Uncertainties.

With his long strides, Damien caught up to her with ease. “Don’t walk away from me,” he said, in a low voice, almost menacing. He reached out to grab her arm again to stop her, but she had already stopped. He stopped walking abruptly, almost crashing into her from behind. Damien gingerly took a step back and focused on keeping an infuriated expression even though curiosity had begun creeping into his mind.

The girl turned around wearily, arms crossing casually as she looked at him. “What do you want Damien? I’m tired, exhausted and I really don’t want to deal with you and your snide remarks right now.”

Instead of feeling the triumph he thought he would, Damien felt, surprisingly guilty. Here he was, cantankerous and tired from lack of sleep and he was taking it out on someone who felt equally as exhausted as he. He was surprised at her defeated expression and did she just call him Damien? Since when were they on first name terms? However, despite his racing thoughts, two words came capriciously rushing out from his lips, catching both of them off-guard.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted out softly and widened his eyes, staring straight into her azure eyes. Did he just apologize?? Her shocked expression told him that he wasn’t imagining it. Hell. He turned around unexpectedly and walked determinedly back to the school building. Pausing, he turned around and said, his voice unnaturally cold, “Foyer, 8 o’clock. Don’t be late.” And with that he strode off, mentally reprimanding himself. What did he just do?

~o~

Taylor stared after him, finally letting her jaw drop. There were three things that had just happened, well two actually – the third was more of a revelation – that were not supposed to have occurred. One, she’d called him by his first name. Now why did she do that? They weren’t chums, buddies, since when were they even on first name terms? Two, he’d apologized?? That was the most surprising of all. He’d almost seemed like a gentleman. And the third? His dark blue eyes, even mingled with the surprise he had after apologizing had been so angry, so troubled… so torn? It almost seemed like he was fighting an inner battle. And the most unnerving of all, to her, they looked so familiar. But no, it couldn’t be. The lack of sleep must be getting to her. She shook her head and checked her mobile. 6.30. She had time to kill. Maybe she’d explore the place on her own for a while.

As she made up her mind, she stood up and started walking towards nowhere in particular, her orange juice left by the tree forgotten. She walked aimlessly for a while passing the basketball courts, tennis courts and netball court until she came to a slow stop by the swimming pool. In first light, the waters seemed so dark yet so calm and so safe; she felt this strange urge to jump in. It was crazy, no she couldn’t. Not now at least. She made a mental note to come back later at night if she really couldn’t sleep again. Kicking off her dark purple Chucks, she sat by the edge of the pool and slowly put her legs into the cold, cold water. Taylor braced a shiver and sat there just staring into the dark waters of the pool.

…she turned away from him and faced the black waters of the ocean surrounding them.

“I’m sorry,” he said suddenly. His voice was rough and pained.
She turned to look at him and was caught by his silvery navy eyes. They were so full of frustration and anger. Taylor didn’t know why, but she just had to know what was wrong…

“No,” she breathed, suddenly sitting up straight. “No, no, no, no, no.” She had to be imagining it. There was no way that he was the boy from her dreams. Was she dreaming of him? No! It couldn’t be. The boy in her dreams was charming and kind. Damien Winters was nothing close to kind. She shook her head furiously and quickly got her legs out of the pool. It was the lack of sleep, she wasn’t thinking straight.

Grabbing her shoes and her mobile, she walked quickly towards the school building. She just had to get her mind off this issue. But how? How was she to stop thinking about bloody Damien Winters when she had to spend time with him every single day for the next few months? Taylor let out a frustrated groan and picked up her speed, purposefully striding towards her destination.

~o~

Damien was leaning casually against the banister of the stairs in the foyer waiting when he saw her. The first flash of thought that sailed through his mind was, this girl is mad. She was quite a sight. All haggard and pale, looking like she hasn’t slept a wink all night, walking barefoot while holding her sneakers, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind her. Yes, the girl was mad. He raised one eyebrow as he pushed himself off the wall to stand straight. “I suggest you put on your shoes and look less like some homeless wench if you want to walk by me,” he drawled.

She glowered at him and opened her mouth to retaliate but decided against it and closed it again. She walked straight past him into the girls’ bathrooms and came out in a few minutes, shoes on but still oh so very pale. Damien checked his watch and smirked. 8.03. “You’re late,” he said, his voice smooth. She tilted her head downwards by a fraction and gave him a look that clearly said, you’ve got to be kidding. He laughed to himself and began walking up the stairs, “Come along.”

They walked in silence for a while until they reached a long corridor of doors. “Malden gave us the day off so I could show you the classrooms first, so at least you won’t get lost.” She mumbled something noncommittally and walked quietly behind him. Well she seemed intent on ignoring him for the day. He shrugged slightly, better for him anyway. “This is the art room,” he said pointing to the first door on their right. “This is where you go if you have art,” he added, talking unnecessarily slowly as if she were a child. The art room was large, enough to accommodate at least twenty art students, with their easels and their canvases.

