Gotham Girls #2: Nights For Nightwing (Batman) [Watty Awards 2014]

Chapter Sixteen - Secrets

‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Seriously? How does that mean “why do you have to be Romeo?”’ I whispered to myself, under my breath, as Chavi sat next to me, staring at something in the distance. There was no reason for me to speak to her so I continued to only speak to myself, practicing my lines as well as I could. Then suddenly, she spoke.

‘That’s disgusting,’ she complained, continuing to stare. Intrigued, I looked up and joined her gaze, seeing Phoebe trying to get close to Dick, who was trying his hardest to avoid her eyes. She looked at Chavi and me, a smirk growing on her face, and turned back to Dick, who was struggling to move away from her. Immediately her hand shot onto his chest and the other to his chin, making him face her before she went in for the kill again. However, this time, Dick seemed prepared.

Phoebe’s puckered lips impacted with Dick’s English book and my guy friend flashed me a wink before pulling the text book away and looking at Phoebe, who was not impressed.

‘You know, it’s not fair that she acts like that. I mean, seriously, some of us have more chance with him and we’re not throwing ourselves onto him.’ With a quick look at me, she turned away again. ‘Well, at least I’m not.’

‘Excuse me, I’m not either. And, would you believe, I think we found something we can both agree on.’

~~~.~~~

As I walked out of the godforsaken English classroom, I found Dick trying to keep up with me, panting slightly as he finally caught up. It must have been a great difficulty to get away from Phoebe.

‘You would never believe...’ he mumbled, trying to regain his minimal lost breath, ‘...what just happened.’

‘Mm? I’m all ears.’

‘Well, Phoebe got upset because I wouldn’t let her kiss me – said it would have been practice for the play – so she runs to the teacher, says that I’m treating her badly, and you know what the teachers like. He didn’t really care. So Phoebe starts getting touchy-feely again and says that we’ll always have time to practice during rehearsals, and now, I don’t want to do the play anymore! But I don’t think anyone else will want to do it either, seeing as who’s Juliet.’

Any other time, I would have agreed, saying, ‘Look, if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it,’ but right now, it seemed like a major issue. Couldn’t he just find a way for her to break her leg and I could replace her? It was only a simple suggestion, yet it could change the entire course of the play. I had been practising my lines for a while now.

‘Hey, why don’t you –’

‘Don’t ask me to try and put her in a full-body cast... I was tempted but then I decided better of it.’

‘Actually, I was only going to suggest the leg, but okay.’

With a smile, Dick kissed my cheek and continued walking, knowing I was going to ask something about the play. However, I didn’t want to encourage him, so I walked next to him, remaining silent. Until –

‘Oh, come on! You know I’d make a better Juliet than her any day of the week! I don’t mean to sound egotistical but it’s true! You know it’s true! The girl doesn’t even know her lines!’

I continued rambling on until Dick moved awfully close to me, his lips slightly parted. I knew what was going on here. He paused and stared at me, the corners of his perfect lips turning up slightly, into a mischievous smile. Nope, he wasn’t planning to kiss me.

‘Hey, what do you know – it really does shut up a girl,’ he remarked, turning away from me and continuing to make his way down the corridor. If I wasn’t offended by his lack of action, I was now.