Of Thieves And Do Gooders

That night, after dinner, Hayden and I returned to Damion and Leon’s room, instead of our own, to plan.

“Why do we need to plan? Do they make it extremely difficult to get out at night or something?” I asked lazily, not really looking forward to finding some second-hand tuxedo. I paused for a moment, then added, “Wait…are we allowed to leave the school at night?”

“Not exactly,” Damion admitted with a lopsided grin.

“Oh. So we’re breaking rules right now? That’s much more exciting than I thought.” I smirked and joined the circle that had formed around a table in the middle of the room. “You guys know this is encouraging me to break this particular rule more often, right? I mean I have a lot of things I could be doing at night.”

They all turned and looked at me, speculating.

I hesitated under their gazes. “Of course, I wouldn’t do anything without telling any of you…” I muttered half-heartedly.

“So anyway, there are a few factors we’ll have to overcome to get out of here,” Damion began, pulling out a map of the school.

“You just have one of those lying around?” I asked suspiciously and Damion smiled to himself.

“Hey, we aren’t pulling off this stunt just because you’re here, we,” he waved at Leon, Hayden and himself, “are veterans at breaking this rule. Now, shut up and listen to the plan.”

“First factor,” Hayden interrupted, “Headmaster Wilkins and his rounds. Every four and a half minutes or so he looks out the window of his study, which has a direct view into the forest for about twenty to thirty feet. He does that roughly three times before getting up and paging Mr. Jager, who then does a similar routine, covering the left-hand side of the school, although he looks every six minutes, being the forgetful guy he is. After he’s done that two or three times, he’ll page Mrs. Lilany, who will do the same thing from her room, covering the right-hand side of the school--except she looks every three minutes,” Hayden explained to me and I nodded, logging the information away.

“The Headmaster doesn’t start lookout until eight-thirty though, so by the time the watch gets to Mrs. Lilany, it’s already nine,” Leon added lazily, as if he’d heard the plan a thousand times, “Considering it’s eight-forty-three right now, we’d better get a move on.”

“How long does the watch go on for?” I wondered aloud.

“They stay up until midnight,” Damion replied casually, pointing at the map he continued, “We’ll be coming out around the back, which is virtually unwatched, except for the off moments when Jager or Lilany crane their necks out of their windows to see ‘round back. After that,” he traced his finger along the outer right-hand side of the school, leading to the café, “we’ll stay close to the wall to make it under Jager’s window, and since he’s so opposed to the rule in the first place, he doesn’t really look out the window, he kind of just glances. So if we stay near the inner wall and under the windowsill, we should be fine until we come to the front.”

“Wait, wait, wait, why don’t we just go around back and stay out the back, and go through the forest? You know, just swing wide and stay in the cover of the trees,” I suggested as if it were obvious.

“Yeah. Bad idea. Mrs. Lilany set up booby traps and alarms throughout the surrounding forest, of course, she only sets them in motion at night, so there’s no danger of them being set off during school hours,” Hayden replied with a shrug.

I scowled. “So the traps in the front are harmless?” I raised an eyebrow curiously.

“No, we just know where those traps are,” Leon said as if it were obvious.

“How?” I asked, sounding disbelieving.

Damion, Leon and Hayden all grimaced, seeming to remember something as Damion said with distaste, “Trial and error.”

I winced. “Ah,” was my only reply.

“Moving on, we’ve got more to worry about, which is the fact that we’ll have to wait and see when Wilkins looks out his window, without being seen ourselves,” Hayden stated and looked between Damion and Leon. “Once we’ve done that, we’ll have to make a mad dash for the forest, just to the right of the café, so that Wilkins won’t see us dashing through the middle of the forest. To be specific, we can’t just run wherever we want as long as we make it to the forest, there are motion sensing lights, so there’s a trail leading through the middle of the field to the forest. It’s sort of worn into the ground, so it’ll be easy to find,” he concluded and Damion rolled up the map, stashing it in a drawer beside his bed.

