Murusaki
01-18-2009, 06:51 PM
Hi! I am new to these forums, I'm Murusaki. I'm in eleventh grade, and have fairly limited writing experience, and look to improve. I wrote this for an English ISU this year, and would greatly appreciate further criticism. Please, be brutal. Tear apart 'till your hearts content. I can take it :brow:
~Lin~
Winter at last. The powdery snow ball feels good between our bare hands as I toss it between them. “There’s nothing good about winter” Shay proclaims loud and clear in our head speaking for about the fifth time tonight. I’ve only been awake for two hours, and my night is already ruined.
“Heads up Shay!” someone cries behind us. Not realizing they meant me, a ball of cold powder collides with my head. Perfect, a crappy night with two people’s thoughts crowding my head made even worse.
“What was that about?!” I holler angrier than necessary, turning to see Ke grinning behind me. Ke is from my English class, and to be honest, I think he has a crush on me.
“Sorry” Ke mumbles, his feelings clearly hurt by my tone. I don’t care. No matter how early it is, confusing me for Shay is weird. Why would he be thinking about her? I continue walking, my back hunched and our hands deep in my pockets. In the very bottom of my left pocket I find a packet of cigarettes. Score, I thought I had used the last few up last night.
“Really Lin, please” nags Shay who hates smoking.
“My turn” I think back bitterly before my turning my attention back to Ke. “Hey, Ke, do you have a light?” I ask.
“No, sorry Lin. I don’t smoke” Ke apologizes.
“Good. We don’t need any more poison in our system.” I drown out the rest of Shay’s anti-smoking speech while Ke and I approach the school doors which Ke hurries to open for me. A little odd, he knows I can’t stand him. I brush off the gentlemanly gesture as my friend Leah follows me into the school towards my locker.
“Hey Leah” I say, not turning to face her, knowing she is right behind me.
“Hey Lin. Got a cig? Left mine at home.”
“No lighter though.” I respond, stopping in front of my locker and upending the package from my pocket into Leah’s hand. I take one for myself as Leah pulls a lighter out of her pocket, allowing the flame to be exposed long enough for both of the cigarettes to light. I lean against the wall and inhale the smoke deeply. The smoke causes our body to lurch forward involuntarily in a fit of coughing, the phlegm gathering in our mouth. I spit it out on the ground, waiting for a few harsh words from Shay about how spitting is “disgusting”.
“Christ Shay! Can you stop ogling his ***?!” This isn’t the first time it’s happened. Whenever I let my guard down Shay bursts through, takes control of our body and does something humiliating, but this is an all new low. Staring at him?! In front of Leah?! Shay doesn’t bother to respond to my angry thoughts with anything but a flush in our cheeks.
“What the hell are you looking at Lin? Oh my god, you’re blushing! Who is it?” Leah demands, looking around for who caused the blush. Unfortunately, the only other person around was him.
“Oh my God! That’s disgusting! He is such a nerd!” Screams Leah, disgusted with my apparent choice in men.
“****. No –I, don- It-Shay...” I stumble, trying to explain. I wasn’t looking at them
“Shay? Please.” Leah looks at me like I was a lunatic. ‘Course she would. Shay shouldn’t have any control on my time. Blaming **** on the Days got real old in grade two. People barely believed it then, and there’s sure as hell no way they’ll believe you now.
“Let’s go” I mutter shoving my way past Leah.
*Shay*
Sunlight streams through the gymnasium windows where we all sleep, waking us from our deep nap. Every school across the globe does the same thing I would imagine, set up cots for their students to transition from Night to Day and vice versa in. Surprisingly the nap was dreamless despite Lin and I having much to talk about. I’d apologize now, but she’s fuming and won’t respond. Lin has every right to be furious I admit. I mean, I am totally violating her privacy, I would be angry if she did the same. Our thoughts are meant to be separate, our own. The only time we should be sharing thoughts is in our sleep. It’s an unspoken rule that everyone is expected to follow. An unspoken rule I’ve been breaking since I was young even though it’s selfish of me to do so.
“Hey Shay!” A voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I turn in response. It’s Re. We’ve known each other since pre-school and have been inseparable ever since.
“Hey Re! Have you grabbed breakfast yet?” I say looking up at Re’s smiling face.
