The Art of Dying

After the big discovery of ‘Ellithia’ and all it implied, things pretty much went back to normal ─surprisingly. I’d say the only big difference is that now, when I’m in science with Nina and we have to do a lab, I don’t have to guess what she’s trying to mime me, she just speaks to my mind ─which I still find weird but I must admit that it’s useful for a mute. Other than that, life resumed its course; I went back to class, ate with ‘our little group’, C.C.’s been pretty absent lately but that’s because she’s busy with the preparations for the ‘Mertell’ party, I still hang out with Zane, nothing has changed much, if at all. Except that during the day, I went back to being a loner since I didn’t want to hang out with Blake and Oliver alone ─well Abbigail will be there too but she doesn’t really count as a friend so…

The days passed as if nothing happened and October 31st was fast approaching. I wonder what’ll happen then ─at the ‘Mertell’ party. When I asked C.C. about it, she told me not to think about it, like at all, and that she’s got everything covered, she also said that that included my costume for the party. So, since everything was covered, I tried not to worry about it. Which was easier said then done.

“5, 6, 7, 8 and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and 7, 8.” Shawn was interrupted by the bell, signaling the end of class. “Ok, guys, that was great. Maybe some kinks here and there but I want you to work on that, this week-end and get it right for next class.” He said as he went to stop the stereo. “Um, Mandy, Delphine, could you both stay for a minute?”

“Sure.” I said to Shawn. I then looked at Dixie with a confused look which she reflected right back at me.

“I’ll wait for you outside.” She said.

“Alright.” I replied as I grabbed my bottle of water and towel, before I walked over to where Shawn stood with Mandy.

“Ok, so you girls are my two best contemporary dancers, and as such, I decided that it would be you two, that will wear pointes for the second choreography of the show.” Pointes!? “Well that’s not exactly accurate you’ll both have one pointe each. It’ll be more special this way.” I looked at Mandy and she looked like Christmas came early ─there was such joy on her face… I was happy too but only one pointe…? “So, are you girls ok with wearing pointes for the show?” Shawn asked us seriously.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, oh yes!!” Mandy said, jumping up and down like a little kid. I watched her amused until Shawn turned to me.

“What about you Delphine?” He asked me.

“Yeah, that’ll be great.” I replied with a smile.

“Excellent.” Shawn said. “Now girls, I want you to understand that you’ll both have to stay after class, for a couple of weeks, so that you can both grasp how to handle your pointes. We’ll start with both pointes, so that you can get your balance and such and then we’ll take one off and start the choreography. When I deem you’re both good enough on your own, you won’t have to stay after class for the ‘pointe training’ and you’ll be able to bring your pointes home with you to practice. So are you girls still in? Even with the added work it’ll take?” He asked seriously.

“Yeah.” I answered easily at the same time that Mandy said: “Oh, yes! I’m in.” Shawn seemed happy to hear that.

“Ok, then, I need your shoe sizes so that I can bring in some pointes next class for you both to try.” He said.

“I wear a size 8, sometimes 9 it depends.” Mandy automatically answered with a big smile plastered across her face.

“And you, Del?” He said, turning to me.

“Um, 10 but if the shoes are small then sometimes 11.” Gosh, I have big feet.

“Ok, thanks girls, you can go now. I’ll have some shoes for you two to try on next class.” Shawn said. “Have a good week-end.”

“Thank you, have a nice week-end too.” Mandy said before she practically skipped all the way to the door in her own little happy bubble.

“You too.” I told him, following in Mandy’s wake.

“So, what was that all about?” Dixie asked perplexed, as she looked at Mandy’s jolly retreating figure before turning back to face me, once Mandy was out of sight.

“Shawn asked us to wear a pointe for the second choreography of the show.” I replied easily as we started to walk back to my dorm.

“Wait, a pointe? As in, only one?” She looked at me confused.

“Yeah, I know it’s weird but I think it can be cool.”

“Yeah, it’s weird alright. Although, with Shawn’s vision, I’m sure it’ll turn out great.” She said thoughtfully. “Anyway, gotta go.” We stopped at the entrance of the glass bridge leading to the dormitories. “See, you tomorrow.”

“See yah.” I said before she continued down the corridors towards the front of the school while I entered the glass bridge.

I soon got back to my dorm and found C.C. on her bed, surrounded by a ton of papers looking discouraged by it all. She seemed to brighten up once she saw me come in the room. “Please, help me. It’s all gibberish to me.” She showed me her paper with a French poem on it.

