Chapter 4
Gale was standing in front of her mirror trying on all of her potential outfits for her date with Caine. Was it even a date? She had been sure that it was the other day when he asked her but now she wasn't so sure. Maybe he just wanted to study or something. Maybe he wanted to borrow notes from a subject. Maybe this, maybe that. So many "Maybe's" running through he head. Gale was completely disoriented but one this she knew for sure was that she was going to be hanging out with Caine today at one and she had to make an impression. This was the biggest day of her life and if she screwed this one up she might just have to die of shame.
Gale proceeded for the next hour and a half to try on different styles and personalities. Some as horrible as "Sexy Librarian", or "Dorris Day", or even "Cheerleader", none of which were her real style.
"What would Caine like?" was running over and over through Gales mind.
Gale walked back over to her closet and all the way she had to tip toe through the clothes piled all over the floor. Once she had made it pas the land mines and mountains she was at her closet. It didn't have nearly as many clothes in it as usual, most were on the ground, but all of the clothes left were nice-ish.
Gale pulled out a black pencil skirt and held it up. She had gotten this a while ago but it would still fit. "Best to try it on first," she told herself. Gale started to pull of the white skinny jeans clinging to her legs. She started by moving them down her hips but once she got to her mid thigh area it started to get harder to peel off. If anyone had looked in the window she would have looked mad, jumping on one leg trying to pull off her pants and falling over every fifth bounce.
After about five minuets of wrestling with the pants she was wearing the black skirt. It was about three inches above her knee and Gale decided that she could stand to show a bit more skin so she rolled in the top of the skirt until it was about 8 inches higher. Gale didn't want to have her butt be seen, just highlighted.
"Now to find a top," Gale muttered to herself. She started flipping through all the hanger to find a shirt that would match the skirt and make her look desirable.
She settled on a light blue, long sleeve v-neck. Gale made her way over to her full length mirror and viewed her outfit choice. Shortish skirt that showed off her legs and a deep V shirt that gave her the appearance that she had sizable breasts. It also helped that she was wear the most pushy-uppy bra she could find. She didn't look as much like Diana as she had hoped, but whatever.
"Good enough," Gale said smiling, "Onto necklaces."
"What are you doing with her Caine?" Diana asked as she strode into Caine and Drake's room without knocking.
"Oh, come on in. It's so nice to find someone so polite nowadays," Drake said his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Diana glared his way and said with a voice like a dagger, "You can leave now."
"This is my room so you can piss off," Drake bit back, "Bitch," he added as an after thought.
"Can we please put the claws away now?" Caine asked with a more than annoyed tone. He was sitting in the chair by his desk. Drake was standing nearer to the door.
Diana turned her head to Caine and snarled. "Are you going to answer my question?" Diana said in an accusing voice.
"You already know Diana. And stop judging because you've done way worse."
Diana raised her eyebrow and glared.
"I'm just being nice and trying to make friends." Caine said, finally answering the question.
"Caine, even I know that's a lie. Don't pretend that we're stupid" Drake said with a steely voice as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. Now both Diana and Drake had very unhappy body language.
"What do you want me to say? That I'm using her? Well, yeah I am." Caine said as though he was trying to justify it to himself. "I'm seeing how far I can push her and how far she'll go for me. It's an easy target. Why are you accusing me like this? It's not like I'm hurting her. I'm just having some fun." Caine put his hands up in defense. "I'm not doing anything wrong."
"You have a twisted version of 'fun', Caine." Diana said before she stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
Caine sat back in his chair and let out a huge breath. He then rested his elbows on his knees and put his head into his hands. His dark hair slid through his fingers which her then grabbed and tugged lightly. He ran his hands through his hair a few times and then rested his chin in his palms.
"What am I doing wrong?" Caine asked Drake, shaking his head in disbelief
"You talk to her." He replied referring to Diana.
"I just don't know what to do around her."
"We could always just kill her?" Drake hinted and looked at him and raised his eyebrows.
"Ha ha Drake," he said dryly. "I don't want her dead, I just want her to like me."
"I don't get you. Why would you ever like a whore like her? She's slept with practically half the guys on campus-" was all Drake could say until he had been thrown against the wall opposite of where he had been standing.
Caine was still sitting but he had a sinister snarl across his lips. "Don't talk about her like that Drake. It's impolite."
"So is throwing people across the room." Drake muttered under his breath and he picked himself off of the ground.
"I am going to go to hang out with Gale." Caine said as he got up and smoothed his white shirt. Caine started walking out of the room but looked back to add one more thing, "Clean yourself up Drake. You look awfully ruffled." Then he strode out and closed the door behind him.
