Fantastic writing, easy to read, something that I would pay for. I am really enjoying this, however I am forever hopeful that there is more going on here than just betrayal. The story seems to be leading up to something great and I certainly hope that there is some mystery here, something more to it, more than meets the eye.
Great job at keeping the readers intrigued and captivated.
Blue Haze - Thank you. In all honesty, I'm not really even thinking that betrayal is a big theme here (if it comes into play at all). But that could just be the way I'm looking at it.
*singsoffkey* and Shadow - Aww... I'm sorry... I'm not meaning to make you sad... but hopefully it will get better here...
We continued through the mall, each of us with a dress slung over one shoulder. We stopped at Claire’s before we went home and Kelly dashed from one end of the store to the other, combing the shelves for the perfect accessories. She seemed to be the only one that remained in a good mood.
I tried to look at the jewelry and I did end up finding things that I liked, but my gaze kept wandering to Christy and my thoughts with it. I just couldn’t help it. What had happened between her and Leo? And was it over?
Jessie seemed on edge as she kept an eye on me. I suppose she was feeling guilty for having told me.
It was painfully obvious the Christy knew something was going on, but in normal Christy fashion, she didn’t ask. She kept looking to Jessie for answers, but Jessie would just attempt a smile and turn away. Christy became even quieter than usual and eventually left, telling us that she would see us at school.
I watched her leave with a mixture of relief and an urge to go after her and start firing questions at her. “Should we be letting her go off alone?” I asked Jessie quietly.
Jessie looked toward the door as Christy disappeared into the crowds running through the Mall. “She’ll be fine,” Jessie assured me gently. “Her house isn’t far.” Jessie turned to me. “Are you all right?”
I hesitated, trying to figure out how to answer that. The honest truth probably would have been a “no”, but I didn’t think that that would prove a very helpful answer in this situation.
Kelly came bounding up behind us, clutching a bracelet. “Look, Jessie!” she said giddily. We both turned to see what she had and I tried to forget about Christy.
* * *
The next day I stuck by Leo all day. We had most of our classes together on Tuesdays, which helped, but I would have tried to do it anyway, just to see what would happen between him and Christy. I realized about halfway through the day how stupid that was. Just because I had found out about it, didn’t mean that they had changed any. Still, I kept watch.
For a good part of the day I didn’t even see Christy. I thought I saw her once between classes, sitting with Patrick outside the cafeteria, but when I looked back, she wasn’t there.
Then, just before fifth period, Leo and I caught up with her. She was quite obviously “lost”, standing with her locker open, scribbling something on a pad of paper stuck to the inside of the door. Leo grinned as he saw her and gently slipped his arm down from my shoulders, sneaking up behind her.
I stayed just a step behind him, listening intently as he dropped his hands on her shoulders and began speaking softly in her ear. She stiffened momentarily, and then began to smile as she heard what he was saying.
“Lovers and madmen,” he began slowly, obviously quoting something. “Have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies…” Christy bit her lip to keep from laughing as he continued. “… that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends.”
Christy turned to face him slowly. “I didn’t know that that applied to the lovers of words as well,” she said, fixing him with a jovial gaze.
“Hmm…” Leo said, rubbing his chin. “I didn’t either. Must be why I wasn’t applying the ‘lover’ portion to you.”
She stared at him, trying to keep from bursting out laughing. “Are you calling me insane?” she demanded, smacking him lightly on the shoulder.
Leo grinned, backing away slightly. “You said it, not me.”
She shook her head, leaning back to look at him. “And what I am supposed to do now, Leo?”
“I believe this is the point where you come up with a clever come-back,” he advised sagely.
“Of course.” She nodded. “Just give me a few days.”
Leo laughed. “Sure, Christy.”
“Where was that from?” I asked, stepping into the conversation.
Christy glanced at me, still smiling. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” she told me, closing her locker. “Shakespeare.”
I blinked. “You guys reading that in English?”
“We will be later,” Christy replied.
“So you guys are reading ahead?” I questioned, slightly confused.
