“Hey…you alright Dorian?” Reina asked. They were both sat on his couch, looking over notes and occasionally quizzing each other for a French exam they had coming up. Dorian had tried to act like the frustrations of the past week weren’t affecting him too much but wondered what she’d noticed.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he answered, a little harsher than intended. “Peachy, actually….” He scratched answers into the study guide their teacher had given him, trying his damnedest not to look at Reina’s concerned expression. He wasn’t sure what she was going to do but was hoping in vain that she’d just let it drop for a while.
“No, you’re not,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Something’s been bothering you all week, and all you’ve done is be cagey and disappear…. I’m worried about you, Dorian….” He didn’t shrug off her hand, and he wasn’t completely sure why. “Maybe, I can convince you to open up….”
“Like I said,” he said through gritted teeth, “nothing is….” He was interrupted when he turned towards Reina who was patting her lap. “What?”
“You need to lie down and relax a bit,” she told him. “And I’m offering you a chance that a lot of guys would kill for….” Dorian rolled his eyes and made to turn back to his notes before Reina grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled his head onto her lap. Dorian stared up at the ceiling with an appropriate mix of fear and confusion as Reina looked down at him. “C’mon…we’re friends, are we? I really want to help you, but I can’t if you won’t tell me what’s going on….” Dorian opened his mouth to protest with whatever lame excuse he could make, but Reina had started to stroke his hair in a soothing way.
Almost melting into her touch, Dorian closed his eyes and repositioned himself to a more comfortable position.
“I guess I have been a little rude to you and the others,” he admitted, feeling himself continue to relax. “Disappearing from the group without a word and disregarding any and all questions about it.” His sighed and opened his eyes to look at Reina, happy that she seemed to be listening intently. “You remember that girl I told you about? The one my sister mentioned was at the event?”
“Cass?” Reina asked. Dorian nodded. “She’s your ex….”
“And she’s followed me to Sacred Heart,” Dorian finished. “And, for some ungodly reason, she’s decided she wants to talk to me….” If anyone asked him, Dorian wasn’t sure if he’d be able to really explain why he was suddenly so chatty about this. Maybe it was just that he felt more relaxed than he had in a few days, or maybe it was just how he felt when he was with Reina despite only knowing her for a few months. He hoped against hope that she wasn’t paying attention to his heart pounding out of his chest at her touch. “She’s why I’ve been disappearing…I’ve been avoiding her every time I’ve seen her.”
“Maybe she’s trying to make things up with you?” Reina offered, hopefully. “I know you said things didn’t end well, but maybe she’s come around?” Dorian huffed derisively. “You’re so sure about that, are you?”
“Yes, I am,” he stated, flatly. “And that’s because I know who Cass is, and I’m thankful she showed me her true colors….” He took a deep breath before making his decision on how far to push this. “I loved her…with all of my heart, I swear that I loved her, and it’s one reason I worked myself to the bone to get into Sacred Heart Academy. It’d look good for when I applied to universities and could help me later in life…she decided that she didn’t want to wait….”
“But didn’t you say that you take responsibility for maybe not being as good a boyfriend to her because of that?” Reina asked. Dorian gave a solemn nod.
“Maybe I didn’t give her enough of my time,” he postulated. “Maybe I could’ve made an effort to balance spending time with her and working hard, but it’s too late now…and it sure as hell doesn’t justify what she did to me….”
“What did she do?” Reina asked, her hand stopping. Dorian closed his eyes again, debating whether or not he should tell her. To bring down the opinion she had of someone who she’d never met. “It’s alright…I really shouldn’t have asked….”
“No,” he said, looking back up at her. “No…I trust you enough to tell you….” He took another deep breath to steel himself. “Cass and I were just going to have a bit of a get together with some of our friends back home. I’d brought her into the group after we’d met through some of our classes. We’d only been dating for about two years or so, but I’d made it clear how much I loved her…until I started working to get the scholarship. Well, I had left early because I had to get up early the next day, and that’s when she broke up with me.”
Tears started to sting his eyes, but he blinked them back. He had to finish. “She told me that she loved me, but she didn’t think she was in love with me anymore. I was really heartbroken for about a week or so, but even after I said I was fine, everyone knew I wasn’t…even now, I don’t think I’m over it.” He let out a long sigh. “Cass and I fell out over some stupid reason about her new boyfriend that she’d gotten, like, a week after she dumped me. We both stormed off and, after a while my friend, Ian, found me and told me something….” He stopped himself, building up the courage to say what happened, but his mouth suddenly felt dry.
“Did she,” Reina began. “Did she…cheat on you?” Dorian nodded and closed his eyes again. “Oh, Dorian….”
“After I’d left to go home and get some sleep, she’d tried to kiss Ian,” he explained, feeling tears run down his face. “Couldn’t ask for a better friend than Ian, honestly. He didn’t reciprocate and, after she tried to date him after me, he turned her down time and time again. Some people might say that it’s not really cheating since it was just a kiss, but she was still my girlfriend, and she kissed someone who wasn’t me or her family. She’d told me after our fight that she never wanted to hear from me again, and that it was my fault that our relationship died, but after Ian told me what happened…I stopped caring about her.”
Silence followed his rather cold statement, but Reina resumed her stroking of his hair and let him lie back. He almost pushed himself into her hand and felt a comfort that he couldn’t think of a time he’d felt it. “Heh…what are you doing to me?”
“What do you mean?” Dorian opened his eyes and smiled at her.
“You’re an enigma, Reina,” he told her. “You’re an absolute tease, but someone who I want to be around. Someone who I’m willing to talk to, even if I really didn’t have a choice, about things that have been bothering me for…well…I can’t even really think of how long.” She returned his smile. “I just…I just want to figure you out….”
“Maybe I’ll let you one day, Croxton,” she told him. “To be honest, even though we haven’t really known each other that long, I feel I’ve gotten to know you pretty well. You’re really a nice and caring guy who can be a bit of a twat, but still overall a good person. Any girl would be lucky to snag you, Dorian…but it’s you who needs to find the right person for you.”
'If you only knew who I wanted that to be,’ he thought, looking into her eyes. ‘If only I felt that you didn’t deserve someone better than me.’
“So," he began, wiping his eyes. “Uh…while you’ve got me here…I’ve been thinking about asking you something.”
“Oh?” she said. “What could you ask of me?” He started to fidget a little, rubbing his feet together.
“Well…there’s the masquerade ball coming up and I was thinking….” His mouth suddenly felt dry again. “Maybe…you’d wanna go with me?” she raised an eyebrow at him, making him feel a bit embarrassed. “As friends, I mean. A-and if you don’t want to that’s perfectly find, I just thought it might be fun if we….” She put a finger to his lips.
“I’d love to, Dorian,” she agreed. “But I want your help with something in return….” His brain kind of went blank as he was already working on a costume for her, but what she said stunned him a bit. “Can you teach me how to dance?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrDhNcGla3X
