The school was empty, I suspected everyone had left by now. My perfect opportunity to get what I wanted.
I slipped across the enormous and dark hallway, on my way to get the one thing I so desperately needed.
The classrooms got a spooky glow from the small rays of moonlight that managed to peek through the curtains in front of the tinted windows on the road-side of the school.
The classroom numbers flashed by as I ran to the end of the hall. I finally stopped when I reached a big red 401 painted above a large green door. There were no windows in the door, but I knew exactly what lay behind this roadblock. My hand went out to grab the doorknob, but when I tried to turn it, it wouldn’t budge. “Locked” I whispered to myself. Not that I was expecting anything else, but still, it would have been nice not to have to pick the lock.
With my fingers I fiddled two hairpins from my hair. Long reddish-brown locks slipped out in front of my face. “Stupid hair” I said, still keeping up the whispering to myself. While slipping the locks that had come loose behind my ear, my free hand stuck one of the pins in the lock. Then, with my other hand, I took the second pin to turn both of them 90 degrees to the right. “Click” the lock said. “Yes!” I whispered a little louder than I meant to. The door opened and I immediately saw my prize.
“What was the plan, miss Nats?” I heard a low, serious voice say. Shit, that had to be a teacher. I got caught.
“Well, I planned to check how good the security here is,” I said while turning around and I saw who really stood behind me, “And I have to say, it is rubbish!” I finished with a playful smile.
“You really thought I was a teacher, didn’t you? My impersonations must be getting a lot better.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Are you gonna help me or not?” I said, looking expectantly.
He sighed. “What do you want me to do, Nats?” Grr, I hated it when he called me that and he knew very well how much I did.
“Well, first of all; stop calling me that! Second; I’ve done all the hard work already, so just grab what you want and let’s get the hell outta here. Aight, Cady?” I know how much he hated that particular nickname, but he had it coming.
“Don’t you ever call me that or I’ll never stop calling you Nats.” There was a mild threatening tone audible in his voice, but that couldn’t scare me.
“Call you what? Cady? Nah, I think I’ll keep that up.” This was just plain teasing on my part, but I kinda liked doing that to Caden. Caden was my best friend, which in this case basically meant he was the only one who tolerated me for more than one hour and vice versa. We could get along so well, we even shared a room (separate bedrooms of course), although this was mostly due to a shortage of space on the campus. When they said a boy and a girl had to share a room, I was really the first (and only one) to say I wouldn’t mind. Caden was the first guy I accepted to share a room with, because he was nice. That, and I was under the impression he had a crush on me and teasing him was the most fun of all. Even though I think I might’ve been wrong with my last assumption, we were still there for each other all the time, for everything. From girl/boy trouble to pimples and from clothing crises to fights, we had each other’s back. Not that either of us needed any help with fights, but you get the point.
“Nats, I hate you.” He didn’t mean a word of it and that was easy to tell.
“Awh, I love you too, Cady!” I said and even kissed his cheek, just to give it a little extra .
“How sweet, a young couple.” A heavy sarcastic voice came from behind us.
“Uh, Caden, did you bring friends with you?” I asked for certainty.
“No, I did not.” Caden said with a painful glint in his eyes.
“Didn’t think so.” I resisted the urge to swear and Caden and I turned around slowly.
“The two of you are in big trouble! What do you have to say for yourself?!” The guy every student hated most; Mr. Deeds, or as we liked to call him; Mr. Death. Deeds was the school’s trainer and he knew how to get you tired and angry. It was like he read your mind to see what annoyed you most. In my case that was the endless running he made us do every class. Not that I got tired easily or anything, I just didn’t really see the point of running the same circle a hundred times over. Must be just me.
“Well, if you didn’t want us to sneak in here, you should’ve made some better make-out spots.” I said completely cold and without emotion.
“What?!” Caden and Death replied simultaneously.
“We broke in here because we thought it would make for a great private space and no one would bother us, but I guess that’s too much to ask for.” Same tone, but this time I had the feeling neither Caden nor Death would buy it.
“I thought you were just friends?” Okay, maybe the coach was easy to convince.
“We were, but, you know, spending so much time together… we couldn’t stop it.” For the extra effect I wrapped my arms around Caden. Now just hope the coach bought it and hope Caden didn’t, because that would make things complicated.
“Yeah, I kept looking in those eyes and realized we were destined for each other.” Caden said sweetly, sliding his arm around my waist, and placed his index finger under my chin to lift it up, in a ready-for-kissing position. This had to be to try and make the coach believe us, but when Caden leaned in, I started freaking out.
“Stop it!” Coach Death yelled right before I pushed Caden away. “Okay, for this once, I’ll let you off the hook, but don’t let me catch you again! Now, back to your dorms!” He didn’t have to say that twice, Caden and I practically ran toward our room.
“That was close.” Caden said immediately after closing the door.
“What the hell was that?!” I blurted out, ignoring his previous comment.
“What do you mean?” Was he for real? Like he didn’t know what I was referring to!
“You were about to fucking kiss me!” Excuses for the language, but I needed to say that.
“Uhm, no, I was pretending to be about to kiss you.” Confusing sentence, but you and I get the meaning.
“No, I saw it in your eyes, I felt your breath getting way too close for comfort and you even tightened your grip on me.” I KNEW I wasn’t imagining this, I couldn’t be imagining this, it felt too real.
“And you honestly thought I was going to actually kiss you? I must be a better actor than I thought.” He sounded convincing enough, but I knew what just happened… right? I took a few steps back, thinking of how to reply.
“Okay, so you weren’t and I’m delirious.” I said with a tone I only knew as disappointment, which was weird.
“I wasn’t, but you weren’t completely delirious.” Caden stepped closer.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?! You know what, forget it, we blew this and now I’ll never get them back. Besides, we’ll have to keep up the whole love act thing at gym class, or Mr. Death will be on to us.
