Ametrine broke off the kiss with a groan, not bothering to open her eyes, only hoping the mood wasn't broken.
"Fuck off, Maerks!"
She tugged at the boy's hair again, but, unfortunately, he resisted. Balls. Of course her fun would be ruined.
Her eyes reluctantly flickered open to see Caleb edging back to across the circular couch while Devlin Maerks smirked in the doorway.
"Maybe I should go..." the younger witch muttered, tugging awkwardly at his clothes as he stood up.
"No need to rush off on my account," that despicable blond in the doorway drawled. "I was enjoying the show. I had no idea that our upright, perfect little war heroine could be so..." He shifted his smirk to Ametrine, who glared back.
"Naughty." He drew the word out like honey. "Honestly, using our living room as a rendezvous.... Tsk, Dracaena."
Caleb blushed crimson, his eyes glued to the carpet.
"Too much of a hurry to bother with the bedroom, I suppose. I can't say I entirely understand you, Brackner, but desperate times, and all...."
Ametrine finally accepted that her itch was not going to get scratched tonight and sat upright, curling against the side of the couch. All the better to glare with.
Three words: Hell hath no.
She smiled sweetly at her suite-mate.
"Just because I prefer an actual person to Maxim is no reason to be upset, Maerks," she all but purred. "No offense. I know how attached you are to your hand."
Silence reigned for a few long moments.
Caleb, the poor schmuck, took the opportunity to escape.
"Um... Excuse me?" he squeaked.
Maerks didn't even look at the other witch as he strode briskly into the room, moving towards his own dorm.
"Don't let me catch you in here again, Brackner. I will give you a detention."
The two doors clicked shut within moments of each other, a gunshot and its echo.
Ametrine tossed a glossy curl over her shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest with a loud sigh.
There went that relationship.
***********************************************
Devlin stomped straight through his room to his shower, grateful, once again, that although he and Dracaena had to share a living room and a kitchenette, they had separate bedrooms with their own personal bathrooms. It would be very embarrassing indeed if she suspected that he was taking a cold shower on her behalf.
It was just that he hadn't expected to come across her like... that. With a guy. Brackner, of all guys, but still a guy; her moans just audible as he kissed her.
After all, Ametrine Dracaena wasn't like the rest of them; no one was supposed to think of her like that. She was the smart one, the heroine, the Witch Who Figured Out How to Save the World and then bothered to come back to school to finish her education. She was supposed to be above silly things like sex and hormones. She was not supposed to be the hot girl who made your mouth go alternately dry then too wet as you watched her shift to drape her arm across the side of the sofa.
Devlin shivered as the water ran over him, leaning against the cool cream marble while he thought.
He'd been delighted when he'd learned that the remaining seniors would get separate suites with their own rooms this year due to the large influx of transfer students. He had looked forward to having his own space to shelter in, away from everyone else.
Of course, his perspective had changed a little when he'd seen that the suite-mate he'd been assigned was Dracaena. He even almost wished that he'd had the ill fortune to draw one of the last stubborn few Speakers.
But they were now a few weeks into the semester, and aside from the initial snarls and a small incident where she'd come across one of his copies of Maxim, the cohabitation had been going surprisingly well. The war seemed to have matured her, and rather than sniping at each other at every opportunity, as they had in the past, the two merely glared. They said as little as possible to one another, ignoring the other each night as she curled up on her strange, round couch and he sat poised on the edge of his leather swivel chair, before silently stamping off to their respective rooms.
It had been far too good to last.
*********************************
"Ametrine!"
Hope made her turn and wait for him, let her grin as he panted a little when he caught up with her.
"Caleb! What's up?"
The tall brunet blushed and tucked his hands into the pockets of his khakis, folding his shoulders in on himself.
"I just wanted to apologize..." he mumbled, his gaze caressing the flagstones.
Her smile vanished.
"I just kind of freaked out, you know?" His brown eyes briefly brushed past hers. "I mean, I shouldn't have left like that, but, you know, he's a TA and a senior, and it's his suite, too, and c-could give me a detention if he wanted to, or worse, and he's kind of intimidating anyways, and I just don't want you to be mad at me, you know?"
"Oh...."
A pack of juniors made their way past them from the cafeteria, talking over each other about their post-breakfast plans. Only one boy among them followed along, listening quietly, and drew Ametrine's eyes.
He seemed to have a spine.
She brought her attentions back to the junior who had once approached her with an easy smile, and a fresh picked flower.
"So, what are you apologizing for again?" she asked.
His blush spread, turning what she could see of his throat a vibrant red. A corner of her mind ironically compared it to the plumage of a male robin's chest, proudly displayed during mating season.
"Nevermind." He ran the words together, turning away as he said them "I'llseeyouaround."
Ametrine didn't stop him from walking off.
Breakfast was more important.
However, when she sat down and bit into a piece of the French toast she had gathered onto her plate, she found that it tasted like ash.
She bit again.
Nope, still not as delicious as she knew it should be.
Her lack of appetite did not go unnoticed.
