I stepped into the student lounge room of my dorm building, Rossi, expecting it to be completely quiet and empty. It was six in the morning and I figured most people were asleep, even the kids that were into extreme and excessive partying.

But I was wrong.

When I opened the door to the lounge, I came face-to-face with Abbey, Trey, Lance, Matt, and Oralie.

"Ummm..." was what came out of my mouth.

"Ok, she's alive. I'm going to bed now," Oralie said, getting up from her position on the couch and brushing past me. Matt got up after her and gave me an annoyed look before following her out the door. Now I was alone with my supposed friends and my boyfriend.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Abbey exclaimed.

"You guys didn't have to wait up," I said.

"Didn't have to wait up? You've been gone all day, Caley!" Lance said.

"I woke up in the morning yesterday and you weren't there. We called and texted you all day and you didn't answer. And now you're stumbling in at six in the morning looking like...looking like that and you expect us not to have been worried?!" Abbey said, her voice becoming screechy at the end in her hysterics.

"I'm fine," I said.

"You sure as hell don't look fine," Lance replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "Where were you all day?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter, ok? I just wanted to be alone!" I yelled, frustrated. I had an incredible headache and all I wanted to do was sleep. I was exhausted from the intense magic I had used at the Trinity Government, reading my mother's letter, and talking to Gerrard. I needed rest and my energy reserves were at an all time low.

"Alone?! Alone for what? Alone all day?!" Abbey exclaimed.

"Abbey!" Trey shouted, stopping her abruptly. She clamped her mouth shut and looked at him. "Just leave her alone. We'll all talk in the morning," he said.

I shot him a grateful look, but he looked back at me with a dark expression. He had no doubt been worrying about me just as much as Abbey had. But I wasn't lying when I said I had wanted to be alone. There was a lot I was dealing with and having people around to distract me wasn't going to help me make sense of any of it.

"Fine," Abbey said, her cheeks flush from the exertion of yelling at me. Lance grumbled in agreement and then stalked out of the room, mumbling a sleep good-night to all of us. Abbey shot me one last frustrated glare before turning on her heel and disappearing out the door, too. This just left me and Trey in the room.

"Look, Trey--" I began, but he shook his head.

"We'll talk after you get some rest," he said.

I nodded and looked down at my feet guiltily. I felt him come up to me and lift my chin so that I was looking into those multi-colored eyes of his that I loved so much. I was, once again, overcome with an intense emotion and I felt my eyes begin to water. He reached out and then pulled me into a tight embrace. I felt my shoulders shaking with the intensity of my sobs.

I loved him so much. It was so difficult lying to him, not being able to tell him anything that was happening to me. I knew that if I did, he would be so incredibly disappointed. But I knew he would come to forgive me. But I couldn't tell him because if I did, it would mean that he would be in danger. I had no idea what my future had in store for me, what my destiny held. The path in front of me was blurry and the unknown was dangerous and I couldn't risk hurting Trey because of that. Even though Gerrard had volunteered to help me, I was essentially alone. I was the only one that could break the curse.

I was alone.

"Shhhh..." Trey whispered, brushing my matted and dirty hair back. He pulled me away so that he could wipe the tears off of my cheeks. "It's going to be all right," he told me. I looked at him through blurry eyes.

You have no idea how far from all right everything is, Trey. You have no idea how wrong everything is.

"You should get some rest. Clearly, you've had a long day," he said to me. I sniffled and nodded. He leaned forward and kissed my forehead, letting his lips linger on my skin for a long moment. I felt the electrical tension between us well up and I closed my eyes.

"Go to sleep now, ok?" he said, pulling away. As soon as he walked away, the electrical buzz disappeared.

"Trey!" I called after him just as he reached the door to leave. He turned around, looking weary.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"I just..." I trailed off, looking away from his gaze. "I just don't want to sleep alone tonight," I said in a quiet voice. Trey walked forward and took my hand in his.

"Come on, then," he said, leading me out of the student lounge.

We walked to his dorm building and into his dorm room. Lance was already asleep and the lights were out. I changed into a pair of Trey's sweats and climbed into his bed with him. He put his arms around me and I leaned my back against his strong, broad chest. I felt him kiss the nape of my neck.

"I love you, Caley," he whispered to me. I squeezed his hand.

"I love you more," I replied. I felt his warm breath tickle my neck as he chuckled quietly.

"I highly doubt that," he said. A small, sad smile creeped up onto my lips.

You have no idea, Trey. You have no idea how much I love you.

                                                                  ~~~~~~~~~~

We all sat in the student lounge room the next afternoon after we had all woken up and eaten. None of us had slept too much and we all looked like zombies. But there was something that needed to be discussed, and that something couldn't wait until later.