“Got it Ray?” Leon asked with raised eyebrows, probably wondering if I had zoned out while they were talking.

“Got it.” I nodded.

“Alright, let’s get out of here--Oh, Hayden? You got the money?” Damion asked as he strode toward the door.

“Got it.” Hayden waved several hundred dollar bills through the air and stuffed them in his pocket before I could snatch them away. Great, I couldn’t even hold onto my own tuxedo money.

We were out the door in minutes and at the back of the school by eight-fifty-six, which meant Mrs. Lilany was almost on her watch. We then crept along the right-hand wall of the school, just as planned and halted just as the corner came up. Leon was in the lead and pulled a compact mirror out of his pocket, popped it open and held it around the corner until he found Headmaster Wilkins’s window. Without looking, he signaled to Hayden who then extracted a stopwatch and started it with a quiet beep. Thirty seconds passed in silence and nobody moved.

Forty seconds.

A minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes.

Leon waved his hand at Hayden and he stopped the watch and stuffed it back into his pocket. Another thirty seconds passed before Leon pulled the mirror back, snapped it shut and gestured for the three of us to get ready. Ten seconds passed only and Leon darted out from the safety of the shadows and tore across the field, Damion soon followed and after him was me. I hesitated, but Hayden pushed me forward, as if reminding me in a harsh way, and I pumped my legs as fast as I could, pretending like I was trying to tackle Damion. So I suppose it was a good thing that Damion was much faster than me.

I glanced down as I ran, huffing heavily as I did so and saw the trail they were talking about, it was faint, but it was there. I stayed on the trail as best I could, but mainly focused on the back of Damion’s head, ignoring the sound of Hayden hot on my heels.

Before I knew it, we had made it to the forest, and I slowed a little, my lungs burning like fire was being forced through them. However, Hayden plowed into me and forced me to run faster again, “Time!” he wheezed when I turned to try and glare at him. I looked for Damion again, but he was much farther ahead of me than I had remembered. I stepped aside slightly, trying to allow Hayden past me so he would stop pushing me.

He passed me and grabbed my hand as he went by, dragging me forward at a rate that made me trip over my feet. I gasped and wheezed at the same time as I went tumbling forward and crashed into the back of Hayden’s legs and rolled over him once, before hitting the ground again and having him roll over me instead.

“Shit!” I almost shouted as I rolled over Hayden a second time.

He countered by saying, “Fuck!” As he rolled over me for the second time, losing momentum slightly.

We rolled over each other about once more before coming to a stop when Hayden struck a tree and I crashed into both of them.

I coughed once and sat up, clutching my stomach as my already air-deprived lungs pounded against my ribs, trying to gain the air they had lost.

“Fuckin’ shit Ray!” Hayden exclaimed in a fierce whisper, pushing me off of him so that he could sit up off of the tree roots.

“Hey, it was your fault! I couldn’t run that fast! My feet were moving faster than my brain!” I objected in the same fiercely quiet tone.

Hayden winced and touched a section on his torso. “Damn it, I think I broke a rib. Perfect.”

I rolled my eyes and examined myself for similar aches, however, I was pretty sure Hayden had broken my fall quite well. The only injuries I had were a few scrapes from the dry twigs and rocks covering the ground.

Hayden whimpered slightly and took in a deep breath of air as he touched the same place on his torso and gasped. He soon expressed his excruciating pain through a string of swear words many being different combinations of the “F” word.

“My God you’re a baby,” I huffed as I continued to try and catch my breath. “Let me see.” I shuffled toward him and pushed him back against the tree, causing him to wince a little. “Where does it hurt?” I asked.

He pointed to a section in the middle of his ribcage on his left side and I lifted his shirt slightly so that I could see if the bone was pressing against the skin at a weird angle. I brushed my fingers carefully against the skin in the area he had gestured to. Apparently, my fingers were cold, because Hayden gasped as his stomach pulled away from my hand.

