Broken

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I couldn't bring myself to speak to Britney the entire way home. It didn't really matter; she spent the whole time complaining about a dozen different ways in which everyone around her was making her life miserable. She didn't need any kind of response from me.

I had the house to myself again, so I worked on homework until I was too exhausted to continue.

It wasn't until I was almost asleep that I realized I was hoping I wouldn't have one of the incredible, vivid dreams tonight. Alec's cameo role in my last two had somehow been sufficient to tie him inseparably to all of the special dreams, and as silly as it was, I didn't want to see Alec right now. Not even just in my dreams.

Maybe there really wasn't any kind of link between him and the dreams. Maybe I'd have one of them tonight without him making any kind of appearance. I sincerely hoped not, but I'd rather not have them right now, than see the disdain he'd displayed earlier in the day.

**

The next morning played out essentially the same as the day before. I awoke to an empty house, and then hurried to get ready and down to the bus stop so I wouldn't be stranded if nobody else showed up to give me a ride into school.

Brandon smiled as he pulled up and found me patiently waiting for the school bus. "One of these days you're going to go ahead and wait for me at your house, and then I'll know you finally trust me."

I didn't feel much like playful banter, but I marshaled a semi-convincing smile and gave it my best go. "Oh I trust you, I'm just fairly sure you've got much more important things to worry about. One of these times you'll either forget to come get me, or you'll forget to tell me you're not coming by anymore."

Brandon let the silence build for several seconds. "I'd try and convince you I'm not going to do any of that to you, but I suspect that's just going to take time."

I was busy kicking myself for having cast such a pall over the morning, when Brandon sighed. "We should talk about what happened to you yesterday."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Nothing happened." Deny everything. It's essentially the motto of two entire generations now. Make them tell you exactly how much they know before you admit to anything, and then only admit to the parts they already know about. It's a crappy way to run a society, but I'm just one kid. I can't be blamed for just trying to keep my head down and survive.

We were already pulling into the parking lot. He must have been driving even faster than normal. That should have triggered another panic attack, but the tension in the black Mustang was high enough to distract my subconscious for now.

Brandon smoothly pulled the bulky car in between a pair of SUV's, and cut the engine before turning and hitting me with the full force of his gray eyes. "Adriana, I promised to protect you. I know it's kind of anachronistic, but I take those kinds of promises seriously. Most of us here in Sanctuary do. I need to know what you saw and heard while you were in the bathroom with Lucy and Jasmin, before Cassie arrived."

"You're going to protect me from Cassie and Jasmin?"

His face was completely serious as he nodded. "If necessary, but I need to know what else was said so I know how serious things are. Jasmin had a really tough childhood. Her mom was killed while she was really young, and her father was pretty abusive. Alec's mother did a good thing by bringing her into their home and trying to give her a decent life, but she's not completely stable."

My laugh had a touch more hysteria in it than I'd meant to let slip through. Brandon didn't look at me like I was losing it though. "You're not the only one to realize she's dangerous, it's just that Alec's family has a lot of influence, and so far she's avoided doing anything they couldn't cover up."