The Dark Divine(62)

Daniel held the brush tightly between his long fingers. He glanced at me. We both knew what he had become.

I turned away.

“Trust me,” Barlow said. The Masonite board scraped against the table. I assumed he’d picked it up. “This will make a great portfolio piece.”

“Yes, sir,” Daniel mumbled.

“Are you done or what?” Lynn Bishop stood next to me with a fistful of colored pencils.

“Sorry,” I said, and moved out of her way with my still-dull pencil.

“I hear Pete asked you to the Christmas dance.” Lynn shoved a pink pencil into the sharpener.

“I guess word gets around.”

I heard Daniel’s chair sliding back over the ferocious gnawing of the sharpener.

“Yes, it does,” she said in her knowing, “I’ve got a juicy bit of gossip” tone. “Interesting he still asked you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Pete’s been friends with my brother for years.”

“Hmm.” Lynn removed her pencil and inspected the long, pointy pink tip. “I guess that explains it—an act of charity for your brother. Pete must be trying to bring you back to the land of the living.”

I was already cranky, and I didn’t need crap from the gossip queen of Holy Trinity—kind of an oxymoron if you think about it—but the lunch bell rang, stopping me from telling her what she should do with her pencil.

“Mind your own business,” I said, and walked away.

April picked up her backpack as I approached. “Do you think there are CliffsNotes to Leaves of Grass?”

“I doubt it.” I put my pencils in my supply bucket.

April groaned. “Jude is going to quiz me on it after school, and I kind of told him I already read it.” She crinkled her nose and put the book in her bag.

“Nuh-uh!” I teased. “You’re so dead. Say good-bye to the Christmas dance. Jude hates liars.”

“Oh, no. Do you think he’ll be that mad?” She paused. “Wait, you said Christmas dance.” She pointed at me. “Did he say something to you? He is going to ask me, right? Hey, do you want to go shopping for dresses after school?”

I smiled, but I couldn’t help wondering if should I say something to April about Jude. She seemed head over heels for him, but I couldn’t help wondering if my brother’s sudden interest in her was his way of rebounding—not from another relationship but from his own emotions. Or maybe it was April who was taking advantage of my brother. She sure did get over her shyness around him the second he seemed vulnerable. But the look on April’s face was genuinely eager.

“Don’t you think you should focus on studying for the English final before dress shopping?” I asked. “Didn’t your mother threaten to ground you if you don’t pass?”

“Ugh. Seriously, why did she have to start taking an interest in me now?”

“Hey, Grace,” a raspy voice said from behind me.

April’s eyebrows went up in double arches.

I turned toward the owner of the voice, already knowing whom it belonged to. I looked at his navy-blue sweater with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, his khaki pants, the slip of paper he held in his hands, the top of his hair that seemed to get lighter with every day that passed—I looked anywhere but his face, anywhere but his eyes. My gaze finally rested on his paint-smudged forearms.

“What do you want?” I asked. My voice came out colder than I expected.

“I need to talk to you,” Daniel said.

“I … I can’t.” I placed my drawing on top of my supply bucket and shoved it under my table. “Come on, April. Let’s go.”

“Grace, please.” Daniel held his hand out to me.

I flinched. His hands reminded me of the things he’d done to my brother. Would he have tried to do the same things to me if he’d known I was the one who turned his father in? “Go away.” I took April’s arm for strength.

“It’s important,” Daniel said.

I hesitated and let go of April.

“What, are you crazy?” she whispered. “You can’t stay with him. People are already talking.”

I stared at her. “Talking about what?”

April looked at her shoes.

“Hey, you girls coming?” Pete asked from the art-room doorway. Jude stood next to him, grinning at April. “We’ve gotta book if we want a booth.”

“Coming,” April said. She gave me a pointed look and then broke into a huge smile. “Hey, guys,” she said as Jude wrapped his arm around her waist.

“You coming, Grace?” Pete held his hand out to me just like Daniel.

I looked at the three of them in the doorway. April tilted her head and gestured for me to come. Jude looked at me and then glanced at Daniel; his smile faded into a thin, tight line.

“Let’s go, Gracie,” Jude said.

“Please stay,” Daniel said from behind me.

I couldn’t bring myself to glance at him. All Jude had ever asked me to do was stay away from Daniel. I failed in that promise originally, but I had to keep it now. I couldn’t talk to Daniel. I couldn’t be with him.

I could not choose Daniel over my brother again.

“Leave me alone,” I said. “Go somewhere else. You don’t belong here.”