*SIMON*
Penelope and I are sitting on my bed, her head on my lap. I'm quizzing her on Elocution terms and pronunciations.
Baz has been away all afternoon. It's part of our strategy in order to spend as little time together as possible. Plus, if he knew I had Penelope in our room he'd no doubt figure some way to get me into trouble.
"You know you can't be in here", I tell Penelope for the tenth time.
She doesn't want to listen, no matter how many times I tell her she can't be with me in the boys' wing.
She sighs and rolls her eyes in response.
"It's fiiiiiiiiiinnnnne. They're not going to expel The Chosen One, or his best friend."
"Whatever, I just don't want The Mage to find out."
"He won't", she says, tossing one of the flashcards at my face.
I laugh, and she laughs too.
Of course, at that moment Agatha walks in.
"Simon, I-", she stops as she sees how Penelope and I are positioned.
Penelope sits up, thinking the same thing. It's never been like that with Penelope. Penelope has her American Man, and I would never interfere. Even if Penelope didn't have a boyfriend though, there's never been anything remotely close to more than friends between us. Agatha doesn't see that though.
"How'd you get through the wards?!" Penelope asks Agatha with a look belief on her face.
Agatha just purses her lips.
"Never mind," she says and spins on her heel.
I look to Penelope with wide eyes.
She gives me an incredulous look. "GO," she almost yells. "Go talk to her!"
"Right," I say sheepishly.
I run out the door, and catch Agatha just before she turns the corner.
"Agatha, don't be mad."
"Do you want to explain what that was?", she asks me, crossing her arms.
"Just, please, don't be mad" I mutter. "I don't want you to be angry."
"God Simon!" "You don't even care!" "You just don't want to be in trouble!" "Try and explain to me what I mean to you and why you even want to be with me!"
Uh oh. I'm not good at this boyfriend thing. Ummmm. I can see her clench her jaw at my hesitation. She turns to leave. No no no. I gotta do something. I grab her arm and kiss her. I haven't done that in a while.
At first she seems as though she wants to pull away, but eventually she sinks into the kiss, pressing her body against mine.
The kiss is pleasant. I think she's a good kisser, though I don't have anybody to compare to. She starts to get a bit rough, pulling at me and deepening the kiss even more.
I don't understand Agatha. Why would anybody want to be so physical when kissing? Kisses are nice, but don't need to be so wild.
At that moment, with Agatha running her fingers through her hair, her lips sucking so hard on my, I can feel the blood collecting in them, and me standing there, try to figure out how to kiss her with the same rhythm that I can't seem to get a hang of, Baz, of all people, walks around the corner.
He almost runs right into us, but manages to dodge our bodies.
I can see him give us a disgusted look, with more hatred in him then normal, which is saying a lot.
He walks past us, storming into our room.
I pull away. "Um, that was... interesting," I tell Agatha.
"Why so rough, what's gotten into you?" I ask.
At that her face crumples, with a single tear rolling down her chin. Of course. I said the wrong thing again. Stupid, stupid.
"See, that's my point," she whispers. "It's like only a half of you is ever present in this relationship."
"Goodbye, Simon."
With that she walks off.
"Bye?"I say quietly, so nobody but me can hear it.
God. This is all Baz's fault. He made her break up with me. First, he messed with our relationship. Before him everything was good and steady. Then he has to break my concentration while I was kissing Agatha. Somehow, he manages to worm his unbeating heart into every situation and make it worse. I turn and go back into our room.
"What the hell?!" I yell. "Why do you always get in the way?!" I yell at him. I clench and unclench my fist.
*BAZ*
Am I seriously being scolded by Snow right now?
"Me?!" I answer with disbelief. "You're the one who can't keep to himself, airing your fucking drama all over the damn hallways, where I'm trying to walk!"
God, today had been yet another shitty day of shitty classes and shitty blood-sucking and the last thing I needed was SHITTY SNOW.
I thought I was finally free, able to go to my room and sit quietly, to have some peace and quiet. I had no idea I would turn the corner and run right into my worst fucking nightmare. They were at it like they had a never-ending hunger that could only be satisfied with consuming each other.
It made me sick to my stomach. I should be doing that, not Agatha. It was all wrong, and it was the last thing I needed.
"Get your goddamn Magic tutor out of the room, and while she's at it why don't you just go to."
"I'm going to take that as my queue to leave...", Bunce said, slipping out of the room.
"She's not my magic tutor, and why are you so mad?!" "Agatha was my girlfriend, I had every right to kiss her if I want!", Simon was smoking now.
Now it was getting good.
I laughed, but I could taste the venom in it.
Snow realized that he had just revealed to me that they had broken up, and I could see that she had clearly broken up with him. He was frazzled, and the room started to fill up with the scent of burning, and I knew he was about to erupt.
"Well I guess she realized that snogging me was better than snogging some knock-off "Chosen One" like you, and has come to her senses!"
And then Snow erupted.
Flames spurted around me. I knew what would happen if one of those flames came even a hair to close, but somehow, I couldn't find it in me to care. Snow would always hate me, and I just couldn't find it in me to avoid the deathly flames coming so close to me.
So, it stood there, in the midst of the chaos, and let Simon Snow rain hell.
*SIMON*
Shit. Shit. I couldn't stop it. Usually Penelope or somebody helped to gain control, but I was fire and frenzy, and I couldn't reign my power in. I shuddered at the effort, but fire still erupted around me.
Then, in a moment of clarity in all the chaos, I saw Baz. He was standing, his shoulder's slumped, doing nothing to protect himself. I knew what he was, I knew what fire would do to him. Why wasn't he moving?! I wanted to run over, and shove him out the door and lock it behind him, and protect him, but I was afraid to get any closer. I didn't understand. Did Baz have a death wish?! I hated his guts, yet seeing him close to death gave me such a panic I couldn't breathe.
Imagine how this would look! It would look like I tried to kill Baz!
So, I did something I didn't know I was capable of doing, and grabbed at my power, and the fire, and pulled back.
And so, two boys stood in a small room, silently facing each other, burnt walls and ash floating through the air, and stared.