~ A Touch Possessive ~
We woke up excited Tuesday morning. It would be nothing compared to Wednesday, but today we got to pack. “They’re already here,” Harmony said when she opened the door to go to the bathroom.
“Who’s here?” Sassy asked.
“The suitcases.” She wheeled in two big black ones, then two more.
“I’ve gotta fit all my stuff in that?” Sassy grabbed one and pulled it over to her wardrobe. It looked like plenty of space to me, but Sassy’s got a problem with collecting way too many clothes and never letting any go. And then there were her purses, jewelry, shoes, nail polish. She kept a lot of her stuff under Nadine’s bed and used up the entire closet on their side of the room. Lucky for her, Nadine didn’t need one. She was content with a few outfits. “If anyone has space leftover when you’re finished packing, let me know,” Sassy said.
“I will,” Nadine said. She grabbed a suitcase, reached into her wardrobe, and pulled out several things, still on hangers. After stuffing those into it, she pulled a drawer out and dumped it in, too. She took her toothbrush and hairbrush out of the pile. “The rest is all yours,” she said to Sassy.
“It’s only half full. Thanks, Nadine!” Sassy went to give her a hug. My con began ringing on the long desk in the back of our room. “Kristine Con, answer please,” I said. I grabbed a suitcase and sat beside my wardrobe as my con opened and flew toward me. I wasn’t surprised to see Roman’s face appear on the screen with snow and sunshine behind him.
“Hey, sweetie,” he said, making me want to hurl. I hated when he called me that.
“Hey, Roman. What’s up?”
“I talked my coach into giving me the day off if you want to do something. Karaoke’s at three and Moonlight Ghost is showing at five.”
“I’m sorry. I already have plans.” Maybe I didn’t, but I could make some.
“With who?”
“My friends.”
“Which ones?”
I hated playing Twenty Questions with him, but it seemed to be his favorite game. “Sassy, Harmony, and Nadine.”
“Nadine’s got soccer all day.”
“Then I guess it’s Harmony, Sassy, and me.”
“Come on, Kristine. This is the first chance I’ve had to spend any real time with you since you got here. You see your roommates all the time.”
“I know, but I already told them we’d hang out.”
“They’ll understand—Are they there?”
“Yeah.”
“You girls don’t mind if I borrow her, do you?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Sassy said, “but the kids we’re having breakfast with might. I thought it would be good to help Kristine make some new friends, and since they’re expecting Kristine to be there, she probably should be.” Thank goodness she’d caught on.
“You said it was just you and Sassy and Harmony,” Roman said to me, his voice getting angry.
“It is. We’re just having breakfast with a few other people.”
“I’ll come too.”
“Roman, it’s a girl’s day.”
He glared at me as one corner of his mouth twitched. “Fine.” The screen went black and began folding up.
“When are you going to dump that guy?” Sassy asked me.
“I don’t know. I keep hoping he’ll figure it out himself. He’s a lot of fun, and it kind of feels nice when he puts his arm around me...but he’s so possessive. Why can’t we be friends?”
Harmony sat on the floor next to me. “I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but things might get better if you told Roman you don’t want to be his girlfriend.”
“But he’d probably freak out. He’s obsessed. If I’m a really crappy girlfriend, maybe he’ll get over it on his own.”
“Don’t worry about him.” Sassy stood up next to her suitcase, already overflowing with all sorts of things. “Let’s just get dressed and go down to breakfast. Today’s supposed to be fun, and tomorrow we fly south for the winter. No school for three months. No morning announcements waking us up at the crack of dawn.”
“Yeah, it’s like summer vacation,” Harmony said.
Summer vacation with these girls sounded like crazy fun. If only I could shake Roman. I was afraid I’d spend the whole time worrying and trying to avoid him.
Nadine zipped up the white suit she’d just pulled on. “I’ve got to go eat and get to practice. Have fun for me, too.”
“Bye, Nadine.”
I was a little nervous when we finally walked into the cafeteria, since I knew Roman might be waiting for me. But he wasn’t. So I got to relax and laugh through the morning.
It wasn’t until we were walking through the rows of snowy bushes and towering ice sculptures outside that I realized someone was following me. As we passed an elephant-shaped bush, I turned back to get another look at the little ice-stars hanging on a tree. And that’s when I saw him—a smallish boy with a bit of dark hair hanging over his forehead. He was standing there watching me. But when our eyes met, he jumped behind the tree. I kept an eye out for him after that, and saw him three more times...just standing there, watching me. After the third sighting, I decided to head back inside, because he was really creeping me out.
* * * *
Later that evening, as the four of us stepped out of the movie theatre room, I felt someone grab my arm. I gasped and jerked away, bumping into a group of girls and pushing one into the open door. “Ow, ow, ow,” she said as two others screamed.
“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” I asked. She bit her lip and nodded. I felt terrible.
“Kristine,” Roman’s voice drew me to face him. “Can I talk to you alone?”
“You can’t grab me like that. You scared me to death.”
“I’m sorry, but I really want to talk to you.”
“But we’re going to eat supper and pack up our stuff.” Harmony and I hadn’t even really gotten started.
“Just for a minute.”
I looked at my roommates for help. “We’ll meet you back in the room,” Sassy said before they walked away. I could have killed her for that, but I guess I couldn’t avoid Roman forever.
“Okay.” Since the movie room and dome room were on the same floor, I followed him onto the same veranda where we’d first kissed.
“How was breakfast?” he asked, turning to face me.
“Fine, I guess.”
“Did you like all those new people Sassy said you were meeting?”
“Sure.”
From the way his eyebrows bent down as he studied my face, I got the feeling he knew it was all a lie. I wasn’t going to say anything, though.
Roman reached out and put both arms around me. I leaned against him and crossed my arms over his back. It did feel pretty good to have him hold me that way, just not the same kind of good I think he felt.
“Why don’t you want to spend time with me, Kristine?” Roman asked, making me a little afraid to pick up my head and look him in the eye.
“What are you talking about?”
“I could have had all day off of practice to be with you, but you chose your friends over me.”
“Because I already had plans. I thought I should keep them.”
Roman pulled away from me slightly. “Headmaster’s got girls and boys separate in the jets this year, so we won’t be flying together.”
“Oh, yeah?” I realized that I sounded way too excited, so I tried to look upset. “That’s too bad.”
His eyebrows did the same thing, making me feel incredibly guilty. But maybe he would begin to catch on. I really didn’t want to hurt him, because he was such a nice guy.
“Maybe we could at least have dinner together. We probably won’t see each other again until Thursday,” he said, taking a step back and reaching out for my hand.
“Sounds great.”
Gripping my hand a little too tightly, he began pulling me toward the elevator.