Leo chuckled. “No, Reese. Christy and I have been reading Shakespeare since…” He looked to Christy. “How long’s it been?”
Christy shook her head, picking up her backpack off the floor. “I have no idea how long you’ve been reading them, but you got me stuck on them when I was eleven.”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing,” Leo said.
“Let’s just say my life has never been the same,” she told him, starting to move off down the hall. “I’ll see you two later.” She left, leisurely making her way to class.
“You guys read Shakespeare for fun?” I asked Leo incredulously as he turned back toward me.
“Yeah,” he told me slowly. “What do you want to make of it?”
I took a step back, staring at him. “How in the world do you get through it? It’s practically in another language! All ‘thee’s and ‘thou’s.”
“Yes, Reese,” he told me, dropping an arm around my shoulders again as we continued down the hall. “It’s called Old English and it’s actually not that hard once you get used to it. And besides that, Christy and I both love to read and like to write so why not read one of the most famous authors of all time?”
I stopped short, blinking. “Wait… you… huh?”
Leo waited tolerantly for me to get my sentence straight.
“You write too?” I asked finally.
“Yes,” Leo said. “Why did you think that Christy and I get along so well?”
We started walking again and I prayed that he wouldn’t actually ask me to answer that.
* * *
That evening we sat in Leo’s living room, me curled up on the couch while he took the arm chair as we studied. We’d stopped talking a long time ago, buried in our homework. Rather, he was buried in his homework. I was trying my best to keep my mind on my history textbook, but I’ve never been one that could focus ever easily on dates and dead people, especially in times of social crisis.
Social crisis? Who was I kidding? Things were no different today then they were last week or the week before. This was all in my head. Nothing had changed. I bit my lip. But that was assuming that things had been all right before…
No… This wasn’t helping. I forced myself read the next line in the textbook.
Christopher Columbus petitioned the King and Queen of Spain for the funds to—
Oh who really cared?! In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Did I really need to know more than that?
I stopped, hearing Leo’s mother clang two pots together in the kitchen as she made dinner. Glancing over at Leo, I tapped my fingers softly against my book. Leo was quietly making notes as he copied equations out of his Chemistry book, looking back and forth between the textbook and the paper he was working on.
The silence in the room was beginning to get to me. I almost wished he would say something, just so I would know what was going through his head. I knew if he did, though, it would be something like, “Do you know the abbreviation for Oxygen?” Except not, because Leo was intelligent enough to have memorized the important elements, unlike me.
We rarely did talk during these study sessions. It had bothered me at first. If I struck up a conversation he’d continue it, but most of the time we dove into our books with him telling me afterward that he liked having me around, even if we never said a word. I’d gotten used to silence, but today it was bothering me again.
For a moment, I opened my mouth to say something and then stopped myself. What was I going to say? “So what happened between you and Christy?” Yeah, great way to make an idiot of yourself, Reese.
And what was so wrong with just sitting there enjoying his company? Nothing, right? He does it with most of his other close friends. I’d seen him and Chad and Ryan sit around studying after school about a million and one times. And he and Jessie just hung out in silence every once in a while. I’d never seen Kelly do that, but as much as we all loved her, she couldn’t keep her mouth shut for more than sixty seconds if we paid her. I’d seen Christy sit with him once or twice…
Christy…
Somehow this silence thing just seemed like something Christy would enjoy a great deal. Did Leo pick it up from her? Was this something that they used to do?
For just a moment I wanted to ask him. I wanted to make him tell me that he and Christy were just friends and that it would never work otherwise.
I lowered my face into my hands. Could I sound like more of a jealous girlfriend? Why was I being so suspicious?
I shot a look at the stereo on the other side of the room. Anything was better than silence right now.
“You mind if I put on some music?” I asked Leo.
He glanced up at me and shook his head, smiling. “No. Go ahead.”
I slipped off the couch and flipped on the radio, turning it up just a little. It was louder than I usually kept it, but I thought that maybe it would drown out some of the thoughts in my head. Maybe…
The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief. ~William Shakespeare, Othello Boo. SPEW is watching.
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