Wow, some kiss, eh?

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The kiss had lasted in reality only maybe a minute, and though it was the biggest moment in the history of my life, no one noticed. But it really didn't matter to me, because that kiss had been more intoxicating than any drink you could give a girl.

By now the party was over, and I had seen Francois off with a good night kiss (hey, he leaned in first) and was now on the way back to the dormitories. Most of the girls were still down there making out like rabid monkeys but I hadn't been awake this late in months.

I walked slowly back to the dormitories, pulling Carlotta's slippers off and into my hand; they were killing my feet. No wonder she didn't wear them for dancing, I must have blisters all up and down from my heel to my toes…

I went to Carlotta's room quietly, holding my skirts in my hands to keep them from making noise, and opened the door to a crack. The room was empty, and I slipped in.

It was definitely much creepier in the dark than when it was light outside, and the looming dark shapes of chairs and baskets of flowers seemed to pop up out of the pink flowered carpet, making it near impossible to work quickly. I felt along the wall for the closet, found the handle, and opened the door to set the shoes back into their spot.

I was just leaning over when the door to the room opened behind me.

I froze, but I regained my senses near a second later, and flung myself to the back of the closet, shutting the door behind me.

The mink coats and taffeta skirts seems to suffocate me to the point of wanting to take them all down in a smack down, but I could only push them off to the side softly, and hope they didn't make noise.

I heard footsteps come up to the closet door, and I couldn't breathe even if I wasn't being suffocated by Carlotta's gaudy clothes out of fright. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that I wouldn't be found.

The door opened, but I let out a sigh of relief.

It was only another ballet girl returning Carlotta's shoes.

"Goodness, you near scared the sanity out of me…." I said, clutching my heart as I emerged from behind the clothes.

The girl laughed, and helped me out.

"Are you going back to the party?" She asked as we entered the hallway. I shook my head and yawned.

"It's at least one in the morning; I'm going back to bed."

She laughed, and we parted ways. I yawned again, and tottered in my stocking feet like a drunk down the hall.

But as I reached the top of the stairs to the dorm, I stopped dead in my tracks.

Raoul was sitting in a chair outside the dorm, fast asleep.

I bit my lip, wondering if I should wake him up, but decided against it.

Carefully holding my skirts so they wouldn't rustle, I opened the door softly, and slipped in.

I saw groups of girls who had already come up squealing with laughter, and giggling as they retold what happened between them and their boyfriends. It was a wonder Raoul hadn't heard the commotion and woken.

I smiled and shook my head at how silly they all were (wait, silly, since when do I say 'silly'!). I was sounding more and more like my mom… yikes.

"And then at midnight, you'll never guess who I saw kissing a boy… Oh, there she is! Fleur! Fleur Delacour you tell me who you were kissing!" I heard a girl demand as she made her way amidst the still dressed up girls. Immediately all chatter ceased and they all turned to look at me. I blushed.

"Well, who was he!" She demanded, finally beating her way through the crowd of girls who were now closing in around me.

"Ah… he's… a friend…?" I said, wishing that I wasn't the center of attention.

"Ha! Looked more than a friend to me!" another girl snorted.

"Yeah! Tell us who he is! You didn't say you were going with anyone!" I heard come from the lips of the girls surrounding me.

"I… He's… um…" I stuttered.

"Out with it, girl!"

"He's from the college…" the rest of my words were cut off by the screams of protest.

"Why didn't you find us friends?" "Was he handsome?" "Why didn't you say you found a beau?"

It went on for a while before Madame Giry burst in, demanding that we hush and go to bed. We guiltily started changing to our nightgowns, some of the girls whispering their outrage, but one of the questions still ran through my head… "How did you find him?"

Was it mere pure happenstance that I happened to stumble into his open arms?

Or was there something wrong…

I mentally scolded myself for thinking that. I was just paranoid, that's all… sheesh; I need to lighten up… I'm talking Erik's idiotic warning to the head… he was just being weird… that's…all…

And I drifted to sleep.

-

I woke in the hospital room. It had been happening so often that I really didn't think much of it.

I saw a small crowd of people surrounding my bed.

"She Lives!" I heard one of them say loudly; not soft enough to be regular talking, not loud enough to be yelling.

I dimly recognized the voice… who was it again… shoot, why couldn't I remember whose that voice was?

"Katey," wow that name sounded weird… "You ok?

Someone smacked the person who had just spoken upside the head. "You idiot!" I heard them say. "She just woke up from a coma, how do you think she feels?"

I smiled, thinking of how bizarre it sounded to hear the familiar Texas accents.

"Whatever… well, can you even talk?" the person tried again.

"Yes." I croaked, reminding myself to talk in English, not the French that I had become accustomed to speaking in.

"Cool, so hey, when are you gonna be out of here, you still owe me five bucks."

I tried to choke out a laugh. Jeez, why was my throat so dry? I had just drunk some punch back at the party.

"In that case, I might want to stay here forever…" I said.

"Ha, you won't be saying that once you get wind of how much stuff you missed out on at school; We covered the entire Civil War part in history, read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Language Arts, studied the human body in science (believe me, you're lucky you missed out on that), and we're starting to look for new music for the next concert in band."

I groaned. I had forgotten about how much junk I would have to make up on before I went back to school… not to mention have to miss a concert… good lord…

"I'll get all that taken care of later… So what are all of you doing here?" I asked, my voice growing stronger.

"Well… we wanted to tell you that... well, more like remind you… that Phantom of the Opera comes to town… and… we wanted to check up how you were to make sure that we didn't waste any of our money."

That didn't make sense at all.

"Waste money? What d'you mean?"

"We decided to pitch in and get you seats next to 'the pit' for one of the showings!"

I was breathless. I had seen the show three times, but I had always been up in the stupid balcony seats.

"Oh…my…God… are you serious!" I squealed, my voice growing louder and higher pitched as I spoke.

"No, we just thought we'd come down here and mess with you."

Smack.

"Hey, note the sarcasm." The person hit said.

No matter how familiar these people looked and sounded, I still couldn't place names…

"Wow…" I leaned back on my pillow and shut my eyes, envisioning me sitting next to the pit, below the chandelier, and the greatest part, I wouldn't be part of the epic plot hole.

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Sorry for not updating in such a long while, my teachers decided that we were going to have a butt load of home work this past week, and then there's the big Band Competition I have to practice for that's next Saturday…

But anyhow, please be patient with me not updating for several days at a time, but you know, if you ever find yourself mad at me for not updating, think of this:

I recently was looking up Gone with the Wind fan fiction, and there was a girl who took TWO years to write just thirteen chapters.

Yea, really sucky.

So anyway, please review!