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The footage switched once again. The camera shook – obviously the work of an amateur – but it still managed to capture the moment the tornado touched down, a swirling sheet of dirt and debris. The camera panned away, and almost instantly, another tornado appeared a little bit away from the first. They seemed to dance around one another, tilting towards each other like forbidden lovers but never once touching. It happened a third time. And a fourth time.

The trees folded underneath the intensity of the winds; the houses, before my very eyes, began to collapse in on themselves, like old, yellowing paper. The newscaster was speaking, but I couldn’t hear over the roaring in my ears.

How awful…

“I agree. It is awful.” I hadn’t even realized that Giselle had come in behind me. I also hadn’t realized that I had spoken aloud – not that I was surprised, mind you. “Your family has property up there. I hope there weren’t any damages”

My hands fisted against my sides.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” I asked, barely able to reign in my temper. “One of ourmanyproperties? What about the houses that have been destroyed? The lives that have been lost?”

Giselle tilted her head to the side, silver hair appearing almost like starlight in the artificial lighting. I had never considered my tutor cruel before. Mean, yes. A hard-ass, most definitely. But cruel? Evil?

Just now, though, she was looking at me as ifIwas the mistake. As ifIhad an issue.

When she spoke, her voice was uncharacteristically kind. “My dear, I prepared you so much better than this. There is no them. There is only you and us. Why be shoved when you can shove? Why be dead when you can kill? Why care when you’re better than them?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. That was Giselle for you. Always spewing wisdom. And you wonder why I’m a little fucked up?

* * *

I sawhim a moment before he saw me.

How could I not notice him? He looked just as gorgeous as he was the first time I saw him. His blond hair was lightly tousled as if he had run his hand through it one too many times. His body was lithe and defined, muscles accentuated in the faded t-shirt he wore and blue jeans. His eyes brightened when he saw me as if someone had lit a candle beneath the surface.

“I know you!” he said, walking forward. Sure, he was attractive, but I had met a lot of attractive guys in my life. He was just another pretty face in a sea of, well, pretty faces.

I feigned impassiveness as I considered him coolly.

“The waiter, correct? Ashton?”

“Asher,” he corrected. He remained silent for a minute, a blush staining his cheeks. “So, what are you up to?”

“Last I checked I was walking down the hallway,” I said dryly. “But I’m stopped now, so I suppose you could say I’m standing in the hallway.”

His blush deepened, and he opened his mouth to speak, shut it, and then opened it again. He looked like a gaping fish. An adorable, blond fish, but a fish all the same.

I decided to have pity on the poor, unfortunate soul.

“I was actually going to the wanna…I mean the pool. To read.” I held up my book. “I didn’t get a lot of reading done yesterday.” The final statement came out as an annoyed grumble. Asher cracked a smile at that.

“Somebody annoyed you?” he guessed, sounding amused. I scowled.

“You could say that.”

“Well, I just wanted to thank you for what you did the other night. Sticking up for me, I mean. Taking the fall so I wouldn’t get fired.” He let out a sigh, his hand running through his blond locks.

“It’s fine,” I said quickly, hoping he’d drop the subject. The last thing I wanted to do was discuss emotions and feelings and all that shit. I shuddered just thinking about it.

“Well, it was a pretty cool thing for you to do.”

“Yup.”

“And I just wanted to say thank you.”

“Okay.”

I was not the most eloquent speaker, was I? Asher shuffled from one foot to the next. Judging from his scuffling and shifty eyes, he wanted to say something else to me, something important. But I needed to tell him something too.

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