Tango

Chapter Seven





Several days later no one had found out who had pulled such a disgusting prank. Although, they had gotten the gymnasium cleaned and it now looked as if nothing had happened, thank god. It disturbed me a little that someone would actually use blood. I mean, sure it’s been done in movies and books before but never had I heard of it happening in real life. Oh well.

I was surprised to find Nicholas a few days later sitting in the kitchen at home. I had been outside in the tree house writing when I had heard a car come up the driveway. I paid no attention to it but as it grew darker outside I decided that it was time to go inside. Also the bugs were getting really annoying. Wouldn’t the world be a whole lot better off without those nasty mosquitoes?

Walking back to the house I realized that it was Nicholas’ parents SUV. Nearing the kitchen patio door there he was, talking to Scarlet, who was sitting at the table. I could see their mouths moving but I wasn’t able to hear anything at all until I actually opened the door and stepped into the house.

“Thanks again Scarlet for letting me stay here for a while. I just couldn’t stay at home any longer with them. Normally I can deal, you know? But this time…I don’t know…it’s just a whole lot worst then usual.”

“I told you before Nicholas, you are always welcome here. You know that my parents are almost never home. And besides, even if they were I doubt that they would really care.” Stated Scarlet in a matter of fact way.

And it was true. Since I had moved into Scarlet’s house, her parents had been home very little. Her dad was there the night of the formal and just a few other times. Her mother had been there even less. They had an apartment in the city so that they wouldn’t have to commute back and forth every day and they just stayed there most of the time. Also right now they were on a trip to Calgary. They had left the morning after the formal before Scarlet and I had even woken up.

“Anyways,” Continued Scarlet, “I’m going to bed. Turn out the lights when you two turn in, will you?” With that, she got up from her chair and walked quietly to the stairs. I didn’t say a word until I heard the soft click of her door closing.

I think Nicholas was relieved that I hadn’t started talking right away. He seemed to be lost in his own self so to not disturb him vocally, I walked over to his side of the kitchen counter and placed his arm around me as I leaned into him and entwined my own arms around his waist. From his place on the stool, he was able to rest his head on top of mine, and he squeezed me gently.

“You okay?” I asked him in a near whisper, almost dreading his answer.

“I’m not sure to tell the truth. I keep hearing them yelling and screaming at each other over and over in my head.” Nicholas stopped talking and wrapped both arms more securely around me.

I don’t know how long we stood like that but it seemed as if it were forever, and yet it ended too soon. It was a deathly, jaw-cracking yawn that finally drove us apart. “I guess that’s my body telling me to go to bed.” I laughed while battling another yawn. “I’ll see you in the morning then.” I gave Nicholas a small kiss on the lips and left him still sitting there in the kitchen, lost in himself, without a way out.

- - - - - - -

Alone in the school, standing in the middle of a bloody gym and finding myself plastered with the sticky red substance. But that’s not right, the gym had been cleaned and so had I. Suddenly a door opens and the person standing there is illuminated from behind, creating the image of an angel, though the feeling in the bottom of my stomach told me that they were the exact opposite.
The person is soon out of the harsh light and is followed by many others. Next thing I knew, there was a glint of metal and I am forced to watch the original body bring down the others one by one. Their blood is soon combined with that that covers the floor, the walls and myself. It is then that I come to know that I too am dead, bathed in my own blood. I start to cry and scream…they had found me.

- - - - - - -

I woke up drenched in sweat and with Nicholas holding me in his arms. He was trying to calm me down, stop my tears, but is having no luck. I was sobbing hysterically and, until I tired myself out, nothing is going to help. The destroyed. The look on his face, all painted red, was one that I’ll never forget. The worst part about that dream was that Nicholas was one of the people who was hurt, killed, it scared the shit out of me but it was so sad, so betrayed.

I finally went limp in Nicholas’ strong hold and was almost breathing normally again.

“What happened?” He questioned softly while collecting me into his lap as if I was a little child. I buried my head into his chest and told him of my nightmare. He just sat there and rocked me back and forth in comfort.