“Nope, not yet, was just about to head down to the cafeteria actually. Wanna join me?” Re offers, extending her hand.
“Sure.” I accept both the offer and Re’s hand, following her through the gym, passing their cot on the way. I sneak a peek, careful not to be caught staring like I was last night. They must have heard Leah shrieking in disgust last night and they would’ve talked about it during their nap. The sight of them still asleep so peacefully constricts my chest. It’s easier to pretend he’s not a Night when they’re asleep. The gymnasium door swings open and Re holds it, waiting patiently for me to catch up, and I snap my head up immediately in response and scuttle through the door hoping Re didn’t notice me staring at them.
“So, what’s been going on with you lately?” Re asks as we walk through the hallway.
“What do you mean?” I counter, genuinely confused.
“You’ve been so quiet lately.” My smile falters at Re’s observation. Naturally Re has noticed the change, I’m usually so bubbly but lately I’ve been wrapped up in our head thinking about him.
“It’s… Er… It’s just the winter. All of Lin’s extra time is rubbing off on me I suppose.” I grin awkwardly as our eyes dart around the room, looking for a conversation starter as an escape and fall on a pink slip of paper taped to the wall announcing the winter formal in a week’s time. Winter formal lasts two hours during the day, and two during the night with a brief nap in between. It’s compromise, an attempt at pleasing both the Nights and the Days.
“Hey, Re, are you going to the dance?” I ask, grateful for an escape.
“Of course! You are too right?” Re exclaims, mercifully accepting the change in subject.
“Yea! Are you going to ask anyone?” I keep up my happy tone of voice. The longer I pretend the better chance I have of not being asked awkward questions.
With a blush Re responds: “Maybe.”
“Who! Who! You’ve got to tell me!”
“Lu.” Re giggles.
“Lu?” I ask, our ribs loosening and our heart plummeting into our stomach nausea flooding our body.
“Yea, Lu! He’s sooooo handsome. And smart, and clever, and have you seen him play foo...” I let Re chatter on happily. Why spoil her fun? It’s not her fault that... Well...
“So, are you thinking of asking anyone?” Re says, asking the question I had hoped she wouldn’t.
I don’t have the heart to tell her so I lie: “Nope. Why spend the afternoon with one guy? Why not have fun with everyone?” I throw in the last part to lift the disappointed look from Re’s face. Satisfied with the lie Re continues on about Lu. I shouldn’t be upset. But what if he says yes? I would die. No. It shouldn’t matter. I don’t like Lu, he’s nice and all, but not my type.
“Do you think he’ll go with me?” Re says interrupting my thoughts.
“Of course! Why wouldn’t he want to go with you! Just look at you” I exclaim after a moments silence.
“Shay... Are you okay? You look upset... Is it- Is it Lu? You don’t like Lu, do you?!” Re groans.
I force a laugh: “No! No. I don’t like Lu! Not like that! Listen, I have to get to class, I’ll talk to you after school! We could, um, go dress shopping for formal! I-I’ll see you then? Kay?” Our voice was a little squeakier than usual as I wave and hurry off in the opposite direction ending the conversation. Shay’s wrong. I don’t like Lu, not in that way at least. My feelings are much more complicated. I like Ke.
~Lin~
So, Shay likes Ke. That’s more than clear now, I always kind of guessed, but now I have an admission.
“You were listening?!” Shay screeches in the back of my mind.
“Yea, I just know how to shut up and let you have your turn.” I retort.
“Why would you do that to me?!” Shay whines. My God can she really not figure it out?
“Why would you?” That shut her up all right. What kind of response could she possibly come up with? Now that she’s shut up the real fun can begin. I’m sick and tired of her butting into my life. If I make my life hard for her to watch, she’ll stop butting in.
There’s an extra bounce in our step as we walk the same beaten path to school. There’s also extra makeup on our face, and an extra attempt to smile. I round the corner that joins our court to the next main street and our eyes lock on target.
“Ke! Ke! KEEEE!!! Over here!” I wave genuinely smiling now.
Ke turns to see who’s calling him. I race up to his side and hook our arm into his.
“How are you?! My god we haven’t talked in ages” I’m laying it on a little thick, I know, but I can’t help it. I’m just enjoying myself to damn much.
