Chapter 131

I stood for a moment, aghast. Then I shook myself from my shock and ran after Andrew. I found him in the hallway and soon caught up to him.

“Andrew!” I called after him. He did not slow down. “Dammit, Andrew, stop and talk to me.”

He came to a halt, his shoulders stiff, but he kept his back to me.

“What?” he snapped.

“I want to know why you’re so upset.”

He cracked his neck and clenched his fists. I felt the urge to reach out to him, to hold his hand, but something told me that he needed his space.

“I do not want you to campaign with me anymore.”

“What?” I stormed around him until I could see his face. “No, you are not starting that argument again.”

“It won’t be an argument if you just agree to stay away from the rallies.”

“Is this about my episodes? I promise, it won’t happen again—”

“You can’t promise that. It’s something that you can’t control. We both know that.”

The agitation in his voice caused my blood to boil. How dare he be angry with me if, as he claimed, I could not control it?

“You promised me that I could go to the rallies so long as you thought that I wasn’t in danger—”

“Exactly!”

“Exactly what?”

“I said that you could go so long as I didn’t think that you were in danger. Well, now I do.”

My hot blood suddenly froze. My mouth gaped. I stared at Andrew, unsure of how to voice the concerns now running through my mind.

“Are you saying…has there been a threat to me?” I asked, my voice wavering with concern. “To us?”

Andrew’s face softened slightly.

“No, not exactly…”

“Then what are you afraid of?”

His expression darkened, and he stood over me, pointing at my chest.

“I am not afraid of anything,” he growled.

My heart pounded hard against my ribs. For a moment, I could see in Andrew the beast that everyone accused of killing his three Lunas. I steeled myself, not allowing myself to be intimidated by him in his anger.

“Then what danger could I possibly in?”

Andrew’s hot breath rolled rapidly onto my face. The close proximity, his panting, the monster lying just beneath the surface, it would have all been very sexual had it not felt like a ticking time bomb just waiting for me to say the wrong thing.

“What do you think is going to go wrong?” I asked. “Is it me? Am I the problem?”

Andrew took a deep breath in and out through his nostrils. He ran his hand through his hair and walked away from me.

“No, it’s not you,” he said firmly. “I told you, I think that you will be in danger in if you continue to campaign with me.”

“And yet you can’t tell me what this danger is.”

Andrew curled his fist and raised it but then lowered it back to his side. He shook his head.

“Then there’s no reason that I can’t go with you to the campaign rallies.”

“Unless you have another episode,” Andrew mumbled.

My heart stung at that comment. I couldn’t take it anymore. Every time he brought up my episodes, it felt as though he were blaming me for them, blaming me for something that I couldn’t even control.

Tears pricked the edges of my eyes.

“Fine.”

I turned on my heel and charged down the hall.

“Crystal!” he called out for me. “Where are you going?”

“Home!” I screamed back at him.

Deep inside, a part of me wanted him to come after me. Yet as I wove my way through the mansion and out to my Civic, I knew that he wouldn’t.

His pride wouldn’t allow it.

I had scarcely settled into my apartment when I heard a knocking on the door. A naïve part of me hoped that it was Andrew, come to apologize. When I opened the door, though, it was Jeffrey, again.

“Hi, Jeffrey,” I said, trying and failing to mask my disappointment.

“Crystal,” he replied. “Can I come in?”

I nodded, stepping aside.

“Thank you.”

I closed the door behind him and plopped down on the couch.

“Want to have a seat?” I asked him.

He shook his head.

“So,” I continued, “what brings you inside?”

“That was a pretty rough argument that you had with Andrew.”

I cringed. Of course, that was what had brought him into my apartment. He rarely ever came in just to say “hello.”

“Yes, well, he brought it on himself.”

“I suppose that you’re right.” He paused. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly.”

“Will you?”

“I suppose.”

I sighed.

“He kept telling me that he didn’t want me to campaign with him anymore because he thought that I was in danger, but he wouldn’t tell me what the specific danger was. How can I trust that that’s the reason why he doesn’t want me to come to his rallies if won’t tell me what the danger is?”

Jeffrey kept half of his body directed at me and half at the door. He crossed his arms over his chest and spread his legs shoulder-length apart.

“Why else would he not want you at his rallies?”

“I don’t know. Is he ashamed of me?”

I looked down at my hands as I played with the hem of my dress.

“Did I embarrass him when I had my episode at the last rally?”

Jeffrey hesitated before walking toward me. He patted me twice on the shoulder, then quickly withdrew.

“You have never embarrassed him,” he said. “He’s only ever been worried about you.”

“He just keeps talking about my episode as though I can control it—”

“I doubt that he means it that way. A lot of people don’t know how to talk about something like that, and they often say things that come out the wrong way.”

I shook my head and put my face in my hands.

“I just don’t know how much longer I can go on like this,” I said. “The way that he looked at me…”

I looked up at Jeffrey, hoping for some answers, any answers. He stared beyond me, as though contemplating something. Then he sighed and nodded as he made a decision.

“I don’t know what exactly is going through Andrew’s head,” he began, “but I do know that you need to be patient with him. The human terrorist attack really shook him up, too.”

“The human terrorist attack? But what does that have to do with anything?” When he didn’t answer, I added, “Why would that attack have shaken him up more than the others?”

Jeffrey cracked his knuckles but did not otherwise give away any emotion.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss Andrew’s personal affairs,” he said, “but I can say that it has to do with you.”

“But how?” I asked.

“That’s something that you’re going to have to ask Andrew himself.”

I mentally groaned. Why did he have to choose now to stop poking his nose where it didn’t belong?

“Fine. I’ll ask him tomorrow. Anything else?”

Jeffrey’s brow twitched, the closest I had come to seeing emotion on his face in a non-emergency situation.

“Just promise to be patient with him and give him a chance to explain himself. He’s going through a lot.”

“Aren’t we all?”

“Exactly.”