-Tristan-
It had been a long time since I'd let out my other side and kicked someone's ass hard. Two years ago, to be exact, and the last had just been some crazy, pathet ic incident that had been hardly worth mentioning; but the poor dude still came out of it with a bad condition. It may sound like something but I wasn't proud of it as it had earned me a week's suspension, and because of that week of hell, I hadn't been in a fight since.
Until just now.
I was sitting in the principal's office, facing the disappointed look on Mr. Hen derson's face once again. Ms. Ritchie was behind him, shaking her head at us. Be side me was none other than Erik Taylor. There was a purple bruise and a small c ut on his cheek, and his shirt was full of sweat and dirt. Our condition was the almost same-only I'd gotten a sore nose and a scrape on the corner of my mouth.
Anger was still flaming up on us, and as long as we were still facing each other , I didn't think it would die down anytime soon.
We received a long lecture from Mr. Henderson, but neither of us was willing to listen or even to speak up. And because that, the old man just let out an irrita ted sigh and said, "You two should take pride in the fact that you're all knuckl eheads to work out a problem or avoid the person all together!"
That point, though.
Both of us faced two consequences: a two-week suspension or a compensation for t he damages in the greenhouse. Dad was seriously going to kill me if I'd undergo suspension again, so I decided to choose the latter, even if (aside from the com pensation) it would mean spending my free school hours repairing the greenhouse myself.
I didn't know about Erik, since he stalked out as soon as we were over without e ven speaking. The prick.
The news about the fight had circulated all throughout the campus, as expected. Now, everyone was looking at me with shock in their eyes as I walked on the grou nds. I couldn't care less.
The moment I met up with the guys, they'd immediately gone buzzing.
"Your face, dude..." Justin murmured.
"I think that fight was way better than Mortal Kombat even," said Ryo, staring a t me with wide eyes. Grey shoved him.
"It's my fault. I'm really sorry. I never... I never should've asked that questi on," Monique said, her eyes were glistening. Will encircled his arms around her for comfort.
"No, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have known the truth," I said to her and grabbed my bag from the seat.
"You're going home already?" Grey asked.
I nodded. I was too knackered to deal with anyone right now.
As I turned around, Clark and Lacey came running. Lacey flew her hand to her mou th after a soft gasp escaped her lips.
"T-Tristan, oh my gosh..." she whispered.
Clark just stood there, frozen, with his eyes on me. He gulped and opened his mo uth as if he was trying to explain something. I only glared at him and walked ou t, hitting his shoulder in the process.
He was one of my greatest friends I'd ever had. He'd been dragging my ass and he lping me at any times of trouble. But remembering Erik's words "he was the one w ho set the trap for me" gave me a twinge of betrayal. Clark had helped Erik to l ure Kylie to him.
Had he done something even more apart from that?
Whatever they'd been, however, it was evident that he had backstabbed me. And I was done.
-Kylie-
I stared blankly at the space, what with all these hundreds of thoughts coursing in my head. The words Tristan and Erik got into a fight that I'd heard not only from Lacey, but from the others back at school as well, made me staggered like this.
A sickening twist in my stomach formed as I tried to imagine Tristan. Had he los e control of himself and exposed his violent side once again? Oh, no...
"Sis!" Lacey called and I blinked. "You've been frozen there for a minute. Are y ou going to eat that or what?"
I stared down at my vanilla pudding. "No, I'm not," I mumbled and closed the lid .
"Well, that's strange. I thought you like that," said Mom.
"I'm not up for any desserts."
Mom's eyebrows furrowed as she studied me. "Is there something bothering you, Ky lie?"
"Yeah, it's the same old thing," Lacey answered and smiled softly. "Love."
"Lacey," I said, my heart pounding unsteadily. I pulled away from the table, say ing, "Excuse me. I'm going to my room now," and went upstairs.
I glanced at Tristan's window; there was only a weak light through the curtain. Sighing, I laid down on the bed with my hand on the back of my head. I picked up my phone and began to debate with myself whether I should at least send him a m essage or not, ask if he was all right. In the end, I just put it down.
There was a knock on the door, and then Mom entered with a small smile on her pa stel lips. She sat on the bed as I pulled myself up and sat crossed-legged.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
I shrugged, trying to pull up a casual smile. "Well, here, just... fine."
"That is what everyone answers when they have problems." She ran her fingers thr ough my hair. "Have you tried talking to Tristan?" she asked after a moment.
I just blinked at that.
