Fair Deception

Chp. 2, Part I

"What's up?"

"Erm, you have something on your face," I said quickly.

"Oh, well that's embarrassing." He stopped, so I reached up and wiped my thumb across the skin above his eyebrow, my knuckles resting briefly on his cheek. I stepped back quickly when I caught his eye and my stiletto heel jammed into the crack between the uneven pavement slabs. Fortunately, the heel didn't break and there was a wall close enough behind me so that I didn't end up on my arse, unfortunately, my back slammed into the wall pretty painfully.

"I think I just won the embarrassment competition," I laughed stiffly, pushing myself off the wall.

"Are you okay?" Broch asked with a small smile and offered a hand.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I've had worse in class," I said, waving his hand away. We walked quietly round the corner, Broch deep in thought while I was nursing my injured back as discreetly as I could and wondering how purple the bruises would go.

As we turned the corner, the others became visible. There were three figures waiting for us so I assumed the third was Gabriel. I wasn't sure how I felt about him; Gabriel was generally nice enough, but there was also something about him that always put me a little on edge.

I could see Miranda waving at us boisterously. When we had walked a little closer, she came teetering over in her enormous heels. "Hey," I said as Broch nodded to the others.

"Urch, Anastasia, why do your legs have to be so long?" she whined as a way of greeting us. I laughed a little, thinking briefly that my mac was quite a few inches longer than my shorts. I looked at Miranda's dress and became marginally more confident; her outfit was even shorter than mine and at 5ft3 it meant there wasn't a lot of material on her. Kalen had slunk over while Miranda was complaining and suppressed a smile.

"What about my legs Miranda, aren't you jealous of them too?" he asked pointing one foot out in front of him. Miranda rolled her eyes.

"You, Anastasia and Broch are giants anyway, there's no point in me even comparing. Plus you two are boys so your legs don't even come into it." We all smiled at her petulant tone, but she was right; Kalen and Broch were both over 6ft, but I didn't mind as it made my 5ft11 feel normal.

"Anastasia, do you want me to run your coat into my house?" Gabriel offered. "We're only going round the corner." I nodded gratefully, realising for the first time that none of the others were wearing coats.

"Thanks," I said as I unbuttoned and shrugged off my mac. I looked up to see Miranda grinning at me. Gabriel took my coat and headed off to his house a few doors away.

"Nice outfit," Miranda said, "Give us a twirl?"

I laughed and turned obligingly. I stopped when I noticed Kalen, Broch and Gabriel were watching me. Suddenly feeling self-conscious, I tugged down on the hem of my black playsuit shorts. "They aren't too short?" I whispered to Miranda.

"Not at all, you look hot," she said, winking at me and making a 'grr' noise. I laughed, still feeling a little uncomfortable, despite the compliment. Miranda turned to call something to Gabriel, who was locking his front door, and I felt Broch looking at me.

"It's strange seeing you out of gym clothes Anastasia. You look good." He smiled and then went to talk to Gabriel.

Miranda nudged me, "Seeeee." I laughed, feeling slightly better, despite the awkwardness of Broch's compliment.

Moments later, we set off to a local bar. I was nervous. Miranda had texted me earlier telling me to bring my I.D, but the date on it clearly showed I was a month away from eighteen, so I wasn't sure how it was going to be of any use. As we got in sight of the bar I pulled on her arm.

"Miranda, how am I going to get in?" I asked, slightly panicked now that we were so close.

"Oh yeah! I'd completely forgotten. Where's your I.D?" I handed over my provisional driver's license wondering what she could do, less than five meters from the bar, to alter it. A few moments later she handed it back to me. The year I was born had changed.

"How did you do that?" I asked, astounded. She wrinkled her nose mischievously.

"I magicked it," she said laughing and skipped ahead - no mean feat in her heels. I looked at my I.D again, scratching my nail over the last digit, there were no irregularities, it was just as smooth as it had always been.

We got into the bar without a hitch. The bouncer didn't even look twice at my I.D which made me relax a little. Grabbing a curved booth, I found myself sitting between Miranda and Broch. Sipping at the Strawberry Daiquiri Miranda had suggested at the bar, I tried to nod in all the right places as she now chatted away oblivious to the fact that I couldn't hear her over the pounding music. I eyed the dance floor in the corner hungrily, but there were only two girls moving awkwardly to the music. Miranda eventually noticed where my attention lay and motioned dancing to me. I nodded enthusiastically so she grabbed my hand and shooed Broch and I out of the booth. Broch immediately sat back down as soon as we were out while Miranda quick-marched me onto the dance floor.

I didn't recognise the song that was playing but the tempo was easy to dance to. Miranda, on the other hand, seemed to know all of the lyrics. She started to do what looked like dance charades, matching every word to a dance move, it was extremely entertaining to watch and had me in stitches.

Another song came on and I could feel my eyes light up. I wheeled around to face Kalen and beckoned him onto the dance floor with a huge grin on my face. He came begrudgingly. We stepped mundanely from side to side with the beat and then, when the chorus started, jumped to face each other and did a routine we both knew from the first year we'd met. Miranda stared, a bemused expression on her face, as we cracked up laughing.

"What was that?" Miranda shouted over the music.

"Something Ana made up when we were kids," Kalen replied, smirking at me.

"Teach me!" Miranda demanded and proceeded to copy Kalen as he led her through the moves.

Eventually, we went to sit back down and I realised that my empty glass had been swapped for a full one. I eyed it suspiciously - not trusting a surprise drink in a bar I'd never been to before.

"I bought a round while you were dancing," Broch said into my ear so I could hear him over the music. I looked at the wide-rimmed cocktail glass carefully. As if reading my mind, Broch said, "It's not left my sight since I bought it. It's safe."

I happily picked up the glass, "Well, thank you for protecting my innocent drink, and thank you for buying it in the first place."

"I don't think that you can call a rum cocktail innocent," he replied with the hint of a smile toying along his lips, "But, you're welcome." I took a long swig of the drink eyeing him up as I did. I'd never seen Broch like this. He was a quiet guy usually, not mysterious quiet, but just a little easy to overlook when Kalen was around.

After a while, we left the bar and Kalen led the way to the club. We followed him in twos, like school children on a trip; Miranda was my partner. "You've known Kalen a long time haven't you?" she asked me after a lull in our conversation.

"Since I was nine, so that's..." I paused working it out, "Eight years now. Yeah, I guess that's kind of a long time. Why do you ask?" I questioned, trying to read Miranda's expression.

"Just the dance you did with him earlier, it got me thinking about things. It seemed to make him laugh and smile a lot." Her tone made me feel a little uncomfortable; she almost sounded sad.

"Well, don't tell anyone but he caught me dancing to that song when I was younger. He watched me doing it long enough to learn the dance and then used to do it to wind me up," I told her honestly, smiling at the memory.

"Yeah, that does sound like something Kalen would do," she said and then smiled, to cover up whatever emotion she didn't want to share.