The Legend by Melissa Delport

Author:Melissa Delport
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Published: 2015-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

chapter 23

Over the past few weeks I have spent a lot of time with Alex and Brooke and I cannot help but notice that Aidan is conspicuous by his absence, which is why I am stunned when he shows up at my door long after dinner one evening.

“Hi,” I greet him shyly, not quite able to repress the memory of our last conversation in the dojo. I am also acutely aware of the fact that he has been spending time with Sofia and I am surprised by how much it bothers me. I step aside so he can enter, and I shut the door behind him, tugging at the bottom of my oversized T-shirt, which falls an inch above mid-thigh. It is a humid and muggy evening and I discarded my pants earlier.

“What’s up?” I ask casually. “I haven’t seen you around lately.”

“I’ve been busy,” he answers cryptically and I can’t think of anything else to say, so I take a seat on the edge of the bed, surreptitiously arranging the blankets over the expanse of bare flesh.

“Do you remember your prom?” he asks suddenly.

Of course I remember my prom. I had worked myself up into a frenzy, grand delusions of being miraculously transformed into Cinderella and finally coming out of societal hibernation. It was only a few days before that I suddenly realised I didn’t have a date and, unable to bear the rejection of asking any of the boys in class, I had announced that I wouldn’t be going after all. I had tried to keep my voice light and pretend it was no big deal, but Aidan had seen right through me.

“It’s your prom, Bex, you can’t miss it.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a rite of passage, you’ll regret it if you don’t go.”

“How would you know?”

“Because I’m older and wiser than you are.” His brown eyes met mine and I felt an embarrassing red flush rising on my cheeks.

“Who will I go with, though?” I asked, not wanting to meet his gaze, but able to confess to him what I couldn’t to our parents. “I’m scared to ask anyone . . . what if they say no?”

“You’re going with me,” he announced immediately, turning serious, and the way that he said it made my heart beat a little faster, although I didn’t understand why at the time.

“You bought me my dress,” I murmur, answering his question as I snap myself back to the small dorm room.

“You looked so beautiful,” he turns from the window to look at me. “Everyone was staring at you.”

“Oh please,” I disagree. “They were probably staring at you – you were far too popular for your own good.”

“They were staring at you,” he repeats, ignoring me, and then: “I was jealous as hell.”

“You never said anything.”

“I didn’t think it mattered. Until that night you snuck into my bedroom, I never suspected you felt the same way I did.”

I flush slightly as I recall the night, shortly after I had my procedures, that I had crept into Aidan’s bedroom and started something that had lasted two beautiful, bittersweet years.

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