Sudden Departure

Chapter Thirty-Eight

*Again, this is completely unedited. If you come across any grammatical or spelling errors feel free to comment them for me. That'd be swell. *

After Alex's warm consolation and my brief, yet scary, encounter with Death I felt a little better about my current predicament. It wasn't necessarily the good kind of better, though. Meaning, I didn't address the problem, I just sort of ignored it. I tuned out the ghost-women's whispers and I nearly forgot about Death and his "tests." Somewhere within me was the strong suspicion of Death's intervention. I doubted that I was being calm on my own; that Death was just using his talent to lay that blanket of calm over me.

The rest of my time in Paradise was just a blur of spa treatments, shopping trips, parties, and making use of the rest of the entertainment. Finally, the day of the Guardians Gala had arrived. That meant our last night in Paradise, because the very next morning we were being made to pack up and move out. We were being sent right back into the worry and the bloodshed between the Rebels and the Guardians.

Going back also meant the end of my apparent tests.

~~SD~~

Nebula nudged my door open with her hip. "Why is your room so much bigger than ours?" she pondered aloud while waltzing into my room.

Suddenly, Nebula stopped dead in her tracks.

"What is it, Neb?" Millie questioned. She stopped and followed Nebula's gaze. "Oh."

I looked into the room and Shane was sitting on my bed.

"What are you doing here," Nebula said hostilely, her face morphing into a scowl.

"Yeah," I said, adopting Nebula's angry tone, "What are you doing here, Sh-" my eyes widened for a minute and I shrank back. This time, quieter, I said, "Nameless...?"

Shane stalked toward me and slyly wrapped his arm around me.

"Aw, Shailene, don't treat me that way, hon."

I scoffed and shook his arm off of me.

"Ladies, he gestured to Nebula, Millie, and Alex, "would you mind terribly if I had a private moment with Shailene here?"

The girls looked around cautiously at each other. They shared a moment of silent agreement and turned to me. The looks on their faces said, "Never in a million years."

I let out an over-exaggerated breath and opened the door to the hallway. "I'll be back in a minute," and with that I ushered Shane through the door and shut it behind us.

Shane placed his hand on the small of my back and led me to the end of the hallway.

"Sorry about that... acting like I hated you."

"No, I'm sorry," Shane returned, "I caught you off guard, then I was rude to you."

I smiled at him, 'It's okay because I knew that it was an act."

He looked down at me and the grin that didn't reach his eyes returned.

I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck. Shane then put his arms around my torso and lifted me up so that only my toes scraped the ground.

After a few seconds he put me back on my feet and let go of me.

"So will I see you at the dance tonight?" he inquired while he held my hands in his.

My face reddened and a giggle threatened to escape me, but I choked it down. "Yeah you'll see me at the Gala."

"Yeah? So who did you match to on your slip?"

I shrugged and beamed secretively, "I don't know."

Shane smirked back at me "In that case, how about you meet me in the green room at eleven o'clock?"