Different Light

Chapter Six

Kathryn found herself following the tall brunette out to the, now, empty parking lot and led to the silver sport car. And a few minutes later they were driving down the road, and the small brunette asked herself, not for the first time why she did not just walked away. She couldn’t believe that she gave in, with a soft look from those dark brown eyes and a smile she gave in.

At least it’s a car, she thought to herself. Faith didn’t really say if they were going riding the bike again or not, she only took her by the hand and walked out of the building, wasn’t really sure what she was feeling. The first for her. There had been a lot of first lately and Kathryn Merteuil didn’t know if she liked the changes.

“Don’t be so tense, Princess.” Faith murmured as she shifted the car into higher gear.

Kathryn glared at her for the nickname, no one had ever dared calling her anything other than her given name before, and if they did it wasn’t to her face, she didn’t like nickname, she was beyond it, and she let people know just as much.

“What?” Noticing the frown, Faith asked with a curious note in her voice. “Don’t like the music?”

She had been listening to the Nine Inch Nails on the way to school this morning, just something to get her start the day at the preppy school, with a bunch of preppy snobs, and the too clean cut set of people, just something to get her going. She didn’t think Kathryn would be too keen on her music, but then unless the girl said something about it, she wasn’t going to change. A little bit of rough, industrial music wouldn’t hurt the prissy brunette’s image, besides there was no one else but the two of them.

“How could you like this…” Kathryn gestured at the CD player as she tried to come up with something to describe the sound Faith called music, “…noise.” She finally said.

“What is your type of music anyway? Mozart?” Faith mocked. “Something more proper, softer? Would Enya suite your taste?”

Kathryn just snorted but made no comment further, the softer –if industrial music could be soft – tune had come on and her eardrums stopped protesting.

”Where are we going?”

“Oh you know; I figure since I’m courting you, a dinner would be nice, what do you think?”

Faith waited for the smaller girl to comment on her choice of word, to see how she would react, if not by word, by her expression, she had expected something, something for her to gauge the other girl’s thought on what they were doing. Though it was not possible – in Faith’s mind – for them to be flirting this much for it to be accidental, especially that Kathryn choose the place and time for their little flirtatious contacts, it could not have been accident.

But there was no reaction to the word she had used to describe her course of action.

“I’m still in school uniform.”

Only a protest of inappropriate outfit.

“So am I, who gives a shit.”

“Faith…”

“Yeah?”

“I need to get change.” Kathryn said with an expression resemble a patient adult speaking to a child.

Faith just laughed and changed her CD, she had no intention of wasting time going back and fort. She was only going to take them to a restaurant; it wasn’t as if they had any dress code that it would be illegal if they showed up in school uniform.

“No you don’t,” Faith said firmly.

“Yes, I do, I am not going to show up anywhere in this uniform.”

Unlike some of the other student that had no problem going out after school in their plaid skirt and navy blue sweater, Kathryn Merteuil would never be seen in it, she pride herself in the way she dressed and the way she held herself in public, and here was Faith, interest or not, refusing to let her change. She had thought that they were only going for a ride and not really stopping anywhere, and that Faith’s ulterior motive was like anyone else that was trying to date her, if they could they would jump right to the goods, and that required no dressing up, because she would’ve ended up not needing them anyway.

She didn’t even know why she let Faith talked her into this, actually the other girl didn’t even say much, only a look and a small smile, and she was following her to her car without looking back. What is wrong with me?

“Come on, Princess, you look good in uniform.” The taller brunette told her, reaching over to touch her cheek. “You’d look good in anything, or out of it.” A mischievous grin appeared on her face.

Kathryn gave out a snort and rolled her eyes.

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Sebastian leaned against the balcony of his room, looking down at the street, smoking, he exhaled smoke into the night air, the street below was rather quiet, it was already ten in the evening, he had been out, cruising, ended with another conquest and made entry in his journal, it was easy, no challenge at all, the girl just followed him like some love sick puppy, when he left afterward she had been so eager to write down her phone number for him, making him promise to call later, and he did, smiling putting the number carelessly away, he had no intention of seeing her ever again, she was boring. The entire episode was boring.

He came home to find that the parental units were out at some benefit party and the house was empty save for the servants and the helps. He didn’t talk to any of them, simply went straight for his room, before he enter his own room though, he glimpsed the door across the hall, his step-sister’s bedroom, the door was ajar, and so he went over and sneaked a peek.

It was empty.

He called for someone and asked if she came home and went out, Mei-Lei, who were holding some vase in her hand, shook her head, telling Sebastian in heavily accent English that Miss Kathryn had not returned home with the limo. So he dismissed her. He figured that she must’ve been meeting someone; Kathryn normally did not bring any of her boy toy home. She kept it separate; it was the side of her that no one at Manchester Prep knew about. To them she was the most popular, Miss Perfect, the Queen, no one knew about her life outside, not even their parents, though he suspected that even if they knew they ignored it, as long as she did not make her little affair the first page of the social section of the papers, they didn’t care.

Flicking the butt of his cigarette he watched the ashes dropped to the ground below as a silver sport car pulled up in front of the townhouse, Sebastian leaned over the railing in curiosity, he didn’t recognize the car, and he knew that his parents were not home, so no one would be visiting anyone, then he saw a girl stepped out from the driver side, he definitely did not know her, and her long dark hair was all he could see. She stepped around the opened the passenger side door.

His eyes budged out as he saw Kathryn stepped out of the passenger seat, he squinted his eyes, focusing on the taller girl, they were both in school uniform, still. He couldn’t really tell who it was that was dropping Kathryn off; she was keeping the back his way.

He watched them walked up to the front door, where the doorman opened the door for them. A few minutes later, he watched the long hair brunette walked back to her car and drove off.

