Chapter Five: The Escape and the Mistake

Disclaimer: What to say, what to say. Well, I'm poor…doesn't that say it all? Hope you enjoy this chapter. I know I enjoyed writing it! ^_^

Author's Note: Please don't hate me for this chapter. That's all I'm going to say.

I must have paced around my room about fifty times before I finally realized to myself how much of an idiot I was. I mean, slapping Cleon? What in the world brought that on? It's not like he said anything really offensive, or anything. I can't even remember what he said in the first place. And I'm not a violent person by nature; it's just that whenever I'm around Cleon, I feel the need to hit something or someone. And most of the time, Cleon just happens to be in the way when I need to be violent. So there you have it.

But still I kept pacing.

"This pacing is getting me nowhere," I muttered. "I need to go somewhere. I need to do something." I glanced around my room. "But what?"

I couldn't possibly go downstairs, not after what I just did, and there is no way I could use the phone. My mom would somehow suspect I was using it, and pick up the extension downstairs and use it to find out what my plans were. So I had to resort to Plan C. Something I haven't done in three years.

I had to climb out the window.

Wonderful. The last time I climbed out that window, I fell out of the evil twenty-foot elm tree that haunts the side of our house, broke my arm and got a concussion. So you can see why I wasn't too keen on doing it again.

I heard laughter drift up the stairs, that distinct laughter that belonged only to the Kennan family, and made up my mind. I would be escaping through the stupid window. What other choice did I have?

With my mind set on running away to someplace like Cambodia or New Orleans where Cleon would never think to look for me, I maneuvered myself out the narrow window and on to the nearest branch of the evil tree.

And immediately lost my grip.

Crap! I squeezed my eyes shut and hoped for a quick and painless death.

Luckily, I managed to keep my balance and all the nicely healed bones in my arms. But I was scared half to death.

What if they caught me? Any one of them could look out the living room window now and see my almost-failed escape down the evil tree. And if they caught me, they'd make me face Cleon again and that just would not be pleasant.

So I shimmied as fast as I could down the rest of the tree and sped off in the direction of the one place Cleon would never look for me: the public library.

I'm pretty sure Cleon has never set a foot inside a single library in his life. But then, with his charming personality, who'd need to? I really wonder how he managed to get into Harvard in the first place. I mean, it's not like he's a genius or anything. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm smarter than he is. Not that I'm boasting about my intelligence or anything. It's just that Cleon has never done a serious moment of actual thinking to my knowledge. He only just scraped by in high school, and all he really spent time thinking about was sports and girls.

Then one of his friends comes up with the hilarious joke of making Cleon take the entrance exam to Harvard. And what do you know? He gets the highest mark out of everyone who applies!

I really don't know how that happened.

But anyway, I managed to reach the library without any major mishaps besides tripping over Sweetums and having Mrs. Collard yell at me for a good minute and a half. I swear, the next time I see her and that stupid fluffball of hers, I'm going to shove that ugly little sweater down her throat.

The library was completely deserted, which is not surprising for a Saturday afternoon. People with real lives and real fiancés are out doing real stuff. Not trying to escape their so-called fiancé and trying to avoid seeing him ever again.

And immediately after I thought that, I felt guilty again. God, I wish I hadn't slapped him.

But it's over and done with. There's nothing I can do about it. And why do I care anyway? It's not like I care if he's mad at me for the rest of eternity. I mean, if he's so mad at me, he'll call off the 'engagement' and we won't have to pretend to get married.

This whole situation is so incredibly ridiculous, I don't even know why I'm thinking about it.

While I was bubbling and stewing, I made my way to the back of the library to where I was one hundred percent positive Cleon would never, ever find me, and wished I had a shovel so I could dig a hole for myself and die.

That feeling was becoming more and more familiar to me.

With a sigh, I plopped down in one of the uncomfortable chairs and waited. For what, I'm not too sure, but I sat there and waited for something.

You have never experienced complete and absolute silence until you've been in a public library on a Saturday afternoon, and let me tell you, it is quiet. There's no sound at all. No squeaky shoes, no whirring fans, no whisper of voices. And a public library in downtown Boston at the end of the school year on a Saturday afternoon is even quieter than normal libraries.

It's almost creepy, how quiet it is.

So I sat there, waiting, for what seemed like a lifetime. In fact, I sat there so long, I eventually put my head down on the table and fell asleep.

Which was exactly how he found me.

I don't know how long he stood there staring at me, but when I opened my eyes, there he was.

"Hi," I said, and smiled sleepily, stretching my arms out in front of me.

"Hey," He smiled that beautiful smile at me, and the whole day felt worthwhile. "I thought I'd find you here."

"Oh did you? And how did you know that?"

He offered his hand and pulled me to my feet. I was so close to him I could feel his body heat, and the hard muscles of his chest.

I couldn't breathe.

"Freddie told me where to look," he said with a sly grin.

God bless you, Freddie, I thought, praising my best friend's ability to know everything.

His gaze dropped down to my lips, and as he pulled me closer to him, I couldn't help but think, This is a mistake.

Then he kissed me, and that thought evaporated into complete bliss. It was like nothing I'd felt before. It was like a voice in my head was saying, Yes, finally…this is what I've been waiting for all this time.

He pulled his head back and looked at me, his eyes searching my face for something, an answer, maybe. But before I had the chance to say or do anything, I sensed someone else standing near us.

I turned around, and nearly had a heart attack. Standing behind me, face red with anger, was Cleon.

And he had seen what had just happened.

Damn it all to hell and back.

"Um…" I couldn't think of a single thing to say except, "Um," over and over again, meanwhile mentally beating myself over the head with a hammer.

Cleon said nothing, just stood there like a ticking time bomb.

Any second now…

He nodded stiffly. "Keladry…" he spared a fleeting look to my partner in crime, "… Joren."

I shifted uncomfortably. "Look Cleon, it's not what it seems…"

"Save it," he said and stormed out of the building, imaginary puffs of smoke in his wake.

I glanced at Joren guiltily and managed a weak smile. "Ha ha…oops."