How did she know this was all about him?
Ah, right. Mom had had this some kind of a sixth sense, causing her to know this had been coming even before I had realized my bottled-up feelings for him.
I shook my head and curled my legs up. "He's probably angry with me now," I mumb led and sighed. "It's my fault."
"Maybe the both of you just saw a part of each other's side that you two couldn' t understand."
I looked at her, before dropping my head. I felt kinda weird talking with her ab out something like this, because I'd never done this before. Still, I carried on : "Maybe you're right, mom. Maybe I didn't understand something to his side. I.. .I should've listened." I paused. "But... I don't think everything will work out just fine now," I murmured.
"Listen, honey, sometimes there are some things that don't work out just fine; d on't go the way you want. But there's nothing wrong if you try to work them out, at least." She smiled distantly. "Just like me and your Dad. You know how many times we fought with each other, even to the extent of wanting to rip each other 's heads off-" she laughed quietly "-but since we love each other, we tried to w ork things out. Luckily they did, and we were happy again."
My eyes were starting to become blurry with tears. I blinked them away and smile d. "I miss Dad," I said.
"We all do. And if he's here, he's surely going to tell you the same thing like I do."
I rolled my eyes. "I know. I know, because he's your sidekick," I said amusedly. "But thanks, Mom."
She put her hand on mine, and the warmth gave me a calming feeling. "It'll be ha rd for either of you to compensate and narrow things down, but you've got to do something before regret comes. You have to face your fears and insecurities insi de, because that's the real courage, Kylie," she said.
It hit me.
All my life I'd been trying not to run from any encounters, trying to look and a ct tough in front of everyone, and all that. I'd thought I was brave. But when M om had said what real courage was, now I knew I was wrong. Now I finally knew wh at I'd been battling with.
Myself.
Seeing the astonished look on my face, she laughed and tapped my nose with her f inger playfully. "So now, how does the cool and brave Kylie Harris behave when e verything is falling apart between her and the boy she likes?"
I bit my lip as heat rushed to my cheeks.
Mom stood up and leaned to kiss my forehead. "It's never too late, okay?" she wh ispered.
"Okay."
When I was finally alone, I was filled with a great feeling of relief.
"When you love a person, don't be hesitant to tell and show your true feelings, because no one knows what will happen next."
Those words... His words...
I just got to do what I got to do.
***
"Nooooooo!"
Good thing I was sitting across the table and had my earphones on. Otherwise, th e scream that had escaped from Julianne's mouth might have broken my eardrums to pieces.
"Gaah!" she continued to cry. She was practically ripping her hair off.
I pulled out my earphones. "You've been wailing like a dying seal for nearly an hour, Jules. What gives?"
She looked at me. "Have you-have you ever liked someone so much, and you just kn ow they're not going to like you back? And then you can do nothing but only be l ike..." She covered her pink face with her hands. "Oh, this just stinks on so ma ny levels."
"What are you talking about?"
"Pete asked a girl to the prom!" she exclaimed. "I thought it would be me since he's been texting me about his plans. I've never been so excited about something it even made me sleepless!" She sighed loudly and muttered, "Turns out it wasn' t me all along, but a different girl."
"Ouch." I tried to sound sympathetic, but then I ended up bursting into laughter . "Y-your face, Julianne. It's like you're about to chew a tree!"
She rolled her eyes. "Ha-ha. Right. What a great friend you are. Whatever," she said and crossed her arms bitterly. "Their night will surely suck, anyway."
A figure walked past out of the corner of my eye. I twisted around to see more c learly, and it was the person I'd been waiting for the whole time. She was laugh ing with her co-cheerleaders while heading to the gym.
"Jules, just wait here," I said.
"Where are you going?" Her eyes flicked to the person. "Whoa wait, don't tell me you're going to Ronnie?" she asked, flabbergasted. I nodded, and then she said, "Are you going to talk to her about-about... you know?"
"Uh-huh." That was exactly what I would do.
"Oh. Good luck."
Julianne's face was pale, as if it was saying, "all hell is going to break loose ". My insides began to do crazy somersaults as I strutted towards Ronnie. I didn 't know if this was the right thing or the wrong thing to do, but I already had decided I should do this in any case.
Time waits for no one. Screw all the what-if's. A little bit of luck and confide nce was all I needed.