“I... I um... Well... I’m okay... I gue...” Ke stutters obviously shocked that I’m speaking to him.
“Aren’t you so excited it’s finally winter?!” The tone of our voice is starting to get a little nauseating.
“Ye... Yea I guess. The extra time is nice. Not to crazy about the snow...” Ke stutters considerably less this time. The shock must be wearing off.
“What’s your favourite part about winter? The snowball fights?” I tease and rustle our hand through his hair. Ew. I can’t believe I did that, I’m getting carried away. I wipe our hand on my pant leg.
“Sorry about that Lin...” Ke blushes
“About what?” I ask, genuinely confused, thinking he saw me wipe my hand on my pants.
“Well... About yesterday... Y’know, I didn’t mean to get you guys confused.” Oh, right. That’s a good thing to apologize for.
“Oh that? Happens all the time. Don’t worry about it!” Ke tilts his head to the side, truly confused. Of course he’d be confused. No one ever gets Days and Nights confused. There’s no reason for it! They never mix. Unless you’re like Shay and don’t know how to take turns. I hear a grumble from the back of our head. I must’ve hit a sweet spot. I stifle a laugh and continue on, avoiding the topic of his mix up.
“You know what my favourite part about winter is?” Ke gives me no response which was to be expected. There is no way he could know.
“The winter formal!” I dramatically “reveal”, I actually loath winter formal. Last year I actually boycotted it. It was quite hilarious, I had posters and everything.
“Didn’t you boycott formal last year?” Aw ****, I can’t believe he remembered.
“Me? No! It was probably Leah or someone”. I lie, hoping he’ll buy it.
“I’m pretty sure it was you”. Christ, can this kid not play along?
“I. Think. You. Are. Mistaken.” I force through gritted teeth.
“Oh. Okay.” Ke gives up arguing and turns his attention to the sidewalk.
“But anyways! I was wondering. Do you have, um, er, anyone special in mind?”
Ke looks at me incredulous and I meet the look with a flirtatious bat of our eyelashes. Oh God I think I am going to have to go kill myself. Throw myself in to busy traffic. Light myself on fire.
“Well, kinda.” Ke says, his stutter returning.
“Oh” I pout making our glossed lips as big as possible. “Who?”
“Wel-well, uh, um, you, I-I gue...” Ke begins. I don’t let him finish his sentence and throw myself into his arms, pressing our lips against his.
“I hope you’re watching Shay” I think smugly. I take the shrieking in the back of my mind as a yes.
*Shay*
I lean against the gymnasium wall, the dress Re and I picked out last week scrunches up against the brick, as I watch the other students dance. The possible damage doesn’t bother me I just want to get out of the gym as quickly as possible. I’m only here because if I wasn’t it seem out of place. The sight of everyone else having fun without me is distressing and I fight against the tears which manage to drip from our eyes. The slow song that was playing ends and Re comes running over to me. On the way her expression changes from glee to concern.
“Shay! What’s wrong?” Re asks throwing her arms around us in a tight embrace, noticing I have been crying.
“Oh, that, I just had some dust in my eye. I knew I should’ve worn waterproof mascara. Do you have any makeup on you? I probably look disastrous.” I say, wiping at our eyes with our arm.
“Yeah, you do” Re says with a chuckle. “Come on, let’s go get you cleaned up” Re says as she grabs my hand and tugs me out of the gym down the hall and into the bathroom where I splash water on our face, ridding myself of smeared makeup. “Here” Re offers, handing me some paper towels to dry our face.
“So, have you danced with anyone yet?” Re asks, pulling some fresh lip gloss from her purse.
“Nuh uh” I gargle, our lips stretched taught as Re applies lip gloss to them.
“How come? I thought you said you were going to have fun with a bunch of people tonight? And don’t lie”.
“It’s just, just that, well, I-I was hoping to dance w-with Ke.” I confess avoiding Re’s gaze.
“Ke. Do I know him? The name doesn’t sound familiar.” Shay asks, disbelief colouring my face. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You have no idea who I’m talking about? Are you serious? How could you possibly not know?”
“Is he any of our classes?”
“Not really. I mean, in a way yes.” The sound of realization clicking in Re’s head was almost audible.
