And Your Girl Can Sing

Chapter 32: A Spanish Soap Opera: My Life, Currently

    That was a good show you put on. Obviously it was a sign that the act was purely out of necessity.

    Obviously.

***

     I can't remember too much of what happened after that. My stupid head was in a whirl; I kept telling myself to stop and that this wasn't good for anyone.I frantically went to search for Paul; I found him and Pete in Rosa's room. She was nowhere to be found and the boys were going through everything.

    "Cut it out," I said, walking into the room and picking up a pair of ancient underpants. "The file isn't in here."

    Paul looked up from the bed he was rooting under. "Cora!"

    I ran into his arms and gave him a giant hug. "Koschmider found us. He yelled at us to get out of his office." I refrained from telling him about the kiss, especially that Pete was there with Paul. "I don't think it's in here; we have to leave, anyways. If Koschmider finds us in here..."

    Right on cue, there was a knock at the door. I went to go open it, but found only John there by himself, looking despondent. "Right, lads, let's go."

    Paul gazed up at John and a strange look came over his face. He stood up with his hands on his hips. "Right, I want the whole story, now."

    "Not here," John hissed. "He's literally right outside. We need to get out now."

    We exited Rosa's room, putting things back where they belonged (hopefully) and going out the way we came. Walking back to the Top Ten, I caught up to John. "Where's Juliet?"

    "She had to leave. After I told her what we were doing—"

    Had he told her about the kiss?

    "—she was a little pissed about the possible consequences of the felony." I breathed out and gave a side smirk to John. "It was quite the trip, wasn't it?"

    "Yep." I noticed his is right hand twitch and lie still. Paul caught up to us, leaving Pete walking a few steps behind us. "Hey."

    "Hey, love," I said, and took his hand. John grunted.

    "What happened with Koschmider?" Paul asked nonchalantly.

    "I came in to warn John because I saw him and you weren't there, so we stuffed everything back into the file and turned out the lights and tried to hide and Koschmider came in." My sentence stopped like a proper sentence should, but it was missing a central part of the story, which nagged at my mouth like fire. Apparently Paul noticed it too, because he said, "Well, is that it? Because I wonder why you and Lennon are sharing the same lipstick color."

    I stopped dead in my tracks, my cherry red lipstick burning in my pocket, not daring to look at John. Someone on the streets yelled at us to keep walking so I stumbled to the side next to the canal, not sure what to do. I still wasn't looking at John. The three boys followed me; I'm sure Pete was thinking this was some sort of Spanish soap opera.

    "It was Juliet's lipstick," I whispered, hating myself for lying, regretting it immediately. It was a pathetic lie and Paul saw through it as well. "Fuck off," he said shortly. "She wasn't wearing anything that red. I saw her before I went to Rosa's." His voice broke a little and he said, "I'm not dumb, you know. Why didn't you just tell me?"

    I felt something break inside of me. Stupid, stupid, stupid, bloody fool. "I was afraid you'd be mad," I replied quietly, twisting my hands together.

    "I'm more mad because you didn't tell me." He rounded on John. "And you, you're supposed to be my friend. What the fuck is this? Why did you go around kissing my girlfriend and not saying anything about it?" His voice had risen into a yell.