"So are you going to tell us where the hell you were?" Abbey asked bitterly.

She looked incredibly tired. I had never seen Abbey wear sweats, a t-shirt, and have her hair up all in one outfit. She had always told me that if she dresses like she's tired, then she would feel like she was tired. If she wore cute outfits that weren't as comfortable, then she wouldn't feel as tired. I guess the logic made sense in a weird, Abbey-esque way.

"I went back home," I said.

"Home?" Lance asked. "Like where you lived before you came to Trinity?"

I shook my head.

"No. I went to my father's apartment," I said. I left out the bit that before I went to my father's apartment, I was at the Trinity Government, breaking in and almost killing Peter Long, the assistant to the president of the Trinity Government.

"Why were you there?" Abbey asked.

"I told you. I just wanted to be alone for a bit. I needed to get away," I answered.

"Why?" Lance pressed.

"I remembered a letter my mother had left for me. My father gave it to me after graduation last year, but I never read it. For some reason, I wanted to read it yesterday. But it was at the apartment. And I just wasn't up to coming back here after I did read it," I told them.

Trey's hand squeezed my shoulder and he kissed the side of my head. Abbey's face darkened and she averted her gaze. Lance simply looked confused.

"What was in the letter?" Lance asked.

"Just drop it, now," Abbey hissed at him through gritted teeth.

Both Abbey and Trey knew how I felt about my mother. I had told them that I watched her die, that I took care of her when she was sick, and that I was never going to forgive my father for leaving us on our own. Both of them knew. I guess the two of them respected my need for secrecy because neither of them had told Lance about it. And I wanted to keep it that way.

"I don't-" Lance started.

"Hey, man. Just drop it," Trey said. The tone of his voice silenced Lance.

"Are you all right now?" Abbey asked me after a long silence. I shook my head.

"No. Far from. But I'm starting to deal," I said, looking blankly out the window. The sun was shining outside. Classes were a few weeks from coming to an end and my freshman year at Trinity University of Magic was almost over.

So much had happened in just a year. It was hard to believe that within the year, I had learned how to do the most advanced kind of magic, increased my energy potential, found out about a whole other side to magic, and learned about my mother.

I closed my eyes.

My mother, who I thought I had known so well for all of those years. My mother, who was a complete stranger to me now. I had always thought that my mother was the only person I could always trust, the only one that really knew me. But I had no idea who she was. She had kept so many secrets from me and now that I knew them, I couldn't ask her about them. I was so confused and hurt and it made everything so much worse than it already was.

"Let's change the subject," Trey suggested, watching my expression turn dark and sad.

"Let's talk about finals," Abbey said.

"Or the summer," Trey said, giving her a look.

"Right. Something happy," she muttered. "I say we all try to get together during the summer and hang out. We all learned how to Transport this year in Spells, so it should be easy getting together without worrying about distance," Abbey said.

"We could meet anywhere in the world if we wanted," Lance said.

"You have to know the exact location. You can't just Transport anywhere," I said in a gruff voice.

"That's true. It'd be funny if we all decided to meet in Rome and we all ended up in different parts of the city," Abbey said.

"Or different Romes," I said.

"What?" Abbey asked.

"There are other cities named Rome besides the one in Italy," Trey told her. Abbey's mouth formed an 'O' and she sat back. I rolled my eyes at her and then stood up.

"Where are you going?" Lance asked.

"I need to talk to my father," I said. "I'll see you guys later."

I walked up to my father's office and went inside, once again ignoring his secretary's presence. I went upstairs and knocked on his door, which opened, as usual, on its own accord. He looked up when I stepped inside, raising his eyebrows when he saw me.

"I get to see you twice in two days?" he asked when I took a seat in the chairs in front of his desk.

"Don't get used to it," I said, a small smile on my face.

Your father didn't walk out on us. I told him to leave.

My father had cared all along and I treated him like trash. He hadn't deserved to be treated the way I had and I needed to apologize to him, except this time, truly.

"Remember that letter that Mom gave you to give me?" I asked him.

"Yes. Why bring it up now?" he asked.

"Did you ever read what was inside of it?" I asked, scrutinizing him.

"I gave your mother my word that I wouldn't. Whatever was in there was between you and her," he replied. I could tell that he wasn't lying. He was telling me the truth. So he really had no idea that I was on the dark side. He had no idea what I was up to.

"Why ask now?" he questioned.

"Because I read it last night," I said. He raised his eyebrows.

"You didn't read it before?" he asked. I shook my head.

"I guess...I guess I was just afraid of what I'd find in there," I answered, gazing out the tall windows that overlooked the entire campus.

My father didn't press me for details, and for that, I was incredibly grateful. He was giving me my space, most likely knowing that I would speak when I was ready to and that I would tell him about the contents of the letter when I was ready.

"I wanted to apologize to you," I said, averting my gaze and looking at my clenched hands in my lap.

"You don't have to-" my father started, but I shook my head, raising my eyes to meet his. Those blue eyes of his that were my own; the only thing I had inherited from him and the most important. It was my blue eyes that was deciding my destiny for me. It was my father's lineage that was deciding my destiny.

"I do. I have to apologize. Mom told me that she told you not to stay with us when she was sick because she didn't want you to worry," I told him. "And all this time I thought you walked out on us and I hated you for that. But none of it was true and I was angry at you all this time for no reason," I said to him in a quiet voice. "And you never once said anything to me. You never corrected me. Why?" I asked him.

"Because you wouldn't have believed me. Why would you believe the person you hated for your whole life?" he replied in a gentle voice. I felt tears well up in my eyes as an incredible wave of guilt washed over me. "You believed you mother because you loved her and trusted her. No matter how much I would try to convince you of what actually happened, you would never have listened. You had to hear it from her," he explained.

I cast my gaze downward and nodded, wiping my eyes and trying to put my emotions under control.

"Well, I know now. And I'm sorry for the way I treated you," I said.

"You weren't wrong in the way you treated me, Caley. I deserved everything you ever said to me. Even though your mother told me to leave because she didn't want me to see her in her condition, I should have tried harder to stay connected with you. Every child needs both her parents, no matter what kind they are," my father said to me. I nodded. My father pushed forward a box of tissue to me so that I could wipe my face and nose. I thanked him and cleared my face before looking up again.

"I was talking to this girl named Oralie," I said, deciding to approach a subject that had been on my mind for quite some time now.

"She's mysterious, isn't she?" Dad asked me. I laughed lightly and nodded.

"She told me that she traveled abroad her sophomore year," I told him. "I was wondering if I could do that next year."

When Oralie had first told me a few weeks ago that she had studied in Egypt for a semester, I had tucked the idea into the back of my mind. But last night, while I was sleeping with Trey, I was thinking about this idea of studying abroad. My mother had left me with a task to do and I knew that I wouldn't be able to do it if I stayed at TUM. I needed to get away and be somewhere isolated where there were no distractions. I knew it would be difficult to stay away from Trey for so long, but hopefully getting away would make it worth it. Maybe by traveling to other countries where ancient magic exists would help me to find something on the countercurse. I just knew one thing was for sure: I wouldn't be able to handle school, my double agent status, and finding the curse all together. I needed to be away so that I could think clearly. And studying abroad would be the best way to do that.

"You were?" he asked. I nodded. "Why?" he questioned. I shrugged.

"The way she talked about it made it sound so fascinating. And in regular universities, students travel abroad all the time to study in different countries. I just think it's so cool that TUM allows that, too," I said.

"Well, we're really the only university of magic that does," my father said. "Mostly because we have the most money to give in scholarships," he added. "Where were you thinking of going?" he questioned.

"Oralie went to Egypt. I think that'd be fun. But I haven't looked into it too much, so I'm not sure yet. I was just thinking about it," I said.

"Well, I can ask Natasha to give you some more information about it. We don't have programs all over the world, just in a few countries where magic is prevalent. The purpose of having students study abroad is so that they can learn about ancestral magic and make them more aware of the magical world around them," Dad said.

"That'd be great. But you'd let me go if I can decide on a country?" I asked him.

"I don't see why not. If it's something you want to do, I shouldn't be stopping you, right?" he replied. I beamed at him.

"Thanks so much, Dad!" I said.

He smiled back and for a moment, there was no tension in the air. Finally something seemed right. Even though my father still didn't know that I was working for his brother, Elijah, whom he hated, at least he knew that I didn't hate him anymore. My relationship with my father, although it was far from perfect, was finally amending itself.

"Well, I have work to do. So I'll tell Natasha to send you the information," he said. I nodded.

"All right. Thanks. See you around, Dad," I said, getting up. He nodded and then put his glasses on to get back to work.

As I walked out the door, I wondered momentarily if he had found out that Long was missing yet...

______________________________________________________________________

A/N: Making amends, yay!!!

What do you guys think about Caley traveling abroad? You think it's a good idea?

Do you like Caley NOW?!

Leave me a comment! And vote!

School starts on Monday again for me. We'll see how much time I have to update then.

XOXO