Exaltation (Insight #11)(76)

“Who did you see in the Veil, Raven?”

“No one you know,” Raven said sadly.

Soren looked away from her, knowing she thought he was asking if she saw Mason’s twin, Braxton. He’d died the year before in a boating accident. By all means he was a peaceful soul, a protective one, too. Someone Raven would’ve called an angel. Soren knew Braxton wasn’t there, his grandmother told him as much when she and Jamison taught Soren how to reach the Veil a few days before.

“You saw someone, and you’re keeping it to yourself,” Soren said, meeting her eyes once more.

“I just don’t understand it. For all I know I manifested it, saw what I wanted to see.”

“Don’t lie to me,” Soren said as steadily as he could.

A single tear trickled down Raven’s cheek. “He was an angel, and he was devoted to me.” Her lip trembled. “Please don’t make me talk about it, not today.”

Soren clenched his jaw, knowing there was more to it. But instead, of arguing he pulled her to his chest and rocked her side to side. Over her head, beyond the window he caught the stare of his grandmother who was lingering next to Miss Emery. Her one nod told him that letting Raven figure this out in her own way was the best course to take.

Soren would accept that for now. He would swallow it right up until the moment when his gut instinct wouldn’t allow him to any longer. For all he knew it could be days or years.

The night was grueling. That book was impossible. It took an hour to decode one line because they kept finding out they were reading it wrong. The words had too many meanings and they were written like rhymes.

River, of all people, struggled with the text. She declared she couldn’t grasp a clear vision of the text the way she had with any other text she read because the books were spelled in some way. Knowing that only pushed both River and Ash to unlocked the words more earnestly. Find every meaning, then use the process of elimination.

By six AM they had not learned anything, and had only pushed through one page.

Raven curled up in a ball in her bed, buried her head, and let herself cry. She didn’t know why she was crying but she was. She kept seeing that ghost boy in her mind. He knew my name. How did he know my name?

Her dreams were clouded and confusing as she slept through the day, waking up just before two PM. She had to be at work at three. That night they were unveiling the ramps Soren and the others had built a few days ago. The crowd was going to be in the room at nine.

Even though Raven’s shift was short, she and Soren were still supposed to perform. It was a sad song. The lyrics told a story of how a couple was apart and were waiting to come back together again, but were too stubborn to do so.

“You sure you want to skate to this song, it’s a downer,” Soren said to Raven as she laced up her skates. He knew she was still off, not herself at all. The last thing he wanted to do was make it worse.

“The DJ will make it funny.”

“I’m not worried about how funny it is. I’m worried about you. You seem dim. You’ve never been this sad, not even after, you know…all the shit we’ve been through. ”

“Just need to skate,” Raven said as she pushed off from the bench she was on.

Just before nine the DJ set Soren and Raven up.

He made a big deal about how his ‘main man’ was going to have to trade his skates in for a board tonight and how Raven was going to be so lonely, for everyone to give them the floor for one dance.

The song started with a guitar so it got everyone’s attention. Raven stood in the center of the floor in a dim light with her head down. Soren skated up behind her and began to gracefully act out the sad lyrics. Raven could feel him leaning his body into hers, the heat of his presence, hear the screams just before his hands were on her waist and he turned her in his arms.

His gaze was tender, so full of yearning and desperation that each girl squealed all the louder.

Raven did broach a smile and it was only because she knew Soren was a gift…because she knew the second he really tried to hook up with Ash, she’d have no hope of refusal.

The slow, sensual skate began then. It wasn’t really that big of a downer song, there was love in the lyrics and they made it seem enticing. Nothing like last weekend though. There were only a few lifts and slow turns. When it ended, his fingertips grazed Raven’s chin as he skated backwards away from her then left the floor to go the auditorium. All for show. The young girls awed as the boys yelled ‘bring it’ at Soren. The DJ let the crowd back on the floor and Raven’s shift was over.

She had just shed her skates and pulled on short boots when she felt an arm slowly go around her waist. Her body tensed as she felt the person lean into her ear.

“That was beautiful.”

Rydell.

Raven sighed and leaned back into him as she fought an odd sense of guilt that broke from her heart.

“I’m sorry,” he said, which caused Raven to lean her head back to look up at him.

“For?”

“I stood you up.”

A look of shame engulfed Raven’s expression. “I kinda stood you up, too. School is no fun without you.”

Even though he was smiling Raven saw anger flash in his eyes. It wasn’t aimed at her, but his glance ignited a thousand questions she didn’t know how to ask.

“I’ve been given permission to make it up to you,” he said with a nod to the concession stand. Both River and Ash were slotted to work there tonight. “They said I could take you home.”