“Oh my God. A Night? You want to a dance with a Night?” Re asks as we blush and turn our face away in shame. It’s not normal. I’ve never heard of it happening before. Probably because Days leave their Nights alone and let them live their own lives instead of constantly interfering and then falling in love with another Night. Tears of frustration begin to stream down our face. I’m frustrated with myself for being so weak to temptation, and I’m frustrated that I can’t have Ke, and I’m frustrated that Lin’s voice will constantly be there in the Day taunting me. I can avoid it at night of course, I’ve started shutting down as I should. I can’t handle twenty four hours of torment.
“Whose is he?” Re asks, pressing on in spite of my tears.
“Lu’s” I tell her, finally raising our eyes which are swimming with tears to meet hers.
“O-Oh my God. Shay, are you okay?!” Re asks as I shake our head no, tears flooding down our face. Re pulls me into a tight embrace and we stay that way until we fall asleep for our nap.
~Lin~
I stretch, in pain from having fallen asleep in the bathroom. I feel disgusting as Shays tears made the eyeliner and mascara crunchy which glued our eyes together. Not to mention this dress is hideous and prudish. If I was here for me, I would’ve bought another dress, but it’s not about me anymore.
I turn on the faucet and splash water onto our face, ridding it of the smudged makeup before digging into Shay’s purse and pulling out her standard lip gloss and eye liner. I’ve watched her carefully for the past view days while she applies her makeup to learn just how she does it.
It takes me a few tries and a lot of makeup remover, but I think I mastered Shay’s style. It’s time to go, and I dash out of the bathroom, our heart racing. As I enter the gym, I can see nothing but a large mass of bodies grinding against each other. The Nights are so much more fun than the Days. I’ll never see such “promiscuous” dancing at a Days dance. I’m going to miss it. I stand on my tip-toes, peering over the heads of sweating Nights. Over at the punch bowl is Ke, looking awkward, but right where we agreed to meet. I shove my way through the dancing mass with great difficulty but I manage.
“Hey Ke” I rasp.
“Hey Lin. A-are you ready?” Ke asks, his voice heavy with anticipation.
“Y-Yea. I think so. L-Let’s just get it over with” I don’t want to think about it. I just want to get it over with.
“Thanks again Lin. I really appreciate it.” Ke is looking in our eyes intensely, clearly anxious.
“Yea. No problem. Now just kiss me.” I mutter. Ke obeys more than happily, lightly grabbing our chin and tilting it up towards his face. His kiss is light at first, nervous, but with the promise of things to come his lips soon quicken their tempo. I close our eyes and scream, as loud as I can in our mind: “Shay! Shay! Come out here!”
*Shay*
“Shay! Shay! Come out here!” Lin’s screams reverberate through our mind. I’m not going to come out. I’m not going to subject myself to this pain anymore.
~Lin~
“It’s not working!” I say, pulling away from Ke, distressed.
“Keep trying Lin” is his only response before placing his lips back onto ours. I close our eyes and prepare to try once more.
“Please, please Shay. I’m sorry, okay?!”
*Shay*
“Please, please Shay. I’m sorry, okay?!” Sorry? That is rich, though I suppose a peak wouldn’t hurt. I’m not going to see anything she hasn’t told me about anyways.
~Lin~
“What the hell do you want Lin?!” Shay demands from our mind. Finally, with her present I can let go without fear of collapse.
“She’s here Ke.” I inform him before I let go.
*Shay*
I feel our body slacken as I yell at Lin. Wait. I feel our body slacken? What is happening?!
“Lin! What the hell is happening!” I screech through our mind, this is disorienting. This is not normal.
“Good. It worked. We weren’t sure if it would or not. Not that it’s ever really been tried or anything. But we figured it was the same principal as sleeping, just let go and drift off while you grow stronger.”
“We?” Whose we?
”Look right in front of you Shay.” Lin thinks with a laugh.
Wha? Right in front of me? O-Oh. Oh my God. It’s...
“Ke!” I scream, flinging our arms around him and clinging on to him for dear life.
”Looks like you’re not the only one who can’t help but interfere.”
“O-Oh my gosh. Thank you so much Lin! I am so sorry! I’ll never butt in again! Thank you!”
“Don’t worry about it. You were right.”