“Sorry,” I said quickly and retracted my hand, the skin seemed fine, but based on the degree of pain, I had to assume it wasn’t just a bruise. I leaned forward and put my ear to his chest, but he quickly pushed me away.

“What are you doing?” Hayden demanded, looking at me as if I had just felt him up.

I scowled at him, “Do you want to go around with internal bleeding? I’m trying to see if you have a punctured lung you jackass!” I told him, still in a fierce whisper, although I was pretty sure no one was around to hear us, unless Damion and Leon were nearby.

Hayden swallowed hard and nodded. “Sorry,” he muttered, although he seemed mostly distracted by the pain in his ribs.

I leaned forward again, this time a bit more hesitantly as I realized how close to Hayden I was getting. I knew I was blushing as I pressed my ear to his chest again, unfortunately catching a whiff of his spicy cologne. I tried not to think of how good he smelled as I listened to his breathing. I listened for about thirty seconds before concluding that I didn’t hear any crackling and that he hadn’t punctured a lung.

I sighed and moved away from him. “It sounds alright to me, but you should probably see a doctor.” Hayden groaned, and his head lolled back against the tree. “What? Is it your rib?” I asked quickly, looking down at the injury.

“No, no,” he muttered, lifting his head again. “I hate doctors,” he hissed, distaste evident on his face.

I rolled my eyes. “Baby,” I teased and then stood up, glancing over my shoulder to see Damion and Leon standing a few feet away, Damion having raised eyebrows and Leon’s eyes were darting between Hayden and I. I was really starting to hate that about Leon.

“What?” I demanded defiantly.

“Oh. Nothin’. I just hope we didn’t interrupt anything.” Leon rose just one of his eyebrows and wiggled it suggestively.

“Stop moving your eyebrow like that, it’s freaking me out. Besides, I was just making sure he wasn’t dying, I think he has to go to the hospital though, I’m pretty sure he broke a rib or something,” I said, trying not to sound professional about it. All I did was watch too much House, so I couldn’t really diagnose him.

Leon’s eyebrow resumed it’s normal function of remaining immobile above his eye and he frowned, “Oh. That it?” He waved his hand in Hayden’s direction. “Stop being such a pussy. Do you want Raven to come over there and kiss it all better?” Leon mocked in a baby voice that made me grimace.

“Shut up Lee, I will kill you, just as soon as my--ah--ribcage stops--urg--fucking throbbing,” Hayden said between clenched teeth.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure.” Leon rolled his eyes and said, “What ever you say.”

“Come on Lee, let’s get Hayden to the car and then the hospital. After we get him checked out we’ll get Ray’s tux. Sound good?” Damion looked at me for confirmation.

Why was he looking at me? I thought Hayden was the elected leader of the pack, it wasn’t as if he was dying and left me as the leader instead. I shrugged. “Fine with me.”

“Alright, Lee you get his legs,” Damion ordered as he hovered around Hayden’s head.

Once Leon was in place, they started to lift him and I piped in, “Wait! What do you want me to do?” I looked expectantly at Hayden, but there wasn’t really anywhere for me to help lift him, since Leon more than had it covered.

“Uhh…” Leon looked at Damion as if he would have the answer to my question. Damion looked just as stumped as him.

A minute of silence stretched between us, Hayden’s shallow breathing being the only sound.

“Hey, guys? Yeah, remember me? The guy in mind numbing pain?” Hayden choked out, biting his lower lip as he breathed wrong and pain shot through him.

“How about you keep Mr. Sunshine here in a good mood? Tell him some jokes or something.” Leon kicked Hayden’s foot as he groaned to emphasize his pain.

On the count of three Leon and Damion lifted Hayden and started to shuffle in the right direction, keeping their eyes on the trees for the most part, which told me they were looking out for traps and cameras.