At one thirty five Cine came into the common room. Gale had been waiting in her skirt and low cut sweater for almost an hour. She had gotten there early and brought a book to look clever. After about 15 minuets of skimming Gormenghast (she chose it for the smart sounding title) until she got incredibly bored and moved onto Temple Run on her phone.
Gale was sitting in a circle of chairs with her back facing the doorway where Caine walked in. He could tell it was her because of the light brown hair, cropped just longer than her shoulders, with that one piece of hair pinned back. She was kind of pretty he thought. Nice eyes, good hair, knew how to use makeup, but she was nothing like Diana. No one was.
Caine waltzed up behind Gale. "Been waiting long Gale?" Caine said with a voice that could have floated across clouds.
Gale jumped when she heard it and dropped her phone. She folded over over quickly to retrieve her cell. She grabbed it with fingernails the same shade as her skirt. Gale lifted up her head before the rest of her self and saw that he was now standing in front of her. Gales eyes traveled up his body and taking in the view.
Caine was wearing his school uniform minus the tie and blazer. His pants had a perfectly crisp crease that stayed straight all the way up. His glowing white shirt had the first two buttons undone so you could just see the start of his toned chest. His hair was tussled and misplaced, but only enough to give it that sexy bedhead look and not slob-like. All in all, Caine Soren was perfect.
"Gale...?" Caine asked again, sounding kind of nervous.
"Yeah! Yeah, sorry. Zoned out a bit." Gale straightened up forgetting completely about her dropped phone.
Caine laughed his lovely, smart, charming laugh bent over and picked up her cell. "I noticed that," he said as her gave the device back to her.
"Thanks," Gale said with a huge dorky grin that spread across her entire face.
"My pleasure. It's pretty nice outside, do you want to go for a walk?" he asked motioning out the sunny window.
"Yeah, yeah. That sounds perfect." She couldn't wipe the stupid smile off of her face.
Caine held out his hand and Gale eagerly took it. Gale felt a jolt of electricity flow through her fingers. He helped her out of the chair, let go of her hand, and started to walk towards the door without waiting for Gale to smooth down her skirt. She walked quickly to catch up and by the time she did, he was outside already. When she caught up she tried to engage a conversation. "It's really sunny out," she stated.
"Really? We're going to talk about the weather?" Caine asked. Gale thought that he sounded disappointed almost.
Gale scrambled and tried to think of something better to say. "Well what do you want to talk about then?" was the best she could come up with.
They had just turned a corner along the gravel path surrounded by manicured green grass. A little ways down there was a bench that faced the forest and you could just see the small beach town and the ocean over the top of the was quite pretty.
"I think we should sit down and get involved in a very interesting conversation and talk for a few hours before we go back inside so that I have enough time to contemplate kissing you," Caine said without wavering at all. Gale stopped walking in her tracks and had to take a second to make sure that he had actually said those words and she wasn't just making them up. It was like he had read her mind.
"I... ah..." Gale could only stutter.
Caine just laughed. His smile seemed to shimmer in the light and make him gleam.
He reached his hand down and out and took hers in his and led the way to the bench. All Gale could do was follow like a little kid and she had to mentally tell herself to closer her mouth.
They sat together and Caine moved his leg every minuet or so until it was intertwined with Gale's. They talked about meaningless stuff like math and weird teachers and TV shows for about twenty minuets but then Caine's face grew more serious. "So, what ended you up here? You're not gay right? Because I heard about this one girl and that's why her parents sent her." Caine asked.
Gale laughed lightly, "Definitely not gay. Definitely. My, uh... My parent's don't really like me all that much and I did some stupid stuff so they decided to ship me out here to "straighten me out". Their words, not mine."
"Hmm." Caine said then added, "Has it been hard?" he asked with the most sincere eyes Gale had ever seen. He looked so sad Gale felt like just reaching out and grabbing his face and pulling it to hers.
"It was. Then it got better," she said looking straight into his eyes.
Caine put his hand on her shoulder and moved it up to her neck then her cheek. Slowly her leaned forward and closed his eyes. It wasn't very hard to figure out what he was trying to do. Gale's heart leapt and she wasted no time in scuttling forward and leaning her head in as well.
They were just about to kiss when a noise made them both jump and turn to look at the person who was standing behind the bench for who knows how long.
Diana could not believe she was doing all of this for that boy.
After she had stormed out Caine had ran out of the door to catch up with her. "Diana, come on. I just need this one favor."