Even if I wanted to barf and all, when I poked Ronnie's shoulder that made her t o turn to me, and remembered what my Mom had told me that night, I did something totally outrageous probably in the whole history of Broadway Heights:
"Ronnie," I began to say candidly, "you're may be gorgeous, popular, confident, and pretty much the opposite of me that I know I can never be any better than yo u... but listen to this."
I let it sink for a moment. A wave of surprise passed through Ronnie's face.
"Since I'm the kind of person who always does absolutely awkward and stupid thin gs at the wrong place and at the wrong time, I might as well make the best of it and tell you that despite of all these imperfections in me, I will still fight back," I said louder, stronger. My fist clenched at my sides. "I will- I will ne ver back down against you no matter what happens. Yeah, you know him like almost a lifetime, but I'll do whatever it takes to get him back, because.... Because I've always known Tristan belongs to me!"
My heart was banging feverishly in my chest. Ronnie's clique was staring at me a s if I was a lunatic on crack, and I needed to take a loose screw back into my h ead. I bet my face was as red as ketchup now. But-nah. I couldn't care less. In fact, I was starting to feel good, because I had finally let out some of the stu ff I'd been rehearsing all night from my tight chest.
Silence prevailed for a minute until someone from the back whooped. Then another ... and another... and another, until the whole place exploded with applauses. O thers went like, "Whoa, cool!", "You go, girl!", "Wohoo! I love this shit!", "No , she did not just say that!", and insanely much more.
Oh, my freaking glob.
Everyone has heard! Just how loud my mouth was?
Ronnie glared at me as she crossed her arms. "Wow. What a nice little stunt you' re pulling, Kylie," she said in a bored way and rolled her eyes. "I heard you, a nd oh, so you totally agree, huh? That I'm more gorgeous, popular, and confident than you are. Jeez, it's not like I can help it... okay, I'm sounding like a to tal beeyotch now. But, anyway..." The frown on her face steadily vanished, and i t was replaced by a smile, which made me feel a little less like fainting. It di dn't even seem sarcastic or threatening, either.
"I can never be any luckier than you, you know," she said, sounding gentler this time. "Because you have him as he has you. I can never compete with that any lo nger. Besides, a deal's a deal."
"Uh... deal? What deal?" I asked.
She laughed. "Never mind, Kylie," she said and held out a hand.
I stared at it for a moment before I finally knew what she meant by that. She wa s calling a truce!
Whoa.
Relief crossed my chest. I beamed and held her hand. She smirked, and then, to m y surprise, she came closer to my ear.
"You better keep him, or you'll sleep with your one eye open for I'm going to hu nt you down," Ronnie hissed.
I didn't know what I should feel about that.
She pulled away, chuckling. "Just kidding! See ya around, Kylie." She flipped a finger up to her troop. "Let's go, girls. We still have practice." With that, th ey disappeared from my sight.
Julianne dashed to me, bouncing on her toes. "Oh my God, Kylie," she cried, tugg ing my arm. "What you did was so awesome! You creamed her without making any cat fights!"
"That would be totally uncalled for if we did," I said, grinning with pleasure.
"Yeah." Laughing, she encircled her arms around my shoulders and we began to wal k through the stream of students. "I'm so proud of you, Kylie. I knew it. I knew you could prove yourself one day. Finally, you did! And with that, I think that calls for celebration!" She waggled her eyebrows.
I pulled away from her. "There's no celebration yet," I said. "I still have to m ake up with T."
"Oh." Julianne's eyes soften. "Right. You should make the most of your time, now ."
"Hey, Kylie!" I heard Grey's voice called through the mob. He strode towards us with a huge grin. "I was just passing by to get my gloves from the locker when I saw you facing Ronnie. Man, that was badass!"
I only laughed at that. "Anyway, Grey, have you seen...uh, Tristan somewhere?" I asked meekly.
Julianne nudged me teasingly and I nudged her back, glaring.
He brushed his hair and shrugged. "I haven't seen him ever since lunch, but I th ink he's at the greenhouse right now. Repairing the damages and all as his penal ty," he answered.
Repairing the damages as his penalty. Boy, Tristan surely had made devastation i n that place. Erik's favorite place... Speaking of that guy, I should confront h im as well soon.
"Thanks, Grey. I gotta go now," I said.
"Do you want me to go with you?" Julianne asked.
My eyes shifted at the two of them. Then a crafty smile slowly shaped on my face .
"Nah, I got this, Jules. Thanks," I said. "By the way, Grey, you're practicing r ight now, yeah?" He nodded uncertainly, and I continued, "Great! Listen, Jules, why don't you come with him instead? Then you know, help him, like, offering him water or wiping his sweat or something? Because I'm sure Grey needs a personal cheerleader to boost his energy."
