Princess Of Night

Princess of Night (ch 15)

I ran my fingers along the rough material of the solid white cast that covered my foot.

"You're lucky you had Neil on hand to help you," Lisa said, flicking back her dark curls and peering at herself in the mirror.

I watched in silence as she took out a black marker from my drawer.

"Oh. No..Don't..." I started but she was already scrawling all over my foot before I could stop her.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to peek at the intricate pattern she was drawing on the cast.

"Ta-Da!" she pulled away and I studied the mass of intertwining flowers that would be there for the next six weeks.

"Hey, thats actually quite good!" I said.

She cracked me a smile. "So, how's things with Neil?? He seems to really like you. And so does Gareth..." she raised an eyebrow.

"Speaking of Gareth..did you see him this morning? He was giving Neil the evils," I said. They barely even knew eachother and yet...

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say they were fighting over you," Lisa said, giving me a sideways glance. "Not to mention they're both H - O - T."

I glanced down at my foot, which was still throbbing, but had eased thanks to the painkillers.

"Don't you think there's something familiar about Gareth...and Neil?"

Lisa shook her head. I tried to push the thought out of my head, but I couldn't help but fell that I'd seen both somewhere before.

*****

I watched Neil's green eyes as he helped me to revise for the history test.

"Ash..What happened in 1938?" he asked.

"Er, whas it the Anschluss, with Austria?"

"Correct."

"I think this is finally getting through here," I said, tapping my forehead.

I looked at him as he focused on the textbook, his finger tracing along the lines of facts, and his lips moving as he told me the information. He looked up to see if I was listening and our eyes met. It felt like the library went silent as we stared at eachother. I found myself leaning towards him with my eyes closed.

We were immersed in a kiss when Gareth walked in. He saw us and stopped mid-walk. I noticed him staring and pulled away from Neil.

Gareth stood in shock then gave Neil the most evil look. A look of disgust, hate and jealously all mixed into one.

My breath caught in my throat. I was about to call out his name when he stormed out of the library and the door slammed heavily behind him, making me jump.

A sense of unease and awkwardness washed over me. "What's up with you and Gareth? Why does he hate you so much?" I asked.

"It's.....you."

"So I'm to blame for your feud?" I snapped.

"No. It's not like that. He hates me because I like you."

I perked up. "You like me?"

He nodded and smiled.

"Well, he's just going to have to deal."

****

"You kissed Neil?" Scarlett exclaimed.

"Yes."

She stared at me in shock for a moment. "And then..."

"Then Gareth walked in and he looked pretty angry," I told her.

"Well, he did like you. He even asked you to the Spring Soiree."

"I know, but I'm not interested in him," I said. I was so not interested that I'd begged Matthew to go with me instead.

"Houston, we have a problem," Scarlett said.