Chapter 60: Trying to Provoke me

My eyes fluttered open, and I smiled widely. My smile vanished when the only greeting I got was from Caspian's pillow. I shivered, missing the usual heat his body provided.

"Caspian," I called, thinking he was in the bathroom.

When I was certain he was not in the room, I pulled his black and yellow hoodie around me and tiptoed down the stairs. The living room was alive with activity, teenagers rushing around, slipping their hoodies over their head. The blur of black and yellow was making me dizzy. Unlike me, they actually intended to go to school. I scanned the crowd for Caspian, but came back empty. I turned around and decided to wait in his bedroom.

"You look lost." Rosalind met me halfway up the stairs.

"Have you seen Caspian?" I asked.

"Saw him in the kitchen," Rosalind replied, her eyes still droopy from the night before; the one in which none of us really slept. We had stayed up late, talking and shoving Chinese noodles into our mouths. Chinese food is my new favourite. Surprisingly, it was just the four of us, everyone else had declined. Victoria had taken her box of noodles up to her room with her, probably didn't want to spend the night chatting with people who were a quarter of her age. The rest of the night Caspian and I had spent walking in the garden, stopping frequently to kiss. We had only climbed into bed early this morning. So, you could imagine my surprise when I woke up to an empty bed.

"Thanks." I swivelled around on my heels and walked down the stairs again.

I walked through the living room and into the vast kitchen. It was painted grey with a strip of red running along the width of all four walls. The tiles were white, which contrasted well with the dark wall. The appliances were all red: the kettle, the toaster and the coffee machine. The sink tap dripped nosily, it took all my self-control not to walk up there and stop the dripping. A large silver table was directly behind the sink, and it was surrounded by red stools.

Amber grinned at me from her stool on the far side of the table. "Madelyn, how nice of you to join us," she told me. "Caspian and I were just..." She bit her lip and left me to fill in the blanks.

She wanted me to feel jealous, which was exactly the opposite of what I felt. Yes, I was slightly upset at Caspian for having left me to join Amber, but I was mostly curious as to why he was here with her. It couldn't be because he was cheating on me, he would never. His words were too full of promise and his kisses were too passionate, you can't fake things like that.

"We were just talking," Caspian finished for her.

"So, what were you saying?" Amber pulled Caspian's attention towards herself, twirling a lock of light purple hair around her index finger.

Caspian patted his lap, while looking at me. I took the invitation and wrapped my hands round his neck, praying that the kitchen stool would survive with both of our weights on it.

"I was just telling Amber about how Janet couldn't be trusted," Caspian brought me up to date. Why was he telling her? To protect her, because she was fraternizing with the devil? Or because he thought she might have more information for us?

"I was just in the middle of not believing you," Amber sarcastically replied. Either she was a really good actor, or she had no clue what Janet was doing.

Caspian nudged me with his shoulder, wondering how much he should give away.

"She's killing people." I winced as the words left my mouth, knowing full well I had given Amber the power to ruin everything we had built up so far.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" She let out a loud peel of laughter that shook the whole room, causing her legs to automatically uncross.

"Umm." I hadn't expected her to believe me, but it would have been nice if she took it in her stride and not laughed in my face, like I was a complete joke.

"We're not actually," Caspian said as he tightened his grip around my waist. "But if you don't believe us..."

She cut him off. "Unlike your girlfriend I'm not going to believe everything a hot guy tells me."

"Please, I'm not that shallow." I rolled my eyes.

"Asher always thought you had a problem with Janet." Amber shook her head, clearly enjoying herself. "Probably why he committed suicide; his sister disapproved of his girlfriend." She dragged a finger from her eyes down to her cheek, demonstrating the movement of a tear, and jutted her bottom lip out.

Her words didn't register in the way they should have. Her eyes gave her away; it was the glint of triumph that convinced me that she had made it up. It was the casual use of his name that convinced me that she was trying to make it seem like she was on a first name basis with him. Her words were said to hurt me, but they didn't. She was trying to provoke me and I would not indulge her.

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