Behind the Silk Curtain

Thomas smiled as he kissed me lightly upon the lips, saying, "You're beautiful." I squirmed underneath him, closing my eyes, and my lips forming an expression of disgusted. "What did I say?"

"That word…" I said, feeling him slip off me and lying on the stage beside me.

"But you are," he replied, eyeing me.

"Just…word it a different way, would you?" I said, pushing him off my body and sitting up.

Thomas rolled off my lengthy body and sat up. We watched each other a moment, unsure of what to do, when I said, "Hey, while we've got the theatre, you want to keep on rehearsing?"

His face dropped a little, disappointed that our passion could not be explored any further. Nodding slowly, he hoisted himself up and extended a hand to me. I accepted it as he helped me up to my feet. I waved him away when he tried to help me stand on the seat and lifted myself up onto the seat myself.

With a playful smile, he passed me my script and moved across the stage where we began the scene again. We got better, I thought anyway, as time passed. His eyes still gleamed as we repeated the scene for the hundredth time before we decided that it was time for food.

I pulled myself off the seat and took a thick jumper that was obviously his. I looked about, noticing that there wasn't a second jumper and I asked him about it. He waves me away, saying that he can brave the cold. To be honest, I don't believe him but I know that he won't accept the jumper if I offer it back to him.

Thomas pulled me to a small, lonely pub near the university. It had hardly anyone it and only had a few students from the university within. You could tell that they were from the university by their tired faces, the occasional t-shirt that had RADA plastered over it, or the common mannerisms of the students that attended. The last part about the mannerisms you tend to pick up things like that.

I stretched out in one of the booths, legs out in front of me and arms spread out, one over the table and one over the back of the chair. Thomas gives a small laugh as he slides into the seat opposite me. He dumps the scripts on the seat beside him and settles himself comfortably in the corner.

I flick the hood over my head, stuck my chin out and said, "'Sup?"

Thomas laughed, reaching over and pulling down my hood over my eyes so that my lips were the only thing that was revealed. He said, "Much better."

I pocked my tongue out at him as a tired waitress that clearly didn't want to be there attended to our table and slid two menu's in front of us. I pulled the hood back over my head so that I could see again. When I looked over at the waitress, I recognised it as the brown haired "Royal" from earlier.

She had a name tame attached to her revealing shirt that read "Stefani". I looked back up to her, a smirk moving across my lips. I snorted and looked down at my menu, moving my legs into more reasonable position. When I did, Thomas touched me lightly upon my foot with his. I eyed him as I studied the menu in front of me.

"Drinks," Stefani breathed unhappily.

"Do you serve alcohol?" Thomas asked. I glared at him, which only caused him to laugh. Stefani, however, just looked totally unimpressed. "Coffee, thanks. Flat white."

"At this time of night?" I questioned in which I received a raised eyebrow. He heard my unintentional rhyming, just as I had. "No no, that's alright because do what I might you'll never hear my plight."

He laughed, baring all his teeth in a flashing smile. Thomas leaned over the table and kissed me lightly upon the lips, saying, "That was awesome."

Stefani cleared her throat. It didn't make Thomas move back into his chair and causing him to order from the current position we were in -- nose to nose. He said, "She'll have caramel mocha and we'll share a magarita pizza, thanks."

"Fine," Stefani said, not writing anything down and stalking back to the kitchen near by. The door slammed behind her as she fumed to the chefs within.

I smiled as he pulled away from me, relaxing back into the booth opposite. I looked down at the table, realising that Stefani had left the menus. I took Thomas and placed his with mine before holding it out of the booth. Not but a second later did Stefani storm out of the kitchen and grabbed the menus from my outstretched hand.

"You're welcome," I shouted after her as she stormed back into the kitchen.

Thomas made an attempt to imitate me, which was a miserable attempt if I might say. I kicked him under the table where I received a pout from those thin lips of his. "Don't pout, it makes you look ugly."

"Whatever," he said, looking about him briefly before he settled his eyes on me. "I have a question for you."

"And that would be?" I said, a little intrigued.

"What happened before when we were rehearsing?" he said. "Not when we kissed because I definately know what happened there but before that."

I shook my head, saying, "I don't know. I guess I kinda blacked out between your place…sorry, our place and RADA."

"Was it because of what happened with your landlord?" he persisted in which only made me stiffen.

I played with my fingers, unable to look at him. I said, "I'm sorry you had to see that but I'm glad you were there."

"What would have happened if I wasn't?"

"The same as usual."

A concerning look jumps onto Thomas' face as he leans across the table in attempts to catch my eye. When he can't, he asks, "What do you mean by 'the same as usual?'"

"I don't really want to talk about it," I replied, deepening further into the couch in attempts to avoid his questioning. I knew that wasn't going to happen because he had already asked the initial question of what was the usual between me and my ex-landlord.

"You know you have to answer it," he said to me. "I can just see you thinking in that head of yours about how you can try and get out of this but we both know you really can't."

"If you couldn't tell, he's a drunk and always has been as far as I know," I started slowly.

"How'd your father know him?" Thomas prodded.

"Army," I said. "I know it didn't look like it but before dad became some all powerful lawyer, he was in the army for a few years. They never really lost contact but they don't speak as much as they used to."

"So how did you end up in his apartment building?" he asked.

