Part of me wondered if it was Dr. Green on the phone, but I would never know.
After the first night, the others slept only in the attic under Kota’s command. I would stay out at Kota’s or Nathan’s as late as I could risk it, usually until a half hour before my father got home. There was less of a chance for us to get caught together in my room if we weren’t there in the first place. One of the guys followed me home, climbed the roof and waited for me to open the window. They’d slip into the attic. I spent a lot of time next to them as they huddled inside the attic door to finish up homework or to play on some electronic device they brought with them or just to talk. If there was Academy business to deal with, they closed the attic door, disappearing to the platform in the back to make phone calls. In the morning, I had to get up early to give whoever it was time to run to Nathan’s to shower and change for school.
We tiptoed around eggshells in my hollow house. The Academy became my shadow.
E scape
I dreamed of being chased on foot through the woods. I was weaving through the trees, but no matter how hard I tried to run faster, my legs felt lumpy and sluggish.
Growling emanated from behind me.
“Aggele mou,” Silas pressed a hand to my back, shaking me.
I was sleeping on my stomach. I twisted to look at him and pressed my palms to my face to rub out the sleep. “Hm?”
Silas was kneeling on the floor near my bed. His dark eyes softened with concern. “You were shaking. Are you okay?”
I sucked in a deep breath, with my cheek rubbing against the cotton of the pillow case. “Yeah,” I said. “I was just dreaming.”
He nudged me and I flipped over on my back, and shoved my body over to the side so he could sit on the edge of the bed. He dropped a hand on the bed close to my stomach and half hovered over me. “What about?”
“Running,” I whispered. I yawned, pushing a finger over my eyebrow. “Too slow in my opinion.”
He chuckled, his deep voice reverberating through my bones. “Tell your dream self to exercise more.”
“Did you sleep?” It was Silas’s first night of staying in the attic.
“No,” he said. He lifted a finger, dropping it to my cheek and sliding a lock of hair away from my face.
“You’re on the football team,” I reminded him. They’d gotten the official word the day before. Silas and North were first string for the varsity team, no surprise considering their size and sheer power. For sophomores, I supposed it was pretty good. Neither of them seemed too excited. “You should sleep. You can’t stay up all night and then go to school and practice.”
“I can’t sleep in that thing,” he said, nodding his head toward the attic. “It’s like a coffin. And I should be listening for trouble.”
“We can’t do this forever, Silas,” I whispered. “You guys can’t come over every night and stay awake all the time. And we’ll get caught one day. We’ve been lucky so far.” Every night, I was paralyzed that my sister would pop in at the wrong moment, or I would go to the bathroom and come back to find my mother peeking inside the attic door, or my father overhearing our early morning shuffle to get out of the house before anyone woke up. I snoozed more than I actually slept because of how terrified I was. I wouldn’t be able to hide how tired I was for much longer.
His lips pursed. He leaned closer to me, his face inches from mine. “I know. We’re working on it.”
I blinked at him. “How? On what?”
The corner of his mouth drifted up. The finger returned, coarse and strong, and it slipped across my cheek again. “You’ll see. Soon.”
I started to pout. Secrets.
“Don’t give me that face,” he warned. He nudged me, tucking an arm around my body. “Come here.”
I kicked the blanket away, blushing because I was wearing Nathan’s blue shirt and really short shorts. The shirt was long enough to make it look like I wasn’t wearing shorts.
Silas never hesitated and picked me up, placing me in his lap. It’d become almost a tradition for all of them. They woke me up and the next thing I knew, I was in someone’s lap. It was like if one of them did it, the others followed. How they knew, if they told each other, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t complain, but it did confuse me why they did it. I could only trust it was because they were my friends and they were doing their best to make me feel better.
I buried my face into his chest, inhaling the faint scent of the ocean mixed with attic dust. He dropped his chin to the top of my head. His strong hands rubbed at my back and side. “I can’t stand when you pout.”
I smiled against his chest. “Gabriel said it doesn’t work.”
“He’s full of shit,” Silas said. “It totally works on him. He just tells you that so you don’t try it or to get you to stop. Watch. Next time you feel like it, do it and keep doing it. Just not to me. And don’t tell him I told you.”
I giggled, shaking my head. “He’ll be mad that you gave away his secret.”
“If he gives you a hard time, tell me. I’ll beat him up.”
I stuffed my hand to my mouth, smothering a laugh.
He dropped his face, pressing his nose to my hair. “Ready to get going? I want to stay but I can’t sit here with you like this.”
I sighed, nodding and wriggling to get up. He was right. The longer we were there, we were more likely going to get caught.
He squeezed me once more before his hands slid away from me. I stumbled to my feet and a wave of shivers swept through me.
“Will you stop shaking?” he begged quietly. His hand smoothed over my back. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said, being honest. “It’s just early and I’m still waking up.”
“You shake all the time. That’s going to drive me crazy.”
The tease of a smirk touched my face but I turned away to hide it. I went to my closet to figure out what I was going to wear today.
Silas followed, standing behind me. I fingered over the blouse and skirt Gabriel had picked out for me.
“Wear this one,” he said, pointing to a thin dark blue hoodie. “You look good in it.”
I smiled softly. Having the boys pick out my clothes was peculiar, but I appreciated their opinion and it gave me a small surge of confidence that the clothes I wore weren’t too weird. “Gabriel...”
“Yeah, I know,” he said. He turned to me, bowing his head closer to my face. “It’ll drive him crazy.”
We shared a conspiratorial smile and I took the hoodie along with a matching sporty skirt. “It won’t match the pink wristbands.”
“I don’t care,” he said. He turned away, heading back to the attic. “Knock when you’re done.”
Twenty minutes later, I was out of the bath, with my hair still wet but smoothed out and twisted into a clip. I dressed in the skirt and hoodie and went back to my room. I knocked at the door to the attic. Silas emerged, crawling out on his hands and knees. I collected my book bag and he took it from my hands, along with my violin case and his own overnight bag. I crept to the window to open it for him.
He hefted the bags and crawled out onto the roof. My heart thundered in my throat as he did. I did it now every time they started to leave. I don’t know where it came from but the five minutes between being upstairs with them and then downstairs in the yard was by far the scariest for me. I wondered if they’d fall or if someone would hear their footsteps on the roof or someone in the neighborhood would notice.
I grabbed my shoes and slipped down the stairs, stopping short when I spotted my father in the foyer. His head tilted up and looking puzzled.
“Up early?” he asked. He was dressed in an oversized shirt and pajama pants, looking sleepy.
I felt the blood draining from my face but nodded quickly. “Yes.”
“It’s too early for the bus, isn’t it?”
“I... like going for a walk before it’s time. Clears my head a little before I have to study inside all day.”
He raked a hand t
hrough the curls on top of his head as if considering this. “Oh.” He moved on to the laundry room.
Were we late getting up? That was close. If he’d been listening earlier, he might have heard Silas’s deep voice through the walls. Maybe that’s what woke him.
I chewed on my lower lip, pondering my next move. It seemed obvious, I should do just what I said, pretending to go for a walk.
I slipped my sandals on and cut through the house to the back door. By the time I got there, my father was leaving the laundry room with folded clothes.
“Maybe you shouldn’t go,” he said. “You know how your mother feels when you go out. It’s still dark.”