"It's not poisoned," Danielle reminded her, glancing up from one of her many romance novels. "You can eat it without grimacing after every bite and feeling around for tacks."
The young heroine set down her fork and sighed into her palms.
Danielle put the novel aside expectantly.
"Maerks walked in on me and Caleb last night."
"Ooh!" The blonde girl recoiled. "And he's going to Dr. Tomasi with it?"
"Psh!" The possibility hadn't occurred to Ametrine, but it didn't worry her now that her friend mentioned it. She had enough on the prat to retaliate in such an event. "No. But now Caleb has revealed that he is, in fact, a sniveling coward."
"Oh...." the younger girl put a sympathetic hand on her knee. "I'm sorry. I know you hoped he was..."
"Different?" the Student Minister finished with a wry half smile. "Yeah. But then, I always do, don't I?"
She pushed away from the table, leaving her dishes, and progressed from the hall with her hair a curtain between herself and the world.
******************************************
"Ametrine?" Aiden queried, reaching out a hand to touch her as she brushed past him on his way into the caf, but drawing back before he made actual contact. "What's wrong?"
Her silent back offered no response as she continued on as though she hadn't heard him.
Gary grasped his arm.
"Just let her go," he advised. "There probably isn't anything you can do, anyways."
Aiden glanced at Kelsey, who shrugged.
"Okay," he bit out, shaking off his best friend. "I'll be good."
He all but stalked into the hall, his glower deepening when he saw long golden-blonde hair.
"I'll bet you know something about that," he snapped as he took Ametrine's vacated seat.
Danielle glared coolly across the top of her book, lips pressed tightly together.
Gary and Kelsey exchanged wary looks as they sat across from the pair.
"Well?" Aiden demanded. He wasn't used to people disregarding him, especially those who were in his social circle. Even if the person in question was his best friend's friend whom he'd gladly see at the bottom of the lake.
She slowly turned her head to face him. A beat passed, then two, before an arsenic sweet smile split her face.
"Aiden, I will tell you what that was about once, and only once you grow a pair of balls."
She ignored the affront of the Golden Boy and returned her attentions to her romance novel.
Gary looked amused.
Kelsey studiously admired the fruit she'd heaped on her plate.
Aiden resembled a thundercloud, his grey eyes glowing with fury beneath his dusty brown hair.
"Why, you..." he growled, unable to think of something bad enough to call her.
"Or you could ask Ametrine, the one you're so concerned about," the infuriating woman suggested, condescension dripping, not bothering to glance up. "That would be innovative."
Gary smothered a suspicious sounding cough with his elbow.
Kelsey took the opportunity to turn and wave at someone at a table behind her.
Fine. They were just as bad as she was.
Aiden shoved away from the table and stalked from the room, muttering darkly.
That horrible, awful girl was making his life miserable.
Back at the table, a small smile played about Danielle's slight lips as she stared at the book, but did not read, as she had not throughout the entire exchange.
************************************************
"Varens."
She stopped cold on the spot, a tension that had previously been absent tightening the tendons in her neck as she slowly rotated to face him. The effect was not unpleasant.
Devlin thought, not for the first time, that it was a shame she had become so involved with Dracaena and the rest of the Armed Doves since her transfer from Glorbixon Academy; though they were currently powerful, that wouldn't last forever, and Varens was a member of one of the Founding Families, and pretty, too. She was tall, slender, with breasts just slightly too large for her frame, with long wheat-blonde hair and skin bronzed from the Southern sun.
It didn't hurt that she wore her shirts slightly tighter than was strictly necessary.
"Maerks," she greeted less than warmly, her southern accent doing nothing to belay the chill of her attitude. "What do you want?"
He made sure she saw his eyes rake up her body and smirked.
"Well...."
"Oh, please." She rolled her eyes, tossing her head. "Yeah, you stopped me to tell me you think I'm jack-off material. Duh. Old news." Varens gave him a smirk nearly as good as is own, coupled with a disdainful scan of his own body. "What do you really want?"
Devlin found a new spark of respect for the girl. Enough for him to be earnest with her.
Coming to a decision, he turned slightly and offered his arm.
"Walk with me."
She eyed him with suspicion, but slipped into a comfortable escort position with him, her fingers cool against his bare skin.
"So..." she started.
His lips tugged up at the corners.
"So?" he couldn't resist taunting.
Varens gave him a bored look, fanning the spark of respect.
"Whatever it is you want, I don't have to help you, you know," she informed him flatly. "In fact, I probably won't."
He shrugged as though it didn't matter as they strolled through the large double doors out onto the lawn, the sunshine washing over them. It was a lovely Saturday, although hints of storm clouds could be seen at the edge of the lake.
"I know. But I won't be certain until I try, now will I?"
She nodded grudging acknowledgement and fell silent.
Devlin drank in the sunshine, the nature, and the students studying and playing ultimate as they promenaded past, but Varens's eyes remained locked on his face, her expression perturbed.
He was much more interesting than another beautiful day.
Only when they came to a rest on a dock on the lake, far from the other students, did Devlin finally speak again, his gaze somewhere across the waves.
"I need you to help me become friends with Dracaena."