“Right?” I ask.
“Yea. There’s nothing good about winter. Way too cold.” Lin says as I burrow our face into Ke’s chest, unbearably happy. I’m a Night.
~Lin~
Winter at last. The powdery snow ball feels good between our bare hands as I toss it between them. “There’s nothing good about winter” Shay proclaims loud and clear in our head speaking for about the fifth time tonight. I’ve only been awake for two hours, and my night is already ruined.
“Heads up Shay!” someone cries behind us. Not realizing they meant me, a ball of cold powder collides with my head. Perfect, a crappy night with two people’s thoughts crowding my head made even worse.
“What was that about?!” I holler angrier than necessary, turning to see Ke grinning behind me. Ke is from my English class, and to be honest, I think he has a crush on me.
“Sorry” Ke mumbles, his feelings clearly hurt by my tone. I don’t care. No matter how early it is, confusing me for Shay is weird. Why would he be thinking about her? I continue walking, my back hunched and our hands deep in my pockets. In the very bottom of my left pocket I find a packet of cigarettes. Score, I thought I had used the last few up last night.
“Really Lin, please” nags Shay who hates smoking.
“My turn” I think back bitterly before my turning my attention back to Ke. “Hey, Ke, do you have a light?” I ask.
“No, sorry Lin. I don’t smoke” Ke apologizes.
“Good. We don’t need any more poison in our system.” I drown out the rest of Shay’s anti-smoking speech while Ke and I approach the school doors which Ke hurries to open for me. A little odd, he knows I can’t stand him. I brush off the gentlemanly gesture as my friend Leah follows me into the school towards my locker.
“Hey Leah” I say, not turning to face her, knowing she is right behind me.
“Hey Lin. Got a cig? Left mine at home.”
“No lighter though.” I respond, stopping in front of my locker and upending the package from my pocket into Leah’s hand. I take one for myself as Leah pulls a lighter out of her pocket, allowing the flame to be exposed long enough for both of the cigarettes to light. I lean against the wall and inhale the smoke deeply. The smoke causes our body to lurch forward involuntarily in a fit of coughing, the phlegm gathering in our mouth. I spit it out on the ground, waiting for a few harsh words from Shay about how spitting is “disgusting”.
“Christ Shay! Can you stop ogling his ***?!” This isn’t the first time it’s happened. Whenever I let my guard down Shay bursts through, takes control of our body and does something humiliating, but this is an all new low. Staring at him?! In front of Leah?! Shay doesn’t bother to respond to my angry thoughts with anything but a flush in our cheeks.
“What the hell are you looking at Lin? Oh my god, you’re blushing! Who is it?” Leah demands, looking around for who caused the blush. Unfortunately, the only other person around was him.
“Oh my God! That’s disgusting! He is such a nerd!” Screams Leah, disgusted with my apparent choice in men.
“****. No –I, don- It-Shay...” I stumble, trying to explain. I wasn’t looking at them
“Shay? Please.” Leah looks at me like I was a lunatic. ‘Course she would. Shay shouldn’t have any control on my time. Blaming **** on the Days got real old in grade two. People barely believed it then, and there’s sure as hell no way they’ll believe you now.
“Let’s go” I mutter shoving my way past Leah.
*Shay*
Sunlight streams through the gymnasium windows where we all sleep, waking us from our deep nap. Every school across the globe does the same thing I would imagine, set up cots for their students to transition from Night to Day and vice versa in. Surprisingly the nap was dreamless despite Lin and I having much to talk about. I’d apologize now, but she’s fuming and won’t respond. Lin has every right to be furious I admit. I mean, I am totally violating her privacy, I would be angry if she did the same. Our thoughts are meant to be separate, our own. The only time we should be sharing thoughts is in our sleep. It’s an unspoken rule that everyone is expected to follow. An unspoken rule I’ve been breaking since I was young even though it’s selfish of me to do so.
“Hey Shay!” A voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I turn in response. It’s Re. We’ve known each other since pre-school and have been inseparable ever since.
“Hey Re! Have you grabbed breakfast yet?” I say looking up at Re’s smiling face.
“Nope, not yet, was just about to head down to the cafeteria actually. Wanna join me?” Re offers, extending her hand.
