Sorry

sixteen

mateo ardon

The school bell rung, expecting for all the students to now attend their first classes of the day. People brushed past me, rushing to their next classes. Everyone passed me but the one person I was waiting to see. She was nowhere to be seen.

"Something is wrong," I told Rowan, too occupied on his phone to pay any attention to what I said. Likely something to do with Hadlee since she's all he seems to care about these days.

"You're overthinking it. She's probably just feeling sick," Rowan made excuses but he didn't know her like I did. Regardless of how much she hates school, she made her efforts to not miss a day. This was out of character for her and I had every reason to be worried.

"I just saw her last night. She's not sick. And she has an important exam today that I know she wouldn't skip." I ran through all the worst case scenarios. I left her in her house safe. How could something have changed in the past 12 hours? "I'm going to her house," I brought my bag over my shoulder and he stopped me from leaving. I looked at his hand on my shoulder like it was burning a hole through me.

"Listen to yourself. Show your face at that house and you along with the rest of us are fucking dead. Because you've been selfish enough to fall in love with a Hyland witch, again." His eyes were filled with anger. For decades I put my family in danger and we were finally able to lay low and rebuild everything. "I'm not letting you fuck this all up because that stupid bond has you paranoid. I told you not to sleep with her but you seem to only care about yourself lately. No regard for how your actions affect others."

I couldn't argue with anything he had to say. My brother always looked out for me and was honest with me. He's the reason I'm still alive today. My irrational decisions were handled by him. But irrational or not, I couldn't live with myself if something happened to Abia. Whether I liked it or not, I put her in danger by just being around her.

"I'm going," I forced my arm from his grip. Time felt like it was ticking. Maybe it was the protectiveness that came with the bond, but something in my gut told me something was wrong. She hadn't texted me this morning like she usually did. All signs pointed to something not being right.

I got into my truck, starting it up for me to go. But before I could, the passenger door opened. Rowan got into the car like someone was forcing him to come, but the invitation to come hadn't even been extended. Even then, I backed out of the parking spot to leave the school. The closer I got to her house, the more nervous I was. What if Rowan was right and this was all in my head? I would've risked everything for my paranoia.

I knocked on her house door, hoping Abia would open it and tell me she accidentally just slept in. I wanted to see her in her cute shorts, oversized t-shirt, and adorable blue bonnet. I needed to see her. But it was Luna. Our first encounter was when she picked Abia up from school, but if she didn't already know who I was because of her coven, it's because I've made quite the name for myself in the supernatural world.

Clenching her jaw, Luna looked me up and down with distaste in her eyes. It's a look I've become numb to because of how often I've come across it.

"You have a lot of fucking nerve showing up here. Like I'm not the one thing standing between you and your entire family being slaughtered," she gritted her teeth, looking behind at Rowan. Listening into the house, I searched for Abia's heartbeat that wasn't there. Luna was alone.

"Where is Abia?"

The anger she felt quickly disappeared. Her body language alone gave me my answer. "I thought she was with you. We had a conversation about the bond this morning. She went for her run and I thought she went right to school." This is exactly what I didn't want to hear. "She's not with you?"