Follow the Arrow

Chapter 10

I'm staring blankly into the ballroom full of people, my elbow on my knee and my chin in my hand. More of half of these people I'm sure I've never met before in my entire life. But that doesn't stop them from coming over and acting as if they have. It's driving me crazy. I've always hated coming to things like this. That's not true; I use to like them when I was a child because I didn't have any idea what was really going on. Not to mention I had my elder brothers to follow around. That doesn't happen anymore. Because now I'm older, I have to uphold a certain decorum, and I have pretend I'm familiar with the people I don't know or very much like.

That is why I have never had such a dreadful time at these events as tonight.

Every few minutes, someone asks where my date is, and I have to say she hasn't arrived yet over and over again. It appears that everyone is eager to meet her. I'm not so much eager as I am nervous. Since it's our celebration held in our honor, once she does arrive we will be the center of attention. Everyone will watch as we dance, eat, and mingle. I almost wish she'd decide to stay in her room for the night, but I don't want to suffer this alone.

"Hey. Zane," Eli comes rushing over.

"Hello, Eli," I sigh, bored.

"What are you doing just sitting here?" I raise an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be heading down there already? If you wait too long, the ball will be over. Didn't you say you'd have Orchid out by now?"

I look at a clock and jump out of my seat. "I hadn't even noticed the time!"

"Hurry! Before anyone can notice you're gone!"

I nod once. "Thanks." And I'm running out of the room.

I hope she's not angry that I lost track of time. Who knows what she thinks may have happened? I hope she isn't worried, but knowing her, she is. Especially after I kept promising her I'd be there for her. Here's yet another reason to hate this night. I'm jumping down the stairs two and three at a time, surprisingly not once did I trip or nearly trip. But I don't have time to be smug. Once I reach the corridor's landing, I run for her door and throw it open. Orchid's sitting in the far corner, her face in her hands.

"Orchid," I say softly. She doesn't look up. I quietly walk over to her side. "Orchid, I'm sorry I came later than I told you. I hadn't even noticed time was going by so quickly. At first, it seemed to go on forever. Please forgive me." She starts shaking her head. "I suppose that's fair."

"No, no," she mumbles into her hands. She lifts her head and looks at me. "I forgive you, Blue. It’s just..."

I put my arm around her. "It's just what?"

She throws her hands up. "We can't do this. We can't pull this off!"

"Yes, we can."

"Fine." She points to herself. "I can't pull this off! Something's going to go wrong! I just know it!"

"Nothing's going to go wrong. I won't let it." Orchid pouts and I kiss her temple. "I promise." She hides her face in her hands again. I sigh and stand up. "We need to go before anyone notices I'm gone. They'll all jump to conclusions and come looking." I hold out my hand. "Please, Orchid. Let's go?" For a few moments, she continues sitting there, but she does look up at me and slide her hand into mine. "Thank you."

"Let's just get this over with," she gripes as I help her to her feet. I laugh a little before pulling her out of the room. Now we're both charging up the stairs, and this time I nearly trip twice because she nearly trips multiple times. Once we're on a flat surface, we pick up our pace, running down hallways and corridors which are thankfully empty. We're running as though we're being chased until we come to a huge door. "Is this it?" she asks.