Last Kiss

Part One

"You have funny hair," John suddenly said from out of nowhere.

Kitty stopped biting the cap of her pen and looked at him incredulously. "Excuse me?" She didn't think she had heard him right.

"You have funny hair," he repeated. "It has this weird way of flipping over the right side of your face. There's other stuff, too. Like the way you would wrinkle your nose when you're studying really hard. Then you would kind of scratch your back from time to time instead of your head when you're stumped on something. I never really noticed any of that before."

She half-frowned, half-smiled at him in mild exasperation. "You have a really unique way with compliments, John," she told him.

He actually looked embarrassed. It was quite a disconcerting sight, John Allerdyce looking embarrassed. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I'm terrible at this. You wanna break up with me now?"

She chuckled. Impulsively, she leaned over the pile of books between them and gave him a quick kiss. "I'm seriously considering it," she teased. "I mean, okay. I have funny hair. You have girly handwriting that's so much nicer than mine. However can we make this work?"

"Hey!" He scowled. "I do not have girly handwriting!" He looked at the notes he had written down in a very neat script. Then he looked at the mess of ink on Kitty's paper. He nodded. "I see your point. This relationship is doomed."

That made her laugh. He thought she sounded so cute when she laughed that he was about to grab her and do some serious kissing when Bobby showed up and dumped his stuff on their table. He sat down without waiting for an invitation. "Hey, guys!" he said breezily. "Thought I'd find you here. I need answers for that trig assignment. Help me out, will you?"

"What the fuck do you need help in trig for?!" John exclaimed, extremely annoyed at his friend's bad timing. "I copy from you in that class." He was thinking about setting fire to a certain part of Bobby's anatomy when he was distracted from his intent by Kitty's surprised intake of breath. He suddenly realized that Peter Rasputin was towering over the three of them.

"Hi, Pete." Bobby's voice was very casual and light but the quick drop in temperature around him betrayed his tension. His eyes darted wildly back and forth from the silent Peter to the sulky John. He was clearly expecting a fight to break out between the two at any moment. And he had good reason to expect one.

Just a few weeks ago, Kitty was dating Peter. Then, God alone knew how or why, she had apparently fallen for John instead, her erstwhile tormentor and the same boy she had once publicly professed to hate with supernova proportions. Poor Peter had found out about it the hard and gut-wrenching way: he had caught them together, kissing. No violence had ensued then, thanks to Kitty's quick intercession when some very heated words started to fly, but the potential for a very interesting brawl between the two super-powered rivals still remained.

Since then everyone in the school had been waiting and preparing for the eventual explosion. Mister Summers and Mister McCoy went around placing fire extinguishers in strategic places while Miss Grey and Miss Monroe saw about reinforcing the walls, doors and windows. They also wrapped up some of the more expensive breakable stuff and moved them to the attic. Just in case. Sam Guthrie, for his part, was taking down bets on who would be the winner once the confrontation occurred. The odds at present were decidedly against John.

"Hi, Peter," Kitty greeted him shyly. She looked at John, silently begging him to be polite to the other boy, if not nice. He just looked rebellious, so she very obviously kicked him under the table.

"Ow!" He bit back a curse and glared at her, then he gave Peter a curt nod. "Hey, man."

"How are you?" Peter had also decided to be polite, for now. "I just came by to return that book I borrowed from you, Kitty. It's been with me for a while and you probably need it, too. Sorry I didn't give it back sooner."

"Oh, that's okay," she assured him. "Thanks, anyway, for returning it."

"Sure." The look he gave her then almost made John feel sorry for stealing the guy's girlfriend. Almost, because he was actually very glad that she had picked him. "Well, see you around." With one last glance at Kitty, Peter left.

As soon as he was gone, Bobby let out a deep breath of relief. An icy mist came out of his mouth when he did it. "Damn!" He frowned at John. "Why does your love life have to be so complicated?"

"Suck it, icedick!" he retorted.

"John!" Kitty frowned at him disapprovingly.

"What? Listen," he said to her. "I know you don't want the two of us to fight each other. But the fact is that he hates my guts and I pretty much hate him back."

"You don't have any reason to hate him," she pointed out. "He was the one who got hurt. We hurt him. We made this mess."

"Well, why don't you fix the mess? Go back to him if you care so much!" He stood up so quickly that he knocked his chair down. Giving the table a spiteful shove, he walked out.

"John!"

He broke into a run. He didn't want her coming after him. He knew he had acted like a jerk. He couldn't help it. Because it wasn't true what Kitty said that he had no reason to hate Peter Rasputin. He had every reason to hate the guy. He hated him because, though Kitty was with him now, she had been with Peter first. She had kissed him first, chosen him first, loved him first. And he dreaded the day when she would come to realize that she would be better off with him than with her lousy second choice. That that day would come he had absolutely no doubt. It was just how the universe worked for John Allerdyce.

Disappointment, at least, had never let him down.