Beneath and Beyond

Chapter 7

"Luke the men wore tights in those days," Janice said. It was after school and they were at their dress rehearsal. Luke was wearing a huge plain white shirt and a black jacket with black jeans pointed shoes and a cape. Kiedi couldn't help the grin on her face.

"Look I'm wearing pointed shoes and a cape for this thing but you must be crazy if you think I'm wearing goddamn tights," Luke said and everybody except him started laughing, even Alicea.

"Fine," Janice surrendered. They were all in costumes Janice was Benvolio, Emily Tybalt, Kate Juliet's nurse and Alicea was Mercutio. Everyone knew their lines and rehearsal would have run smoothly if Alicea hadn't taken every opportunity to sabotage Romeo and Juliet's love scene. First it was the cell phone ringing off, and then it was the spontaneous choking on air, then the commenting on what they were doing wrong and finally she just blatantly interrupted them and told them how unrealistic they looked as a couple and that they were going to lose marks.

By the end of the hour everyone was pissed and decided to call it quits because obviously Alicea wasn't going to quit and it was getting late; plus they all knew their lines it was just that one kiss.

"Go home and make any last minute preparations everyone," Janice said when everyone was leaving to go change. "You were all great today, interruptions exempted."

"Thanks," they all muttered and went to the bathroom.

When Kiedi came out with Luke was waiting for her in the passage.

"Need some help?" he asked and took the extra bag she had the dress and shoes in.

"Thanks," Kiedi smiled.

"So I was thinking that maybe I could take you out for coffee before I took you home?" Luke had his boyish smile on as he asked.

Kiedi smiled her shy smile and bit her lip before nodding.

"Great, come on."

Alicea watched them walk out of the school building together. Watched as her Lukas looked at that tramp like he had never looked at her; watched as he gave her the same boyish smile he use to give her. Her eyes filled with tears but she refused to let them fall. She was a Lewis and Lewis' were fighters and they never gave up what was theirs. That's why she wasn't going to give up on Luke.

Luke took her to a cute little pub in the middle of town called Marco's. It was built out of red bricks and inside the seats was made out of red cushions and the barstools were tall and had metal backs so one could lean back and enjoy the music coming from the jukebox in the back. The place was cosy and had a friendly air about it.

"Marco's is my favourite coffee house in town," Luke said as he led them to a table for two. "You'll soon see why."

Minutes later a waitress in a short black tunic came over to their table to take their order. She turned her back to Kiedi and gave her full attention to Luke.

"Hey Lukas honey what can I get for you today?" The waitress asked twirling her hair around her finger.

Luke barely even glanced in her direction as he responded and Kiedi tried to hide her smile behind a cough, "A cappuccino for me Sasha and what do you want Kiedi?"

The waitress turned slowly to look at Kiedi as if just noticing that she was sitting there. "I'll have a French coffee."

"And we'll also take two grilled cheese sandwiches," Luke added.

"Did you even notice that she was flirting with you?" Kiedi leaned across the table and asked him when Sasha walked off.

"Who Sasha, Nah she's like that with everyone," Luke said nonchalantly.

"Is it that you're so use to girls flirting with you that you don't even notice when their doing it?" Kiedi asked a bit amused.

"I notice is that you don't try to flirt with me," Luke changed the direction of the conversation and leaned forward to stare into her eyes.

"I don't waste time on things I know I'm not good at," Kiedi said softly.

"I noticed something else about you too," Luke reached across the table and traced his thumb over her cheek, "You're even more beautiful when you blush."

Kiedi's breath hitched in her throat and she was left speechless. Luckily the waitress came with their orders so she didn't have to. Kiedi took a sip of her coffee to moisten her suddenly parched throat and sat back looking at the cup of coffee in her hand.

"What do you think?"

"This is amazing. This has got to be the best coffee I've ever tasted," Kiedi laughed and Luke chuckled.

"That's what I said too my first time and I've been coming here ever since," he handed her a sandwich and they both ate and talked compatibly for about an hour.

"I should get you home," Luke said and paid the bill then walked her to the door with his hand resting softly on her lower back. Kiedi could feel tingles up her spine as they walked to the truck.

When they reached her house Kiedi lingered in the van. She wasn't ready to leave Luke yet so she sat twiddling her thumbs and biting her bottom lip in an effort to find something else to talk about.

Luke gripped his steering wheel to keep his hands from grabbing her and releasing her lips from her teeth with his. It seemed like all he ever wanted to do nowadays was hold her and lather her in kisses; but he didn't want to rush her. Kiedi was different from other girls; he didn't want to move too fast and chase her away so he consoled himself with little fleeting touches on her shoulder and back and tried to be around her as much as possible to cool the burning inside him.

"Do you want me to drive around the driveway a few more times?" Luke asked with a smile when he noticed that she wasn't coming out of the truck.

"Um... no that's okay," she blushed and reached for her bag. Kiedi felt so stupid, how could she just sit there twiddling her thumbs like that!

Luke got this strange feeling in his gut and reached for her hand. "For the record I don't want you to leave either," Luke gave his shy smile.

Kiedi blushed. How'd he know that was what she was doing?

Luke reached forward and kissed her on her forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow Beautiful."

Kiedi stepped out of the van sure that her face was crimson and her smile was touching her ears. "Ok tomorrow," she waved.

O|L5