The Assassin's Shadow

Chapter 7

For the first time in a long time I was starting to feel remotely happy. Despite Ash's constant projection of negativity towards me hanging around with Zach, I felt like he was starting to give me a reason to stick around. Since he had stolen my first kiss he hadn't tried to kiss me again, but I was starting to wish he would. The feeling was both terrifying and exhilarating. We ate together at every meal and I spent every moment with him that I wasn't spending with Ash. One day we were sitting on my bed watching Gladiator, making fun of their fighting. I was curled up against his side with my head on his chest and he had his arm around my shoulders pulling me closer to him. He was playing with my hair. I turned my head to look up at him and saw his eyes watching me. I opened my mouth to ask him "what?" but the word got caught in my throat as he brought a finger up to stroke my cheek.

"You are so beautiful." he murmured.

For a moment I was stunned speechless. Then I grinned at him. "You're not so bad yourself."

He smiled back as he continued to stroke my cheek. "So if I tried to kiss you right now, would you punch me?"

My heart seemed to clench in my chest and I gave a somewhat breathless laugh. "I might." I admitted. "So you better not try."

He leaned even closer to me until if I moved my lips even a little bit they would be brushing against his. I held perfectly still and stared into his eyes, feeling effectively frozen.

"What if I don't care." he whispered.

"I do." I whispered back. My lips did indeed brush against his slightly as I talked, making me blush, but I turned away quickly and looked back at the movie. I felt Zach shake slightly as he laughed and then I felt his lips brush against my neck, making me blush even more, and a shiver ran down my spine.

"You're cute, Elaine." he laughed again, running a finger over my blush stained cheeks.

"You're making me miss the movie." I murmured, trying in vain to ignore him touching me.

"But you've seen it already!" he whined. "You should pay more attention to me."

"I've seen you already, too." I told him.

Before I could react, Zach grabbed my hands and pinned them over my head, rolling so he was hovering over me. He bent his head close to my neck and brushed his lips against my jawline making me catch my breath in surprise. "Not cool, Elaine." he breathed. He moved his head up quickly, making me gasp in surprise, and pressed his lips roughly against mine, taking advantage of my surprise to slip his tongue into my mouth. And then as suddenly as he had started it, he jumped up off of me and winked.

"I gotta go, Quin wanted to spar with me today. See you!"

And he left me alone in the room, feeling extremely confused. It was a good thing I wasn't concentrating on the movie or I would have missed the small chuckle I heard from one corner of the room. I didn't turn my head towards the noise, pretending I hadn't heard it. About a minute later I heard the small telltale sound of footsteps across the floor and the partially closed door opened a fraction wider as the person left.

But why had Liz been spying on me?

I waited for a bit before getting up and leaving my room. I walked down the hall until I reached the room Liz and Josh shared and carefully pressed my ear to their door.

"-doing his job perfectly." Liz was saying. "A little to perfectly."

"So now you're criticizing Zach for doing what Cody told him?" Josh's voice asked.

I froze in shock, Zach? What were they talking about?

"I'm just saying, it looked too convincing."