One Black Rose - August Part 13

But Susan just giggled. "I know, we as ladies would like to be swept off our feet, myself included. And I think we deserve that. We deserve guys who think we are amazing. Why should we settle for anything less? But even if Samuel tried to win you over, could he?" When I was silent she continued, "He isn't going to take someone else's girl."

"If I was Holt's girl he wouldn't have left," I informed her. "And I was never his girl, which he made really clear."

Susan nodded. "Look, everyone wants to figure this out. You and Holt never should have felt the attraction that you did, at least according to our lore."

That wasn't really something I wanted to hear at the moment, but it prompted me to ask, "So, how is it possible that I could be so compatible with two different people?"

"That's what we would like to know. At the moment you appear to be more compatible with the guy that you aren't meant to be with."

I knew Susan was trying to make me feel better, hearing that no one knew what was going on, but it didn't. I didn't want to have to choose. I wasn't even sure I had a choice to make.

"What if my relationship with one ruins my relationship with both?" I asked quietly. It was something that I had feared ever since Holt had left. Samuel had never really wanted me and now, because of Samuel, Holt didn't want me either. At one moment I thought I had too many guys to choose from and the next moment it looked like I didn't have any.

"Holt is coming back," said Susan. "And we will figure it out."

"When you say that the Summer Court is more powerful in the summer months, and the Winter Court is more powerful in the winter, what exactly does that mean?" I asked. With the weather quickly turning colder and fall fast approaching, I wondered if there were bigger changes coming to the Roths and the Cheshires.

"It means that Fairies draw power from their surroundings, and since the Summer Court's power comes from beautiful weather and flowers, they are more powerful when those things are in full bloom a in the summer. When Winter hits and the flowers wither, some of our power will wither as well. The Winter Court will have more strength then."

"But it's not like you have no power?" I asked.

"No, of course not," said Susan. "Look at Lydia, Leslie, and Samuel. They are more than capable of fighting off a Water Sprite, even though it's summer."

"But it still meant that what Mrs. Cheshire did in attacking Holt at his own party was crazy," I said.

"Things are different now," said Susan. "It used to be that something like that would never happen. The Courts used to be at open war, so the idea that one Queen would be at another's party was ludicrous. Now that everything has changed, the rules have to change too."

"So, the solution used to be battle?"

"That used to be the kindest solution," said Susan. "I'm just not sure Mrs. Cheshire understands any other way to handle it."

"That's not a good excuse," I said. "She tried to kill people. It's not a good excuse at all."

"No," said Susan, "But sometimes we have to deal with people on their terms, because they can't deal with us on ours."

"Are you saying you forgive Mrs. Cheshire?" I asked. Forgiving her hadn't even entered my head. In fact, part of my reason for avoiding Samuel was that I knew he and I could never be anything as long as his mother was who she was.

"No," said Susan, "But you can't pick your friends' families."

"That's true," I said. "That's very true."

Chapter Eleven.

The next morning I really wanted to go out and do something. Now that Lydia and Leslie had dealt with the Water Sprite, I could stop worrying about that. And hopefully the Fairies would leave me alone. If they thought there was still a problem, they could solve it themselves.

Nick and Carley came into the kitchen and announced that it was a great day to go swimming.

"The sun's shining, Mary's going to be okay, it's summer, and we're all together," Carley beamed. "What better way to celebrate than with a swim?"

"I don't really feel like swimming," I lied. I desperately wanted to go in the water. It was going to be crazy hot today and I hated to stay in AC all day when it was so nice out. I couldn't believe I was still expected not to swim.

"No way," said Carley. "I don't have any money and I want to go swimming! What's the point of living within smelling distance of the ocean if you don't take advantage of it?"

"The point is that it looks pretty," I tried half-heartedly.

When Carley got an idea in her mind, that was it. There was no changing it. No matter how hard I pushed, I knew they were going to end up swimming today, and they'd probably be better off with me there than not. I just wouldn't go in the water. Really, I wouldn't.

"Alright," I said. "I'll get my suit."

"Excellent," said Nick, rubbing his hands together. He was already wearing red swimming trunks, a white t-shirt and a black backwards hat.

"Smugness doesn't become you," I muttered to him as I left the room.

Once I'd gotten my beach stuff together, I went back and found Nick and Carley cuddling on the porch. They did that now whenever Mrs. Hightower wasn't around.

"You sure you guys don't mind my coming?" I asked.

"Why would we mind?" asked Carley, clearly puzzled.

Nick elbowed her gently. "Because she thinks she'd be in the way." He turned and looked at me. "You're never in the way, Autumn."

"In the way of what?" asked Carley. She still didn't get it.

Nick laughed. "Anyone else and you'd think they were like that intentionally."

Carley still looked bewildered.

"Whatever," she said, pushing off the seat and breaking contact with Nick. "Let's go."

The three of us headed for his car. I realized just how nice it was to have a friend with a car and how miserable this whole summer would have been if he hadn't.

"I love your car, Nick," I told him.

Nick burst out laughing. "Yeah, this old thing? I need a new one, but I think I'll have to wait a few years."

I was starting to waver about whether I would actually go in the water myself; I would have thought I'd feel apprehensive about going swimming after Samuel had expressly told me not to, but I didn't. I was looking forward to getting out and hanging out with normal friends for a change. I was tired of secrets and I was tired of Fairies and attacks. I just wanted to have fun. Seriously, they had caught the thing. I didn't have anything to worry about.

Since it was such a stunning day and the ban on swimming had been lifted, the beach was packed. Nick had to park about a mile away from the water. When Carley complained, Nick offered to drop us off and then go find a place, but Carley told him he'd get lost trying to find us again. Nick grinned at me in the mirror. "Underneath that rough exterior I know she loves me," he said.