“It’s not gibberish, ‘dudette’. It’s just French.”

“Same thing.” She grumbled. I gave a small chuckle. “Ugh, Mrs. Douglas really needs to get a life, instead of messing up mine.” She said whining. “I mean look at that.” She showed me all the questions she had to answer. “I might have to miss my date with Olly tonight because of this stupid French thingy.” She wiggled her paper in my face looking discouraged.

“Relax, you have the whole week-end to complete that.” I said as I put my things on the dresser and then went to grab some clean clothes in my ‘clean pile’ on the floor.

“But that’s the thing. I don’t have the whole week-end. I’m seeing Oliver tonight, since tomorrow and Sunday I need to see Nina for the final preparations for ‘Mertell’ so I won’t have the time. Ugh.” She said in a whiny tone of voice. “I don’t want to blow off Olly, it’s been a while since the last time I spent some time with him but if I don’t get this done quickly, I won’t have a choice.” I walked over to her. She quickly grabbed my arm and tugged, making me sit on the bed next to her, among the scattered papers. “Ewww, you’re all stinky and gross.”

“Well, gee, thanks!” I said sarcastically but with a small genuine laugh. “I was headed for the shower before you intercepted me.”

“Yeah, but could you still help me?” She asked with a puppy dog face. “Please?”

“Ok, if you still don’t understand it by the time I’m done, I’ll translate it with you, alright?” I said as I stood up. “Um, try to read it aloud, it might help.” I then walked over to the bathroom to take my shower.

“Alright.” She replied begrudgingly.

“Great.” I replied right before closing the door. I heard C.C. read her text aloud through the wall ─well more like butchering it, if I’m being honest─ before I started the shower. The sound of the water hitting the tub drowned out the sound of her voice and with it, her horrible pronunciation.

After my shower, I quickly dressed in a dark pair of jeans and a ‘Kiss’ T-shirt, I reapplied my makeup and then hurried out to help C.C. with her homework.

We managed to finish it before her date, with some time to spare so that she could get ready and make herself pretty for her man. “Thank you, Del, so much.” She said as she went about the room grabbing clothes, applying her makeup, etc.

Someone suddenly knocked at the door making C.C. momentarily freeze. “Oh, gosh, he’s early. I’m not ready yet! Please Del, stall him.” She said dashing to the bathroom. “Thanks.” She said just before locked herself in.

“Yeah, sure, ok.” I said amused, as I was reminded of our first encounter, where she said practically the exact same thing. I went to answer the door and instead of a weird but good looking, red headed Oliver, there was a hot, blue eyed, blond haired Zane.

“Hey.” I said surprised to see him. It’s not the first time, he shows up here but everytime it still surprises me.

“Hi.” He said with half closed eyes ─looking sexy as hell. “Want to go eat?”

“Sure. Just a sec.” I turned around and raised my voice so that C.C. could hear me. “C.C. it’s not Oliver, it’s Zane. I’m going out.” I waited a moment for her to reply.

“Why do you always hang out with him?” She said the word ‘him’ like it was a repulsive word. It made me give out a slight chuckle. She then added in a more resigned tone. “Alright, see yah.” I quickly put on my ‘Converse’ shoes, faux-leather jacket, and grabbed my caf pass before heading out the door with Zane.

“Maybe, after you ate, we could go hang out in my dorm…” He said suggestively. “I’ll tell Chris to stay out…” Is he serious?

“Um, no.” I said like it was obvious.

“Buzzkill.” I heard him mutter under his breath which made me chuckle.

We chatted throughout dinner, about anything and everything, and as usual he dropped off some sort of sexual innuendos that made me laugh or that I simply chose to ignore. When I was done with my dinner, I disposed of my tray. Then Zane and I decided ─like usual─ to go take a walk in the woods, behind the school. The moon shone brightly in the night sky, illuminating our way through the trees.

“So are you excited about ‘Mertell’, nervous, scared…?” He asked.

“To tell you the truth I try, not, to think about it.” I said. “Otherwise, I’m sure I’ll be freaking out.”

“Why would you freak out?” He asked confused.

“Well, I’m to see all sorts of weird creatures since C.C. said that on ‘Mertell’, everyone is in their real form, so…” He suddenly stopped walking, making me stop with him and he looked at me in deep in thought for a moment. I leaned against an oak tree beside me for a second.