____________________________________________

We made it out of the forest fine, since Leon and Damion seemed to have the entire whereabouts of the obstacles memorized, which was good for me, since I was pretty much just stumbling alongside them. Hayden bitched the entire way though, and took up the entire back seat when we got to the car, since he complained that it hurt to sit up. Not wanting to make the injury worse, Leon rode in the “trunk” area, and constantly poked his head up over the seat to make faces at Hayden, who, in turn, glared at him, swearing under his breath. I sat in the passenger seat and Damion drove, obviously.

Considering how quickly Damion got to the hospital, I knew they had been there more than a few times. They carried Hayden in by wrapping his arms around their shoulders, in order to look at least a little more professional, rather than shuffling into the hospital.

We waited for nearly fifteen minutes before the doctor could see Hayden, and he emerged from a door beside the check-in office. “Silverman? Hayden Silverman?” he asked, glancing around the room.

“Right here,” Hayden groaned, lifting his hand in the air, and breathing sharply as it caused him pain. His hand dropped back to his side instantly.

“Ah. Ribs?” The doctor asked and Hayden nodded. “Come with me.”

Leon helped Hayden to his feet, and made sure he could stand on his own before allowing him to hobble over to where the doctor was standing. I stood up as well and started walking with him but the doctor stopped me, “Whoa, just Mr. Silverman please, you’ll have to wait here.” He said sternly.

I frowned and glared at him, giving him the full extent of my “death glare”, causing him to hesitate for only a moment, before meeting my gaze with narrowed eyes of his own. “Can’t I just stay for the X-rays? He can have an audience for that can’t he?” I asked, keeping my voice bitter and demanding.

Hayden looked curiously at me, then looked back at the doctor, who was still glaring at me, “Sorry Doc. he’s my brother, and he’s just a little paranoid. S’alright Ray, I’ll see you in a bit, yeah?” He looked pointedly at me, demanding that I leave.

I sighed, a little hurt that he didn’t want me there, but remembering with a sense of annoyance that I had to be fitted for a tux. “Fine. Don’t die in there. And if you need morphine, damn it ask for it, you aren’t a martyr,” I said quickly and turned to walk back to Leon and Damion who looked quickly away from me as I turned my glare on them, acting like they weren’t staring.

Hayden and the doctor disappeared through the door and that left me to skulk back to where Damion and Leon were standing.

“Don’t worry about him Ray, he’s broken a bone or two before. He’ll be fine,” Leon assured me, slinging an arm around my shoulder, “Now come on, let’s go get you a tux, it’s gonna be hell getting your measurements--” he broke off and frowned for a second, then shook his head. “Never mind, we’ll deal with it when we get to it. Point is, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can come back here, get Hayden and get back to the school for our punishment.”

I froze. “Wait? What? Punishment? What punishment? I thought we got out of there scot-free!” I objected in a low whisper, considering I was only recently free of my other punishments.

Leon steered me out of the hospital as he answered, “We did, but since Hayden broke a rib, there’s a bit of a problem with the bill, considering it has to be sent to the school. We don’t carry hospital money around you know,” he said knowledgeably as he unlocked Damion’s car. “Hop in,” he added as he got into the car himself.

I suppressed my groan of annoyance and shook off the thought, I said myself that punishment didn’t leave a good impression on me…but encounters with Derek seemed to do the trick.

______________________________________

“I feel like a dyke…” I murmured sullenly when Leon came into my dressing room--me being fully clothed in a black tuxedo.

Leon chuckled and tugged at one of my sleeves. “Yes, but you look like a very handsome dyke,” he assured me.

I rolled my eyes, “Whatever. As long as I still look like a guy.” I turned to the side and puffed out my chest slightly, “See anything?” I asked, gesturing to my chest.

For the first time ever, Leon looked a little disgruntled at the question and glanced quickly at my chest and back. “Nope. Not a thing. Why do you have to ask me that sort of stuff anyway?” he added the last half of his sentence in a grumble of embarrassment.

“Well if Hayden and Damion were here, I’d ask them too, so don’t think you’re privileged or anything,” I warned him, examining my tuxedo again, and I tugged at the same sleeve Leon had fussed with, it was a little too long, but I didn’t want to wait for a custom one, and I also didn’t have time to wait for one, so I decided to deal with the one I had on.