The guy coughed.
Julianne's jaw practically hit the floor. "Kylie! What the heck does that-?"
Laughing like a maniac, I dashed away. "Byeee!"
***
After I grabbed some stuffs from the clinic, I started to head out of the school building with a big smile on my face. But then I cut short when I saw Lacey pee king on a corner. I tapped her back softly, and she turned to me with a sad smil e, before turning her head away.
I craned my neck to see what she was looking at, and my heart thudded when I saw Tristan. He seemed upset while talking to... Clark.
"...I'm sorry, man. But I didn't know he got other plans! I swear!" Clark exclai med.
He? Are they talking about Erik?
"How should I know you're telling the truth, huh? I'm sick of all the bullshit, Clark," Tristan countered.
"Jeez, I am already telling the truth, T! I had no idea about the rest of the hi story, about his payback, his plans, motives, and all that shit, for God's sake! And listen, I asked him to convince Kylie to let me date her sister, since the only thing I knew between them was that they were friends!"
Oh, my God.
I remembered what Erik had told me some time ago, about me giving a break to Lac ey and let her date whomever she liked. I thought Erik had been saying that on h is own, but it turned out as a fraud all along! Clark had used him!
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, Clark," Tristan said, "You know you can do better than that!"
"I know, T, I know. And I'm sorry. Something was telling me it was a bad idea, b ut I still did it because I thought it was the shortest way to help me get to La cey." Clark's voice was desperate, as though he was about to cry. "That girl mea ns a lot to me, T. You know that."
I turned away and rested my head on the wall. My chest constricted. I felt bad f or Clark, actually. His feelings for Lacey were so strong that they had gotten o ver his head and made him do things he'd normally think through and not do. For him, it was probably worth it in the end. But he didn't know it would affect the others, and that was a sad thing.
"It was supposed to be you, at first, T. It was supposed to be you instead of Er ik," Clark explained, breathing heavily. "Yet seeing you and Kylie getting on ea ch other's nerves, I didn't do it. I didn't want to create any problems between you guys. But things changed, and I told myself I made the wrong move. Erik was starting to do things that were completely out of the plan. I tried to make him stop, but he didn't!"
Lacey sat on the floor and curled her legs up. Her lips were sealed tight, and t here was already red color on the rims of her eyes, as if she was trying to hold back her tears.
"What about Fiona and Erik? Monique told me you've also got something to do with them."
Fiona and Erik?
"I... Y-yeah," Clark mumbled I barely could hear him. I leaned closer. "Erik ask ed me to help him get to Fiona as an exchange for my bid. Then... then I asked M onique to help me."
"God, Clark, what have you done? You even dragged Monique into this?"
"I thought-I thought I was helping, man. You wanted to get rid of Fiona, right? So I agreed with him." There was a weighty pause, and then Clark sighed exaspera tedly. "If only I knew he was going to do all of these, I wouldn't have agreed, I swear to God, man. I'm really sorry."
A nauseating chill crept through my skin. I gulped; my throat was completely dry . My head was spinning with all those words that had come out from Clark's mouth .
I couldn't believe it.
I'd spent such a long time labeling Tristan as a liar, a player, a heartless guy , that Erik was way better than him, but it turned out everything was completely reversed. My eyes had been shaded with lies and tricks all along.
I trusted the wrong person.
Those sincere smiles on Erik's face had been just a façade.
They had been more likely sinister ones.
And I had fallen for them.
I peeked at them again. Tristan had already walked away. Clark turned, and when he saw me, he tried to look away.
"So you girls heard, huh?" he said quietly and sat in front of Lacey, who now wa s having her head buried in her crossed arms. "I'm sorry, Lacey. I wasn't thinki ng." Then he brushed her head gently and gazed up at me. "I guess I can official ly earn a bitch slap from you now, huh? It's cool; I deserved it for being such a douche."
"Oh, yeah?" I snapped, and then raised my hand. Just when he was about to prepar e for a massive impact, I merely tapped him on the back.
He blinked.
"I should not be the one to do that to you. Yeah, I'm upset about what you did, but... well, I think I can forgive you if and only if she will let you off first ," I said, glancing at Lacey. "Boy, love can surely bring out one's inner stupid ity." I shook my head.
Clark snorted in amusement. "Nice words, Kylie."