Kathryn leaned back in her seat, she spared a few side glances toward her ‘date’ this evening. Faith was humming along with the noise that she insisted was music, but by now she got used to it and did not mind it as much as she did when she first got into the car and heard it being played. The afternoon had been enjoyable, she couldn’t remember the last time she had fun on an outing, her last official boyfriend was as dull as they come, the only reason she dated him was because it suited her status at school. Dates with him were so boring that she occasionally wanted to rip his head off just so she had something to do.

They had been to Japanese restaurant, the one that she hadn’t been to before, and was surprised that the food and service was excellent, what surprised her even more was that Faith knew the place, seeing how she had only been in town for a short period of time.

“I get around,” Faith had told her grinning when Kathryn asked about it.

They were in there for quite a while longer than it normally took, then Faith had wanted to go for ice-cream, something that the she protested, the dinner was already more than she usually eat, and the taller brunette, whom had eaten more than anyone Kathryn had ever seen in one sitting wanted to go for more, it was entirely impossible for Kathryn to figure out where she had kept all that she consumed.

And then Faith explained about her metabolism and how much she really worked out each day. “Training burned up everything I put in,” she snapped her fingers. “Just like that. Don’t have much left afterwards.”

With that Kathryn glared at her, envious of how freely Faith could eat and how much she did not worry about it. For most of her teenage life, she spent so much time on special diet and even to the extreme to keep her figure trim, everything she put in she had to watch and calculate and sometimes what went in, had to come out, the same way, it was unpleasant but sometimes it was necessary, no one would’ve understood though, and so no one knew. Except Sebastian.

Then here was Faith, whom apparently did not need to watch the amount of food she consumed at all.

They ended up going for desert, which meant ice-cream for Faith and non-fat yogurt for Kathryn. It was strange, to be doing this seemingly normal, but entirely unfamiliar thing with another girl. They walked around in the park, and Kathryn was aware of people looking at them, being in uniform and all.

It was the very first time Kathryn Merteuil ever felt that she didn’t have to hide, didn’t have to try to please anyone. No one was judging her by what she was doing, how she was acting. When she made comment about something that was, by any standard, rather rude, her companion seemed to take it in stride, and even laughed.

It was strange, but Kathryn liked how it felt.

As Faith pulled to a stop in front of the townhouse, she didn’t feel like getting out, didn’t feel like letting the evening end. Then the taller girl did something she didn’t expect her to, she gave her a kiss. It was nothing more than just a peck on her lips, but it was enough to stun her, and she sat there, watching the other brunette got out of the car, came around and open the door for her.

Faith even walked her up to the front door, and while Kathryn asked if she wanted to come in, she declined.

“I had fun,” Kathryn said, feeling a bit awkward. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, and it will not be the last time.” Faith winked. “Promise.”

“Call me,” Kathryn called out and gave a little wave as the other girl turned and jogged back to her car.

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As she made her way up to her own room she could almost count the minutes that her step-brother would pop out of his room to catch her, Mei-Lei already told her that he was asking for her when he got back home a few hours ago, and so when he stepped through his own door and into hers she wasn’t surprise, merely annoyed.

Sebastian acted more and more like love-sick puppy lately, and she didn’t really know why, not that she would want to. She had seen him at school, being the usual playboy self. She even saw him eyeing Faith, thinking that he could probably get on with her, since she was new the school, even though she showed nothing but contempt toward him during the party on Saturday. She knew what he was thinking, without having to think about it, Sebastian was nothing if not predictable.

Faith was a challenge to him.

And Kathryn didn’t know if she liked that fact or not. But now she knew for certain that Sebastian had no prayer with her. Like he had no prayer with Kathryn herself. True that they were step bother and sister, it didn’t seem to stop the boy from flirting with her whenever he could, and Kathryn had played along, amused by his attempt more than anything else.

Right now though, his attempts weren’t as amusing as they once were.

“Who was that?” A voice broke her out of her muse.

Sebastian stood at the top of the stairs, waiting with a boyish grin on his face, the one he always thought that was charming and always work with the girls, however, it didn’t work right now. He was all decked out in his dark suit, but the tie that probably been neatly tied earlier now was at half mask, first bottom undone. He leaned against the banister casually, looking at his step-sibling up and down.

The small brunette growled internally, wondering if her step-brother spent his time just waiting to pounce on her.

“None of your business, I believe,” Kathryn said coldly. “And don’t you have anything else to do other than bothering me? I would’ve thought that you would be writing in your little journal about your boring little conquest for the day.”

“I already did that and I think I got something better for my talent.” He grinned, following her to the sitting room. “Do you want to know what it is?”

“Oh, I’m dying to know.” Kathryn mocked, as she sat down in one of the chair, crossing her leg and looked at him with bored expression. “Enlighten me.”

Sebastian followed suit, “well, you remember the new girl.” He watched her closely. “You know, Faith Spencer.”

“I don’t think so, Sebastian.”

“What? I didn’t even tell you what I’m going to do yet.” He tilted his head, pretending to be confused. “And I’m pretty sure you remember her, seeing how you were with her the entire Saturday afternoon.”

“I know what you’re thinking.” The small brunette hissed, ignoring the last remark. “And I can tell you right now that it’s not going to happen; you don’t stand a chance with her.”

“Care to make a wager on that?” He challenged, leaning forward in his seat, looking at the small brunette right in the eye.

He was startled at the sudden bark of laughter from his step-sister and narrowed his eyes as she threw her head back and let out a full laugh, he had never seen her laughed like that, ever. It was almost a lost of control, and Kathryn Merteuil never ever lost control. It took her a few moments to calm down, and when she finally did she looked right in his eyes and told him.

“Never make a bet on something you can’t win, Sebastian.”

With that she got up and strode down the hallway then disappeared inside her own room.

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