“Everything okay in there sirs?” There was a careful knock on the dressing room door.

“Dandy,” I called at the same time that Leon replied, “Swell.”

“Very good.” The clerk shuffled away and I rolled my eyes at the overeager sound of his voice.

“This’ll be perfect…” I stated absently and Leon glanced at the arm that was a little too long. “Perfect enough, anyway. I’m only using it once.” I waved a hand nonchalantly and Leon nodded.

“Alright, change back and we’ll pay for it.” With that said, Leon left the dressing room and I began to change back into my normal clothes.

___________________________________

We left the shop with a fancy tuxedo all wrapped up in a pretty plastic bag, and I stuffed it in the back, only to be scolded by Leon who laid it straight on the back seat, muttering something about wrinkles. Weirdo.

In a matter of minutes, we were back at the hospital and found Damion napping on a couch in the lobby.

“Hey.” I jabbed his shoulder with my finger.

He didn’t stir.

I frowned and balled my hand into a fist, and punched his shoulder instead, “Hey,” I said more sharply and he sat up, yawning and looking blearily at me. I should have known by now that boys only react to large amounts of violence. From then on, all of my poking would have to be upgraded to punching.

“What?” Damion asked lazily, glancing around the room, with a lost expression.

“How’s Hayden? We’ve been gone for two hours, you must’ve heard something about him by now,” I pointed out, sitting next to him on the couch after I pushed his feet onto the floor.

“Hay…den? Oh, Hayden. Right. Apparently he didn’t break any ribs, but he did crack three ribs, two on his right side and one on his left. And yes, ‘cracked ’ ribs and ‘broken’ ribs are apparently different. The doctor said they were going to keep him over night just in case. Can we go now? It’s already twelve, I’m only gonna get eight hours of sleep, which is the bare minimum. I’m not sure I can listen to Mrs. Lilany‘s lectures on only eight hours of sleep.” Damion grumbled, standing up in front of Leon.

I hesitated when he offered me his hand and then I took it.

“Uh…” Damion and Leon turned and looked at me over their shoulders, stopping a few feet from the door before realizing I wasn’t following. “If you guys don’t mind, I sort of want to stay here…to…you know…” I scratched the back of my head nervously, “Prolong my death sentence, I mean, I’ve only been at the school for a month or two and I think I’ve already made Lilany’s hit list.”

There was a pause, Leon and Damion looked at each other and then at me. “Alright,” They said at the same time and grinned slightly.

“But while you’re prolonging your death sentence, keep an eye on Hayden too, yeah?” Leon asked with a raised eyebrow and I nodded.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, and make sure Hayden gets back to the school with you,” Damion added, trailing behind Leon as he left the hospital.

I let out a sigh of relief and walked up to the woman sitting behind a check-in desk. “What is it Hun?” she asked, running her hands through her blonde hair, revealing her dark roots momentarily.

“Yeah, I’d like to see my brother if that’s alright.”

“Let me see if he can have visitors…” she trailed off, her fingers clicking loudly as she searched the computer. “Silverman, right?” she asked abruptly and I nodded.

More clicking.

“Alright Hun, it looks like only relatives can visit him right now. So you’re good to go. He’s in room one fourteen.” She plastered a fake smile on her lips and nodded to me.

I smiled back, trying to ignore the fact that she watched me a little too long as I left. I really didn’t feel like I was that attractive as a guy and yet women kept checking me out, it was unnerving.

I found the room after wandering through both the two-hundred wing and the three-hundred wing, somehow missing the one-hundred wing entirely. I finally asked a passing nurse for directions and she led me to the room effortlessly. It never ceases to fascinate me when nurses seem to have huge hospitals memorized.