“Can I stay with you for the rest of the night?” I asked him when I was done with my story. I think that I half expected him to say no, which would explain why I was both relieved and amazed when he said yes. He then waited outside of my door while I replaced my wet clothing and then came back in when I told him I was done.

“Come here.” He said, hugging me and lifted me into his arms as if I weighed nothing and carried me away from the room that had given me such nightmares and into the guest room where he was staying.

I was half asleep again when Nicholas gently placed me down onto his bed and climbed in next to me. He then proceeded to wrap his arms around me protectively and kissed the tears that clung to my face. My dreams were sweet after that, ending in happiness. I think it was because I dreamed Nicholas speaking just before I fell into a deep sleep, whispering, “I love you Renee,” into my ear.

- - - - - - -

The next morning, I awoke to an empty bed that was not my own, and started to panic slightly until I realized what had happened the night before. I smiled then, remembering the dream that I had had after the nightmare woke me up. Or rather, after Nicholas woke me up from my nightmare. In the dream he had professed his love to me and we were married in a field of wildflowers with those we loved the most surrounding us.

I settled back into the cool sheets, taking in the scent of Nicholas from his used pillow and found myself wondering where he was.
Ask and you shall receive. No sooner than I had wondered, Nicholas entered back into the room, fully dressed and hair damp from his morning shower.

“Morning sunshine.” He said, sitting down at the end of the bed and pulling on a pair of mismatched socks. “I would have woken you sooner, but you looked so content in your sleep. Plus, you didn’t sleep all that well last night either. You kick in your sleep, you know?”

“You’re a morning person, aren’t you?” I asked, slightly put off by his chipper mood at such an early hour.

“It’s almost one in the afternoon, oh intelligent one.” He responded. He also decided to stand up at that moment, as if afraid of what I would have been forced to do to him if he had not.

Sadly, all I could muster up the gumption to do was throw a pillow at him, which missed his great big head and crashed into the lamp on the dresser.

I grudgingly decided to get up to use the bathroom after Nicholas left, his footsteps telling me that he had headed downstairs. I threw back the heavy covers and swung my body around so that my feet were flat on the floor while the upper half of my body was still lying down across the bed. I grabbed the pillow above my head and, placing it so that it covered my face, I moaned my inner protest to have to get up.

There was a plus side to getting up though, mainly that I could spend more time with Nicholas. Time that I wasn’t screaming in my sleep, crying or passed out across his chest. In fact, if I got myself presentable in a short amount of time, I might just be able to persuade him to drive me into town to pick up a few things that I needed. There was also a movie that was playing that I wanted to see, preferably with Nicholas. Of course, if he didn’t feel the same, I would just have to ask Scarlet or Alex to go with me.

Thankfully, Nicholas wanted to see the movie too, as did Scarlet, Ben, Alex, Tom and a few other people. Kelly and Jessica met us at the theatre, almost missing the deadline to buy tickets to the tickets for the last showing of the night. We all laughed until we cried, or wet out pants in Scarlet’s case, and in the early hours of the morning we all headed to our own homes to sleep.

After saying goodbye to everyone else, Scarlet, Nicholas, Ben and I all climbed into Ben’s van, him kissing Scarlet goodnight at the front door after Nicholas and I gave them some privacy. However, instead of heading to bed, the three of us flopped onto the couches in the den and turned on the television.

“I want to do something.” I said, the movie awakening the need to do something active and exciting. “Let’s go swimming.”

“Where?” Asked Nicholas. There was a tone in his voice that showed that he had the same feelings of pent-up energy in him.

“The river. Are you in Scarlet?” She was absentmindedly flipping through the channels, finally perking up at the sight of a movie starting.

“No, you guys go ahead, I’m going to watch this.”

I jumped up and ran to put on my bathing suit, a two-piece halter style that I had bought the previous summer. It covered me enough so that I didn’t feel exposed wearing it, but it was sexy enough to get my point across to Nicholas. I threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and rushed downstairs to meet up with Nicholas, who was holding towels and a flashlight.

