Chapter Eleven
Cade
“ J ust get in the car,” I sigh as I hold the passenger door open to my car.
“But we can make it to second period,” Sky says and takes another step back.
“You just fainted.” I put an arm around her back and drag her closer. “You have low blood sugar. You need something to eat.”
“But…” she tries, and I put a hand on top of her head, lowering her into the seat. She goes easily, probably because she can’t think straight and is weak right now, but I use it to my advantage. I help her legs in and duck out of the car as she tries to formulate another excuse.
“But the food hall has—” I don’t let her finish, and close the door on her, locking her inside.
Yes, the food hall has food, but it doesn’t have ice cream. Ice cream that is both sugar-filled and cooling—something of which I need too after being so close to her blood. My body is heated in a way I’ve never experienced, and I think it has everything to do with the scarlet essence that keeps Sky alive.
I’ve never had the pleasure of being up close and personal with blood, and up until today, I didn’t know I had a passion for it… Or maybe it’s just because it’s her blood. But damn if it wasn’t intoxicating, richly iron scented, and mesmerisingly red.
When I climb into the driver’s seat, Sky is tugging on her ruined skirt and looking anxiously out her window. I blindly try to put the key in the ignition, making sure she doesn’t try to bolt and face plant onto the concrete, but I can’t find the damn slot. And that’s not a metaphor for being a virgin. I think I would find Sky’s slot just fine, regardless if it would be my first time.
Why the fuck am I thinking about Sky’s slot ?
Agitated, I spare a glance and then groan. I can’t find the key slot because there is no key slot. Now, if that’s not a metaphor, I don’t know what is. I push the START button and shake my head, tossing the keys into the cup holder. I haven’t forgotten about that in a while, and I realize I’m distracted. This girl is one big interruption with her tantalizing blood. I’m missing class, for one. I’m not trying to sound lame, but I can’t afford to lose Valedictorian. Not with everything I have planned. And yet… somehow, I’m being derailed.
I tighten my grip on the wheel of the pretentious car and back out. I don’t know what kind it is, but definitely not something I would have picked out. It was a gift from the headmistress in my sophomore year to soothe me over. I drive it because I’m not stupid. Without it, I would be stranded in this shit hole.
Once we’re on the highway leading to town, I relax a bit. I’m pretty sure this oak lined road is the only thing that keeps me sane. The thick branches are laden with yellow leaves this time of year and have thinned out to expose their limbs that join with each other, as if they are all holding hands. It’s really a stark difference from the spanish moss of oppression that surrounds Hillcrest. It’s like I can breathe out here. I know trees give oxygen, but I wouldn’t put it past the ones on Hillcrest grounds to be doing the opposite. Sucking the students dry of their clarity of mind with hypoxia.
“It’s pretty in the daylight,” Sky says.
I glance at her, noticing a slight smile on her lips, her hair kind of mused from me pushing her into the car, and I realize it isn’t bronze, but golden. Apparently, Hillcrest leeches the color out of things too.
“It’s not the only thing,” I say without thinking.
I snap my eyes back to the road before she turns, but I can’t take the words back, and her gaze roams over me, lingering like I don’t have peripheral vision. In a haste, I reach back and pull my hood up, tugging it down low enough that I can only make out the lane markers on the pavement. I don’t know why she looks at me like that, and I don’t know why I’m doing this. It’s like pointing a gun at my foot.
Whatever happened to Sky today is a one off. She’s eventually going to climb the social ranks and make jokes about that one time I took her for ice cream while looking down at me. They will tell her who I am, where I’ve been, what I’ve endured, and she’ll shudder in her pretty little skin at the fact that she ever let me touch her.
I contemplate turning around, whipping the wheel and jerking us back to hell, but I push farther down on the pedal instead, gunning over the speed limit within a second. If I turn around, then it’s an eventuality that I’ll know what it looks like to see her face twist in disdain at me. If I keep going, keep going faster, there’s a chance I’ll kill us, and she’ll forever be frozen in my mind with that lusty gaze.
“Cade.”
I clench my jaw and ignore her. She’s a dead girl walking, anyways. Why not make it sooner? Will I be any less evil if I only take her with me, instead of everyone?
“Slow down.”
He was troubled. It’s a tragedy that he took such a bright girl down with him.
I can practically hear the news casters.
Investigators say there were no attempts at braking, and without any substances in the toxicology report, they are deeming this a murder-suicide. A memorial will be held at the site of the accident for Sky Lyons—
“Cade!”
Tall candles and teddy bears will be crowded around the base of the tree. Students will sniffle and cry like they knew her, when she’s only been at Hillcrest for two days. I wonder what picture they’ll use of her. Probably one from her old school that shows the golden color of her hair. She’ll be smiling, and the tragedy part will be that she’ll never be able to smile again.
I ease my foot off the gas at the image of her smiling, wondering what it would really look like. I can’t kill her without knowing what that smile looks like, right?
“What the fuck was that?” she breathes.
I shake my head and roll the window down.
“Just hungry,” I half lie.
I’m hungry, alright. Just not for food.