When I entered the room, I realized that he wasn’t sharing it with anyone, that was a little surprising. I glanced at the bed and closed the door behind me. Hayden was asleep from what I could tell, the machine that kept track of his heart kept a rhythmic beep going and there was an IV in his arm. I looked away from the IV with distaste and paused at a mirror hanging on the wall opposite of his bed. I squinted a little and smiled as my latest bruise below my left eye was leaving, only a slight yellow-brown spot remained.

I examined the room and saw that the table by his bed was empty, aside from his own belongings, which included: his iPod, a stick of Winterfresh gum, a tack and the little diamond heart-shaped necklace. I strode over to the desk and pulled a chair up beside it, and sat uncomfortably for roughly a minute before accepting that Hayden wasn’t waking up anytime soon.

Carefully, I picked up the heart-shaped diamond and examined it, the silver chain cascading over my fingertips like water, I rubbed my thumb over the diamond absently and squinted at it before flipping it over. I cocked my head to one side, and brought the necklace closer to the lamp on Hayden’s table. Carved delicately into the silver back of the necklace were three words, I squinted to see them better and--

“Hey,” Hayden said softly and I nearly dropped the damn necklace, and turned to glare at him. “Not planning on stealing it again are you?” He rose his eyebrow as he awaited my answer.

“No. And I didn’t steal it the first time either, I found it. There for it was a clear case of ‘finder’s keepers’,” I said matter-of-factly, and set the necklace down grudgingly, then smirked slightly. “So. You ready to tell me the big secret behind that thing?” I jerked my head toward the necklace and propped my head up on my elbows, which rested on the edge of his bed.

Hayden rolled his eyes at the request. “I think not.”

“Oh, come on, I break your ribs and you can’t even tell me a little secret? How much closer of friends can we get?” I retorted sarcastically, leaning back in my chair.

He ignored my question and asked, “You get your tux?”

“Yeah. It took two friggin’ hours, but I got it,” I grumbled, remembering the overanxious clerk.

“And a date for the Ball?”

“Yeah, yeah, I asked…ah…what was her name?…Rhian? Janelle? Bob? Eh, I forgot, well, her last name is Patterson anyway. If that helps at all. She’s nice.” I frowned as Hayden groaned, covering his face with one of his hands.

“Lucian Patterson?” he asked incredulously.

“Yeah, that’s her…what’s wrong with her?” I asked warily.

“She’s so…so…” Hayden groaned, unable to express himself any other way.

“Good, God, out with it! What is it? Does she have herpes? AIDS? A hair lip? ‘Cause I think I would’ve seen the hair lip,” I retorted.

“No, she’s just…a little…eccentric.”

I blinked at this information. “Hell Hayden, I noticed that. So she likes to wear plaid and fishnets and likes the color black. So what? I’ll only be hanging out with her for a few nights. As long as she doesn’t try and bite me while I’m not looking, I’ll be fine,” I scoffed.

“If you’re sure…Shit, I keep forgetting you aren’t a guy…You don’t give a shit who you have to eat with or dance with or any of that, huh?”

I shook my head, “Nope, I could take a rabid cat to the dance and be fine…well besides the evident rabies I would be getting.”

Hayden chuckled slightly. “Alright, what ever you say…” He looked around the room for the first time and asked, “Where’re Dame and Lee?”

“Oh, they went back to the school to accept their punishments and tell the Headmaster about you,” I said nonchalantly, picking up his iPod and cycling through his music.

“But you stayed.” Hayden stated calmly and I looked up abruptly.

“Well, yeah, I thought someone should, and I didn’t want to see a livid Mrs. Lilany until I had recovered from the last time I had seen her. I still haven’t got the feeling back in my ear…” I muttered, rubbing my ear absently.

“Nope. That’s not it.” Hayden was staring at me, an odd little smirk on his lips.

“Uh. Yeah. It is,” I persisted and popped his earphones into my ears. “Now shut up and go to sleep. You’ve got cracked ribs, shouldn’t you be sleeping or some shit like that?” I asked, but didn’t wait for his answer before hitting “play” on his iPod, and turning up the volume to the point where I couldn’t hear him even if he was talking.