"My father kicked me out of home because I told him I wanted to become an actress," I said. "Being a lawyer is pretty much acting, right?"

"Just a higher paid, more respected form, I guess."

"I wouldn't say being a lawyer is respected…they're thought of as blood thirsty vultures after your money."

"Would you say your father's like that?" he said as Stefani approached the booth and shoved the coffee's in front of us and disappeared once more.

I watch Thomas taking a sip of his drink before I continued, "By the time I stopped talking to him, yeah."

"How long has it been since you stopped talking to him?"

"Three years," I sighed, playing with my drink. "Maybe more."

"That's a long time to not talk a parent."

"I haven't spoken to my mother longer," I said.

"Why?"

"She died when I was a kid," I said without a second thought and took a long sip of my drink, not daring to take a look at Thomas across the table.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed you," he said so softly that I almost didn't catch what he said.

"No, it's okay," I said. "It's my life so I should be ammune to it by now."

"Have you ever talked to anyone about this before?"

"Does it look like I have?" I said, setting my drink aside and leaning into my booth's seat. "I'm not the bubbly personality like you are, Thomas."

"Tom," he corrected. "And that's probably why we get along so well."

"Getting along with people isn't my priority in life," I said. "Surviving is."

"And you've done that so far," he said. "Time to find something more, another goal to set your sights on."

"I can't just leave surviving behind…"

"You have me to help you out on that one so you can relax," he said as our pizza arrived. Stefani glared at each of us as she disappeared again.

"You haven't heard all of the story."

"What do you mean?"

"There was one last thing I was going to do for the landlord," I said. "But thanks to you, I'm pretty sure I don't have to do it." Thomas was about to take up a piece of pizza but instantly put it back down when he heard what I said. He leaned across the table. "I was late on paying rent because one of my jobs, the job that I lost, didn't pay me on time."

"What happened?" he said, reaching across the table and taking my hands for comfort, to comfort us both and not just for my own personal benefit.

"He knew I was an actress," I said, taking a deep breath. "And, as you could tell from before, was attracted to me."

"Don't tell me…" he said as I nodded, lowering my head and confirming what he thought. "I can't believe you would lower yourself to that level."

"Neither can I," I said in a small voice.

"We can stop talking about this if its making our uncomfortable," he said warmly.

I nodded as he picked up the piece of pizza he was about to eat and handed it over to me. I smiled weakly and accepted the piece of food he gave me. I slowly ate my food with Thomas watching over me. He didn't start eating for a while, watching, studying to see if I was okay.

We sat together in silence while we ate the pizza and had the rest of our drink. Thomas made me eat more then I would like to so I groaned all the way out of the store when we left, which took us a while because we fought over who would pay for the meal.

Stefani looked between us, finding the whole situation hilarious and not interrupting a moment. We finally decided to split the bill and finally left the store. We hovered close to each other as I attempted to share some of my warmth with Thomas.

Eventually, I linked arms with Thomas…no, we slipped our arms around each others waists as we made our way to the train station. When we reached the station, he buried his noise in my hair and took a deep breath. I turned to him and pressed my noise into his firm chest.

There was a sweet smell emanating from him as he drew me closer and closer to him. Any further and we would be one. A cold wind ripped through the train station as Thomas gripped me tighter as he rested his chin upon the top of my head -- and only just.

As the train arrived, Thomas dipped his head down to my ear and whispered, "I think I love you."

"No one can love me," I whispered back as I pushed him away and board the train.

He followed closely after me and took a seat beside me as we departed the platform. We didn't say a single word to each other as we reached his platform quicker then I expected. Thomas lead me from the station to his…our apartment where thumping music could be heard coming from within. Stacy had obviously started the party and it was already well underway.

"Time to face the music," Thomas said as we approached the door and he unlocked it.

I followed him in and locked the door behind me. The apartment was smoke ridden and dim with people out on the balcony drinking as if there were no tomorrow. Stacey was stumbling around the kitchen, pulling out some food from the oven and throwing it onto the kitchen bench.

She swore underneath her breath when she saw Thomas and I walk into the apartment. She then quickly moved about and cleaned up the mess that she had made. Thomas rolled his eyes as he went to the fridge and searched it for something to drink.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked as he picked out two beers and handed one to me.

He shut the door with his hip as he said, "Getting a drink."

"Why?" she spat as he opened his drink easily and threw the cap into the sink. "They don't belong to you."

"And neither does this apartment," he said. "So chillax. It's only one drink."

"Two, actually," she corrected as Thomas reached over to me and took my drink from between my fingers. He opened the drink as easily as he did mine and gave it back to me, throwing the lid where he threw his. "Look, if you're not going to go--"

"Which I don't plan to," he said, interrupting her trail of thought.

"At least take your ass someone else so I don't have to see you," she finished, her eyes piercing through me but not through Thomas who reflected her gaze straight back onto her like a mirror.

"I don't think you'll be seeing anything for very much longer," he said as he left the kitchen and motioned for me to follow. "If you want me, I'll be in my room."

"Don't count on me calling on you," she spat as he ushered me into his room, glaring at her a moment before slamming the door. "Prick."

"Scum sucking whore," Thomas spat as I turned on the light to his room and threw myself onto the bed where I sipped at my drink. Thomas joined me, squishing himself onto the edge of the bed and shoving me into the corner. "Fancy seeing you here."