We stepped outside and were met with the unusually warm feeling of summer. Uncle Frederick had described it as an Indian summer, preferring not to blame global warming for the higher temperatures that we had been having, especially so late in September.
Climbing down the rocky inclination that bordered the river proved to be a little difficult, Nicholas holding out his hand more than once to help me. But we reached to water’s edge without too much bodily damage.

There was a dock still in the water that we were able to walk out on to and leave our clothing on. Turning off the flashlight, I stripped off my shirt and took the plunge into the cold water. When I resurfaced, I could tell that Nicholas was still on the dock. I could just make out the shape of his body from where I was treading water from the moonlight.

“Come on you pussy! Jump into the water. It’s great.” I yelled.

“Hold on. I still need to take off my pants. Don’t rush me.” He laughed from dry land.

I bobbed in the water confused. What did he mean ‘take his pants off’? So, I yelled my question to him, only to be answered by a loud splash.

When he finally resurfaced, he was about four feet from me and splashed water in my face. “What that means is,” He said cheekily, “Is that I’m not wearing any clothing right now.”

He was skinny-dipping. I almost couldn’t believe him, but I wasn’t about to take it upon myself to find out for sure. I was just about to say something back at him when I felt my bathing suit top become strangely loose.

“My bathing suit top just broke.” I announced, more for myself really to make sure that it was truly happening.
Nicholas laughed.

I swam back to the dock and disposed of my traitorous top. Of course it would choose to snap clean in half, right in the front of my breasts, when I was swimming with a nude Nicholas. Stupid karma.

“How about a hug?” Nicholas asked when I swam back to him.

“Not a chance in hell.”

“Oh really.” Nicholas then sprang towards me and so the game of tag began.

We must have been swimming for an hour or more, neither of us wearing a watch that lit up in the dark, when he finally caught me. I was out of breath and I really wanted to be close to him. But if anyone ever asks, I never let him catch me in the middle of the river that night. He caught me all by himself because he is such a strong man.

Yeah right.

“I got you. Now you are mine.” He brought me so that I was crushed against him, bare chest to bare chest. It felt nice, to be entirely truthful. I was just barely able to make out his facial features, including the satisfied smirk on his lips. I really wanted him to kiss me
then.

I was pleased when he finally did.

Pulling away, I was struck with the need to ask him a question. “Why is it that you always kiss me in the dark?” I laughed. Then I brought my lips to his again.

- - - - - - -

We finished swimming, walked back up to the house, and found Scarlet sound asleep on the couch. It was a sight worth taking a picture of, which I did, because Scarlet has a bowl of popcorn sitting in her lap, and one of her hands was halfway to her mouth and full of the fluffy snack food. This of course was accentuated by the fact that there were little pieces stuck to the blanket that Scarlet was using and she was still chewing the last mouthful that she had eaten.

“Come on,” I said after taking several pictures to use as blackmail later, “Let’s get something to eat ourselves.”

“Sounds like a plan. There’s something that I want to talk to you about too while we’re at it.”

That didn’t sound to good. I don’t know about you, but in my experience, when a guy wants to talk about something, the girl usually isn’t going to be too happy about the topic.

And so, as I was scooping out some ice cream that I had found earlier in the back of the freezer, I gathered up the courage that had escaped me only minutes ago. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

“Well, I was thinking about getting my own place. I know that I can’t stay here with you guys forever. I have been looking through the classifieds for a while and I found an apartment that I like that is in my price range. I’m going to look at it tomorrow afternoon if you want to come. It would mean a lot to me to have your opinion.”

A shy smile had started to creep over Nicholas’ face when he started and before he finished he had taken my hand in his and had moved closer to me.

But what should I say? Yes, I’m sure that he had his own reasons for not wanting to move back in with his parents at all, but was moving into his own place really the way to solve things? Was he not thinking about how this was going to affect his future? His expenses would more than double, and he would have to work more hours in order to pay for hydro, water and rent for a month, not to mention that he still needed to save for university in the near future. And I was sure that his grades would suffer from it all as well. But how could I say all that to him, considering that I barely knew him and I wasn’t even really dating him. Since when has kissing, being practically naked together and sleeping in the same bed been called a relationship in the traditional meaning of the word?

So, what could I say but “I would love to help.” And then be kissed like never before by him.