Shonali had gone deathly quiet in the car, her fingers closing in a vise-like grip around her phone. It was a few minutes before Kyoya could shake her out of her reverie. He reached across taking her hands in his own and gently loosening her grip. Finally, she looked up at him, feeling a strange sensation in the pit of her stomach as she looked up into his grey eyes. "The ring. I need to find that god damn ring. Jonanthan just told me, my mother asked him to keep an eye on me. If she finds out I'm not wearing it... I really don't want to think about what would happen." She dropped her gaze. "I think I dropped it somewhere out in the football fields during practice or something..." She twisted her hands around in his so that their fingers were loosley laced together. 'Would you help me find it? I- I don't think I could do it alone."

He nodded and gently squeezed her hands in response. She looked up again and met his gaze, eyes widening a little bit. She quickly withdrew her hands again, seeming almost afraid and looked away as she spoke. "Thank you."

Kyoya started the car and pulled out of the driveway. Neither of them spoke again for the remainder of the ride. Shonali wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled her legs close to her chest, leaning her chin on top of her arms. She tried to fight the overwhelming panic washing over her, conflicting with the strange weightless freedom she felt in her left hand with out the ring. It was as though a hundred pound mass had previously been shakled to her hand had now been released. Then as she looked side ways at Kyoya, a new feeling pushed out the rest. A strange sort of burning in the pit of her stomach, the same feeling that had shot through her this morning and just a few minutes ago when he had held her hands. She felt her heart beat accelerate and looked quickly away again.

"Oh god. I really am messed up. What am I thinking, and about Kyoya of all people." She buried her head in her arms, trying to wipe her mind blank of all thoughts. That's why she didn't notice the hand resting on her shoulder for a few minutes. When finally looked up, she saw the open car door and Kyoya kneeling beside doorframe looking at her in what, for him at least, could pass as concern.

"You look unwell. You're completely flushed. Are you sure that you are okay?"

She brushed him quickly aside. "I'm fine. Let's just go look for the ring okay?" As soon as she got out of the car, her mind was wiped completely blank as she looked up at the sky. Kyoya looked at her in amusement, "What? What is it now?"

"I love the rain," Shonali said smiling dreamily. Then she was running off, talking over her shoulder to Kyoya, "I think I might have dropt it somewhere over by the bleachers when we were practicing basket tosses."

"What's a basket toss?" he asked once her had caught up. She crouched down on the ground, running her fingers through the grass. "It's where a flyer is tossed up into the air by thier bases." She gasped as she thought she spotted something but then sighed in disappointment when it turned out to be nothing but raindrops, clinging to the grass. Kyoya crouched down beside her as they continued to search. "Tell me more." He asked pretending it was just curiosity, but really just wanting to hear her voice.

"The flyers are usually the most elite athletes among cheerleaders. They are also usually the smallest and lightest. They need to have spot on balance, lightning reaction times and be the most flexible and brave. The bases are our strongest and most trustworthy. They need to be on top of things all the time because if they make a single mistake, thier flyer could fall from twenty feet up in the air with nothing but the grass to cradle her fall. Could even wind up with a broken neck."

He scoffed. "That sounds unneccessarily dangerous. Why do it?"

She leaned back on her calves and closed her eyes, "Because that feeling, that rush that you get from being that high, the feeling of being able to defy gravity itself, even if only for a few minutes is amazing. Everything I go up, I feel for a split second as if I might serisously be able to stay up there forever and fly into the clouds. But," She opened her eyes and smiled, "I know that when I do start to fall there's someone there waiting to catch me and make sure I don't hurt myself." She looked at him, "But I'm curious, what are you objecting to? The thought of the height...or the thought of having to rely on others?"

He stopped looking in the grass and met her gaze evenly. "Because what would happen if the ones you trust so completely couldn't catch you, no matter how hard they tried? Would the fall be worth living only a brief lie?" He stood up a offered her his hand and pulled her to her feet in one swift movement. They stood only inches apart and Kyoya was once again hit with the same intoxicating, irresistable scent that he smelled that morning. He suddenly smirked and raised a hand, gently running the tips of his fingers across her cheek, down her neck and trailed them along her collar bones and watching in amusement as her skin became flushed and her breathing hitched.

