The Veil

Chapter Three

Before I could look up to see what his expression was, Andrew came out of his and Jade's room, making both me and Tom jump. 

Andrew didn't notice what was happening between us, or at least he chose not to acknowledge it, and swept passed us, telling us that dinner should be ready. 

I was glad for the interruption, anymore time with Tom's eyes on me I would have confessed why I'd been mad all day. 

I realised when I looked in his eyes that I was mad for letting myself start to think about Tom that way last night, mad that I'd woken up slightly disappointed that Tom wasn't there. 

They were my own feelings and I needed to get them back in check, before I put myself into a permanently bad mood and ruined everyones day. 

I sighed and followed Andrew, Tom following behind. 

"How was class?" I asked Andrew as we descended the stairs together. 

"A pointless waste, yet again all the professor did was read from his slides that are online anyway.I could have skipped it and read the material in my own time without being bored out of my mind." 

He rolled his eyes and glanced down at me. "Be grateful you don't have to deal with this anymore."

 We reached the bottom of the stairs just as Jade blew through the kitchen door holding the steaming lasagna in a glass oven tray with big pink oven mitts. 

As she got to the table she sighed, "Tom I asked you to do one thing. Do I have to do everything myself?" She moaned as she placed the food on the table and turned around, sweeping back passed us to the kitchen again. 

"I better go help before she shaves my head in my sleep." Tom gave a shiver before he joined Jade in the kitchen. 

As I sat down at the table, Andrew surprised me by asking, "Do you regret dropping out of college?" He looked at me with his sky blue eyes, innocent and wanting an answer. 

I shrugged at him, "I'm not sure. At the time it was what I needed to do. But sometimes I do regret not going back." I tried so hard not to think of the reasons I'd dropped out of college in the first place. 

"Why don't you go back? Now? I'm sure Joe and Emma would help you out with shifts and stuff, you know working around classes, like Summer does for me at the coffee shop?" He sounded so eager. 

"I couldn't afford it Drew, even if I wanted to go back. I'm happy for now. Maybe in the future, when I've got more money, more time." I shrugged again and smiled at him.

 It was kind of nice to know Andrew was thinking about me, believing in my potential. 

He was so intelligent that if he hadn't have gone to college it would have been strange, someone with as much knowledge as him needed somewhere to share and use it.

"Do you still want to be a doctor?" He asked me, his eyes were excited like he could see me as one. 

That was what I'd always wanted when I was younger, a doctor at a big hospital in the city. 

I shifted in my seat, a little uncomfortable about knowing I'd lost that future forever. "I guess, I'll probably always want to be a doctor, but it's not realistic anymore." I smiled sadly at him, moving my eyes from his down the the table.

Jade's stressed eyes seemed to indicate that if we left the table, there would be trouble. 

We sat at the table and ate dinner, Jade did most of the talking, telling us about a customer that had come into the book store that day, and actually sat down on the floor and started reading the book, like it was a library.