Balconial Conversations

interlude \\ 92

"Kat, wait up." His voice takes me back a week; when I was uncertain, wishy washy, trusting, and stupid.

I keep walking, staring the double doors down as I get closer and closer. His hand grabs my wrist and I stop. I stare at him.

His eye is brilliantly blue-purple, as are a few other spots on his otherwise perfect face. His hair is swished to the side like nothing happened. "Please."

"Please what?" I snarl. I'm good at snarling, I could teach a class in it.

"I wasn't myself the other day. I wouldn't have... I mean, I wouldn't have..." He's awkward, and the last student slips through the double doors. We're alone.

I arch an eyebrow, and it hates him.

"I wouldn't have, uh, forced you."

"Oh, really? That's so good to hear, that you're not a rapist. You just like to trap unwilling people in your bed and make out with them." My mother says that one day my sarcasm will land me in a holding cell, but for now I just run with it.

"It's not like you didn't want to go in."

"I didn't think you'd do that."

"All guys think of it."

"Maybe, but they don't act on it."

"I thought I was clear with you, Alex." Gabriel's voice is as unfriendly as I've ever heard it. He's mad, but quiet. The worst kind of mad.

"Stay out of this."

He laughs, and I press my lips together before speaking. "Just go, Alex."

"Why's it any of your business, De Luca?"

"She's dating my brother, and she's my best friend."

A thoughtful, disbelieving pause.

"You... Cambriel? You're dating Cambriel?" His voice is harsh and mean. "That whore?"

Am I the whore, or is Cam? Maybe he thinks both.

"I don't know if you're talking about my brother or her, but either way get out of my sight." Gabriel's voice bodes no room for argument. Alex slinks away with his bruises, and Gabriel wraps an arm around me.

"Best friend?" I ask, trying to swallow the shakiness in my voice.

"Of course."

"Shouldn't I have known?"

"It was an unwritten fact."

"More like unknown."

"Tomato, tomahto."

"What are you doing tonight?"

"I'm watching The Godfather I and II with Milo and Cam."

"Oh..."

"And he wanted me to extend the invite to you, as well." He says in a martyred voice. I don't attempt to hide my smile. "Oh, put that away. I don't want drool on my new shirt. For me, sure. For my brother, ew."

I shake my head at him, smiling in spite of myself as we walk out of school together; his arm heavy and familiar around my shoulders.