Her eyes narrowed at the self satisfied expression on his face, and she took a step closer, watching his expression change to one of puzzlement. "We all live lies. Sometimes, they're just better than facing what cold reality is." As she said this she held up her hand and fluttered her fingers in thanks, the newly placed ring glittering in the weak sunlight.

"You live one too."

They looked a each other wondering how far the other one would go. For his part, Kyoya wasn't sure what he wanted to focus on, what she was saying or the reaction she seemed to be involuntarily showing at thier closeness. He placed a hand on the small of her back and drew her closer, until she had no choice but to place her hands against his chest to keep some measure of separation between them. "And just what do you mean by that? He whispered, mouth next to her ear.

"I see the way you look at her." He froze. "And at the same time, the way you look at him. You tell yourself that you have no interest because there's no merit and you never do anything that has no merit and yet...there's that look in your eyes. You smiled through it all and supported them because he's your best friend and he loved her. You'd rather live the lie of not caring rather than face the truth because once you do, everything would change. You know that you'll have to face reality soon and when you do there's someone there waiting to make sure you don't get hurt. But you also know, that should they fail and let you crumple on the ground, broken, you would still forgive them unconditionally because they were the ones who let you fly in the first place."

His other hand moved unconsciously to her waist, eyes hidden by a fringe of midnight black hair dropping down into his face. "Seems there's no way to be happy then, is there?"

She shook her head, "You could always grow a pair of wings and stay up in the clouds. Then the lie would become the truth."

He felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips and he pulled back so he could look into her hazel eyes. "Why is it that whenever I think I have you figured out, you have to say something that completely throws me off again?"

"Kyoya, face it, you'll never figure me out." She said smiling sweetly and wrapping her arms around his neck. He smiled briefly before becoming serious once more. "And what would you call this?" He brushed a few stray hairs from her forehead, watching that same red flush take over her features.

"This...this is..." she pushed him gently away, "Not right. We should go." She turned to walk back towards the car. He stood there for a momment before nodding and following after her. "You're right."

They walked in silence until they reached the car and the she spoke in a soft voice, eyes downcast. "Why didn't you at least try to hold on to her?"

Kyoya looked across at the raven haired beauty as he opened the door, hand freezing on the handle. "Because I found something else. Something more precious." She met his gaze then and managed a smile, an unreadable emotion flickering through her hazel eyes. "You know, I think you might be the most selfless person I've ever met." He snorted in derision.

"What?" She shrugged. "It's attractive." He looked at her curiously now, but she merely ducked inside the car and spent the rest of the ride back looking out at the rain which had started to fall again.

"This time, I don't think I want to stand back and idly watch." He thought. "This time I think I'll try playing the game. Who knows, it could turn out to be quite interesting."


Red. Caroline had always like that particular color. Now more than ever as she vehemently splashed it across her canvas, trying to calm her mind and think straight. She liked to think that she thought in colors. Blue, yellow or orange when she was happy or grey and black when she was sad. It was weird, but she figured everyone had their own way of being themselves. Matt played golf when he needed to think, Rachel read poetry, Delilah gardened, Jason sketched, Jackson played guitar and Shonali danced. Caroline's brush suddenly stopped moving across the page as she though of her friend and her fingers automatically tightened their grip.

"This time, I'm going to win. This time, it's my turn." She muttered darkly. She didn't know what it was but things had been going badly for her for some time now and she was officially sick of it. She always lost. It wasn't for a lack of trying but she always lost. Lost at competitions, failed tests, lost guys, lost everything. Her friends, well she was glad she had them but sometimes it was hard putting up with such unbearable perfection. It was downright hair raising. They were all beautiful, more than she, richer than she, smarter than she, so much more unbearably perfect. Especially Shonali. It was so irritating. Sometimes it felt like she was the only human in a company of gods.

Caroline continued to color the canvas in red and let it fill her vision. She let her thoughts go back to a few days ago, when she had been coming out of the club room and she happened to over hear something.

"Hey Sam! WAIT UP!"

