The Breath Of His

16. What is that said masterpiece called, Rio and Juliet

"I am Amanzi. Nice to meet you for the second time," he sang again but why did it feel like he was telling me that my time was up instead?

________________

"What do you want from me?" I miraculously managed to ask while my stomach jumped into my throat. The bile that was threatening to rise now didn't have to travel a long way when everything was in my throat.

He just flashed me another shark smile observing whatever artwork was painted on my face. The feeling of living in a horror movie took over my entire being.

The sound of steps walking in our direction grabbed his attention and that was very much enough for me to make a swift right about turn only to end up slamming my face into the amazing smelling wall with a soft fabric covering it. The tingling all over the body intensified but rather in a pleasant way this time.

My eyes as if being called snapped up to look. And there he was, like he usually was, standing just before me right when I needed him. Vann was not looking at me but rather at Amanzi behind me.

They stared at each other, talking wordlessly. And as if being told to get lost, Amanzi casually tucked his hands into his pockets and turned to leave, whistling an incredible melody that might have never been heard by anyone, or at least me.

I waited, never looking away from the sauntering figure of Amanzi's till he disappeared from the sight.

Nah ah, I wasn't risking of leaving the protection before making sure the danger was no longer there in my vicinity. Who knew if he bounced back before me once I stepped out of the safe zone like the jester jack in the box.

Once I was sure that he was out of my hair, I let out the breath I had been holding in a loud exhale. My stiff body visibly relaxed.

I turned to look at my silent savior who looked into my eyes with those mesmerizing silvers before looking down towards his shirt making me follow through to find my hand had fisted into the shirt of his, till my knuckles had turned white. I looked up to find him looking at me again before raising his eyebrow. When the realization hit my brain, my eyes widened and butterflies fluttered in my stomach wildly.

As if being burnt, I released it almost immediately that I felt the sting in my muscles as I stepped back.

The creases on his shirt remained, looking like a wrinkled pattern.

"Sorry and thanks," I put a strand of hair behind my ear and looked down while saying. I didn't have it in me to look at him again.

"For what?" he asked in that low baritone of his, not stepping away from me like he would usually do.

"For... Chasing him away," I almost whispered looking dead in his eyes for him to know it wasn't something that I said for namesake but meant it. From my heart.

He just tilted his head to the side, as if asking me to elaborate.

"It was a complete nightmare to find him standing behind me just the day after he tried to kill me," I quickly glanced around to see if there was any eavesdropping happening over our conversation.

And immediately he stiffened up.

Though the red bells were ringing, I dared to ask, "what are they doing in our school anyway?"

Before he could say or do anything, there was another voice that answered from behind, "I think we will need to tell her about yesterday's events."

I don't know when he came so close to us that I had missed the alert my body had given me by being lost into the little bubble that Vann had created around us, or I had created it myself with the illusion that he was the one responsible behind it.

I turned to find face West, Kai and Dylan standing there.

The words I had heard made it difficult to understand process. Did WEST as in West Zervos, said that? Did he really say that?

I looked over my shoulder to see Vann's expression which was still stiff as it was a few moments ago.

"Is that an absolute necessity?" Vann ground through his teeth.

That just hit my heart with a prang, making it ache as bad as a heartattack. My eyes stung but I held back the emotions not wanting to show how those words affected me.

"And why don't I need to know it?" I felt my irritation seep out of my tone.

"If it is not an utter necessity, I would not prefer it," he said in another grit.

"And again, why don't I need to know about it?" I stressed on the same question as I took a step towards in, my heart ached and ached. It ached for me, it ached for him, it ached for this whole thing that I had built up in my head.

"It would be in your interests to stay as far away from me, from us as possible. Once you are in our world, it will be impossible to return," Vann's tone went down a pitch or two. It was not a warning but rather his concern for me.

"And why do you need to be the one to decide for me when I was the one who could have ended up early in my grave yesterday?" I asked him back seriously, not once did my voice stammer from all the emotions I was harbouring.

He leaned in further, reducing the space between us, letting his cool breath hit my face as his intoxicating smell hit me reminding me who masculine he was. Even though it was distracting and inducing a lot of things that made me less angry but the words he said next made more goosebumps rise on my body, "I'm the worst ever curse out there disguised as the most beautiful blessing. You will burn to ashes if you get any closer."

His words left me breathless. But then he didn't have the right to make choices for me.

"If I burn, let me burn beside you than burn without you. After all, it is my life and my decision. And I won't regret it for a second," my words made him widen his eyes for a fraction of a second while mine stayed as focused as they had been from the time I said the first word of my breathtaking statement.

It felt like I had stepped into one of those purely romantic movies of the late 90s.

And I had realised it about how our words sounds like dialogues written by Jane Austen even before Dylan took it upon himself to clear his throat as he said, "did I just enter a chick-flick, bro? Perhaps, what is that said masterpiece called, Rio and Juliet-" West rolled his eyes correcting, "did you mean Romeo and Juliet?"

"Whatever! Because all I'm seeing is rainbows and stars everywhere," Dylan went on like a true jock he was. And a clown that could embarrass me enough to flush beet.

I took a step away and increased the distance between me and Vann while my brain cringed at the reply of the boldness I had displayed.

Anyway, the atmosphere had lightened up a little due to Dylan's birdbrain.

Kai sniggered tapping away on his phone screen whatever game he had started playing.

"But she's got a point," West resumed, dragging us all back to being serious about this as he continued, "she deserves to know since she risked her life yesterday to save us all when she could have simply run for her own life. And... Father wants to meet her."