Chapter eleven
Crescendo
“Thanks for giving me a second chance, Kalli. I don’t deserve it.”
“You’re right. You don’t. And I’m not giving you a second chance yet. I’m giving you a fair trial.”
Drake looked disappointed. “I guess that’s all I can ask for.”
“You got it. But, don’t think for a second I have forgotten what you’ve done. I have a class starting in ten minutes, so why don’t you go get something to eat, fix up your nose, and meet me at the coffee shop here on campus at five. That should give you a few hours to think about your excuses,” Kalli knew it would be a rough afternoon. She had three classes, two of which she had with Mr. Make-a-choice-now-because-I’m-a-closed-minded-foolish-stupid-boy.
“Alright, but I don’t need excuses. I know what I want to say.”
“Whatever, Drake,” Kalli ran to the D wing, and into the--somewhat dreaded now--piano classroom.
“Uh!! Why would I do that? I’m so stupid! I mean goodness, I left her alone with him of all people! I’m so angry with myself!” Percy was screaming out his anger at his pillow. “And now I have to go to a class with her! With those big brown eyes that will look at me saying, ‘Percy, please help me, I don’t know what to do,’ and guess what? I’m going to fall for it, because guess what? I’m an even bigger idiot than she is!” Percy sat up on the bed, “But why would she choose to stay with him? I don’t understand, he broke her heart and yet she wants to talk to him? It’s not as if talking will change the facts, she’s just going to get herself hurt. And of course I had to be an idiot so she won’t even let me know what happens so I won’t know how bad I have to break him,” Percy put his hands over his face, he had a headache, he was worried about Kalli, what if she did take Drake back? Where would that leave him? The truth was, he didn’t know. And he was terrified to find out.
Mr. Allen was in the position he always hated: having to ask someone to help him keep the students in check, “Lupe.”
“Yes, Thomas?” She turned. If she was late she would just have to ask for a pass. He rarely pulled her aside during the week and most the time it was important.
“I heard about your Data Venia members fighting on campus this morning. I know it’s difficult with a bunch of boys but it you could discourage that from happening again, that would be great. I would hate to take disciplinary action. Paperwork and all,” He smiled bashfully.
“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to them and personally take care of them if it happens again. I actually didn’t know there had been a fight.”
“Apparently Mr. Papov, Mr. Papov, and the tall scary one.”
“Dragen Kown,” She told him, not that it would help him remember. Dragen liked to stay in the shadows even being the star he was.
“Yes. Thank you.”
“I’ll take care of it. Thank you for letting me know.”
Piano class lasted forever despite Mr. L’s attempts get her attention with the new knowledge he offered. Kalli’s mind was sitting at the piano next to Percy and everything was fine. Drake had never come, the fight between Percy, Dragen, and the twins had never happened. Percy was not disappointed with her. But her mental picture of how she wished things were couldn't change the situation. In reality she was sitting across the room from him, he was upset with her, and Drake was messing up her life again. She sat two seats from the front, but didn’t hear a single thing the professor said. She heard the bell ring and it took her a moment to realize that she was supposed to go to her next class. Violin, no Percy, less pain. She stood and gathered her things.
“Kalli?” She spun so fast it made her dizzy, but he ignored her stumble which was very out of character for him. “Kalli, have you changed your mind about talking to Drake?”
“No, Percy, I haven’t,” he turned to leave but she grabbed his sleeve, her face hidden by her bangs. “Don’t leave me Percy, I need you. I can’t do this without you and I feel so alone without you. Please, help me.”
Percy couldn’t believe how large her brown eyes could get. Here she was, the girl he was falling for. Begging him for his help and it broke his heart. She looked so vulnerable. She was scared. He could see it in her eyes “Kalli…” he shook his hair to clear his head. “You will be fine without me. You were fine before you met me. You can do it again, I’m sorry I’m doing this to you.”
“Then don’t! Don’t do this to me, Percy! Please,” he saw the tears swell up in her eyes.
He grabbed her hand from his sleeve. “Je t’aime,” he dropped her hand, looking at the floor, and walked away.
“Percy! Please no! St…” her voice caught as she fell to her knees in tears.
Percy ran down the hall, hoping that none of the other students saw the small silver tears running down his face.
“Ok. Now that you have sufficiently screwed up my life, talk,” Kalli didn’t want chatter. She wanted to hear what she didn’t know, what she had lost her best friend for.
“I’m sorry…”
“Cut the crap. I want to hear the things I don’t know.”