“Sure.” I accept both the offer and Re’s hand, following her through the gym, passing their cot on the way. I sneak a peek, careful not to be caught staring like I was last night. They must have heard Leah shrieking in disgust last night and they would’ve talked about it during their nap. The sight of them still asleep so peacefully constricts my chest. It’s easier to pretend he’s not a Night when they’re asleep. The gymnasium door swings open and Re holds it, waiting patiently for me to catch up, and I snap my head up immediately in response and scuttle through the door hoping Re didn’t notice me staring at them.
“So, what’s been going on with you lately?” Re asks as we walk through the hallway.
“What do you mean?” I counter, genuinely confused.
“You’ve been so quiet lately.” My smile falters at Re’s observation. Naturally Re has noticed the change, I’m usually so bubbly but lately I’ve been wrapped up in our head thinking about him.
“It’s… Er… It’s just the winter. All of Lin’s extra time is rubbing off on me I suppose.” I grin awkwardly as our eyes dart around the room, looking for a conversation starter as an escape and fall on a pink slip of paper taped to the wall announcing the winter formal in a week’s time. Winter formal lasts two hours during the day, and two during the night with a brief nap in between. It’s compromise, an attempt at pleasing both the Nights and the Days.
“Hey, Re, are you going to the dance?” I ask, grateful for an escape.
“Of course! You are too right?” Re exclaims, mercifully accepting the change in subject.
“Yea! Are you going to ask anyone?” I keep up my happy tone of voice. The longer I pretend the better chance I have of not being asked awkward questions.
With a blush Re responds: “Maybe.”
“Who! Who! You’ve got to tell me!”
“Lu.” Re giggles.
“Lu?” I ask, our ribs loosening and our heart plummeting into our stomach nausea flooding our body.
“Yea, Lu! He’s sooooo handsome. And smart, and clever, and have you seen him play foo...” I let Re chatter on happily. Why spoil her fun? It’s not her fault that... Well...
“So, are you thinking of asking anyone?” Re says, asking the question I had hoped she wouldn’t.
I don’t have the heart to tell her so I lie: “Nope. Why spend the afternoon with one guy? Why not have fun with everyone?” I throw in the last part to lift the disappointed look from Re’s face. Satisfied with the lie Re continues on about Lu. I shouldn’t be upset. But what if he says yes? I would die. No. It shouldn’t matter. I don’t like Lu, he’s nice and all, but not my type.
“Do you think he’ll go with me?” Re says interrupting my thoughts.
“Of course! Why wouldn’t he want to go with you! Just look at you” I exclaim after a moments silence.
“Shay... Are you okay? You look upset... Is it- Is it Lu? You don’t like Lu, do you?!” Re groans.
I force a laugh: “No! No. I don’t like Lu! Not like that! Listen, I have to get to class, I’ll talk to you after school! We could, um, go dress shopping for formal! I-I’ll see you then? Kay?” Our voice was a little squeakier than usual as I wave and hurry off in the opposite direction ending the conversation. Shay’s wrong. I don’t like Lu, not in that way at least. My feelings are much more complicated. I like Ke.
~Lin~
So, Shay likes Ke. That’s more than clear now, I always kind of guessed, but now I have an admission.
“You were listening?!” Shay screeches in the back of my mind.
“Yea, I just know how to shut up and let you have your turn.” I retort.
“Why would you do that to me?!” Shay whines. My God can she really not figure it out?
“Why would you?” That shut her up all right. What kind of response could she possibly come up with? Now that she’s shut up the real fun can begin. I’m sick and tired of her butting into my life. If I make my life hard for her to watch, she’ll stop butting in.
There’s an extra bounce in our step as we walk the same beaten path to school. There’s also extra makeup on our face, and an extra attempt to smile. I round the corner that joins our court to the next main street and our eyes lock on target.
“Ke! Ke! KEEEE!!! Over here!” I wave genuinely smiling now.
Ke turns to see who’s calling him. I race up to his side and hook our arm into his.
“How are you?! My god we haven’t talked in ages” I’m laying it on a little thick, I know, but I can’t help it. I’m just enjoying myself to damn much.
“I... I um... Well... I’m okay... I gue...” Ke stutters obviously shocked that I’m speaking to him.