"You know what, I should just leave you guys to talk." I tugged my backpack on m y shoulder and began to stride away. "I'm going to talk with someone as well."
"Kylie."
I turned around.
Clark smiled. "Thanks."
***
I took a long, deep breath and exhaled.
Relax. It's just Tristan. Don't freak out, Kylie, or you'll screw up everything.
There was a loud dull sound inside, followed by a series of muttered curses. Qui ckly, I entered the greenhouse, and saw Tristan blowing his swollen thumb and sh aking his hand. Sighing, I went to him and rummaged in my bag for the bandage I got from the clinic.
"Kylie. What are you doing here?" he asked, dropping the hammer on the floor.
"Give me your hand," I said.
"What?"
I grabbed his hand. There were several cuts on the skin aside from the dirty smu dges, clearly showing that he really had been working hard for this for hours. T ristan observed me as I carefully wrapped the bandage around his hands.
"That takes care of that," I said after I was done.
"Thanks," he muttered, clenching his hands.
We just sat there staring at each other in silence. I brushed my head, looking a way, hoping that my face wouldn't go as red as ketchup again. This was so awkwar d. I didn't know where to start talking. All of my mental preparations faded awa y as soon as I had stepped into this place.
"So..." we both chorused all of a sudden.
Tristan glanced away. I fiddled with my fingers.
"You talk first," we chorused again.
Oh, jeez.
I bit my lip as I tried not to laugh. I knew he was trying to hide his amusement as well, but his dimples were a dead giveaway. How ironic. Although we'd been g etting into some very crappy moments, we still managed to find this whole scene comical.
We were definitely crazy.
"You're working alone here?" I immediately blurted out.
"Yeah," he said and sighed, relieved that the uncomfortable silence was broken. "There were supposed to be the two of us, but Erik has most likely chosen suspe nsion instead of working with me for a full week," he added, making the Erik nam e sound like a chicken pox. "No big deal. I can handle this job with myself." He picked up the hammer and began to work with a half-made wooden stand. "Besides, a two-week suspension will probably give him enough time to think about how far he has surpassed the stages of being a loser and an asshole."
There was a moment of silence again.
I frowned at him and said, "I hate you."
"I know. I'm also an ass, still fucked up." He stopped hammering and looked at m e with a small smile. "You know what, Kylie, I've been thinking-"
"I hate you," I said again. My heart was drowning with tension. "And I hate it-I totally hate whenever we cross each other's path, because it always makes me se e the way your eyes light up when they meet mine, and the way you walk, talk, an d act like you're just so cool. You wanna know why?" I gulped. "They're the reas ons I... I still...." I buried my burning face in my palms. "I still... Oh, darn it."
His hands wrapped around my wrists lightly. He was so close; I could smell his c ologne mixed with sweat.
"Kylie, look at me," he whispered.
"I-I still care about you. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not listening to you. I' m sorry for not believing you. I'm sorry for not telling you the truth. And... a nd all those little things you did to me have made me realize that I was slowly falling in love with you." I looked straight into his eyes. "Do you... do you ge t what I'm saying?"
He blinked a couple of times. "Huh? What-?"
"Seriously?" I knocked his head with my knuckles in disbelief. "I love you, you idiot!" I exclaimed and grabbed my bag. "Jeez, I'm outta here!"
I marched out of the place with my head burning all over.
He didn't get what I was trying to say? What an idiot. Or maybe he was just play ing dumb and was trying to make me repeat all of them? Gah! I thought this would be easy for me. What a little-
I stopped in my tracks as something dawned on me. Then I felt my face turn as wh ite as the clouds.
Holy cow. Did I... Did I just blurt out to him that I...?
I wanted to tear around the school screaming my lungs out. But I just bit my lip and skipped my way home. My trial was over! I should get myself some ice cream! Yeah, I might have done all the awkward and ridiculous things at the wrong time-I was always that kind of person, anyway-but at least everything had turned out just fine.
"Yeah, fine," I said to myself.
And I mean it, finally.
-Tristan-
It might have been a couple of seconds before I finally blinked from my daze. A wide grin uncontrollably grew on my face as Kylie's three words kept on echoing in my head.
She loves me!
And to think I'd believed I never had a chance with her anymore!
I perkily fished my phone from my pocket and searched for Grey's number.
"Hey man, listen, this might be a short notice but I need your help," I said dir ectly after he picked up. "Tell the others to come at my place later. We gotta p repare something important for tonight."
This ought to do it.