A boy with blonde hair, like spun gold turned around and smiled as the shorter brunette boy caught up. Caroline, only a few feet behind them, saw and eyes widening, hurried to hide behind one of the large stone pillars supporting the ceiling in the hallway. Sam. She had had a crush on him for as long as she could remember. He was so...so...perfect. He liked all the same music she did, he was really into graphic art and to top it all off he was a really great dancer, he was even in the preforming arts club with them. Caroline felt the heat creeping up her cheeks as she thought about him and had to shake her head violently to clear her thoughts. She peeked around the pillar to see if he had gone. She was all sweaty from practice and she didn't want him to see her that way. To her dismay however he was still standing in the hallway, talking to the brunette boy whose name Caroline just couldn't remember. As they talked Shonali came out of the club room, closing the door behind her and reaching into her bag to get her keys to lock it. She and Caroline had stayed behind later than the others to practice. She had changed out of her dance clothes and into a blue skirt, black tank top and simple black pumps and though the outfit was simple she managed to make it look amazing.

As she did this, Sam and the other boy had stopped talking and were now simply oggling her. Caroline felt a sudden pang of resentment. They continued to watch as Shonali glanced at her phone and smiled at something she saw, laughing slightly. She glanced around as if looking for someone until her eyes settled on something at the far end of the hallway, just past where Sam and the boy were standing. She walked towards them, eyes fixed on one spot, until she eventually called out: "Kyoya!"

Caroline peeked out a little further and saw Kyoya leaning casually against the wall by an open window at the end of the hallway. He looked up and smiled when he saw Shonali. "Took you long enough."

"It's only been an hour. I told you I was going to stay behind for a little while." She said smirking, "Why did Kyo-chan miss me?"

"Well I wouldn't say that but you have deprived me of an entire hour of seeing you waltz around in that." He pointed to her skirt. "Really, is this what women's fashion has become? It barely covers anything."

She leaned forward and smacked him lightly on her back of the head, "Shut up, let's just go."

"Whatever you say. " He said rubbing the back of his head and giving her an amused smile. "Are you hungry? Lets go get something to eat." He smoothly managed to wrap one arm around her waist and pull her foreward, ignoring her protests, which got weaker and disappeared when he moved his hand to the small of her back. Instead she just turned a little red and looked down at her feet as they walked until the pair disappeared around the corner.

Caroline looked back at Sam and the other boy who had started talking again. "She is so hot!" said the brown haired boy. "Aren't you in a club with her or something? She's a dancer right?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah the performing arts club. She's a pretty amazing dancer and she's nice too."

"Wow! Do you think you have any chance with her? Wait no forget that, do I have a shot? I think I'm going to ask to her the spring formal..."

"She's not really my type," said Sam picking his gym bag from off the ground. Caroline felt her heart lift a little.

"But if you got the chance, you know...would you?"

Sam looked at him like he was crazy, "Are you kidding? I said she wasn't my type but god damn I'm not blind. She's freaking sexy."

The brown haired boy laughed and then groaned, "Did you see how Ohtori was holding her though? We have no chance in hell... I'm so jealous"

Sam nodded in agreement and though Caroline tried really hard to hear what he said next, they were already too far from her. She sighed and same out form behind the pillar, going to the window where Kyoya had previously stood. She looked out and saw Shonali and Kyoya walking across the campus towards the small coffee shop. She was laughing at something he had said, his jacket draped across her shoulders. Caroline watched her for a few momments, looking at how even the sunlight seemed to cling to her and linger on her face longer than normal. Caroline started feeling bitter resentment building up towards her friend. "I love her to death but sometimes...I wish...I wish...she was different."


So what do you think? Drop me a review and let me know will ya? Have you ever felt like Caroline does torwards a friend? I know I defintely have! You love them so much but sometimes you can't help wishing that you could just trade your life for thiers... Anyways, look out for more conflict and drama between these two characters coming up in the next few chapters! And of course, for the the half time show which the poor performing arts club has been so desperately planning as well as an exiciting new development in the Kyoya-Shona relationship. I can't wait to show them to all of you lovely people! My favorite chapter is coming up soon too. :) yay!