“Aren’t you so excited it’s finally winter?!” The tone of our voice is starting to get a little nauseating.
“Ye... Yea I guess. The extra time is nice. Not to crazy about the snow...” Ke stutters considerably less this time. The shock must be wearing off.
“What’s your favourite part about winter? The snowball fights?” I tease and rustle our hand through his hair. Ew. I can’t believe I did that, I’m getting carried away. I wipe our hand on my pant leg.
“Sorry about that Lin...” Ke blushes
“About what?” I ask, genuinely confused, thinking he saw me wipe my hand on my pants.
“Well... About yesterday... Y’know, I didn’t mean to get you guys confused.” Oh, right. That’s a good thing to apologize for.
“Oh that? Happens all the time. Don’t worry about it!” Ke tilts his head to the side, truly confused. Of course he’d be confused. No one ever gets Days and Nights confused. There’s no reason for it! They never mix. Unless you’re like Shay and don’t know how to take turns. I hear a grumble from the back of our head. I must’ve hit a sweet spot. I stifle a laugh and continue on, avoiding the topic of his mix up.
“You know what my favourite part about winter is?” Ke gives me no response which was to be expected. There is no way he could know.
“The winter formal!” I dramatically “reveal”, I actually loath winter formal. Last year I actually boycotted it. It was quite hilarious, I had posters and everything.
“Didn’t you boycott formal last year?” Aw ****, I can’t believe he remembered.
“Me? No! It was probably Leah or someone”. I lie, hoping he’ll buy it.
“I’m pretty sure it was you”. Christ, can this kid not play along?
“I. Think. You. Are. Mistaken.” I force through gritted teeth.
“Oh. Okay.” Ke gives up arguing and turns his attention to the sidewalk.
“But anyways! I was wondering. Do you have, um, er, anyone special in mind?”
Ke looks at me incredulous and I meet the look with a flirtatious bat of our eyelashes. Oh God I think I am going to have to go kill myself. Throw myself in to busy traffic. Light myself on fire.
“Well, kinda.” Ke says, his stutter returning.
“Oh” I pout making our glossed lips as big as possible. “Who?”
“Wel-well, uh, um, you, I-I gue...” Ke begins. I don’t let him finish his sentence and throw myself into his arms, pressing our lips against his.
“I hope you’re watching Shay” I think smugly. I take the shrieking in the back of my mind as a yes.
*Shay*
I lean against the gymnasium wall, the dress Re and I picked out last week scrunches up against the brick, as I watch the other students dance. The possible damage doesn’t bother me I just want to get out of the gym as quickly as possible. I’m only here because if I wasn’t it seem out of place. The sight of everyone else having fun without me is distressing and I fight against the tears which manage to drip from our eyes. The slow song that was playing ends and Re comes running over to me. On the way her expression changes from glee to concern.
“Shay! What’s wrong?” Re asks throwing her arms around us in a tight embrace, noticing I have been crying.
“Oh, that, I just had some dust in my eye. I knew I should’ve worn waterproof mascara. Do you have any makeup on you? I probably look disastrous.” I say, wiping at our eyes with our arm.
“Yeah, you do” Re says with a chuckle. “Come on, let’s go get you cleaned up” Re says as she grabs my hand and tugs me out of the gym down the hall and into the bathroom where I splash water on our face, ridding myself of smeared makeup. “Here” Re offers, handing me some paper towels to dry our face.
“So, have you danced with anyone yet?” Re asks, pulling some fresh lip gloss from her purse.
“Nuh uh” I gargle, our lips stretched taught as Re applies lip gloss to them.
“How come? I thought you said you were going to have fun with a bunch of people tonight? And don’t lie”.
“It’s just, just that, well, I-I was hoping to dance w-with Ke.” I confess avoiding Re’s gaze.
“Ke. Do I know him? The name doesn’t sound familiar.” Shay asks, disbelief colouring my face. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You have no idea who I’m talking about? Are you serious? How could you possibly not know?”
“Is he any of our classes?”
“Not really. I mean, in a way yes.” The sound of realization clicking in Re’s head was almost audible.
