Chapter Forty-Eight
Igrab my handbag for school since I don't need my backpack anymore. A pen is all I need for the next week. I head to the front door but as I reach for the doorknob, it opens.
“Oh, hey,” Dash says stepping back, clearly surprised I'm standing right at the door.
“Hey.”
“Where are you going?” Dash asks.
“To school. I have an exam,” I tell him, then move past him.
“Wait.” He grabs my upper arm in a light grip. I turn to him, seeing him look awkward. “I'm sorry I walked in on you guys yesterday.” His eyes look anywhere but me.
“Don't worry about it,” I say to end this conversation for the both of us.
“Okay, good. Well, where's Axe?” Dash clears his throat.
“He's sleeping in.”
“Oh, he never sleeps in.” Dash frowns.
“I think it's good he's sleeping. His sleep schedule when I first came here was horrible. Plus, we've been putting a lot of pressure on him so he's tired,” I say.
“That's true. I'm going to see my mate for a bit. I guess I'll come back here later and let him know I'm here if he needs help with the extra load,” Dash says.
“How are things with your mate?” I ask.
“We've been on a few dates so it's going great. But it's killing me that I have to take this at a human pace.”
“Aww, well, I got to go before I'm late but we can talk about it later,” I excuse myself.
“Good luck with your exam.” Dash gives me an encouraging smile.
I roll my eyes, knowing I'm going to fail. Getting to school and having to wait and get in alphabetical line is annoying. While I'm standing there waiting for the teachers to escort us in, I overhear a conversation between some people in my year.
“Can you believe five people dropped out of senior year just weeks before the exams?” a girl says exasperatedly.
“I know. How stupid,” another girl says.
“I mean, the stress of school is bad. Maybe the stress got to them,” another girl says.
These girls are humans so they don't know the reason why five students disappeared.
I'm, however, glad that the humans think they dropped out and nothing serious happened.
As for the teachers, they haven't reported missing students or anything so Axe must have done something so there wouldn't be questioning.
After the exam, Amelia and I decide to go to lunch and talk, considering after graduation we won't see each other often. We eat at The Grail Cafe and Dash's mate is the one who serves us.
“Hi, can I get you girls some drinks?” Ryleigh asks in an enthusiastic waitress way.
“A large coffee,” Amelia sighs dramatically, stating she needs infinite coffee for the exam weeks.
“Just water, thank you,” I say. Ryleigh goes behind the bar of the cafe.
Amelia sighs. “These exams are shit.”
“Yeah, my mind seriously goes blank when I read the questions,” I say.
Exams are tolerable when they're in question format but as soon as I see it's an essay I have to write, I'm literally staring at the paper for ten minutes with a puzzled mind.
“It's just, I know university will have exams like this, even more difficult than these ones. But I can't help but think the learning material is useless,” Amelia says with a frown.
“You don't have to convince me.” I chuckle.
“Here are you drinks.” Ryleigh sets our drinks down in front of us. “Have you decided on meals?”
“Umm.” Amelia opens the menu and looks at it intently.
“I'll have the burger and chips, please.”
“Got it.” She writes it on her notepad. “You're Elora right, Dash's friend?” Ryleigh asks, and Amelia drops her menu and turns her attention to me.
“Yeah... how are things?” I decide to pry a bit.
“He's very charming.” Ryleigh smiles. “Has he said anything about me?”
“Nothing specific but I think he's quite smitten with you,” I say.
“Really?” Ryleigh bites her lip to prevent her smile.
“Yeah.” I smile.
“So he's not just a playboy? I mean he comes in to get a coffee every morning and we even had breakfast together when he came in this morning.
I know as his friend, I shouldn't grill you for information, but I just want to know if there's a reason I shouldn't get attached,” Ryleigh says strongly, clearly wanting to know what she's in for.
“He's not a playboy,” I assure her. “He likes you and I'll leave it at that.”
I don't think Dash will mind me telling her he likes her. I mean he probably even loves her already and just wants to fly her away to a place where it's just the two of them. I'm going to talk to him about it, though. He even said this morning he hates how slow it's going.
“That's good to know.” Ryleigh takes Amelia's order and leaves. Amelia stares at me and I try to think of what I can tell her about what just happened.
“Who's Dash?” Amelia asks.
“Well, umm, I'm kind of seeing someone and Dash is the guy's friend,” I say quietly.
“That's great. Why didn't you tell me?”
“It's new so I was keeping it private.” I lie because I can't tell her I'm in a serious supernatural relationship.
“Well it can't be that new if you're already meeting the boyfriend's friends.” Amelia raises her eyebrows.
“School's coming to an end so I'm just meeting new people and stuff, you know,” I say.
“I get you.” She nods. “Have you got your graduation dress yet?”
“Nope, didn't think I'd make it to graduation,” I mutter.
“I know, I was considering leaving the first month of senior year. But anyway, we should really get our dresses. Everyone got their dresses months ago.”
“We can go shopping after this.”
“What colour are you thinking?” Amelia asks.
“Haven't given it much thought but I'm just going to get something simple. No princess type dress bullshit,” I say, not needing to spend money on a dress I'll only wear once.
“I don't know. I kind of just want a 'slap in the face' type dress where I walk into the graduation and everyone knows nothing can bring me down,” Amelia says.
“Then let's make it a graduation to remember.”