Right, my gorgeous readers, I'm going away for a few days today so if I seem MIA for awhile, don't worry, I haven't abandoned this. I'm hoping, seeing as I write all of this on my phone that I'll be able to get TWO chapters done as a treat for when I get back. If you want, you could always reread your favorite moments... ya know, feel free. Xoxo
Poppy, Guest - Your reviews were so lovely to read after a hard day at work. Thank you for cheering me up!
Lucy - I'll take that as a second vote! Hopefully I can get it up by next week.
Jouren4Life - I felt a bit emotional writing it. Poor Kevin. X
Chapter Sixteen
"Dynasty?"
Kevin lowered himself cautiously onto his bed beside her. His healing ribs still protested slightly as he moved.
"It's just, when Steve-O was around I was so worried about you; I didn't want anything to happen to you. Then, in the hospital it was all 'one day at a time.'"
Dynasty chewed the inside of her cheek and let her eyes flicker down to her lap.
"I never really thought about what happens now. Now it's you and me again, and the bed... and a couple... and..." Dynasty's voice faded away as she grasped for the words to explain the potent mixture of emotions powering through her.
Kevin reached out hesitantly and touched Dynasty's cheek, drawing her face around to his.
Kevin shook his head.
"I am not him. I would never force you to sleep here, or be... like we used to be. I'm not going to do anything you don't ask me to, okay?" Kevin assured her.
Dynasty smiled meekly and bit her lip.
"So, if I asked you to move on, you would?" Dynasty probed nervously.
She wasn't aware that it was even a possibility until the words had forced themselves from her throat. In reality Dynasty was desperate for him to say no, to tell her she was being stupid and they would become the carefree couple they had been on the pier. But Dynasty was no longer the unflappable schoolgirl she had been when she had boldly asked Kevin to kiss her. She was a woman now, a broken one perhaps, but a woman nonetheless, enlightened to the cruelty of life.
She was a play-thing to life, discarded by Steve-O once she was damaged.
Kevin deserved more than a cracked doll, scattered among misfit toys.
"I will do anything you ask me to," Kevin amended, "except that."
Tom massaged his temples with his fingertips. He raised his head from the disappointing coursework splayed across his desk and caught Christine's eye as she raised her hand to knock on his classroom door.
He waved her in, pushing his chair away from his desk. He stretched his tense neck from side to side before settling gratefully back into his seat.
"Michael sent me to round up the rest of Dynasty's homework. Connor's volunteered to drop it all off at the schoolhouse on his way home," said Christine, sinking wearily onto the edge of a graffitied desk. "Personally I suspect it's an excuse to get out of his grounding but I don't have time to take it myself."
Tom doubted Dynasty would welcome any visiting teacher warmly.
"Quite a revelation, that was," Tom commented.
Christine sighed reluctantly, her hearting sinking miserably.
"Only my son would be stupid enough to get married at seventeen."
Tom chuckled in disbelief.
"You clearly haven't been teaching at Waterloo Road long enough if you thing Connor's the only love struck teenager to run off and elope," Tom consoled her. "As for me, I've been here for far to long."
Tom collected together the mess of papers that littered his desk.
"I think I worry the most that maybe they're not just infatuated children. Connor has been married to that girl in secret for God knows long and they're still happier than most couples," Christine fretted, unenthused by the the idea of Imogen as a permanent daughter in-law.
Tom scooped up his now neatly stacked papers and bundled the pile into his desk draw.
He stood back up and stretched.
"I'm sure we'll see," Tom predicted. He reached into the draw at the opposite end of his desk and pulled out two heavy plastic wallets. He held them out to Christine.
"History and Theatre Studies. You just need to add Dynasty's English work and you're pretty much there I'd say."
Christine nodded a thank you and hoisted the bulging folders into her arms. Her fingers drummed over the plastic for a moment before she slid them onto the desk beside her.
"Tom, can I ask you something?" Christine asked briskly.
Tom scratched his jaw.
"Sounds serious," Tom joked in return. "As a friend or a colleague?"
Christine smiled to herself. After the events of the past year she had found herself somewhat short of friends.
"Both," she clarified. "Do you agree with Michael's decision on this?" She nodded towards the stack of resources next to her. "See, the thing is, Michael claims the school will support Dynasty with anything that she needs but as head of year I feel obligated to go further than that. What Dynasty needs now is emotional support as well as her education and throwing a bunch of worksheets at her is only going to encourage her to barricade herself in the schoolhouse. She needs stimulation, Tom, goals to remind her that this Steve-O is the last thing she needs to be thinking about until they find him."
Tom considered this. After his encounter with Dynasty at the hospital, Tom was unsure whether the young girl was emotionally stable enough to consider coming back to school in the near future. Finally, Tom shook his head.
"No, I don't think she's ready."