"No way Caine. I am not going to help you hurt that girl."
"Why not? It'll be fun," he said smiling a little. Diana on the other hand looked mad enough to commit murder. "Oh, come on Diana! This is loving compared to how you treat people. How you treat me."
Diana's head shot to look at him and Caine braced himself for the slap he knew was coming. "Piss off Caine," was all she said.
Diana started to walk away again but Caine stopped her by grabbing her arm just below the elbow. He didn't pull or put any pressure, it wasn't there to do anything. Just a threat. A threat that Diana took very seriously.
She looked down at his hand and said slowly, "Remove your hand. Now."
Caine raised his hands in a defensive gesture, dropped them to his sides, than said, "So, you up for it?"
"Whatever." Diana turned and strutted away from him.
"Diana!" He yelled and she spun around. "Are you in?" Caine asked the girl slowly, as if he was talking to a child.
"Yes Caine, I'm in," she growled then left him in the hallways.
Caine turned around smiling.
Diana was now leaning up against the school building and watching two of er classmates. One, falling head over heels, the other, playing games with anyone he could get his hands on. She watched as the boy she knew and hated lead the puppy dog of a girl to a bench.
"Poor girl." Gal clearly didn't know but that bench was known all through out Coates. It had a romantic view over the beach and it was isolated and it made you feel like you and the other person on the bench was all that mattered. Caine was clearly pulling out all the stops. That poor, clueless girl.
Diana watched the silhouettes of the teenagers getting closer and closer until they had to have been breathing in each others perfume. Diana started to make her way over but was stopped by a harsh voice. "Who's life are you ruining now Ladris? Not like I'm not in support of your bitchyness." Drake Merwin was stalking towards her now. Smiling his evil grin that could cut diamonds.
"Drake, I don't have time for you. I'm on a schedule so piss off," she said and turned around to start walking.
"Have fun, whore," Drake called after her. Diana flipped her hair over her shoulder and showed Drake a profile of her perfect features. His eyes lingered on her hair then made their way down to the small of her back then even further down south. He liked they way she swung her hips. Drake smiled, turned around, and went to find some 7th graders to scare.
Meanwhile Diana was still a few meters from the bench when she saw Caine move his hand onto the girl. As he did so his eyes flicked in her direction, then back as her smiled. He moved his hand up, and up, and started to lean in. Diana quickened her pace and almost jogged to the bench. She stopped about 4 feet from where Caine and his "girlfriend" were sitting.
'I could not interrupt his and make him deal with his own mess...' she pondered. But Diana knew that she didn't want Caine kissing a girl who wasn't her. It wasn't that she fancied him or anything like that, it was more like when your dog goes up to your friend instead of you. She didn't want her power of Caine to be weakened by some idiot little girl who didn't have enough chest to fill the hooker low V-neck she was wearing. Diana couldn't let that happen, so she did what she had told Caine she would do and walked so she was close enough to hear them breathing and she cleared her throat as loudly as she could.
Gale jumped so high she fell off the wooden seat beneath her. From the ground she looked up at Diana and saw a smirking mouth and glinting eyes. Caine had stood up and closed his hands behind his back. He looked embarrassed and nervous and he kept shifting his eyes between Diana and her. It took Gale a moment to realize that I was sitting on a gravel path still. She started to pull herself up slowly using the bench as support. She was hoping that Caine would come and help her but he just kept his distance. Once I was standing up I looked Diana straight in the eyes and hissed, "What do you want?"
She just looked at me and let out a small laugh. Then she turned to Caine and said in a voice like honey, "Caine, could I talk to you about something?"
Caine took a few seconds of looking back and forth until he answered, "Sure Diana."
She smiled and started to walk away, not waiting for Caine.
"Um, Gale... I'll talk to you later ok?" And before I could answer he was running after the dark haired girl.
"Yeah, no problem!" she called after him. "Bye!" Gale added just before they were out of sight.
And then, with as much dignity as Gale could muster, she walked back along the path all by herself until she was back at the main building. One of the most embarrassing thing she had ever had to do was to walk into the hall where everyone had seen her leave but not return with Caine.
Gale stormed up to her room and slammed the door. "This is all the bitches fault! It was perfect and then she had to ruin it." Gale walked over and stood in front of her mirror. She smiled, "Don't worry Caine. I'll get rid of her for us. I'll get rid of the slut."
Then Gale raised her hand and with a snap of her fingers the mirror shattered and fell to the floor.
"I'll get rid of her."
