Waiting For The Beast (Lucifer's Clock Series, Book 1)

True Feelings

The next morning Angelica knew right away she and Michael were back to square one, when he greeted her formally at the front door.

The warmth in his eyes was gone, replaced by a no nonsense look. Angelica was sure the Creator's visit had something to do with this.

The car ride to school was unbearably quiet. Angelica finally broke the ice.

"Did everything go okay with your meeting?"

"It went as expected," Michael said looking straight ahead.

"Good," said Angelica not knowing what else to say.

When she parked the car Nala and Roman were waiting for her. She looked at Michael to see if he exhibited any kind of jealousy at seeing Roman there again and to her disappointment he didn't.

He exited the car before she could blink.

This wasn't how she had imagined the day after their date to be. They were supposed to be holding hands and gazing into each other eyes for hours.

She sighed at her wishful thinking.

"How are you?" Nala asked.

"A little tired. I went out last night."

Angelica didn't miss Michael's sideways glance at her mention of their night out.

"You went without me?" Roman asked mockingly hurt.

"You were probably fencing anyways."

"Whatever. It's not like I wouldn't stop doing whatever I was doing to hang out with you," Roman said joking, but with a serious undertone.

"I will keep that in mind," Angelica said feeling somewhat awkward.

Roman was cute and had the whole bad boy thing going on, but Michael was who she wanted. Also she enjoyed their friendship and didn't want to mess that up.

Angelica noticed that Nala seemed unusually quiet. Without realizing it she used her powers to read her.

Nala wanted to tell her something that she had discovered, but she was nervous that it was going to hurt Angelica's feelings.

"Nala, what is it?"

"Huh, what?" Nala asked looking guilty.

"What's up with you?" Angelica chose her words very carefully.

She didn't want to give away that she knew something was up. "You're acting weird."

Nala began wringing her hands together like she always did when she was agitated.

"This is all my fault. You wouldn't have to go through any of this if you weren't my friend." She suddenly looked sad.

"It's not your fault Nadia's a miserable hag," Roman scoffed.

Angelica instantly was on edge. "Nadia? What did she do to you?"

"It's not me...It's you," Nala said hesitantly.

"What is it?" Angelica asked a little relieved that it wasn't Nala, but a little worried that it was her.

"It's not a big deal. She just started a rumor around school that you burned Daniel," shrugged Roman.

Angelica laughed at the silly rumor. "Burned him? I don't like him, but I wouldn't take things that far."

"You can't be serious?" Roman asked laughing. "Great, my friends are just as clueless as the chicks from the movie, Clueless."