“Hey, this isn’t my fault; you started with the romance thing, or whatever that was.” Tell me something I don’t know, seriously.
“I know I started, but you finished it!” I felt the flames heat up in me, even though I knew it was wrong to blame him.
We stayed quiet for a while and I decided to sit down on the couch. After a few seconds Caden sat down next to me. “What’s wrong?” I had not seen that coming, he sounded so compassionate and sweet. I doubted I’d ever seen this side of him. Now I was sitting here with my hands in my hair and this really sweet guy next to me, trying to figure out why I’m giving him such a hard time.
“I don’t know, okay? I guess this just all scares me.” I didn’t know how else to say it.
“What does?”
“Since when are you a shrink? Look, I don’t know and I’m sorry I’m so impossible to live with, honestly sorry.” I was getting frustrated by this conversation.
“If I ever become a shrink, please kill me.” Caden looked at me like he was deadly serious.
“We’ll do.” I said laughingly. This is also a reason I liked to hang out with Caden; he could make me laugh even if I was feeling down.
He smiled. “You hungry?” He asked with a smile and walked over to the fridge.
“Nah, but if you’re getting chocolate, I want some!” Caden just shook his head and fished a giant chocolate bar out of the small fridge in the corner of the room.
“Here, catch!” Naturally he threw the bar at me as hard and uncatchable as he could. And naturally, I caught it anyway.
“You know, you should just stop doing that. You know I always catch it, no matter how impossible your throws are.” It probably would have little effect to tell him that, but I figured it was worth a shot.
“Yeah sure, right after I see you fight Peter Dunwig.” Peter Dunwig was the Alfa-male at Pahles High, our school. And to say I had a problem with his behavior, was an understatement.
“Well, maybe you should fight him. Protecting your title and all, your parents would definitely approve.” I said teasingly.
“Yeah, I don’t care much for what my parents would think.” Caden and his parents couldn’t really get along well, and he had a very good reason for disliking them. Caden came from a wealthy, well-respected family. One of the most wealthy and well-respected families we had in our world. He was what would be considered a prince in your world. So, to maintain the good reputation, all the Caden’s relatives were expected to be the greatest warriors. That’s why he was send here, to Pahles High, the school all royal warriors were trained; to learn how to kill people in a thousand-and-one ways. I was no royal warrior, just a girl who can fight so well, the school offered her a scholarship. And I needed that. “Hello, you there? You haven’t even touched the chocolate.” Caden’s voice came as a slap in the face. You guys got me wandering off!
“Not true…” I tried to answer.
“Okay, you’ve touched it, you just haven’t eaten anything, which is just as weird for you.” Caden interrupts my apparently obvious way of protesting.
“I was just… never mind.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Don’t worry ‘bout me, princess.” Yes, I’m mean to him, I think it’s funny.
“You just have to call me that, don’t you?” Uhm yeah, well duh.
“Do you have any other suggestions then?”
“Caden the great and amazing! No?” I shook my head. “Too bad, then no, I don’t have any suggestions.”
“You want some chocolate?” I asked, while biting off a piece for myself.
“No, I’m having some chips.” The tone in his voice clearly states I’m insane for even asking him.
“Okay.” I simply replied, not really in the mood for starting up an argument. “It’s getting kinda late…” The clock just above the small, barely working TV in front of the couch already states the time as a quarter to twelve. “I think I’m gonna hit the sack.”
“Is that an invitation?”
“Of course it is, but take off your clothes first.”
“Really?”
“Of course not, you imbecile!”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
“Well then,” I walked over to where he stood, “this,” I placed my lips right in front of his, almost touching them, but not quite, “wouldn’t be uncomfortably close.” Caden just stood there, absolutely petrified. I hoped he’d just push me away or something, but he wouldn’t. After what seemed like forever, but probably was just a few seconds, I asked: “Do you want me to go?” I pretty much had to say it teasingly to not make it awkward.
“Maybe you should do that, yeah.” I took a step back. “God, I thought you were joking!”
“I was! I just expected you to just push me away and laugh about it!” He looked at me and it seemed like there went a guilty flash through his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, don’t think about it.” Before I could say anything, Caden walked towards his own bedroom door. “Anyway, I’m gonna get some sleep, I suggest you do the same.” Yeah, you can forget about that now.
“Don’t you dare closing that door, Caden!” He sighed, deep enough for me to see it from the back and turned around. “What was that all about?”
“What?”
“You know damn well. I saw that look, what is it?”
“It’s personal, okay?”
“What happened to ‘we shouldn’t keep secrets from each other’?” He told me that about a year ago, after his parents had been angry with him for sharing a room and what-not with a girl way beneath him. Of course the what-not was something his parents had filled in by themselves, but Caden hadn’t known I was that much beneath him. Him didn’t mind or anything, he was nothing like his parents in that aspect, but he was offended I hadn’t told him. So, he made me a deal; we would tell each other everything, if asked about it. Naturally, we did tell more than just what the other asked for, mostly.
“You’re not going to let me go to bed, are you?” He was getting tired of this, and it was obvious.
“Not before you tell me what’s up.” No, I wasn’t gonna go easy on him, just because he was tired.
“It’s just my parents, they called this morning… Not a nice chat.”
“I’m sorry, but then why would you look guilty?” I really didn’t want to give him an even harder time, but I just wanted to know.
“Because of what they said about you, again.” Again, a guilty look crossed him face.
“I know what your parents are like, you shouldn’t feel guilty about that.”
“Well, maybe not about that, but I am guilty about nagging over my parents so much, especially to you.” I knew what he meant, and it was sweet of Caden to think of that, I just didn’t mind helping him with his problems.
