Kael wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, but after the week of enthusiasm, he had found that he didn’t want to stop. He was enjoying it. Enjoying it. This wasn’t normal! Two weeks passed, then three, and Kael found himself sucked further and further in, finding the experience of working hard on something much more exciting than he ever thought possible.
He’d hinted at it to Isis, and she’d positively beamed. ‘I knew you’d enjoy it if you tried!’ she had told him, with an expression that made him want to kiss her even more than he usually did.
So far, the rehearsals had consisted of getting to know their characters, and what was roughly in each scene, ready to start doing the improvisation which would make up their script. Isis and Kael had been given the job of writing up the script from the dictaphone they were planning to use, something Kael was rather excited about. This meant he now got to spend more time with Isis? He couldn’t wait.
He strolled into the central hall of the school where the tatty stage was. The stage hadn’t improved, but when the curtains were drawn back, at least it wasn’t blindingly obvious how moth eaten and disgusting they were.
Isis and Lydia waved at him from where they were sat in the corner, and he headed over to join them, watching as Isis pulled her hair over one shoulder and grinned.
‘Hello, gorgeous ladies,’ he said, sitting down next to Isis, and peering at their scripts. ‘You all alright?’
‘We’re in a slight panic,’ Isis confided.
‘What’s happened?’
‘Xavier managed to break his leg skateboarding home,’ she explained.
‘Bloody idiot,’ Lydia commented.
‘Ah,’ said Kael. He and Xavier were meant to be choreographing their fight today, ready for the scene in which he was killed. ‘Right.’
‘He should be out of the plaster before the play: it’s not a major break, but we do need to choreograph it,’ Isis told him.
‘So we’ll just get someone to do the honours until then?’ Kael asked.
Isis nodded. ‘Yep. Anyone will do.’
Kael hopped up enthusiastically. ‘What about you, then?’ he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.
She raised an eyebrow back. ‘But I’m absolutely rubbish at fighting.’
‘My point exactly,’ he replied. ‘I don’t want to look like an idiot.’
‘But you’re going to get killed!’ she protested. ‘I can’t just give you a gentle shove and then you somehow die!’
‘Just do it, Is,’ Lydia said, grinning wickedly. ‘I want to see this!’
‘I’m sure we could work something out,’ Kael told her, offering her his hand.
She looked at him, her expression unimpressed. Then, she relaxed. ‘Fine. But you’d better not kill me, mister.’
Kael made a small bow. ‘I can assure you that I won’t.’
Lydia reached into a cardboard box behind her, and pulled out two plastic swords. ‘Here you are. Enjoy yourselves.’
‘Okay,’ Kael began. ‘Who is it who starts the fight, again?’
‘Mercutio,’ Isis provided, pointing at Kael with her sword.
‘Alright, alright!’ Kael used his own sword to move hers gently down. ‘Don’t take my eye out.’
Isis laughed. ‘Sorry, Mercutio.’
‘Okay, so I’ll just start attacking you, shall I?’ he asked.
Isis nodded, looking apprehensive. ‘Alright.’
Stepping forward, Kael raised his sword, and brought it down into a low cutting swing. Isis met it, both of her small hands gripping the plastic hilt tightly. He could feel her rather flimsy strength pushing against his sword, and half smiled. It would be so easy to fling both swords away and push her to the floor, pinning her down. But he couldn’t quite justify that. If only he could…
Sidestepping, he drove the sword to her right. She met it again, beaming adorably at her success. And again. And again. She was surprisingly nimble, and quickly parried every thrust Kael performed. He relented a little, and she was suddenly upon him, directing the sword in a stab towards his heart which he only just met. Her cheeks were flushed as she carried on, and she held up one slender hand suddenly.
‘Hm? Admitting defeat already?’ Kael asked, slightly breathlessly. Isis laughed.
‘No!’ She dropped her sword, and reached up to pull off her jumper, revealing a greying camisole like top- two skinny straps keeping it up. Kael could barely believe his eyes. The material was slightly see through thanks to what appeared to be too many washes, and hinted at the curve of her chest. His eyes drank in the sight of her small waist, her chest, then her collarbones, peeking from the top of the t-shirt. Her bare shoulders had a few freckles scattered across them, and he found himself longing to touch them, one by one, tracing a path between them across her skin.
‘Sorry about that,’ she said, entirely innocently. ‘It was a bit hot in here.’
Well, it’s hot now, thought Kael, feeling blood rush to certain parts of his anatomy not solely including his cheeks.
‘Ready to start again?’ she asked. He nodded, and immediately, she was there again, slicing into his chest with her sword, bringing her closer than he thought he could bear. She used the sword to lever herself away again, and then sliced down once more, Kael only just managing to parry the blow. Suddenly, she brought it up, her hands stretched up high in order to rest it against his throat.
Lydia let out a cheer. ‘Go Isis!’
Right, thought Kael, grinning devilishly at the girl before him. This meant war.
Reaching up, using not much strength at all, he tapped the point of the blade away from his throat, and wrenched his sword round, using it to drive her back, towards the wall at the other side of the hall. She attempted to fight back, her feeble strength no match for his, but he was too strong. She put up a valiant attempt, however, jabbing the sword into his abdomen in an attempt to distract him. He wasn’t getting distracted from this, however.