“I cheated on you.”
“I know, again, I want to know what I don’t,” she clarified every word.
“Um…ok,” he sighed. “I came here to get you back.”
Kalli stood from the small table. “You are wasting my time. Go home, Drake,” she walked out of the coffee shop and he followed her.
“Kalli give me a chance!!”
“Drake, I gave you a chance! I saw you today! I didn’t let Percy beat the crap out of you! I lost my best friend because of you! What other chance do you want? Do you want me to die for you? Sit down and let you tell me everything I already know? What, Drake, What?” Kalli felt hot tears run down her face. She had given him every chance, but he didn’t convince her he was worth her time. She was done with him.
“I want you to hear me out!”
“Percy was right. Nothing you say can ever hold any value. Go home! You have finished your business here," Kalli started to leave more quickly, but Drake grabbed her shoulders. She turned towards him, trying to break free, but his grip held.
Everything changed at once. Drake’s arms were removed from her shoulders. She felt herself pulled back by a new pair of hands on her shoulders and two arms resting on her head. She saw a dark form appear in front of her. Data Venia was here. Lupe walked in, patting Kalli’s back between Masashi’s hands. “So,” she started kindly, “I hear you have been messing with our girl.”
“Guys, what are you…?” Dragen’s hand shot out behind him and his index finger landed softly on her lips, causing immediate shock to her nervous system due to his harsh gentleness.
“Your girl?” Drake looked offended but it was immediately replaced by the shock of the size of the twins leaning on her head. Drake was about 6”2’ but these guys…
“Yes, she is our girl. We all are a group and we look after our own. I’m her roommate. I was the first to find her after she got off the phone with you. I want to prevent anything like that from happening to her again, if you don’t mind.”
“I do mind as a matter-of-fact!”
“Well, what a wonderful person you are, you want to see her go through that kind of pain? Well then sir, you do not have her best interests at heart. You don’t love her. Therefore, you will not be able to pursue a relationship with her which means the only logical solution is for you to leave. You have no goals to accomplish here other than to make enemies and make a fool of yourself,” Masashi said, as logical as ever. "And believe me: you have already made enough of an ass of yourself so I would stop while you're ahead."
“What is with you people? I mean Kalli’s alright, but the way you are defending her you would think she was a goddess,” his words opened Kalli’s old wounds. She hadn’t known just how little respect he had for her and he just summed it up in one sentence. What did she ever see in him?
Dragen shot in. “She is a goddess to us, and you are an..."
“Dragen!” Masashi
stopped him short. to Kalli’s surprise Dragen just grimaced and remained silent.
Lupe sighed. “The point is: you got to speak to Kalli. What else did you want after the way you treated her? And still are treating her?”
“I…I want her back. I’m in love with her,” Drake stuttered out.
“No, you are not,” the twins interjected this time. “You are in love with the prize. She is not a prize. She is a wonderful, loving, caring, sometimes rather clueless person. She is not a thing to be won and you are looking for a victory. You will not find what you want here. As for Kalli, she is a strong independent woman and she will be just fine without you.”
“But…I…I..."
Masashi stepped forward. “Sir, while you still have some pride left, I believe it is time for you to leave. You have overstayed your welcome. I will walk you to the gate,” Masashi led a mentally-battered Drake to the front gate.
After Drake was out of sight, Kalli lost control of her legs, she fell. The twins caught her, holding her upright. “Thanks guys,” They all made a group hug around her. And despite her dislike of people being close to her, she loved this hug. When they released her she was facing the hill. Her heart plunged to her stomach. Did she imagine the top of that black shaggy head walking down the opposite side of the hill?
“We aren’t celebrating?”
“We have school tomorrow. We will celebrate this weekend, besides, I need to talk Kalli about something,” Lupe rolled her eyes at the twins childishness. “Besides, you two are on lock-down for fighting on campus. Idiots.”
“What about, Lupe?” Kalli asked over the twins complaints.
“Stuff.”
“I hate that answer.”
“I know.”
Percy was rather pleased with himself. His plan had worked. He had hoped Kalli would choose him instead of Drake, but her loyalty stayed with the jerk, so he had sent Data Venia in after her in that way he could protect her without changing his ultimatum. He was happy Drake was gone, but his happiness drained as he thought of how much he had hurt Kalli. He had heard her cries of pain echoing in his mind like a bad record player. He hoped she could somehow forgive him, find it in her heart to forget this horrific first day, the first day of school. Odd, in the past it was always an exciting day. True today was exciting, but it was misery. He hoped it was all in the past. Percy’s mind flashed--his father--it wasn’t over. He would come. Percy knew that for a fact. He shook his foggy head. He would worry about that later and right now he needed was sleep and hope that Kalli would be Kalli and understand.
