All morning I was restless and anxious. I hadn’t seen or heard or smelled Caleb all morning and when I made it to lunch and looked over at the vampires lunch table, his seat was incredibly empty. As was Blake’s. Worry settled in the pit of my stomach.
“What’s wrong?” Matt asked me as soon as I sat down next to him at our table.
I sighed, rubbing my slightly bruised temple, “Caleb’s not here today.”
“That should be a good thing,” Mirah pointed out as she took a bite of her sandwich.
“Yes, it should. But….”
“But what?” Dakota asked, frowning.
“If he’s not here…then where is he? At least when he’s at school I can keep an eye on him and I’ll know if he’s causing trouble,” I explained, “But when he’s not around who’s to say he isn’t off somewhere else doing something terrible?”
I growled in frustration, “I hate how I need to have him around to have a peace of mind that he isn’t causing chaos somewhere else. But I hate having him around because that means he’ll be bothering me until I snap and take off.”
Jared patted my hand, “You’ll have to get used to it until we fix him.”
Or until the third full moon, I thought grimly, but I kept that thought to myself.
“Why aren’t you eating?” Dakota asked me, frowning in concern.
I shrugged, flipping my bottle cap around my fingers quickly, “I’m not hungry.”
“You need to eat,” Matt said firmly. He opened his mouth to say more but snapped it shut, flushing slightly.
“What?” I asked curiously.
“I was going to say you need to eat because you need energy to protect yourself against Caleb…” he muttered, looking sheepish.
A corner of my lips tugged upwards as I took his hand and squeezed it, “Well then, thanks for refraining from telling me so.”
I looked down at my uneaten lunch, making a face at it.
“I’ll bring my lunch to practice with me and if I get hungry I’ll eat there,” I decided finally.
“Well, I suppose we can’t argue you that. At least you’re probably going to end up eating eventually,” Jared said, looking slightly pleased we reached a compromise without having fought, physically or verbally.
I stood, scooping up my lunch as I tossed her another look at the vampires half empty table. Roxanne caught me looking and glared with her icy blue eyes but I ignored her. I was too worried about Wyatt, or Caleb, and Blake’s empty chairs. Did something happen? Was Caleb with Blake? Was Blake in danger?
New thoughts kept popping up and I took off at a brisk walk through the halls, practically sprinting until I reached the music room. I heard music coming from our usual place and when I opened the door and stepped inside my jaw nearly hit the floor.
In the piano room there was three things that weren’t ever there. One a chair, two a guitar, and three?
Wyatt.
I gaped at him, hardly daring to believe my eyes as his head turned in my direction. He jumped to his feet as he grinned broadly at me. I continued to gape and he laughed as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me out of the doorway, shutting the door quickly before he pulled me tight against him and kissed my forehead.
“Hi,” he said, his lips moving down my bruised temple as he smiled against my skin.
“Er…” was the only thing that I could say since I was still too shocked. When it finally sunk in that he was here and happy, and that Blake was okay, I finally snapped out of my shocked daze and pushed him away from me.