So quickly that Isis barely had time to blink, he used his sword to knock hers to the ground, and backed her against the wall, using one hand to pin her to the wall. They were both breathless. He pressed closer, so she couldn’t squirm free, and almost exploded at the sensation of having her body pressed up so close to his, her erratic breathing hitching as she let out a slight gasp.
Kael was entirely lost. Letting his sword slip to the ground with a clatter, he used his other hand to add to pinning her down, leaning down so that his face was mere inches from hers. She looked up at him wide eyed, seeming to have lost the power of speech. His heart pounded in his chest as her bare arms brushed against the skin of his forearm. How could something so innocent turn him on so much?
Moving forward, he let the final distance between them grow smaller and smaller as his lips travelled towards hers, letting his hands slack as he got nearer.
Suddenly, Isis ducked, reaching out and grabbing a sword in both hands, using the force of surprise to trip him so he stumbled. He fell, landing sprawled on the floor. Isis kneeled over him, pinning one arm with each hand, and grinned at him from her position over him, her hair falling down around him like a waterfall of sunlight.
‘I win!’ she crowed, looking over at Lydia for support. Lydia’s expression was priceless. She looked half shocked, half smug, as if she was exceptionally pleased with what she’d just witnessed.
Abruptly, Isis leapt off of Kael, clearly realising how she was affecting him. Getting up, Kael turned away under the pretence of sorting out the swords. He hoped desperately she hadn’t realised quite what a growing problem he was having in his trousers. He knew she wouldn’t be very impressed by it in the slightest.
As he went to sit back down, his eye taking in the sight of a small slit at the back of her t-shirt, where the material had ridden up to reveal pale skin. He wanted to run his lips across it, he thought, and he thought it with such passion that he wasn’t precisely sure what to do with himself.
‘Well,’ said Lydia. ‘I hope you don’t fight like that with Xavier.’
Isis flushed, and Kael felt his own cheeks warm. ‘Uh, yeah, sorry about that,’ he murmured, awkwardly. ‘I got a little carried away.’
‘You were meant to kill, not kiss,’ Lydia put in, slyly.
Kael couldn’t help a smile. After all, kill was only two letters away from kiss…
*
Isis went home with her emotions still in a turmoil. She wasn’t sure what had happened, or why it had happened, but it had. And she’d almost kissed him too: the clattering of the sword had been the only thing that had prevented it, finally waking her up and making her realise that she needed to get out of this situation. Realising that her t-shirt was almost see-through hadn’t helped matters.
Did Kael seriously feel that lusty about her? Perhaps he was one of those pervy boys who just couldn’t help himself when he saw a female chest? But there had been an unmistakable glint in his eyes before she’d even taken off her jumper…
Her head hurt from thinking about it.
Over the past few weeks, she couldn’t deny it: she had started to realise that the Kael beneath the moody attitude and the mean, scathing glances, the real Kael, was actually someone she felt like she could… well, be good friends with. Hm. Her feelings when he’d pinned her to the wall had been far more than friendly. She’d actually been anticipating the kiss, her eyes fluttering half shut with the heat and passion between them. Why had he done it? Was it all a game to him, perhaps?
She was sure he was the sort of person who had far more experience of romantical things than she did, perhaps he was the sort of person who just enjoyed going about and kissing people? There was no way to tell with boys: they were so freaking confusing all of the time.
Though that problem in his trousers had been clear enough. Goodness me. Isis blushed at the thought of it, growing hot even in the cold winter evening air. She hadn’t thought that she could have ever inspired that sort of reaction from a boy, an especially not one as good looking as Kael. Did he not notice that she was too skinny and lacked the curves to be sexy? Could he not see how small she was, how she could be mistaken for a thirteen year old sometimes?
She really needed to take her mind off of all of this; it was making her head spin like a spinning top, and none of her thoughts were making sense. This was the second time that they’d almost kissed now, and both times, he had been the one to initiate it. The drunken time she could pass off. But this? This had been in broad daylight, in the middle of the hall. The whole time after the fight, she’d been careful not to look at him, but his presence had been all to obvious behind her: she could feel the warmth of him still against her, and the faint pressure of his muscled chest touching her own. She couldn’t have met his eyes after that.
Lydia had been sat there, looking as smug as a cat that had got the cream. Even going so far as to get up and leave them alone for a while, she’d been determined to get them to talk to each other, but thankfully, as soon as she’d left, Mrs Robson had appeared from where she’d been instructing one of the scenes in another room, and started chatting to them, so the awkward moment had passed.
Isis couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened had she not appeared. Would they have sat there, in embarrassed silence? Or would Kael have moved towards her again, his hands sneaking round her waist, pulling her into his arms?
She looked left, then right, crossing the dark road quickly, cars with their different coloured head lights screeching across the tarmac. There was no point dwelling on the could have beens, she knew that well enough.
It was just a shame that she couldn’t literally stop thinking about what could have happened, and what might have occurred had the circumstances been different. Dear oh dear. She had no idea what to do anymore. Reaching the tall block of flats in which she lived, she headed up the stairs quickly. At least at home she’d be too busy to think about Kael too much. Or so she liked to tell herself. She knew he’d be going round her head as if he was on a carousel for the entire evening. Sigh.