Pointing to the three large sliding doors opposite the art room, he said, “These are the dance rooms; One, Two, and Three. Each room is usually used to teach different types of dance, but it’s not fixed so really the dance teachers rotate between the rooms. There are more than a few types of dance taught here at MAD. Ballet, hip-hop, Latin, salsa and tango to name a few. It’s compulsory for all the students to have at least one class in each separate form of art, so we mingle quite a bit. You have equal hours of class in each ‘subject’ until you’ve found your talent. Then you see Malden, and she changes your timetable accordingly.”

“Hmm.”
Damien felt a slight twinge of annoyance at her indifference but said nothing. Walking down he pointed to a few smaller classrooms. “Here there’s literature, and journalism. And those are some of the music rooms. There are far too many to list. But the largest rooms go to the more popular instruments like piano, violin, and so on.” He gestured down another long corridor, “More instrument rooms and also, further down there there’s a percussion room.” He stopped and turned around.
“Aren’t you going to show me that corridor?” she asked.
Without turning around, he answered, “I trust you’re not completely tone deaf. Follow the noises, you’ll find your classes there easily enough.”
He didn’t turn to look at her, but he could just imagine her glaring daggers at his back and stifled some laughter.

They walked further, watching the students in the classrooms through the large windows in the doors. Damien stopped suddenly when he couldn’t hear her footsteps behind him any longer. Turning around, he saw she’d been transfixed in front one of the art displays. Sighing in frustration, he strode back towards her. “I haven’t got all day you know.” He moved behind her to see what she was looking at and drew a sharp inhale of breath when he realized she was staring at one of his paintings. It was a scenic painting of a winter’s day. He smiled wryly at his name, Winters, painted in white in his own hand at the corner of the painting, barely visible amongst all the blues and whites of the painting. It was ironic, yes, that is was. But that was what he loved most about that painting. That, and the fact that to him it was more than just a scene; it was his life’s story.

He would never tell anyone, but every single object in the painting meant something to him. The harshness of his childhood, represented by the harshness of the cold winter wind, the sapling trying to grow in the unforgiving surroundings was him as a child. And finally, the tall defiant pine tree, growing steadily and strongly during the severe winter was him now. The girl reached out to trace the lines of the painting, the thick oil paint and let out a small breath. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered. “So much emotion, so much pain.” She was talking to herself now, but Damien heard every word and he looked down sharply at her. How could she possibly know? He cleared his throat and said gruffly, “Let’s go. You have already wasted enough of my time.” His voice was cold and unforgiving, he knew she had hit far too close to home. The girl hadn’t made an effort to move, so he grabbed her wrist and started off in the other direction, dragging her along with him.

“Let me go,” she said, her temper evident in her voice.
“Once you learn how to walk like a normal person.”
“Let me go, now.”
“Then stop making me have to drag you.”
She wrenched her hand free from his grasp, causing him to whirl around to face her. He managed to catch her massaging her wrist lightly and his eyes widened slightly as he saw the beginnings of a bruise starting to form on her papery skin. He looked at her face, her cheeks starting to tinge pink with her fury.

“Did your wholly inconsiderate bloody mind ever think that maybe you just walk faster than me? And that maybe if you bloody let go of my hand you wouldn’t have to drag me along at your pace? ”
His eyes traveled down to her wrist which had started to show telltale signs that he had indeed been gripping her too hard. He remained fixated at the bruising, overcome with shock and horror that he had actually injured a girl. It didn’t matter that she was insufferable and completely annoying, he had physically hurt her. And he, being brought up as a gentleman, would never physically harm a defenseless girl. Despite his dismay, his pride had reigned and he slowly brought his eyes up to meet hers and said simply, “Fine.”

With that he turned around and started walking to the other classroom corridors on the opposite side of the hall, leaving her standing behind him in indignation and shock at his act of blasé indifference.

~o~

That night, Taylor couldn’t help but whine about her day to Kat. “Oh my goodness, it was horrible! Absolutely appalling. I had to spend my entire day with the prick and was being a complete pain in the arse! It didn’t make things any better that he was such a charmer in front of Malden. He’s got her eating out of his palm I tell you! Seriously, it nearly made me sick to the stomach.”
“Oh come on Tay, he isn’t that bad.”
“You’re his friend, you have no say in this!”
“Fine, fine. But I’m telling you, give him a chance. He’s a pretty nice guy. Really.”
“Ugh. There is no way in hell that he has a nice bone in his body. He’s bloody aggravating!”
All Kat did was laugh as she turned on her bed. “Get some sleep. You’ve got to brace yourself for tomorrow.” She paused dramatically, “And the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that…”
Taylor threw her pillow at her newfound best friend and laughed. “Shut it okay. I am really suffering enough here.” She caught her pillow as it came sailing through the air back to her and burrowed in her comfortable bed, trying to sleep.


