Fallen 2. Torment(60)

really close guy friend before, the kind of friend you shared everything with and relied on

like a girlfriend. Wouldn't things get ... complicated?

"Miles," she finally said, "what do people do around here for Thanksgiving?"

"I don't know. I guess I've never stuck around to find out. I wish I could

sometimes. Thanksgiving at my house is obnoxiously enormous. At least a hundred

people. Like ten courses. And it's black-tie."

"You're joking."

He shook his head. "I wish I were. Seriously. We have to hire parking attendants."

After a pause: "Why do you ask--wait, do you need a place to go?"

"Uhh ..."

"You're coming." He laughed at her shocked expression. "Please. My brother's not

coming home from college this year and he was my only lifeline. I can show you around

Santa Barbara. We can ditch the turkey and get the world's best tacos at Super Rica." He

raised an eyebrow. "It'll be so much less torturous to have you there with me. It might

even be fun."

While Luce was mulling over his offer, she felt a hand on her back. She knew the

touch by now--soothing to the point of having healing powers--Francesca's.

"I spoke to Daniel last night," Francesca said.

Luce tried not to react as Francesca leaned down. Had Daniel gone to see her after

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Luce had shut him out? The idea made her jealous, though she didn't really know why.

"He's worried about you." Francesca paused, seeming to search Luce's face. "I

told him you're doing very well, considering your new surroundings. I told him I would

make myself available to you for anything you need. Please understand that you should

come to me with your questions." A sharpness entered her gaze, a hard, fierce quality.

Come to me instead of Steven seemed to lie there, unspoken.

And then Francesca left, as quickly as she'd appeared, the silk lining of her white

wool coat swishing against her black pantyhose.

"So ... Thanksgiving," Miles finally said, rubbing his hands together.

"Okay, okay." Luce swallowed the rest of her coffee. "I'll think about it."

Shelby didn't show at the Nephilim lodge for that morning's class--a lecture on

summoning angelic forebears, kind of like sending a celestial voice mail. By lunchtime,

Luce was starting to get nervous. But heading into her math class, she finally spotted the

familiar puffy red vest and practically sprinted toward it.

"Hey!" She tugged her roommate's thick blond ponytail. "Where've you been?"

Shelby turned around slowly. The look on her face took Luce back to her very

first day at Shoreline. Shelby's nostrils were flared and her eyebrows were hunched

forward.

"Are you okay?" Luce asked.

"Fine." Shelby turned away and started fiddling with the nearest locker, twirling a

combination, then popping it open. Inside were a football helmet and about a case worth

of empty Gatorade bottles. A poster of the Laker Girls was slapped on the inside of the

door.

"Is that even your locker?" Luce asked. She didn't know a single Nephilim kid

who used a locker, but Shelby was rooting through this one, tossing dirty sweat socks

recklessly over her shoulder.

Shelby slammed the locker shut, then moved on to twirl the combination of the

next one. "Now you're judging me?"

"No." Luce shook her head. "Shel, what is going on? You disappeared this

morning, you missed class--"

"I'm here now, aren't I?" Shelby sighed. "Frankie and Steven are a lot more lax

about letting a girl take a personal day than the humanoids over here."

"Why do you need a personal day? You were fine last night, until--"

Until Daniel showed up.

Right around the time Daniel appeared at the window, Shelby had gone all pale

and quiet and straight to bed and-While Shelby stared at Luce as if her IQ had suddenly dropped by half, Luce

became aware of the rest of the hall. Where the rust-colored lockers ended, the graycarpeted walls were lined with girls: Dawn and Jasmine and Lilith. Preppy, cardiganed

girls like Amy Branshaw from Luce's afternoon classes. Punky pierced girls who looked

kind of like Arriane but were way less fun to talk to. A few girls Luce had never seen

before. Girls with books clutched against their chests, gum popping in their mouths, and

eyes darting at the carpet, at the wood-beamed ceiling, at each other. Anywhere but

directly at Luce and Shelby. Though it was clear that all of them were eavesdropping.

A sick feeling in her stomach was starting to tell her why. It was the biggest

collision of Nephilim and non-Nephilim Luce had seen so far at Shoreline. And every girl

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in this hallway had figured out before her: