Tristan didn’t glance at her, but she thought she saw his arm muscles tighten in anger when she sat down a few inches from him. Kira tried to act innocent and pulled out some paper to jot down notes during the first half of class. Really, she was losing all of her patience waiting for Mr. Bell to end the lecture and start with the acting lessons. If he didn’t do it soon, she knew her chance to trap Tristan for a few minutes would be lost. She couldn’t really pull the “I left something in my locker” act again. Kira knew Luke would be suspicious.
Finally, Mr. Bell walked down the aisles assigning pairs, and Kira let out a silent breath of relief when she and Tristan were paired together.
"Okay, everyone, now that we’ve finished reading the play, I want you all to practice reading Shakespeare out loud. He was a playwright after all, his words were meant to be spoken. I think the balcony scene will do since I paired you all in coed groups. You are all hormonal teenagers, right?"
The class responded with a laugh, and everyone opened their books to act 2, scene 2. Tristan turned to Kira with what she could only call a pained expression and tried his best to read some of the most romantic lines ever written in a completely melancholic voice.
"'But soft what light through yonder window breaks. It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief that thou her maid art far more fair than she.'"
Kira couldn’t help but laugh at him as he speedily grumbled out the lines without even an ounce of passion. "You know this is supposed to be a love scene, right?"
He looked up at her with contempt while she tried to swallow her smile. "Oh, really? I hadn’t noticed."
He looked back down at the page and continued to read aloud in his monotone voice, totally ignoring her, which just prompted her to continue.
"Look, Tristan, there’s no point hiding the fact that you like me, from me I mean. I flipped through your notebook again after I saw that you’d left it behind. I saw the drawings you made of me." He looked up at her then, and Kira handed his small moleskin back to him, happy to at least have that out of the way. For some reason, she thought he was looking at her like she was an unruly child who wouldn't follow instructions. Where he got that from, she had no idea, but he continued with his speech so she continued talking over him.
"They were really great, actually—pretty flattering." She smiled, hoping he would look at her again, but he didn’t. "Anyway, I think we should talk about what happened, not here obviously, but somewhere where we can meet in private." They both chose that moment to look around, and Kira saw they had the attention of both Luke and Tristan’s friends. Yeah, the classroom was definitely not the right place to have this conversation, and she kind of hoped talking would lead to other things like it had last time…
He finished reading his lines. "Hey, Juliet, it’s your turn." He smirked.
"Oh, right." She looked down at her book. "'O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art though Romeo.'" She tried to copy his apathetic style of reading and was secretly overjoyed when he laughed at her.
"I get it, I sounded like an idiot." She just continued giving him the same silent treatment he had given her. "Okay, here’s the truth, Kira. We can’t talk here, and we shouldn’t even be talking now, or maybe ever."
"You told me that already." She stopped reading.
"Yet, you seem to have trouble understanding it. English is your first language, right?" She rolled her eyes at the joke. "Like I said before, we just can’t ever be."
"I understand what you’re saying, but I also know you don’t mean it." She leaned closer to him to prevent from being overheard.
"I do," he said, forcing the point.
"Oh really?" she tried to push him now. "It didn’t seem that way when you kissed me."
"Kira, forget that ever happened, okay?"
"Or what? You don’t scare me."
"I should," he said and shot Kira a lethal look.
His eyes changed color to the lightest blue she could imagine, and they held her captive. Not in the romantic way, but as though she were a prisoner held paralyzed. His eyes were ice cold, making her shiver as though she had been dropped in an arctic pool, and slowly his pupils began to expand, overtaking his irises.
Kira was scared, but more than that, she felt like he knew it and didn’t care. Try as she might, she couldn't look away—completely stuck. Slowly, a feeling of warmth spread to her hands, burning hot, a sense of power that fought the fear tightening her stomach in knots.
Whipping her gaze to the floor, Kira breathed heavy as she finally broke his stare. Her fingertips still tingled with the heat that had coursed through her, allowing her to break his gaze. Kira leaned back against her chair, away from him, and touched her fingers to her cheek.
They burned into her skin.
"What the hell was that?" she asked unsteadily, still not looking up. The heat emanating from her hand absorbed all of Kira’s thoughts.
"Me," he said with the venom gone from his voice. She looked at him again and caught the unbearably sad expression in his eyes before he looked away.
Or me? she thought, feeling the warmth finally ebb.
"Rewriting Shakespeare, are we?" Mr. Bell walked between them, and Kira couldn’t help but let a guilty look cross her face. They most certainly had not been following the assignment, but she wanted to hug Mr. Bell for breaking the silence and pausing her thoughts. "Tristan, you seem to have a hard time following the classroom rules." Tristan looked at Mr. Bell defiantly, and Kira felt a little sorry that she had caused the whole thing. "What were you and Miss Dawson talking about so passionately? It definitely was not Romeo and Juliet."
"Screw you," Tristan replied. Every student in the classroom inhaled in shock. She couldn’t tell if he said it just to be defiant or to hide their conversation from his friends.
"Well, Mr. Kent." Tristan looked up at the use of his last name. "Perhaps you and Miss Dawson would like to show everyone how it’s done. Tomb scene. Front of the class. Now."
Kira stood and practically pulled Tristan from his seat to stop him from getting both of them punished with extra homework.
As they walked to the front of the class, he whispered to her, "Think you can be quiet and play dead for a few minutes?"
When they reached the front, she turned to face him and, with his body hiding her face from the rest of the class, said defiantly, "Think you can pretend to not enjoy kissing me for your friends?"
"Think you can for Luke?" He smirked and moved aside.
Damn him, she thought, he always has to have the last word.
"You can start with Romeo’s monologue," Mr. Bell prodded, and Tristan began to read.
Kira listened intently for the cue that meant he would lean down to give her a quick kiss in front of the classroom. As she listened, she realized he was much better at reading than he let on. His voice was full of passion as he paused at the appropriate moments and rushed through some lines as though the words were his own. Kira lay still on the front table with closed eyes, but was sure he had captivated the entire classroom as he read Romeo’s lines. And she felt herself fall for him a little bit more the longer he spoke.
"'Eyes, look your last.'"
Even through closed lids, his gaze sent a thrill down her spine.
"'Arms, take your last embrace.'"
His body gently settled on top of her own. He seemed to speak only to her ear.
"'And lips,'" he whispered, running his thumb along the edge of her lower lip, something the script definitely didn’t call for. "'Oh you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss, a dateless bargain to engrossing death.'"
He lifted himself off of her to continue reading. Kira heard him utter the last few lines and recognized the swish of his clothes as he lifted his arm to swallow invisible poison.
"'Oh true apothecary, thy drugs are quick,'" he spoke with a stalled voice. His hands fell on either side of her face and the desk creaked as he leaned slowly down. From the brush of war
m air, she knew that his lips were only an inch away.
"'Thus with a kiss I die.'"
For what seemed like a millennium, Kira lay still, waiting, until finally, in the softest kiss she could ever imagine, his lips landed on hers and remained there for a few seconds longer than they should have. Her lips curved into a smile and his did the same. Unfortunately, he then pretended to fall off the desk and die.
Shoot, Kira thought, listening to the engrossed silence of the class, how the heck am I supposed to follow that?
Mr. Bell spoke for the other characters, until she knew it was her time to wake. Kira opened her eyes slowly and sat up to speak her lines to the friar. She tried to look appropriately shocked when she was told of Romeo’s death but heard some people snicker at her failed attempt. And just when Kira was supposed to have her own monologue, the bell thankfully rang and saved her from the embarrassing experience.
Kira looked down at Tristan and almost believed him dead, until he jumped up, winked at her, and fled from the classroom. Kira sat for a moment longer, trying to guess who had come out of that exchange with the upper hand, wondering if Tristan would agree to talk things over in private.
More importantly, she felt her own cheek, trying to recall the overwhelming warmth that spread from her hand to that very spot. Kira had no idea what had happened, and she didn’t know who to ask for answers.
With a heavy sigh, Kira lifted herself from her seated position on the makeshift tomb and walked over to gather her things. When she left the classroom, Luke was waiting for her by the door.
"So…that was interesting," he said with shrugged shoulders and hands buried in his jeans pockets. Kira remained silent as they walked step for step down the hall. "I personally thought you were captivating as Juliet. Great idea to put a hand to your chest then forehead and pretend to faint when you saw Romeo had died. Classic move."
Kira smiled and shoved him away from her for making fun. "I’m not an actress, and I never said I was," she said in her defense.
"Trust me, I know." Luke jumped away from the shove he had already anticipated. "Want to talk about it?"
"What?" She tried to hide the frown on her face, and pulled her purple sweater tighter around her torso.
"Whatever it was you and Tristan got in trouble for fighting about," he prodded. Kira knew it hurt Luke that she was starting to keep secrets from him—that there might be something she would rather talk to Tristan about.
"I was just thanking him for saving me in that surfboard accident. I never really got the chance before." Kira wanted to let Luke know the truth but knew she couldn’t, no matter how much she hated to shut him out. He had been there as her friend since she walked through the doors of this school a month ago, and she really didn’t want to hurt him. For a moment, Kira had thought she would tell him about Tristan, but she remembered Bethany and knew Luke would never understand. He was too emotionally involved to put himself in her shoes.
"I bet he didn’t want to hear any of it."
Kira shrugged. "Something like that."
"Cheer up." Luke put an arm around her. "Want to skip class and buy some ice cream? I wouldn’t mind playing hooky for the rest of the day." She smiled at the mischievous look in his eye.
"And how are we supposed to do that?" she asked, knowing the campus security would definitely report two students ditching class.
"Follow me you must, young padawan," Luke said, quoting Star Wars and attempting to use a Yoda voice. He started running down the hallway, and she ran after him, knowing they were already late to class and had nothing left to lose. He stopped at the hallway intersection in front of the main exit and peered around the corner.
Out of nowhere, Luke produced a straw and a small rolled up piece of paper, sending the most perfect spitball she had ever seen—well, the only spitball she had ever seen—into the head of a security guard down the hall. She covered her mouth to stop from laughing as Luke sailed another one into his head. The security guard spun around angrily, and Kira and Luke snuck into an open janitors closet. They heard the guard's heavy steps as he ran down one hall, paused and made a wrong turn down the hallway leading away from them.
"Go, go, go." Luke pushed her out of the closet and they ran for the door. Once they made it through the exit, Kira forced Luke to keep running, and she bit back her own laughter until they made it to the parking lot.
"Ice cream, my lady?" Luke pretended to bow and offered his arm. Kira accepted.
They marched over to his car and sat down safely inside before erupting into a fit of laughter that only stopped when they both had tears streaming down their cheeks. Luke revved the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. They left the school completely behind them.
Kira couldn’t think of a more perfect ending to the day, or of a more perfect friend for that matter. She smiled to herself, glanced at Luke when she caught him looking at her, and turned up the music to take on lead vocals.
Chapter Six
A week later, Kira opened her locker to see a portrait of herself leaning against her textbooks. She grabbed the small paper that held a close-up of her face, with a dusting of light curls around the edges, and knew it was a message from Tristan. She turned the paper over to read the note scribbled in cursive on the back.
"Meet me in the auditorium at lunchtime."
She noticed he didn’t even sign his name, like he knew she had been waiting for a sign from him. She, of course, had been waiting. But still, the arrogance of assuming he was the only guy who would leave her a note! Kira didn’t care though, because just like in Charleston, Tristan had been the one to break the silence, which meant he really couldn’t resist her either.
"What’s that?" Emma had snuck behind Kira without her noticing.
Kira turned, clutching at her chest. "Good lord, you just gave me a heart attack."
"Sorry," Emma said without really meaning it as she tried to peer closer at the paper Kira had quickly stuffed inside her binder. She didn’t want to share Tristan’s drawing, but she would definitely tell Emma what it said.
"Let’s just say our little scheme worked, and I won’t be at lunch today." Kira tried to play it cool and not give away how excited she was.
"Ooh, scandalous. Was that a love note?" Emma looked dreamy eyed.
"I don’t know, but I’m willing to try to find out," Kira said before slamming her locker closed and following Emma to class where the gossip was quickly overtaken by the need to pay attention to their teacher’s lecture on differential equations.
When lunch rolled around, Kira dodged the crowd and went in the opposite direction toward the auditorium on the complete other side of the school. She arrived before Tristan and walked past the rows of chairs up toward the stage where the set for the December musical White Christmas was being prepared. Her school in New York only allowed secular performances, and she did kind of like that people got into the Christmas spirit here. Of course, it was the middle of October, so really only the drama crew had reached the point of singing Christmas carols, but she could anticipate how crazy school would be right after Thanksgiving.
In the middle of the stage, a half-painted Christmas tree stood surrounded by boxes cutout like presents, but not decorated. There was a piano in the corner and a costume rack held forties style dresses and suits for the actors. Kira scrambled on stage and walked around the yards of fake pine and tinsel that already covered it.
"Mistletoe?" Tristan called from behind. She turned in time to see him jump deftly onto the stage.
"I hadn’t noticed." Kira tried to play it cool. Tristan pulled a strand of green plastic leaves from his pocket with a smirk. "I knew there had to be a reason you wanted to meet here. But you’ll have to catch me first." Kira teased and started backing away.
His smirk turned into the half-smile she loved and a little dimple sprouted on his cheek. Tristan strode confidently forward, and when he got a little closer, Kira jumped behind the fake tree to use it as a defensive wall, moving left wh
en he did and right when he did. She laughed when his frustration grew and jumped out from behind the tree to try to leap off the stage, moving the chase into different territory. But strong arms gripped around her waist, lifted her off the ground, and swung her around in circles.
"You’re mine now," he whispered into her ear, and Kira couldn’t decide if the shiver that raced down her back was full of excitement or fear. He let her feet drop to the ground, and she turned in the circle of his arms.
"Changed your mind about that we-can-never-be nonsense?" She smiled in victory.
"Not completely, but you are doing a great job convincing me." Tristan lifted the corner of his mouth again and she laid her hand on his cheek, capturing the dimple in her palm, before sliding it up into his hair, pushing his ebony bangs back so she could see his eyes better.
"You have to tell me something first," Kira said, pausing. Tristan nodded, looking at her with concern and she almost thought a hint of dread. Kira bit her lip, thinking about how to phrase her question. "What happened when you looked at me before, in class I mean? I swear I couldn’t move and then something happened to me that I didn’t understand. And I know you know." She held his face still, making sure he didn’t look away to hide his secrets again.
Tristan hesitated for a moment. His face was frozen in a grimace—the expression of someone with nowhere left to run.
"I do know." He sighed, and Kira thought it sounded as though a weight that had been holding him in place had suddenly been lifted free. "There’s something about me… about who, no what, I am that you need to know, and Luke will have to fill you in on the rest. I’m so tired of hiding, Kira." Anguish was written all over his face, and she let her hand fall to his chest, to his heart, trying to give him some comfort in what he was going to admit. "I’m—"
A clapping sound interrupted Tristan, causing both of them to spin, searching for the source. It came from the back row of the auditorium where Diana, John, and Jerome sat with grins on their faces. When Kira and Tristan finally noticed them, the three intruders stood and strode down the aisle slowly, with complete confidence, clapping at a leisurely pace and staring only at Tristan.
The Complete Midnight Fire Series Page 7