Ignite (Midnight Fire #1)

Chapter Five

"Hello, gorgeous." Luke sat down next to Kira in the cafeteria with his typical greeting. "Where were you this weekend? I didn’t get a single phone call. Don’t tell me you have a new best friend that you’re sneaking around with." He looked at her with pouted puppy eyes.

"You know, now that I think of it, I do have a new best friend. It’s called my Civil War term paper." She rolled her eyes and shoved her notebook full of ideas at him.

"Kira, Kira, Kira. When will you learn? Term papers are to be completed during the last week of the term, not two months before it’s over." He opened her notebook and skimmed some of her notes. "But let me know when you decide what to do cause I will definitely steal one of these discarded theses."

Kira grabbed her research back from him quickly. "We’ll see," she said slyly, making a joke but knowing full well she would help him out if he actually needed it.

"Hi y’all." Emma waved while Dave carried both of their lunch trays over. Kira assumed the fuchsia dress Emma wore was new, and that Dave had been forced to play the chivalrous boyfriend. From the back of the cafeteria, Kira could barely see Miles walking over behind the mound of books he held in his arms. In fact, all that she saw were the black rims of his glasses pressed against his forehead.

"How are you guys just sitting and laughing?" he said when he dropped what looked like twenty pounds worth of library books on the table. "Are you not at all worried about college?" Kira had noticed the fear of not getting into Harvard or another Ivy League school had made Miles go a tad insane.

"Relax, man," Dave chimed in before slapping Miles on the back.

"Yeah, seriously. Go buy some lunch and take a minute to chill out. The books will be here when you get back." Luke pushed Miles toward the lunch line. As soon as he was out of hearing distance, Luke turned to everyone else and said, "We should totally hide these."

"Oh lord, leave him alone." Kira put her arms around the books and protectively pulled them over toward her, Emma, and Dave. Basically, as far from Luke as they could go. When Miles returned, he seemed calmer but still turned the conversation to college applications. Kira knew all of that was irrelevant for her and couldn’t help but let her eyes shift to gaze out the window. For the first time in a while, not a single one of the misfits was looking at her. In fact, Kira studied them for a few minutes and they seemed completely disinterested in everything going on inside of the school. She needed to grab Tristan when he was alone to confront him about what had happened and give him back his drawings, but how to get him away from his friends?

"Earth to Kira. Come in, Kira." Luke waved his hand in front of her face. She snapped out of her thoughts and rejoined the conversation.

"What? Sorry, I’ve had a lot going on."

"Just asked what you would be up to next year."

"Oh, a gap year to work in a restaurant hopefully, then I’ll be applying to culinary school, and I’ll be just as crazy as Miles is now." Miles finally cracked a smile at her statement and they continued lunch with ease. 

As she walked to English with Luke, Kira knew this would be her only chance to catch Tristan alone. But at the same time Mr. Bell walked through the door, Tristan came rushing in and sat down on the opposite side of the room. And when the class was over, Tristan ran out before Kira could even begin to stand and walk over to him.

For the next two days, the same thing happened. Kira was always one step behind and couldn’t trap Tristan alone for the two minutes she needed to get her point across.

On Wednesday, after her third try at chasing him down, Kira pulled Emma aside at the end of the day and sat down with her on one of the benches outside of the school.