Percy wished on a star that night. He wished for peace.
Lupe closed the dorm door behind her. “Alligator food.”
Kalli’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry? I don’t follow,” her heart started to pound a little harder.
“You say it often in your sleep. I figured out what it means. I find it interesting. At first it was Dragen, Sasha, Demitri, and Percy that you would say it to, but lately it’s stuck between Dragen and Percy.”
“It’s late. We should get some sleep,” Kalli said quickly wanting to drop the subject. She made motions to make her bed.
“I want to hear your alligator food story first.”
“Alright,” Kalli sighed. “At my school in California, any kind of show of public affection was punishable by detention, that included saying I love you in the hallways. So Drake started saying alligator food to me when I asked him what it meant, he lipped it, it looked like he was saying I love you. So we would should it to each other whenever we saw each other in the hallway. It became our special thing. But I don’t understand why I would say that in my sleep, especially about Percy or Dragen of all people.”
“Hm.”
“That’s all you have to say? Hum? Tell me, what does je t’aime mean?”
“Not until you figure out who you like: Percy or Dragen.”
“They're both just friends. Why would I think of them as more?"
“You can find out what it means on your own then.”
“Fine! I will!” Kalli dove under her covers acting like a five-year-old mad at her mom. “Good night!”
Lupe got ready for bed quietly brushing her short hair and making her bed. Kalli pulled the covers below her chin. “Lupe? I’m still mad at you. But how did you know where to find me today?”
Lupe laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Well I will just say that the one person that wasn't part of the plan was the mastermind behind it.”
“Percy? But he’s angry with me right now because I chose Drake over him.”
“That may be true, but he still cares, a lot. He cares about your well-being.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Kalli denied Lupe’s claims whatever they may be.
“Sure it doesn’t, but look at his behavior. Saving you in town. Getting angry over Drake. Locking you in a closet so you wouldn’t have to see a fight. Seems like he cares about you a lot,” Kalli thought about it, it made sense but they were just friends, nothing more. At least that’s what she thought. "Besides, why can't he care, he's you're friend."
“Yeah I guess, and Dragen was acting pretty off today, insight on that?”
“I thought you were mad at me.”
“I was, but I thought since you are rooming with me…I need to learn to deal with you withholding information.”
“Hm, so you can be reasonable.”
“Yes on occasion.”
“But if you had to choose between Dragen and Percy, who would you choose? Theoretically, of course,” Lupe was persistent. She wanted to know.
“I don’t know…I don’t really think about them like that…they are both kinda cute I guess.”
“They both are good looking, very good looking, like smokin’ hot looking, like sexy god of attractiveness good looking.”
Kalli laughed and shook her head. “Yeah, I guess they really are. This one is difficult. I don’t really know very much about Dragen.”
“No one does. It’s part of his personality,” Lupe said so plainly they both started laughing. "Could be appealing I guess. Kind of that sexy, mysterious thing going on?"
“Yeah but Percy is…really, really nice. But he can be very difficult at times,” Kalli thought about all her times with Percy, all her times with Dragen: Phantom of The Opera, hugging him that night, liking the way his shoulders felt. And Percy: leaving the hill, locking her in that stupid closet…running to find her after talking to Drake on the phone, waking up in the hospital, holding his hand…she liked his hands. “I like them bot., I don’t know which I like better. They’re both so…amazing."
"Hate to be the bearer of crap news, but at some point you are going to have to choose."
“You guys did well today, thank you for doing that,” all the guys were chilling in Masashi and Percy’s room. As a rare treat for their hard work that day Masashi was making an exception to his 'no twins in my room' rule.
“No problem,” Demitri started. “We enjoyed it,” Sasha finished.
Dragen rolled his eyes and Masashi translated. “It’s really annoying when you two do that.”
“We know,” they said together and everyone sighed and rolled their eyes.
Percy laughed. “But Dragen,” he started, his smile fading to show the hard lines of his face. Dragen raised his eyebrows questioningly, as much as a response Percy could hope for. “This isn’t over,” he continued. “I will not forget what you said. At the fight, I mean.”
“I do not expect you to. Nor would I want you to.”
With two short sentences the conversation was closed for the night.
***