Heart Strings

052

I'd have run us over if Kyle didn't switch gears.

How in heaven's name did he expect me! Someone who has never been behind a wheel ever to drive us both safely?

We had to pull over somewhere by the roadside and switch. I let him take control of the wheel and I sat there acting all grumpy and shit. Murmuring to him words somewhere along the lines of leaving me to drive and leading us both to our graves.

He'd only laughed it off saying something about my friendship with Alice robbing off on me, although he looked terrified. My guy had to stand outside the lonely streets for a good thirty seconds catching his breath and holding his throat in pretense of false suffocation, making those weird constipated faces he's fund of.

And he says I'm the dramatic one.

Now it's past nine at night, and I'm standing right here in front of my school.... or better still, my old school, with my childhood friend beside me. His one hand hanging around my shoulders while we but look up at the big bold letters hung on the top of the building and introducing our destination. "GREYSON'S ACADEMY."

Although I didn't get to attend the parting ceremony, but I'd like to entitle the fact that I'm officially a graduate of this high school and I see no reason for being back here.

"What are we doing here Kyle?"

"Didn't I already clarify that? You ask too many questions, come on and see for yourself."

Effortlessly, he pulls open the entrance door and I'm left shocked for a second, wondering why the school must have left it open.  Kyle pulls me by my shoulders and into the building, there's a goofy grin resting unwavering on his lips as we walk pass the empty corridors of the school with the steps from heals of our shoes echoing across the open space.

"Are we allowed to be here? What if we're caught on camera?"

"Got that covered already."

"What about the doors? For sure the classes and stadium are going to be locked, how do you plan on getting pass those ones? Or are we like school crashing or something?." I stop walking, crossing my arms and staring up at him with a lifted brow, my nerves eating me up by the second.

"Relax Lex!" He chuckles looking like he doesn't know what to do with me anymore. "For heavens sake, loosen up."

I sigh "okay if you say so. Lead the way mister."

Kyle takes my hand, intertwining my fingers with his, he flashes me that charming smile of his and leads me towards the school hall then stops us both in front of the door.

I can feel the enthusiasm radiating off of him when he asks ever so lightly, "you ready?"

I respond to him with a lifted brow and he takes it as a yes. Then he pulls open the huge double ended doors.

I stand here, amazed. My lips spread apart so I'm looking like a gaping fish, my eyes scanning, drinking in every bit of the environment and I can't believe what I'm seeing. I move my legs and take a step into the huge room, then another, and I do nothing but stare.

The entire hall is decorated in beautiful colors and designs, hanging from pillar to pillar are wraps and folds of red, yellow and purple fabrics, adorned in different shapes and sizes. The lights reflecting down on us in a variety of dark colors makes the setting even much more beautiful. I'm amazed... blown away even.

Diverting my attention to the young man in a matching violet suit as my dress standing by the door, I find myself a little speechless as I watch him move slowly, further away from the door, approaching me with a satisfied smile on his face.

"You...you did this? All of this?" My voice comes out in a flattered tone with a hint of disbelief.

"Had a little help." guiding his words with a shrug, he doesn't deviate his attention from  mine. "You like it?" He tries to hide the growing smirk on his lips but I can spot it, despite the dark glow of lights.

"It's beautiful." The words leave my lips a little too hoarsely and I stare up at him, right into the hazel depths of his eyes that currently give out a blue hue due to the color of lightning.

So very slowly he pulls my hands from where they lay motionlessly by my two sides into his, all the while his eyes never leaving mine, "You are beautiful."

"That's cliché."

"But you love cliché."

'No I love you...'  The words are barely at the tip of my tongue and I swallow, slowly my eyes deviate down, zooming in on the fullness of his pink plum lips. The memory his lips on mine, hands  behind my waist and another buried deep in the roots of my hair in the bar of a club with lights just as  blinding as these ones resurfaces somewhere behind my brain, and right now I want nothing  but to pull his lips to mine and feel that again, but this time while I'm completely sober.

I'm being kicked out of my lustful haze the moment Kyle pulls away from me. Walking backwards, he doesn't take his eyes off me until he's standing by what I assume to be a DJ's kit, he lifts two of his fingers up at me with a goofy grin on his face and says to me, "first things first."

The does some things with the set with his fingers, punching down a few buttons and twisting some until there's a sweet hum of classical music wafting through the air.

The smile that forms around my lips and dances along with the song is natural. And I don't move, I just stand there and watch the reason for that smile wink at me then pull out something that looks like a barton, a piece of laminated paper, and a couple other heavy looking picture frames, then I watch him yet again take funny steps as he heads back towards me.

His voice drops, leaving his lips so cooly and deep with that drip of an English accent coaxed in humor, "I believe these belong to you miss McCarthy."

In my hands I hold altogether my graduation certificate, and three other framed award certificates and for a second I'm transfixed.

My gaze drifts back towards him with an appreciative smile on my lips. "You didn't have to."

I'd missed the official occasion. I didn't get to graduate with my peers, but he'd made sure to organize his own version of a secluded graduation slash prom night for me... and as bizarre as that sounds it's makes my heart melt at his thoughtfulness.

My best friend smirks. "Can't you just stop being so whiny for a second and hit me with one of those sassy responses you've gotten quite accustomed to?"

"Is that really what you want?" I ask with a lifted brow.

"No." His grin transforms into a warm smile. "You might have just changed a little, I changed too, life did that to us." He helps me put down all the load back on the table when he notices that the weight is holding me down, "and we've been through a lot lately. Especially you Lexa."

His voice is so tender, suiting and pleasant to my ears, it's like a fluctuating melody that somehow calms my soul and has me relaxing to the warmth of his touch when he cups my face between his hands. "The past four years hasn't been easy, and this year has been the hardest. So you deserve this."

I claps his hands on my right cheek with mine, staring right up into the seeking depths of his eyes "we deserve this."

The look in his eyes is intense, one I might have come across previously, but never this affectionately. It's one that sings a million songs of melodies in my belly, one that rumbles on a thousand drums in my head and one that plays the only key to my heart. I feel my toes curl from the intensity of his stare even from inside my shoes and yet I can't seem to take my eyes off him.

So very slowly, his thumb draws down, curving at every corner of my face, from my cheek bones, along my jawline and down to my neck, slowly drawing invincible lines on my shoulders and down my arm, till his hand is secured perfectly around my waist, and so does the other.

"Dance with me."