She was pacing around the sand. It was something she seemed to do a lot. And frankly she was getting quite sick of it. She wanted to venture the goddamned forest! But she couldn’t budge. She knew who she was waiting for. But where was he?

It was a long while and she was getting bored of pacing. Taylor had walked the entire circumference of the island, but she knew he wasn’t there. She couldn’t feel his presence. She was really getting restless and somehow she knew. He wasn’t coming.


She saw darkness. She was awake again. Groping around for her mobile, she wondered what time it was. 3.33. Great. Another sleepless night. She hoisted herself up and sat cross-legged. This had to stop. Suddenly remembering the pool, she jumped off her bed and rummaged in the poor light for her swimwear. She found a yellow two-piece halter and bottom and slipped it on, not bothering to run the bathrooms. Nobody was awake anyway. Pulling over her favourite black hoodie, she put on a pair of shorts and grabbed her mobile.

She was careful and quiet as she made her way down to the swimming pool. She pulled the hoodie over her head and chucked her shorts to the side, leaving her mobile on top of them and dived in gracefully. The water was ruthlessly cold and she shivered as the cold water enveloped her entire form. She laid in the water enjoying the feeling of the cool water against her skin for a while before starting to swim. Taylor swam a couple of laps before stopping to take a rest by the side of the pool.

“What do you think you’re you doing?” came an infuriated male voice from above her.
Taylor gasped and involuntarily swallowed water. Choking, she looked up and saw none other than Damien Winters. “Well I was swimming until you came and nearly shocked me half to death.”
“Get out.”
“Why?? I want to swim. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Fine. I’m coming in.”
“What the hell is your bleeding problem??”
“I want to swim too.”
“Oh.”

She pulled herself out of the water and sat at the edge of the pool as he dove in and she couldn’t help watching him. She watched how his muscular arms pushing water back as he propelled himself forward. He seemed to swim for ages, never getting tired and Taylor briefly wondered when he was going to stop. It was then when he suddenly went under water and didn’t surface. “Holy mother of God,” she muttered. Was he drowning? Panic coursed through her system. She dove into the cold water and swam quickly towards his figure in the water.

She stopped in front of him and tried to pull him up; almost unaware of how close she was to him when he suddenly opened his eyes, annoyance very palpable in his stormy dark eyes.

“Now really, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Bloody hell, I thought you were drowning or something! Well, I’m sorry that I’m a good hearted Samaritan and tried to save your life,” she countered hotly. He really was an ungrateful bastard.
“I wasn’t drowning. Do you just have to stick your nose in my business all the time? You’ve been like the plague ever since I met you. Except maybe, I’d welcome the plague more graciously.”
“Excuse me?” Taylor was taken aback by his tone of voice. There was no teasing or condescending tone in his voice. Just pure hatred and loathing. It was extremely disconcerting for some reason. “I don’t know just what I’ve done to earn your hate, but maybe you should try consideration for a change and think about other people for a change. You’re not exactly my cup of tea you know.” There was a tinge of hurt in her voice, and she didn’t like the fact that it was there. She could hear it and she was sure he could very well hear it too. For the first time in her life, Taylor was lost for words, so she pulled herself out of the water, gathered her things and stormed back to the school building.

~o~

The next few weeks, as she expected, was hell for Taylor. It seemed that Damien was not enjoying their time together any more than she was. Every time they had managed to come up with a few civil words for each other always ended up in a heated argument. Even Kat and Bryan had tried their best to reduce the tension between the two but failed miserably. When finally the twins couldn’t tolerate the resentment between Taylor and Damien, the pair reluctantly made a compromise to be at least civil to each other for the sake of their friends.

Slowly, the tension between the two deteriorated and the pair was back to snide remarks and tolerable dispute.

~o~

It was around March and Taylor was beginning to start to know the school considerably well. She hardly got lost anymore and could easily find her classes. Damien knew that it was soon going to be time that he would be free of the annoying girl. They were waiting in the Cafeteria under a tree the four of them had dubbed their ‘spot’ for the Asian twins.

“Well I suppose if I have to show you around school, I’m going to do a good job at it.”
“Oh, but you have,” she replied dryly.
“Tonight, at midnight, meet me outside the dining hall.” His tone was so serious; it caught her completely off-guard.

“Do I look like I’m joking?” He said in annoyance, but when he caught the look of poorly disguised horror on her face, he couldn’t help but smirk and add, “I’m not going to ravish you.” And after a dramatic pause, he quipped, “Unless you want me to.”
Her shock changed to indignation and she replied quite hotly, “I wasn’t thinking that, you git. And ew gross, definitely not.”
He couldn’t help the laughter rumbling from inside himself. “I’m serious. Midnight.” And with that he left her, staring after him in much confusion.

