The Search For Shattered Pieces *Complete*

Chapter Twenty-One: Lutz, Loops, and Losing Ground

Chapter Twenty-One: Lutz, Loops, and Losing Ground

Lyra:

"Thank you, William, really, thank you. I know this is an inconvenience for you, so truly, I appreciate it."

"Lyra, really, it's absolutely no trouble at all," William replies. He looks over his shoulder at me, and gifts me a small, but bright, smile.

    Seriously, I'm counting my blessings right now. I feel incredibly lucky that William Herschel stepped into the main house this morning. I'd been entirely prepared to walk to the nearest bus stop—which, actually, is not so very near to us—okay, honestly, it's a flipping horrible hike and a half aways. However, having taken in the alternative—which was to ride to school with Trent and Tal—and hell, oh yeah, I'd have walked to freaking Timbuktu and back again, THRICE OVER, if it meant, getting out of having to ride to school with them. Sooooooooo...with his ever so generous offer to drive me, William had ended up really seriously saving my bacon. And, though, he says it wasn't a hassle...that I didn't inconvenience him...I know he's lying, and just being kind—because heck, driving me to school, means that not only am I an additional, unplanned trip he had to make...but I'm an additional, unplanned, wicked EARLY trip he had to make!! Since...yup, I didn't want to run the risk of seeing any of my stepbrothers this morning, getting inadvertently "stuck" having to ride to school with the twins, so I got up at an unconscionably stupid ass early hour, with the plan to sneak out of the...oops...nope...uhm, leave...uh yeah, that's right...I mean...to leave, (no sneaking outta of over here) before everyone else. So, this explains why, for the last half hour, I've been sitting in the backseat of the Bentley, parked outside of Alastair Day Prep, just hanging out and killing time with chauffeur butler extraordinaire, William Herschel. And honestly, he can tell me til' the cows come home, that he wasn't inconvenienced by all of this...but yeah, I know otherwise. I really, really, didn't want to "be a bother," so heck, I'd even suggested, told him, to just drop me off at the school—I'd just hang out, and wait outside until it was time, and they'd let me in—Uhmmm...so, nopity, nope, nope, nope...that would be a big, try ginormous, fat, NO! William absolutely wouldn't hear of it, in fact, he'd categorically refused to do so...looking rather insulted, like I'd somehow offended him by even daring to suggest such a horrible, heinous thing.

"Lyra..." William says my name suddenly, and it's funny, but I think I hear what sounds like hesitancy, apprehension, as well, laying thickly in the tone of his voice.
I give him a large, bright smile, hoping that even without words, I might encourage him to speak. Silence reigns so heavily, that finally, I just respond with a, "Yes, William?"
After clearing his throat, he rotates about a quarter percent, in his seat, so that now, he can face me. "I believe...am I right to assume that you'd like..." he stops speaking for a moment, and clears his throat again. I watch—surprised, and yes, even slightly charmed—to see a blush work its way up his handsome face. "Would you like me to take you...uhmmm, that is to say, do you need me to take you to the Asian market...to, uhhh...the area where a lot of Chinese shops and restaurants are located?" The color in his cheeks intensifies, turns a deeper, and darker shade of pink. "Please, uhm, please, forgive me if I'm being presumptuous, Lyra, but well, I overheard you speaking to Mrs. Crawford-Parrish, inquiring about a Chinatown..."

    I had asked Bethany, a while back, about it. I grimace. Gah. Sometimes, well, sometimes, I really can be foolish—because seriously, it was silly of me to think that Bethany (I mean, come on...this is Bethany we're talking about) would have any idea where Chinatown is located. Heck, and I'm not being mean-spirited, but I don't think she knows what it even is.
I remember, when I'd asked, the expression that had filtered across her beautiful face...and yup, I think it's totally safe for me to say, that she has absolutely no stinking idea what it is. But—and I laugh a little inwardly—let's be real, why, seriously why-oh-why, on the face of God's lovely green Earth, would she.