DARK KNIGHT
*Abigail*
“If I were yesterday, I’d laugh at those who wish for a do-over.
If I were today, I’d laugh at those who didn’t make it this far,
but if I were tomorrow, I’d laugh because I’d know
the best is yet to come.”
Melody Manful
The next day at school, Gideon was waiting by the gate when I arrived. He waved me over, and I joined him. We walked to class together.
This time, I sat with him at the back of the room and we talked about the children at the library.
“Come on. I’ll buy you lunch,” Gideon said when the lunch bell rung.
He took my hand and led me down the hall. I didn’t protest because I was kind of used to him doing so lately. When we went to the library yesterday, he had grabbed my hand, saying that we needed to make the children believe our boyfriend and girlfriend story.
Reality check: This boy wasn’t the Gideon from my nightmare.
Gideon still had my hand in his when we turned a corner and walked into the cafeteria. I felt his warmth rushing through me like electricity, striking and then lingering long enough to leave me breathless. Then it faded before the strong surge returned.
“You eat that human stuff, right?” I stopped walking when Gideon asked this. “I mean food.” I smiled at his add-on, because it made him sound normal and not crazy.
There were moments when Gideon made me feel alive, and then there were moments when he said things that turned me back into the crazy girl who freaked out when I learned his name in class. Since I was getting used to his weird comments and no longer freaked out around him, I just wanted to escape with him to the cafeteria and forget the whole world.
“Sure.” I wasn’t hungry, but I didn’t want to say no when he offered to buy me lunch.
He led me into the cafeteria to where my friends were sitting. I took a seat next to Tristan, and Gideon sat on the other side of me. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to feel the way I did, but I was a teenage girl, sitting between two incredibly hot guys who left me breathless. I was pretty sure I was allowed to feel breathless.
Gideon left to grab the food. As soon as he walked away, Sarah stared at me with her I-want-all-the-details look.
Moments later, Gideon returned with a tray of food, which he placed in front of me. Smiling up at him, I took the juice from the tray and started to take a sip, but the moment I did, someone shouted from behind us. Half the people in the cafeteria looked toward the voice.
“Yes, I’d love to!” Behind us knelt a guy, giving a girl a bouquet of flowers.
“That’s so sweet,” Sarah swooned.
“What just happened?” Gideon asked.
“The school’s thirtieth anniversary is next Friday, and he just asked her to go with him to the dance the school is throwing,” Danny explained. “You guys will be going, right?”
“Do we have to?” Gideon asked.
“No,” Jake answered, “but I’m going to be taking Doreen,”
“Dude, the girl has a restraining order on you,” Sarah said, and we all laughed. “She wouldn’t go with you if you were the last guy on the planet.”
Jake took a bite of his sandwich, ignoring our laughter. “Who are you going with, Danny? Asked Lois Lane yet?”
“I’ll ask someone, and she will say yes.”
“You forgot the fork, Gideon,” Tristan said as he looked at the salad sitting on my tray.
Gideon shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”
He leaned toward me and said, “You have something behind your ear.” Then he pretended to pull a fork out. Everyone at the table gasped in surprise when his hand actually revealed a fork.
“Wow, Houdini,” Jake exclaimed, “where did that come from?”
“Here you go,” Gideon said as he held the fork out to me with a flourish.
“So, Great Bikini, are you—” Danny started.
“It’s Houdini, genius,” Jake corrected Danny. “Bikini—where do you come up with this stuff?”
While we laughed, Caleb, the captain of the football team and a handsome charmer, walked over to our table. A few of his teammates stood behind him.
When Caleb called Sarah’s name, we turned around to see him go down on one knee. He and a few of his teammates were dressed in suits, and they all held flowers. Sarah gasped when she saw them. Caleb asked her if she would do him the honor of being his date to the dance. She screamed, “YES!”
Then, one by one, his teammates handed her the flowers, and some people in the cafeteria clapped.
“I can’t believe even you have a date,” Jake said, frowning.
Sarah said to me, “I so wish you would go.”
For some reason, I felt sad that no one was going to do something that nice and special for me.
Tristan sounded surprised when he asked, “You’re not going?”
“No one ever asks me to these things. The last time someone did, my bodyguards ended up interrogating him and scared him away.” They laughed.
“I’m sure someone will ask you,” Sarah said. She was always hopeful. “If not, you can share my date.”
“Thank you, but I just ordered a new book.” I had convinced myself that I didn’t care about going to the dance. I would be fine staying home. After all, my father had promised to visit.
“Well, I think that even though you’re not going, you deserve to have a rose.” My heart leaped with joy when Gideon said this.
With a wave of Gideon’s hands, a beautiful red rose appeared.
“Dude!” Jake shouted, while both Sarah’s mouth and mine fell open. “That is amazing. Teach me that so that I can do it for Doreen.”
Gideon faced me.
“A rose for a rose,” he said as he handed me the rose.
And without as much as a breath, I did it—I allowed myself to fall.