The Golden Lily Page 0,100

showing as an assailant but immediately resorted to his former ways once we were alone. "Let's switch," I said at last, nearly wanting to pull my hair out. "You try to escape me. Make up for last time." I couldn't believe that Adrian's sluggish attitude had turned out to be the problem here. I'd expected the hang-up would be me not wanting to touch a vampire, but it didn't bother me at all. I wasn't thinking of him as a vampire. He was Adrian, and my partner in this class. I needed him to learn the move. It was all very pragmatic. If I didn't know better, I'd almost say that Adrian was afraid to touch me, which made no sense. Moroi didn't have those hang-ups.

Was something wrong with me? Why wouldn't Adrian touch me?

"What's going on?" I demanded, once we were in the car and headed back to the city. "I get that you're not an athlete, but what happened in there?" Adrian refused to meet my eyes and instead stared pointedly out the window. "I don't think this is really my thing. I was all about playing action hero before, but now... I don't know. This is a bad idea. It's more work than I thought." There was a flippant, dismissive tone in his voice that I hadn't heard in a while.

"What happened to you finishing things you started?" I asked. "You told me you had changed."

"That was for art," said Adrian quickly. "I'm still in those classes, aren't I? I didn't jump ship on those. I just don't want to do this one anymore. Don't worry. Now that I've got more money, I'll pay you back the class fee. You won't be out anything."

"That doesn't matter," I argued. "It's still a waste! Especially since what Wolfe's showing us isn't really that difficult. We're not ripping ourselves apart like Eddie and Angeline would.

Why is this so hard for you to stick with and learn?" My earlier self-doubt returned. "Do you just not want to work with me? Is there... is there something wrong with me?"

"No! Of course not. Absolutely not," said Adrian. In my periphery, I saw him finally look at me. "Maybe there are only so many things I can learn at once. I mean, I'm supposed to also be learning to drive a stick shift. Not that I see that happening." I wanted to slap myself on the forehead. In my frustration over class, I'd completely forgotten again about showing Adrian how to drive. I felt like an idiot, even though I was still mad at him for giving up on Wolfe. I checked the time. I had things to do tonight at Amberwood but felt obligated to make up for my shoddy teaching.

"We'll practice once we're back in your neighborhood," I promised. "We'll start slow, and I'll show you everything you need to do. I might even let you try driving around the block tonight if you seem like you're paying attention to the lesson." The transformation in Adrian was remarkable. He went from sullen and uncomfortable to cheerful and energetic. I couldn't figure it out. Sure, I found cars and driving fascinating, but technically speaking, there was a lot more detail to learn about manual transmission than there was in Wolfe's evasive techniques. Why were those difficult for him, but the clutch was easy?

I stuck around for about an hour when we got back. To his credit, Adrian paid attention to every word I said, although his results were inconsistent whenever I quizzed him or actually let him try something. Sometimes he'd respond like a pro. Other times, he'd seem totally lost on things I could have sworn he'd picked up. By the end of the hour, I felt safe enough with him driving the car at low speeds on empty streets. He was a long way from the highway or stop-and-go traffic of a busy city.

"Looks like we've got more lessons in our future," I told him when we finished. I'd parked the car behind his building, and we were walking back toward the main entrance and Latte.

"Do not take that car beyond a half-mile radius. I checked the odometer. I'll know."

"Noted," he said, still wearing that smirky smile. "When's the next lesson? You want to come back tomorrow night?"

"Can't," I said. "I'm going out with Brayden." I was surprised at how much I was looking forward to it. Not only did I want to make things up to him after the dance,