~o~

It had been almost two months they’d spent almost every day together. It wasn’t her fault that the school was so bloody enormous. She’d learnt quite a lot about him, not that she did it willingly of course. He liked to talk just to annoy her. And he usually succeeded. Also, much to her chagrin, she actually listened to him. For some inexplicable reason, she just couldn’t ignore the idiot. She’d spent a good lot of time thinking about him too. She really didn’t want to, but he just happened to find a way to wander into her thoughts. Like she’d be eating oranges for instance and she’d remember that he couldn’t stand orange juice. Who in their right mind couldn’t stand orange juice? She for one loved orange juice.

But that was beside the point. What worried her most was that sometimes, she saw him in an entirely different light. He wasn’t always the arrogant stuck up git she crashed into at the airport. Sometimes, she could swear that he was decent and a gentleman. She knew, deep down that there was more to him than meets the eye. But she rarely let herself dwell on it. The more she saw him in better light, she more she related him to the boy in her dreams. And that was being unwarranted. The past few months, she’d tried to keep her distance from him emotionally, but she was finding it harder and harder to find reasons to hate him.

And now he wanted to meet her at midnight? It was against school rules! It was dangerous. How if they got caught? How if he was setting her up? How if… And how if’s continued to rule her thoughts until midnight, judgment hour.

~o~

Damien strode restlessly outside the dining hall. Was she going to turn up? How if she turned him in? They were breaking a number of rules. How if she got into trouble because of him? How if– Hold up. Did he just worry about her? It must be the adrenaline. It’s playing with your mind, Damien. He was in the middle of mentally slapping himself when he heard the soft patter of footfall and he just knew it was her. She’d come.

Turning to see her expecting an annoyed expression, he was quite taken aback when he just found a face filled with curiosity. “What are we going to do?” she inquired, her voice a bare whisper.
“Come with me.” It was simple, straightforward. A command. And she acquiesced.

He moved stealthily to the large oak doors that opened to the outdoor compound of the school. Holding one door open for her, it reminded him of the first time they ‘officially’ met on the front steps of the school. He thought her a spoilt, shallow rich girl, and… he was right. He chuckled to himself. No, that wasn’t true; she was actually incredibly smart, witty, sarcastic, funny and everything he looked for in a girl. What was he thinking? Oh my dear lord, Damien. You’ve lost it.
“What’s up with you?” Came the slightest whisper.
“Nothing, sorry.”
“Where are we–”
“Ssshhh. Come.”

~o~

They moved quietly around to the back of the school, keeping close to the walls lest somebody decided to get some fresh air and walk out to their balconies. They walked in amiable silence for some time when Taylor felt something grip her hand and she realized that Damien had slipped his hand into hers. A rush of something she couldn’t quite place traveled through her entire being and she felt herself smiling in the dark. What was happening? She didn’t know what compelled her to respond to his grip – she should’ve pushed him away – but she didn’t and their fingers intertwined as they continued walking in the dark with only the dim moonlight to guide them.

They were reaching a gate. She’d never seen this gate before and she wondered briefly where he was taking her. She wanted to ask but somehow she didn’t want to ruin to perfect silence. Damien let go of her hand to open the gate and she immediately felt the loss of warmth. Her fingers curled up involuntarily and she wondered why she was reacting this way to him. She followed silently behind him and was shocked by the relief she felt when he took her hand again.

“A little more to go,” he whispered although she didn’t ask. He must’ve known it would bother her not knowing where they were going.

They walked on and he finally stopped abruptly causing her crash into him, losing her balance. He caught her in his arms and righted her swiftly as she muttered an embarrassed thanks. She looked ahead and saw a beautiful arch made of vines and leaves growing together. He led her under the arch and the scene that ensued made her breath catch in her throat. It was a gorgeous garden full of flawless flowers and everything shone almost silver in the moonlight – almost like the island. Taylor’s eyes widened slightly. There was no way he could’ve known.

Everything happened in a blur. One minute they were standing so very still, paralyzed by the beauty of the garden. Then the next, she was in his arms and he just held her as they stood there admiring the enchanting scene before them.

A million things were running through her mind at that moment. She shouldn’t feel so safe in his arms. What was happening? Nevertheless, she didn’t move to push him away and it was too soon before the slivers of sunlight began to pierce the dark of night. Dawn was approaching. He’d moved.

“I have to go,” he muttered gruffly.
“Okay,” Taylor replied, somewhat confused and torn between asking him to stay and asking him what he was playing at.
They shared a long, intense gaze, both not sure about what had happened and both unsure of their feelings for each other.
“I have to go,” he repeated. Her eyebrows knitted with the beginnings of what seemed like hurt but he had turned his back to her. And then he left.

She stood there for what seemed like hours before she knew how to move again.