“Well, yeah but… Ok, if you freak out, think of it as, like, everyone wearing amazingly realistic Halloween costumes.” He said. “Since it’s on the same day, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Yeah, ok. Thanks.” I stood back up but almost lost my footing as I stepped on some moss over a rock and slipped a little. I grabbed the oak tree, I was previously leaning against in order to keep from falling and in the process I lightly scratched my arm on it. Zane’s eyes zeroed in on the scratch, flashed blue and he groaned.

“Sorry, I have to go.” He looked intently from my arm to my eyes and back again.

“Oh, oopsie. My bad.” I said with a sheepish smile. He gave me a cocky, fanged grin.

“If you wanted me to take a bite… You just had to say so…” He raised his brows up and down. I raised one of my own ─like really? “Alright, Del. “ He said exasperated but then his humor came back. “I’m telling you, one day, you won’t be able to resist my bite, and like the kissing,” I raise both brows at that. “that is soon to come, you won’t be able to get enough.” Now, that was real funny, making me outright laugh. He gave me a wink and a kiss on the cheek before he whispered sexily in my ear: “Until next time…” and then he disappeared with his vamp speed.

I took off in the same direction as Zane ─towards the school─ but at a much slower pace (I’m not a vampire after all). I made it back to school, in I’d say fifteen minutes, but I didn’t have my MP3 or a watch to tell me if I was wrong or right.

As I entered the garden/terrace, my ears picked up on some music coming from the semi-outdoor corridor, between the cafeteria and the garden/terrace. It was some expertly played guitar and there was a deep, sexy voice singing softly to accompany the music. I inched closer to investigate and found none other than Blake sitting down on the small balustrade in one arch of the semi-outdoor corridor, playing the guitar. He looked upset or maybe sad, but still oh so hot. Gosh, doesn’t this guy have any flaw? It’s like, god: are you trying to kill me with his sexiness or just shatter my heart?

Is there even a god out there? I’ll have to ask C.C. about that later. As I made my way closer to where he was, my foot hit a little potted plant, sending it crashing to the floor. When I looked up, Blake stopped playing and was looking intently at me. “Del?” He asked from his sitting position with an acoustic guitar on his knees. Damn. Busted. “What are you doing here?”

“Um, I, uh, it’s just, uh...” He gave me an amused smile at my embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to spy or anything. I just heard someone sing and I liked their voice, so I came closer and it turned out to be you and…” Oh, gosh I’m babbling. Shut up, Del. “I think I’m gonna shut up, now.” Luckily his amusement only seemed to increase along with my embarrassment and he ended up full on laughing. Gosh, why am-I such a dork?

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” He said as he calmed down some “But what are you doing out here, alone, at night, anyway?” He asked with mirth still dancing behind his light blue eyes. Gosh, those eyes. Snap out of it, Del. Man, I’m such a sap. Damn it. He looked at me waiting. Waiting for what? Oh, yeah, he asked me a question. What was it? Uh, oh, what I was doing out here.

“I could ask you the same thing, you know.” I said as I made my way over and sat beside him on the small balustrade.

“True, but I asked first.” He gave me a crooked smile. And those lips of his, with his snake bite, it’s just grrrrr-hot. Why couldn’t he be made for me? And Abbigail for Zane, ugh life is so unfair.

“I took a walk with your brother and scratched my arm on a tree and since he hasn’t fed yet, he had to leave.” His carefree expression grew somber as those words left my mouth.

“Are you alright?” He asked, as he quickly assessed me with his eyes. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?” I rolled my eyes. If I didn’t know any better, I would wonder; why everyone automatically thinks the worst out of Zane but I know, he makes sure that’s what everyone think, so…

“No, he didn’t. I’m fine.” He looked unconvinced. “Really. I’m fine.”

“If you say so…” He seemed unsure.

“I do.” Then I remembered that he looked upset as he played earlier. “But what about you? What are you doing here, all alone?”

“Abby and I had a fight.” Well, that would explain why he was upset.

“Oh?” But that’s not uncommon; they always seem to fight, for one thing or another.

“It’s just, ─” He let out a sigh. “It’s just I don’t understand how Oliver could have seen me marry her. I love her,” I don’t know why, but hearing those words, somehow stung my heart ─hard. He looked at me pleadingly. “I really do, but recently I realized that I don’t love her the way I’m supposed to.” I furrowed my brows. Then how, does he love her?

“Oh.” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“Yeah…” He said, uneasy.

“And what happened?” I asked him but he seemed like he didn’t want to talk about it. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s… fine.”

“I’d rather not, if you don’t mind.” He said as he looked down at his guitar.

