Four Elements Book 3 - Sacrifice

Part 5

Without Bane, Andie couldn't enjoy herself anymore, especially given his abrupt and inexplicable departure. So, she left shortly after. She spent the drive home trying to figure out what had happened, but couldn't think of anything. She still didn't have an answer when she'd parked outside her house. She sat in her car a moment, thinking. She couldn't decide whether to feel guilty or not. One the one hand, she couldn't think of anything she might have done to upset him...

But at the same time, they'd spent all their time together, so who else or what else could it have been? She tried thinking about the date. September third... it wasn't Bane's birthday, so that wasn't it... was something bothering him that he wasn't telling her? Had Zorak maybe gotten to him? Blackmailed him? That would explain it... but that didn't make sense. If that had been the case, he would have been preoccupied all evening... unless he was pretending... She heaved a sigh and got out of the car.

"Andie?" came Hank's surprised voice. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, I'm home, Dad."

He came out of the living room. Lauren and Hannah were probably in bed, now.

"What happened? I wasn't expecting you home so early."

Andie paused. She had thought the time when she had to lie to her parents was over, but she wasn't sure telling them the truth was a good idea. She was already trying not to go crazy, and they were most likely not going to help.

"Uh... Bane went home because he didn't feel well, and it just wasn't the same without him, so..."

That was close enough to the truth that she didn't feel bad saying it, even though a small, nagging part of her knew it was still a lie.

"Really? He seemed fine earlier," Hank said.

"Yeah, he didn't understand it either. It just... came suddenly."

Hank gave her a sympathetic smile.

"That's a shame. You were excited about tonight."

Andie shrugged.

"It's okay. It's just a dance, Dad," she assured him.

She went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. As she swallowed it, she noticed her father eying her shrewdly.

"Are you sure everything's okay, honey?"

Andie forced a smile.

"Of course," she said.

"It's nothing involving your... uh..."

"Powers? It's not a cuss word, Dad," Andie smiled. "And no, for once, there's nothing involving them..."

Not yet, anyway... Andie added mentally. I hope...

"Okay, then. You know where we are if you need us."

"Yeah, I do. I'm going to bed." Andie said, setting her empty glass down.

"All right. Good night, Andie. I love you."

"Love you too, Dad."

She kissed his cheek and headed up the stairs.

The following Monday morning, Andie felt about to burst. She'd considered calling Bane to check on him all weekend, but Adena had advised her against it. If he was upset about something, he didn't need her pestering him... So she steeled herself to wait until she saw him at school to ask what had happened to him.

She hadn't had a chance to pick her friends' brains about it either. She, Hank and Lauren had been busy reorganizing her parents' office. But she had a feeling the girls probably wouldn't have had any more ideas than her... She was almost tempted to ask Adena to get Balon to tell them what was going on, but didn't. She knew she wouldn't have liked it if Bane did that to her, so she couldn't do it to him, either.