The Fairest Stars

Chapter Fifteen: 'My heart's dear love is set.'

The weekend did nothing to aid Kael’s rapidly growing obsession with Isis. He worked hard on the script, hoping that would take his mind off of it; he watched mind numbingly boring daytime TV in the hope that it might send him to sleep… but every time he closed his eyes, he felt the haunting sensation of her delicate lips upon his. Every time that he thought about Juliet, he imagined her kissing Callum and wanted to shoot him. Or congratulate him on the delightful experience he was about to enjoy. Though the congratulations would be rather forced.

He arrived at school on Monday tired, and rather irritated with himself. He knew that he had no chance of bringing up the subject with Isis, and, as he had no idea of what she would say if she ever found out just how strongly he felt about her, he was left lingering between bursts of hope that she might one day feel the same, and periods of utter misery as he contemplated the fact that she was probably going to end up dating a nice, responsible boy who would treat her with the utmost respect, never kiss her without permission, and would probably marry her.

Kael frowned. Maybe not marriage. They were still a bit young for that.

He wasn’t sure at what point his feelings for Isis had suddenly escalated from mere lust to actually liking her for her personality too, but he knew now that this wasn’t just his hormones rather fancying the look of her body. He’d felt attracted to her before he’d even seen hide or hair of any curves about her, and, now that he’d gotten to know her better, his lust had been matched by admiration, respect and just plain like as he realised he got on better than well with her.

But that was what had happened. He was just dealing with it as well as he could, which, admittedly, wasn’t very well. He was nearly being driven insane with a desire to just hold her in his arms: not even a desire to kiss or more with her. It was madness.

Kael dragged himself into his first class. The day had started badly, with his car making strange noises as he sped along the roads to school, and had continued badly, as he’d left his wallet at home, so he only had a few paltry coins of loose change to buy his lunch with.

‘Everyone get your books out!‘ called the teacher, setting something up onto the screen. Kael went to his bag and cursed. Oh bloody brilliant. He’d forgotten his Maths book. Even better.

His mood wasn’t aided when he looked down and saw odd socks peeking out of his shoes. This wouldn’t have mattered on any other day, but today it seemed like the end of the world. He’d got odd socks on, he’d forgotten his maths book and his wallet, his car was making weird noises, and it looked like it was going to rain. It just wasn’t his day.

And it didn’t improve as it worn on. Kael had half expected to look upwards and find a small rain cloud hovering solely over him, pouring rain down on him wherever he went at lunchtime, when he stepped outside to find the rain dripping down unceremoniously down onto him, sliding down his neck uncomfortably.

The after school rehearsal was at least a chance to see Isis. She had her hair down again, hiding that alluring neck away from temptation, and was hurrying about the stage busily, on for several scenes. He watched her perform a scene with Callum, the pair of them genuinely looking in love as they acted out the most famous scene from the play. After some discussion, they decided to keep in the well known lines: ‘Oh Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ seeing as it was so famous, but despite the old fashioned language being a distraction, Kael found himself slightly mesmerized by the way that Isis performed onstage.

As he watched, she took Callum’s hands in her own, looking up to meet his eyes with a trusting gaze that made Kael’s knees feel a little weak. He couldn’t help but wish that she would look at him like that. He wondered what it would take to get her to blink up at him, wide eyed, her expression filled with such utter belief and trust in him. He resolved to find out.