I cleared my throat. “Of course. Anything.”
“The necklace — the cross I sent you. Promise me that you’ll wear it every day.”
The clasp was still broken. I had to get it fixed, right away. “Of course. But. but why?”
“I had a dream,” she answered, her voice nearly a whisper now; I had to press the phone against my ear to hear her. “A nightmare. Evil things, there at your school.”
I shook my head. “I’m safe here, Lupe.” The key rattled in the lock — Cece was home. “I’ve got to go. Just remember. Saturday.”
“Sí, Violet. I’ll remember. And gracias.”
“’Bye,” I murmured, then snapped the phone shut.
Mission accomplished.
Hey,” Cece called out as I walked in and plopped down on my bed. “You look exhausted.”
“You have no idea,” I said with a groan. Fencing practice had lasted two full hours, and I hurt all over. “And I’ve still got to study for a trig test. I think this is going to be an all-nighter.”
“That sucks. Want me to go get you some coffee?”
I sat up and smiled at my roommate. “Would you?”
“Sure! I’m too lazy to walk to the café, though, so the coffee from the lounge will have to do.”
“Trust me, any coffee will do.” I reached across to rub my sore shoulder — a dull, throbbing ache was radiating from the joint, all the way down to my elbow. “Man, it’s killing me today.”
She pursed her lips, her brow furrowed with worry. “You go take a hot shower, and I’ll be right back.”
“Thanks, Cee. I owe you big-time.”
As soon as the door shut behind her, I stripped off my clothes and reached for my robe.
When I returned from the shower, Cece was back, two steaming Styrofoam cups beside her on the desk. “Here you go,” she said, handing me one. “Hey, your cell phone was ringing when I came in.”
“Thanks.” I’d check it in a second; right now I needed my caffeine fix. Still wearing my robe, my hair wrapped up in a towel, I sat down on my bed with the cup clutched in one hand. Opening the lid, I blew on the dark liquid, then took a sip.
“Blech, this stuff is awful,” Cece said, setting down her cup. “I thought I got hazelnut.”
“I think it is hazelnut.” I took another sip, trying not to grimace. “Or at least it’s supposed to be. Anyway, how was your day? Better than mine, I hope.”
“Okay, I guess. I’m thinking about joining the debate team.”
“Debate team? Why?” She’d never mentioned any interest in debating before.
She bit her lip, eyeing me sharply. “Promise you won’t laugh?”
“C’mon, give me some credit here,” I said with a scowl. “You did just buy me a cup of this craptastic coffee, you know.”
She smiled at that. “Because Todd’s on the debate team, that’s why. I don’t know, I thought it might be fun for us to do something together.”
“Todd?” I asked, trying to remember when I’d heard his name before. “As in Todd from the Halloween dance?”
She nodded. “That’s the one.”
“He’s cute. But debate team? I mean, you’ve already got tennis, drama, student council.” I ticked them off on my fingers. As it was, Cece barely had a minute to spare — she was always running from one extracurricular activity to the next.
“I guess.” She shrugged, then took another sip of her coffee. “But I am getting sick of tennis. The coach is working us way too hard. You’d think this was the Olympic trials or something.”
“Okay, you must really like him,” I teased. “I mean, if you’re considering quitting tennis for debate.”
Her dark eyes twinkled with mischief. “Hey, he’s smart, he’s cute. He’s even really sweet. It almost seems to good to be true, you know?”
“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean,” I said with a nod. Boy, did I ever.
“I bet you do.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively. “Considering the hot pocket that you run around with.”
“Hot pocket?” I repeated with a laugh. “Where’d you get that one?”
“I don’t know. Around,” she said with a grin. “Hey, I almost forgot to ask, are you and Jenna Holley getting chummy or something?”
“Are you kidding?” I shook my head. “I don’t even know her. What’s her gift, anyway? I don’t think anyone ever told me.”
“She’s got something unusual — I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s some sort of extrasensory thing. You know, like her sense of smell and hearing are heightened or something? Anyway, the weirdest thing happened while you were away this weekend. After you left Friday, we were all hanging out at the café. When I came back for curfew, Jenna was standing outside the door, and she was acting really weird. She asked where you were, and I told her you went into the city, so then she asked where Aidan was. As if I would know! Anyway, she was asking all these bizarre questions and, I swear, she seemed worried about you. I finally made her go away, but she told me to tell you to watch your back. At first I thought she said ‘neck,’ but that wouldn’t make sense.”
I choked on my coffee. Watch my neck? Did Jenna know Aidan’s secret? No, she couldn’t. Cece must have misheard her. “That’s totally freaky,” I finally managed, wiping my mouth with the back of one hand. “I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to her. We don’t have any classes together or anything.”
Cece set her cup on the desk and stood up, smoothing down her sweatshirt. “Well, I always figured she was jealous of you, anyway. You know, about Aidan. Not that they’ve ever. you know. I mean, he’s always ignored her like he ignores everyone else. But, I don’t know. something about the way she looks at him. Hey, don’t forget your phone. I think whoever it was left a message. It made that little chirping sound.”
“Oh, yeah. Thanks.” Please, let it have been Aidan. I flipped open my phone and held my breath as I dialed voice mail and punched in my code.
“Hey, Vi,” came Aidan’s voice, soothing my jangled nerves. “I just wanted to tell you that I’ve got to go away for a few days. I’ll be thinking about you, okay? Sleep tight, love.” And then a click.
“Aidan, huh?” Cece asked with a grin.
I just nodded as I flipped shut the phone, my skin warming all over. He’d called me “love.” I liked that. A lot.
Five days later, I had another vision. It happened right by the fountain in the courtyard, while I was on my way to trig class. I’d run into Kate and we were walking together, talking about Jack and his suspension from the football team, when my vision started to tunnel and the dull humming began in my ears. I was barely aware of Kate calling out my name as I stumbled to my knees.
It was daytime, in Manhattan. I saw Patsy, dressed in a gray pin-striped suit and black wool coat, standing on the sidewalk under a burgundy canopy. Cars were rushing by, and Patsy held up one hand, as if she was hailing a cab. She pulled out her BlackBerry and slipped her headset over one ear. I forced myself to concentrate, to look for clues that might help me figure out when this was going to happen. There, in the corner of the BlackBerry’s screen, I saw a date. Today’s date.
A yellow cab pulled up. She shoved the BlackBerry back into her purse as she opened the door and got into the cab. She called out an address, but I couldn’t make it out — Madison Avenue, maybe, but I couldn’t be sure. The radio was on, some sort of smooth jazz playing as the car slid away from the curb and into traffic.
Patsy pulled out a file from her briefcase and started flipping through it, and I noticed a chip in her brownish-pink nail polish. It was just a small chip, barely noticeable, but— a car horn sounded, and then another. A screech of tires, and then the impact — hard, and I heard someone scream.
“Violet!” Kate cried, her voice pushing through the fog in my brain. “Violet, hey, come on!”