Can you say ‘flustered’?

…Yeah I can say ‘fuck off’ too.

________________________________________

Hayden’s Point Of View

“Nope. That’s not it,” I said, a slight grin working its way onto my lips as Raven’s face turned a small shade of pink. She was blushing, I had never expected that from her. How far could I take this? I wondered.

“Uh. Yeah. It is,” she assured me, with finality in her voice as she put my earphones in. “Now shut up and go to sleep. You’ve got cracked ribs, shouldn’t you be sleeping or some shit like that?” she asked and then, before I could so much as open my mouth, she hit “play” and I heard the quick paced beat of a song by Rise Against, which meant she had the volume up too loud.

I talked anyway, “You were worried about me. That’s why you stayed here. You felt guilty for causing me pain, so you wanted to stay at the hospital and make sure I was all right.” I laughed a little. “Is that really that hard to say?”

No answer. She was fiddling with the hem of her shirt and refusing to look at me at all. Fine, if she wanted to play, then I would play.

“Hey Ray? Are you seriously just going to ignore me now?” She turned her head slightly, but otherwise didn’t respond. I was almost certain that she was pretending not to hear me. “Ray?” I asked again.

No answer.

“You can‘t just ignore me Ray, I’m very hard to ignore,” I informed her and adjusted myself so that I was sitting up more, frowning at the dull pain in my ribs which was softened by the morphine. It was true too, I wasn’t an easy person to ignore, and I was going to prove that. “Alright, if you really can’t hear me, then I guess you won’t react to me saying this.” I propped myself up on one elbow so that I was facing her, “Raven. I’m going to kiss you, on the mouth, unless you can hear me and will move before I can do it.”

Still, no answer.

Damn she was good at the bluffing game, I frowned as I said, “Alright, I gave you fair warning.” Then, with a sense of resolve that I couldn’t identify, I leaned forward a little quicker than I had anticipated and brought my face closer to hers, then at the last moment, she turned…however…she didn’t turn the right way.

“Hey, how come you ha--” I pressed my lips against Raven’s before she could finish her sentence and was surprised to find that she hadn’t moved. At all. I had full on kissed Raven, and she hadn’t moved an inch. Oh, fuck, she really couldn’t hear me.

_______________________________________

Raven’s Point Of View

I took a sharp intake of air as Hayden’s lips suddenly crushed mine, cutting my sentence short. My eyes widened as I stared into Hayden’s eyes, which looked about as wide as mine felt, as if he hadn’t meant to do what he had just done. Then, I realized that I was kissing him back. There was a small rift in time and I very quickly became aware of what I was doing and I pulled away from Hayden, but he leaned forward with me, keeping ours lips together for a second longer before they were separate again. My eyes darted around the room for something else to look at.

“I…you…” I touched my lips absently, trying to collect my scattered thoughts.

“Shit, Raven, I didn’t meant to do that--I swear--I told you I was going to do it, you were listening--I mean, I thought you were listening and I thought you were going to react and--and--” Hayden leaned back against his pillows, his face a fine shade of scarlet while mine must have been cherry-red.

A silence stretched between us for a minute before I stood up, and dropped his iPod back onto the table. “I’m gonna…we just…That was my…first kiss,” I informed him, sounding surprised. That really wasn’t how I pictured it happening. Took the whole romantic image out of my head. Of course, kissing Hayden wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, I was embarrassed to find how much I had actually enjoyed it.

“Sorry! I’m so sorry, I really didn’t mean to Ray. I’m serious, I--I--” Hayden was at a loss for words yet again.

“No, no, don’t worry about it, I like--”

Stop! Don’t say it you moron! I practically screamed internally.

“--Cookies!” I said quickly and walked quickly toward the door. “I’m gonna go, and you know, look for something, not you related. Maybe see some fresh air and get some doctor--Ah! Not that, I mean, you know what I meant, I gotta go.” I left on that note, my face becoming increasingly hotter as I practically sprinted down the hallway.