Reality Bites - Wattys 2018 Shortlist

Chapter 26 - Into Your Mouth

I had to hand it to Abe; he'd effectively managed to divert me from the idea of two months twenty-four seven with my mother by mentioning my birthday. I'd never had a proper birthday celebration before, so the idea of a party was pretty appealing.

"Do you have any idea of what you'd like?" Abe prompted. "We'll do a small gathering here for your closest friends, first, but I can fly in your senior class if you wanted something big as well? Or we could hold something close to campus if that's easier? We could hire a venue if you wanted something more upmarket than a home party?"

My entire YEAR? Something more upmarket?! Yet again, I was staggered by the scale with which Abe saw things.

"Yeah – that won't be necessary! I was thinking something small. Probably really small. If I had the whole grade here, I wouldn't be able to openly spend my birthday with Dimitri," I said, glancing at where he sat beside me. "Ideally I think Lissa, Christian, Adrian, and Eddie? Adrian doesn't attend school, he sort of floats around, but I'd still like him to come."

"Well, that's easily accomplished. What would you like to do? A dinner party? A night out somewhere? We could all fly to Paris or Russia if you wanted something a little different?" Abe probed.

"Abe? She's still a target, shouldn't she be keeping a low profile?" Mom asked, worriedly.

"Nonsense, Janine," Abe said. "I won't let this Strigoi situation make Rose a prisoner. She's only eighteen once, and I have missed a lot of birthdays. I want this one to be everything she wants." Turning to me he continued, "Do you have anything specific in mind?"

"Not really. Although I was wondering whether maybe Adrian and Lissa could come early? In the next few days maybe? I've seen through the bond that Lissa is in a really bad way. I think the darkness is affecting her. She needs my help. Adrian is a spirit user, too, but since he's not a student so I thought he could travel with her? Do you think we could bring her here?"

"Are you sure you want to do that, Roza?" Dimitri asked me. I know he was thinking about our earlier talk about my fear of the darkness.

"I don't think I have a choice. She's in the infirmary. They're keeping her sedated. I have to do this."

Looking troubled, Dimitri nodded.

I'm not sure why I'd never confided in Dimitri about Adrian's dream walking. Actually, now I thought about it, I did know. Dimitri, while patience itself with me, had rather a short fuse when it came to other men flirting with me. He had endured Adrian's blatant pursuit of me when he'd not been in a position to fight for me himself. I knew he still had issues about it. Even though he'd been the decisive winner, I'm not sure he'd immediately appreciate the distinction between dreaming with Adrian as opposed to dreaming about him!

"Maybe I should ring Alberta?" Mom suggested. "If she transported Lissa here, it would give me a chance to privately discuss the other arrangements with her? And she'd also be able to bring us up to date on the investigations at St. Vladimir's?"

"That sounds like a plan. Give her a call after dinner," Abe agreed. Trying to steer the conversation back to happier thoughts he suggested "And what about, once Lissa is here, you girls visit a day-spa together? I believe there are several outstanding ones nearby. I can send a complement of Guardians to ensure you're not disturbed."

A day spa? I shaved my legs and underarms, and Lissa usually trimmed my hair for me when she got sick of looking at the ratty ends, but that's as far as it went in terms of any beauty regime. A day of pampering sounded pretty awesome, actually!

The goat cheese tart finished, we moved on to mains. Steak, medium rare, in a delicate sauce with delectable sides. It was so tender. I suppressed a giggle when I noticed Abe's serve was about half the size of Mom's and mine and a quarter that of Dimitri's. Speaking of Dimitri, he was unusually quiet.