She brightened. “I’m glad to hear it.”
Admittedly, with all my distractions and problems, I hadn’t been a stellar friend to Melinda lately, and I wanted to show her that I was helpful and reliable — at least
I could still feel sorry for myself. But I decided to do it at Melinda’s party, where I could make myself useful and where there would be loud music — the louder the better — to drown out most of my thoughts.
I got to her house just before five o’clock, but when I knocked no one answered. After a minute, I noticed the front door was unlocked, so I let myself in like I’d done a couple times before.
I was wearing a thin red sweater and black jeans under my winter coat. I forgot about adding any festive green to the outfit when I realized I didn’t own anything other than a supremely tacky pair of green earrings.
Besides, green just made me think about Michael’s amulet. And his eyes.
Before I could yell out Melinda’s name to track her down in her huge house, I heard raised voices coming from nearby. It was two people arguing loudly.
“I hate this,” Melinda said, sounding angry. “I keep practicing and practicing and I’m not getting any better.”
“You are,” an unfamiliar male voice soothed. “You need to trust your instincts.”
Was this one of her dance lessons? I hadn’t known she took them in her own house. That was convenient, wasn’t it?
“Why can’t you get someone else to do this instead of me?” Melinda asked.
“The power to do this is in your blood, Melinda. You need to work with me instead of fighting me all the time.”
She laughed, but it didn’t sound happy. “I thought you wanted me to fight you.”
“I do, but …” He sighed. “You’re only making this more difficult on yourself. You won’t be ready.”
“Ready? For what?” There was a mocking tone to her voice. “I haven’t seen anything that makes me believe all the crazy things you’ve told me are even remotely true.”
I didn’t want to eavesdrop on a private conversation, but they were being so loud I couldn’t help myself. It sure didn’t sound like a discussion about dance lessons to me.
“You haven’t been reading the books downstairs, have you?” the man said.
“I’ve read all the stupid books — the ones in English, anyway — and I don’t believe any of it.” She took in a shaky breath. “You’re trying to ruin my life. Everything was great until I met you.”
“Okay, that’s enough.” He sounded weary of arguing. “Today’s lesson is over.”
“Good. I have a party tonight—”
“A party?” His words twisted with sudden annoyance. “You need to forget about parties and friends and focus on what’s important.”
“It’s not fair.”
“Life isn’t fair, Melinda. And you’d best get that through your head now so we won’t have problems in the future. Your duty is to learn and to get stronger so you won’t fail when the time comes to prove yourself. I’m counting on you not to let everyone down.”
“Just leave me alone!”
The next moment Melinda came storming into the foyer and froze in her tracks when she saw me standing there. Her face was red and shiny with perspiration. She looked the least fashionable I’d ever seen her. She wore a black T-shirt, gray sweatpants that were a bit ripped, and Nike running shoes. Her long light blonde hair was pulled back in a tight braid, her bangs slicked to her forehead.
“Nikki, hey,” she said. “I … I didn’t know you were here already.”
I felt confused and more than a little awkward. I knew I wasn’t meant to overhear whatever they’d been arguing about.
“You told me to come early to help set up, so here I am. The front door was unlocked.”
The bearer of the male voice entered the foyer behind her. He was tall and muscular and dressed in sweats. He had broad shoulders and dark red hair. He didn’t look that much older than us — maybe a few years. His blue eyes moved from Melinda to me. They narrowed.
“Who are you?” he demanded. “What are you doing here?”
“I … I’m Nikki.”
His expression shifted to a sour one, as if he smelled something funny coming from my general direction.
“She’s my best friend,” Melinda snapped. “Don’t bother her.”
“I thought for a moment that she was …” He trailed off, continuing to study me closely, then shook his head as if to clear it. “Never mind. I must have been mistaken.”
“We’re finished, aren’t we?” she asked.
His jaw clenched. He might be sort of cute if he didn’t look so miserable. “Fine, we’re finished. But I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“But I need to—” she began.
“No arguments, Melinda. You still have a long way to go before you’re ready. I’ll be back tomorrow. Enjoy your
In silence, he turned and left through the doors behind me.
Okay, that was intense.
“Who was that?” I asked.
She cleared her throat. “Patrick? He’s, um … he’s my dance instructor.”
I blinked. “He doesn’t look like a dance instructor.”
She laughed and it sounded shaky. “I know, right? Weird. But that’s who he is.”
I scanned her sweats. “I thought you were supposed to wear a leotard and ballet slippers for your dance lessons.”
She looked down at her Nikes. “You’ve clearly never taken ballet, have you?”
“No, never.”
“There you go. Uh, we only wear the fancy stuff for the recitals.”
She was lying to me; it was so totally obvious. But I didn’t understand why.
“Where are your parents?” I asked.
“Gone for the rest of the night, visiting friends from my dad’s old fraternity.” She looked relieved I’d changed the subject. “They told me that if there’s any damage from the party, I’m grounded until I’m thirty.”
“Do they know you and your dance instructor argue so much?”
She crossed her arms. “They’re the ones who hired him in the first place. And Patrick and I don’t argue, we
“Sounded like a loud debate to me. And I don’t think he liked me very much.”
“Patrick doesn’t like anybody.” She walked over to the base of the staircase and leaned against it, trying and failing to look casual. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. He … he has his own way of coaching me, and whenever I want to change something he has a fit.”
“He’s kind of cute.”
She scrunched her nose. “You think?”
I nodded. “I’m surprised you don’t think so. You’re normally the expert on these things.”
She shrugged. “I guess I don’t look at him that way. He’s more like an annoying older brother.”
“How old is he?”
“He goes to the University of Toronto. I think he’s twenty or so.”
“Ancient.” I frowned. “Wait a minute, he’s a student but he’s a ballet instructor, too? Wouldn’t that be a full- time job?”
Her eyes widened a little. “Like I said, he’s weird. Anyway, I seriously need a shower. And time is flying. So …”
“Yeah, you go ahead. I’ll hang out down here.”
“Check out the kitchen. I have a ton of food in there and more to come. Feel free to sample. I’ll be ten minutes, max.”
I nodded as she ran up the stairs to the bathroom. I heard the door close behind her and the shower turn