“Ok, um…” So… change of subject. “So, what were you singing earlier? Before I knocked over that plant.” I gestured airily towards where I came from.

He gave a slight chuckle and a light blush seemed to grace his cheeks as he replied: “Oh, it’s nothing, just some song I’ve been working on.” He replied nonchalantly.

“Oh, come on. I didn’t hear much, but the little that I did, was great.” He smiled, looking at his guitar. “Can I hear it?” He looked at me then and bit his bottom lip as he debated whether or not to play. Gosh, those lips. “Please.”

“Alright.” He whispered and then started to strum some chords with his chipped, black painted fingernails. “It doesn’t have a name yet and it’s not finished but yeah:

“At dawn, a new day

You’re still tormented, haunted

As memories creep cold

They keep you from sleep

Fighting old demons

Bury them all

But they all return

Stronger than before

Don’t give up now” He was looking deeply into my eyes and I felt those unwanted butterflies in my stomach again but I was enraptured by his eyes. They held a spark that I didn’t get to see until now.

“It’s time to be strong

You’re out here to fight

Know you’re not alone

Take my hand, hold tight

Let those crimson lines fade light

Do scream, don’t shed tears

Let go of the knife

Don’t bleed

They’re not worth your tears

…” He did a little instrumental part on his guitar while humming and he closed his eyes in concentration. He looked so serene and peaceful. He then opened his eyes again and looked straight at me, like he was looking into my soul but his eyes held a sort of sadness as he sang.

“You’ve tried to give up, oh so many times

But you keep on going, seeing the light

Just out of reach from where you’re standing

Follow the sound of my voice through the noise

A beacon of light through the darkest of storms

And day after day as the skies turn to grey

You can look my way, you know I’m here to stay”

“It’s not finished but yeah, that’s that.” He whispered softly while looking intently into my eyes, the sadness from earlier gone.

“Wow.” I was amazed by his voice. “That was beautiful.” I whispered enraptured by his eyes. I leaned closer to him and him to me.

“Thanks.” He mumbled, looking intensely into my eyes. I was captivated by the heath in his blue orbs ─so much different than Zane’s. His eyes were light blue with a darker outer ring whereas Zane’s were a darker blue all over and didn’t have that ring around his irises…

Our faces got closer to each other and I could feel our breaths mingle on my skin, his was hot and minty. He then closed his eyes and I was about to do the same, I would’ve leaned in to close the small gap that separated our mouths, but my conscience chose that moment to make a sudden apparition. I quickly leaned back, feeling bad about what almost happened.

What am-I doing? He already has a girlfriend. And even if I really want to kiss him, I’m not about to break a couple that’s meant to be together, just so that I can selfishly taste those luscious lips of his. Even if his girlfriend is a number one bitch, that I really dislike, I’m not about to break them up. I blame it on the stars and moon shining romantically in the sky and on his guitar ─cause guitars are sexy.

When our lips didn’t meet, I saw his darkened blue eyes open and look at me. “Sorry. I…─” I hastily stood up. I saw he was about to say something but I quickly cut him off, saying: “Uh, just… ─Sorry.” And hastily scrambled away. Ok, now, I can’t be alone with Blake, anymore.

Gosh, I almost kissed him. I’m such an idiot. A small part of me, ─ok I’m not going to lie, a big part of me─ is disappointed that it didn’t happen but an even bigger part of me is relieved. It’s easier to avoid something if you’ve never had a taste of it. And if I were to have kissed Blake, I’m sure I would want to kiss him again. Ok, those thoughts are so not helping.

I need to get back to my dorm. Maybe C.C. will be back from her date and could help me shed some light on the situation. I almost ran all the way to the elevator and waited as it agonizingly slowly took it’s time to come up. It finally opened and I stepped in. I pressed the button for the first floor and the doors closed, trapping me in the confines of the elevator with my jumbled thoughts.

Should-I even tell C.C. about it, she doesn’t like Abbigail but maybe if I tell her what almost happened it’ll create an awkward atmosphere when we’re going to be all together.

Ugh, what to do? What to do? The doors to the first floor opened and I stepped out. Ok, I’ll tell C.C. It’s C.C., so I doubt it’ll create awkwardness between us. I got out my key, opened to door to our dorm and stepped inside before rapidly closing it behind me.

“Eww, you have got to be kidding me.” I exclaimed as I rapidly turned my head to the left and brought my hands to cover my eyes as to avoid the scene laid before me.