, queen bee pretences and has been waiting for Cara and I after school every day; and for all intents and purposes she’s dropped off the face of the earth or at least, she’s dropped out of school, since being an emancipated minor in the eyes of the State means she can kind of do what she wants. Apparently, she rather hates everybody in this school, including her number one minion, Janie, who isn’t taking it very well at all. Before Vicky came to school, she was the top bitch, but as soon as Vicky stepped in and acted like she hated me, she just kind of fell into her role as minion very well.

She looks lost.

Cara and I are sitting with Janie and Chris at the lunch table, and she hasn’t said a mean word to me the whole time.

“You seem um,” starts Cara.

“Tense,” I supply for her. She nods her head.

“Yeah, tense.”

Janie looks up from her uneaten pulled pork sandwich and shoots me a half-hearted glare. “You’d be upset if your best friend here left you high and dry out of nowhere, abandoning you. Victoria was my best friend…I thought.”

I frown, “How much time did you actually spend with her outside of school?”

She shrugs. “Not much. But we texted. And went shopping a couple of times. Never had very many friends back home thanks to my dad, and when I moved here nobody really spoke to me besides you guys.”

“I think,” Cara says slowly, “that maybe you overestimated her friendship level. Chilling a couple of times and texting does not a best friendship make. Your best friend has to actually care about you, regardless of your differences.

Janie sighs and runs her hands through her blonde hair, pulling up into a high pony-tail. “I guess I should’ve known that.” She turns to Cara, “Well I have you,” and then she turns to Chris, “and you and everybody else in prayer group.”

Then she turns to me. “And I don’t always hate you. It’s pretty damned hard, actually, because you’re sweeter than sweet tea and it gets hard some days, to conjure up the exact amount of disdain I have for you,” she drawls. There’s the ghost of a smile on her face. While I’m pretty sure we will never be friends, this is a good start towards something of a truce.

I roll my eyes. “Thanks for trying to be nice,” I say, but I smile at her when I say it so she knows that I actually appreciate her effort.

“Well I guess you’re welcome.” She replies, picking up her sandwich and taking a ladylike bite from it. How she manages to make eating a messy pulled pork sandwich look delicate, I have no idea. I eat like a pig!

“So,” says Cara a little too innocently, turning to me with a smirk on her lips and a mischievous glint to her blue eyes. “How’re things with the boy-toy? You’ve been together for a little while now. Have you guys done the dance with no pants yet? Because there’s a bet going on between a couple of us and I want to win.”

“You have a boyfriend?” asks Janie, suddenly perking up. “Who is he?”

Cara grins. “Yeah. You’ve probably seen him around town. He works at a café at the mall. He’s Irish…”