“Oh my God. A Night? You want to a dance with a Night?” Re asks as we blush and turn our face away in shame. It’s not normal. I’ve never heard of it happening before. Probably because Days leave their Nights alone and let them live their own lives instead of constantly interfering and then falling in love with another Night. Tears of frustration begin to stream down our face. I’m frustrated with myself for being so weak to temptation, and I’m frustrated that I can’t have Ke, and I’m frustrated that Lin’s voice will constantly be there in the Day taunting me. I can avoid it at night of course, I’ve started shutting down as I should. I can’t handle twenty four hours of torment.
“Whose is he?” Re asks, pressing on in spite of my tears.
“Lu’s” I tell her, finally raising our eyes which are swimming with tears to meet hers.
“O-Oh my God. Shay, are you okay?!” Re asks as I shake our head no, tears flooding down our face. Re pulls me into a tight embrace and we stay that way until we fall asleep for our nap.
~Lin~
I stretch, in pain from having fallen asleep in the bathroom. I feel disgusting as Shays tears made the eyeliner and mascara crunchy which glued our eyes together. Not to mention this dress is hideous and prudish. If I was here for me, I would’ve bought another dress, but it’s not about me anymore.
I turn on the faucet and splash water onto our face, ridding it of the smudged makeup before digging into Shay’s purse and pulling out her standard lip gloss and eye liner. I’ve watched her carefully for the past view days while she applies her makeup to learn just how she does it.
It takes me a few tries and a lot of makeup remover, but I think I mastered Shay’s style. It’s time to go, and I dash out of the bathroom, our heart racing. As I enter the gym, I can see nothing but a large mass of bodies grinding against each other. The Nights are so much more fun than the Days. I’ll never see such “promiscuous” dancing at a Days dance. I’m going to miss it. I stand on my tip-toes, peering over the heads of sweating Nights. Over at the punch bowl is Ke, looking awkward, but right where we agreed to meet. I shove my way through the dancing mass with great difficulty but I manage.
“Hey Ke” I rasp.
“Hey Lin. A-are you ready?” Ke asks, his voice heavy with anticipation.
“Y-Yea. I think so. L-Let’s just get it over with” I don’t want to think about it. I just want to get it over with.
“Thanks again Lin. I really appreciate it.” Ke is looking in our eyes intensely, clearly anxious.
“Yea. No problem. Now just kiss me.” I mutter. Ke obeys more than happily, lightly grabbing our chin and tilting it up towards his face. His kiss is light at first, nervous, but with the promise of things to come his lips soon quicken their tempo. I close our eyes and scream, as loud as I can in our mind: “Shay! Shay! Come out here!”
*Shay*
“Shay! Shay! Come out here!” Lin’s screams reverberate through our mind. I’m not going to come out. I’m not going to subject myself to this pain anymore.
~Lin~
“It’s not working!” I say, pulling away from Ke, distressed.
“Keep trying Lin” is his only response before placing his lips back onto ours. I close our eyes and prepare to try once more.
“Please, please Shay. I’m sorry, okay?!”
*Shay*
“Please, please Shay. I’m sorry, okay?!” Sorry? That is rich, though I suppose a peak wouldn’t hurt. I’m not going to see anything she hasn’t told me about anyways.
~Lin~
“What the hell do you want Lin?!” Shay demands from our mind. Finally, with her present I can let go without fear of collapse.
“She’s here Ke.” I inform him before I let go.
*Shay*
I feel our body slacken as I yell at Lin. Wait. I feel our body slacken? What is happening?!
“Lin! What the hell is happening!” I screech through our mind, this is disorienting. This is not normal.
“Good. It worked. We weren’t sure if it would or not. Not that it’s ever really been tried or anything. But we figured it was the same principal as sleeping, just let go and drift off while you grow stronger.”
“We?” Whose we?
”Look right in front of you Shay.” Lin thinks with a laugh.
Wha? Right in front of me? O-Oh. Oh my God. It’s...
“Ke!” I scream, flinging our arms around him and clinging on to him for dear life.
”Looks like you’re not the only one who can’t help but interfere.”
“O-Oh my gosh. Thank you so much Lin! I am so sorry! I’ll never butt in again! Thank you!”
“Don’t worry about it. You were right.”
“Right?” I ask.
“Yea. There’s nothing good about winter. Way too cold.” Lin says as I burrow our face into Ke’s chest, unbearably happy. I’m a Night.