She just shook her head and turned back to the window. “Just save yourself the heartache. Trust me, he’s an asshole. A million times worse than James.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “You two seem to know each other. Did you date him or something?”
She gave a disgusted snort and muttered something in Portuguese before answering me. “No. Never.”
“So how?”
“He’s a part of my past that I wish would stay forgotten,” she said softly.
“Cryptic much?”
She didn’t answer. I pulled into the covered parking space outside our apartment and killed the engine. I poked at the tiny fox keychain and it swung against the rest of my keys with a light clack. Serenity unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door.
“You don’t need to worry,” I said. “Nothing is going to happen.”
She turned back to me with sad smile. “I hope not.”
She slid out of the car, leaving me alone. I sighed and rested my forehead on the steering wheel. Hope had been a tricky spirit ever since Pandora released it. Some argued that it was the only good that Zeus had placed in the jar while others argued it was the worst evil of all. After all, humans endured almost anything when they had hope. Zeus was the kind of ass to do something like that.
I climbed out of the car and sprinted to catch up with Serenity. She walked with her shoulders slumped and her head drooping. She didn’t seem to believe I was capable of resisting Mercer, or that he wasn’t interested in me. What kind of relationship did the two of them have, and what had happened in the past that she was so antagonistic to him?
Serenity stopped at the metal and concrete stairwell that led to our apartment. A seated figured wheeled itself from the shadows of the stairs. The yellowish light reflected off the highlights of the woman’s red-gold ponytail. She gazed at Serenity with narrowed blue eyes like mine and her pale lips pressed in a thin line. Goose bumps broke out over my skin as if I had been doused with ice cold water. Oh no, not now.
“Well,” the woman drawled. “You gonna stand there gapping like a fish all night or give your auntie a hug?”
Chapter 4
“I’ll catch up with you later,” I told Serenity.
She gave me one last silent stare as if the two of us could communicate telepathically. I shook my head at her and mouthed “later”. With a shrug of her shoulders, she tromped up to the stairs. I returned my gaze to the woman in the wheelchair and gritted my teeth. Now, came the difficult part.
“Hi, Aunt Jo,” I said softly.
She crossed her toned arms and gave me cross between a smirk and a glare. “After months of silence, that’s all I get?”
I took a few steps forward and leaned down, wrapping my arms around her. She gave me a slight squeeze with one of hers. I stood up and scanned the parking lot with a sigh. The yellow street lamps reflected off the paint of the parked cars. Besides us and a few sophomores headed to their apartments, it was empty.
“It’s just me,” Aunt Jo said. “None of yer cousins are waitin’ to grab you from the shadows.”
“So, you want to take a walk, erm, roll?” I asked.
She raised a brow and chuckled. “School hasn’t done nothin’ bout yer mouth.”
“You expected it to?”
“Not really.”
She waved to the handles on the back of her wheelchairs. I sighed and took up my position. We strolled along the sidewalk that split the two apartment buildings with each side decorated with prickly holly bushes. To the average passerby, we probably looked like two sisters out for a walk. Despite her condition, Aunt Jo didn’t look much older than I. Our bloodline was gifted with slow aging. One of the many to compensate for the problems we faced.
Anyone passing by couldn’t see the tension between us. It had built up a knot in my lower back in the short amount of time I’d been with Aunt Jo. I wanted to leave her here and run the other way. But Aunt Jo was the best family I had left, and I couldn’t do that to her.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“You’ve been ignorin’ our calls,” she said.
I swallowed the hard lump in my throat. “I’ve been busy.”
Aunt Jo snorted. “Flirtin’ with boys?”
“Classes,” I said. “You know, what I came here for.”
“Yeah, well, that’s over. Yer comin’ home with me.”
I stopped, my hand gripping the handles until they became white. “I have another year. The Pyrrha agreed I could complete my Bachelor’s degree.”