Carley sputtered. "I do not..." Her face was turning bright red and Nick and I both laughed. Carley got out of the car without a word, folded her arms over her chest, and walked ahead.

We were looking around for a place to put our towels when someone called out, "Hey, Nick!" We all turned to see who it was.

Running towards us was a brown-haired guy with a deep tan.

"Hey, Nate, how's it going?" Nick asked.

"Fine," said Nate. "What are you three up to?"

"Just going to enjoy this gorgeous day," said Carley, grinning.

"Yeah, it's pretty nice out," said Nate. "Mind if I join you for a bit? My friends are late and they just called to say that they aren't going to be here for a while yet."

"Of course not," said Carley. "We were just going to find a place to sit."

Once we'd all settled on the sand, Carley said, "So, what's new?"

Nate had been Katie's boyfriend, the one whose party we had gone to when she disappeared. From the looks on Carley and Nick's faces, they were thinking the same thing I was: Don't mention Katie.

"Pretty well," said Nate, though he looked tired. "My sister is coming home tomorrow for a week's visit. She says that if it's not sunny the whole time she's here, she's going to have a fit."

"Where is she?" asked Nick.

"She's been working a summer internship before she goes back to college. She hasn't been home much, so it should be fun."

"That's exciting," said Carley.

"Yeah, it'll be nice to have her home after what happened," said Nate.

Carley gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh, Nate. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean.... I wasn't trying to remind you. I'm SO sorry."

Nate's smile was slow and sad. "It's alright. Really. I don't want people to be, like, afraid to talk to me. I don't want people to forget her."

Carley chewed her lower lip. "Yeah, but still, I'm sorry."

"My parents talked to the police. They aren't going to press charges. At least not right now. They tested Katie and she didn't even have alcohol in her system, which was really good. She wasn't a big drinker, but it just makes what happened so much weirder. She was the best swimmer there and she was sober. It doesn't make any sense."

Without thinking about it I put myself forward and said, "You should believe what you want, Nate. Katie would want you to. If you don't think she could have just randomly drowned, don't give up on that just because the evidence says otherwise."

Nick and Carley both looked horrified, but Nate said, "Thanks Autumn. Someone else not thinking I'm crazy means a lot." I knew I should have kept my mouth shut, but it wasn't fair to Katie. She was a good swimmer and she hadn't done anything wrong. She had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong Water Sprite. How many people could say that?

With one last smile at me, Nate turned to Nick. "Been watching any baseball?"

Nick opened his mouth to reply when Carley cut in, "Nick, why don't you ever talk about sports with me?"

"Because you don't like sports," said Nick.

"I like sports," Carley protested. "Like right now, it's August so the sports that are starting are...."

All three of us waited expectantly for her to finish. "Baseball?" she finally said. Nate grinned.

"I'm starved for male friends," said Nick.

"Whatever," said Carley, getting up in a pout. "Sports are dumb." She wandered away down the beach.

I realized that my two friends had done a good job of changing the subject away from Katie. Some color had actually come back into Nate's face and he looked a little less tired.

Nate and Nick kept talking about something sports-related, but I didn't pay much attention. I think it was about lockouts, which was when the owners in a professional sport couldn't agree with their players on contracts and therefore "locked" their players out or something. Nick was worried that the only thing on TV that winter would be synchronized swimming.

Every so often I would ask one of the guys a question, but I was kind of sleepy. It was now early afternoon and the sun always made me tired. I grabbed a bottle of cold water that I'd brought, trying to wake myself up, and then realized that Carley wasn't back yet. She got mad often, but she usually got over it pretty quickly.

I looked around the beach, but I didn't see her anywhere.

"Where's Carley?" I asked, interrupting the boys.

Nick shrugged. "Probably off in a huff somewhere. I'll give her a few more minutes to cool down and then go look for her."

Nate grinned. It was the first genuine smile I had seen on his face since before Katie had died. "Yeah, you'll go look for her and never come back. What's up with the two of you, anyway?"

I saw a faint blush creep up Nick's cheeks. At that moment I thought how nice it would be to see Holt blush about me like that.

He glanced at me.

"Don't look at her," Nate said, laughing. "She isn't going to help you out."

"It's not exactly like that," said Nick.

"You spend every waking moment together. Mary thinks you're going to get married," said Nate. I knew Mary was a good friend of his.

"Yeah, right," said Nick. "Too young for that."

"How is Mary?" I asked, trying to take the pressure off Nick.

He didn't get a chance to answer though, because Nick, who had turned away in embarra.s.sment, was looking at the water.

"Oh, there's Carley," he said. He pointed. I turned my head to look, and the air caught in my throat.

Carley was in the water. She was waving happily to the three of us still sitting on land. There were other swimmers around her, but not that many.

Even though the ban on swimming had been lifted, I realized in this moment, seeing Carley in the water, that I didn't want any of my friends in the ocean, not until more time had pa.s.sed. According to Samuel, my going in the water was the biggest worry, but I had still hoped to have a chance to talk Carley out of it, or to distract her before she was actually in the water. Too late.

I jumped up, filled with an unspeakable panic.

"Come on, Autumn, let's go," said Nick. He had already pulled his shirt off and was dashing towards the waves and Carley.

I looked at Nate, who shrugged. "I'm going to go wait for my friends. I'll see you guys later." He got up, dusted the sand off his legs, and trudged back towards the road.

I didn't bother to watch Nate walk away. I turned towards the water and dashed to catch up with Nick. It was slow going, because I had to dodge around a bunch of little kids building sandcastles.

By the time I reached them, Nick was already in the water with Carley. She was giggling trying to splash him, and he was ducking under the water to avoid her.