Page 40 of The Kiss Of Death
“All of that trouble just for a girl you haven’t even fucked yet.” Kay shook his head. “Seriously, what are you even playing at with her? You want to fuck her, or do you want to ruin her? Because news flash, that’s not the same!”
I removed the glove, holding it between two fingers before tossing it aside like a used condom. “You should throw that nasty thing away. I’ll see you both later.”
The abrupt blaring of a phone’s alarm pulled me from sleep. I squinted, fumbling it to silence. The message flashed across the screen:It’s time for you to leave. I slumped onto the bed, likely Levi’s bed, enveloped by his pure satin sheets. A soft artificial sunrise gradually illuminated the room, and his coffee machine hummed to life as if already programmed for him to wake up at this time.
There was no denying it. I was at Levi’s place.
The alarm rang again with the sweet message:Get up, eat, don’t bother to say goodbye.
I followed the instructions and found my neatly folded uniform on the feet of his king-sized bed, a contrast to the ordinary beds of commoners like me. I didn’t even want to know how he managed to persuade the university into granting him a room all to himself.
I paced toward the small kitchen. Next to the coffee machine, in the middle of this very neat, almost compulsively clean place, he had left a protein bar, which I supposed was intended for me. It was almost thoughtful.
I decided to snoop around his dorm room. If he didn’t respect my boundaries, I didn’t see why his would be forbidden.
From his vantage point, Levi’s living space offered a panorama of the school’s spires and towers. He had no personal objects apart from computers and a chessboard. It caught my eye as it rested on the table near his bed. The worn chess pieces hinted at a history of countless games played by Levi over the years. Each crack and imperfection seemed to tell a story, meticulously etched into the black and white marble of the pawns. It was clear that this chess set wasn’t just a random one. No, this one was significant to him. It was a sneak peek into his world and battles.
I moved on to his closet, which only had a dash of purple from his Tacticians’ uniforms, but the rest was black and gray, with no artifice. I went to his bathroom and undressed before I covered myself, searching for any cameras.
“You better not see this. It’s against my consent!” I screamed just in case.
His bathroom was neat with black tiles. A peach and hibiscus shampoo was in the shower. It was unopened, and it was the same one I bought online. I was convinced Levi must be some kind of sociopath, but I didn’t even care right now. All I could think of were his words echoing in my mind.
I thought you would be a match for me, that you wouldn’t break so easily, but maybe I was wrong about you. If you think you’re weak, maybe you are.
As the water cascaded over me, I whispered the words with a newfound determination, a vow to myself that I refused to let my vulnerabilities define me. “I’m not weak.”
I had my place here. I’d already lost all the childhood memories Mom didn’t get the chance to tell me about. I had lots of questions about her life before I was born that would never have an answer. I couldn’t change our past, but I could feel close to Mom one last time if I held my promise to her.
I can’t give up and let them win.
I changed and went to explore Levi’s desk. He had done a few assignments. His handwriting was neat and rigid, compared to how messy mine was with doodles everywhere. I opened the top drawer and only found some pieces of electronics. But in the one below, I found a music score.
Lucie’s music score.
I would recognize her handwriting anywhere and her unique way of annotating her scores. Lucie had synesthesia, so she was always seeing colors alongside songs, letters, days, or even people. She used colors, shapes, and forms to draft the vision of her music score when she was creating them.
The frequency curve of the score was separated into four shades of color: the first part in dark violet trending to blue, with a “fast and powerful allegretto” as a reference handwritten on the side. The second part, light blue, has the annotations “disturbed unstable andante.” The third, a purple violet, “mysterious, faded, lento.” And the fourth, a metallic gray one, with “dark, sin tempo.”
I referred further to the score she had written below the sketch and frowned. It made no sense. This pattern didn’t match the melody. The music score itself was simply unplayable, with measures that did not follow each other, and the whole thing was out of tune. But why would Lucie, a musical genius, write something so complex and elaborate without any reason, devoid of meaning?
“Maybe it’s like a puzzle,” I whispered to myself.
Timing had never been my forte because the door slammed open at that exact moment.
“You’re still here. I told you to leave.” Levi strode into the room, lifting an eyebrow. “Are you snooping around my stuff?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “You did it to me, so it’s fair I do the same.”
“But life isn’t fair.” He sat on his desk, narrowing his eyes at me as if he didn’t know if he wanted to get rid of meor… continue what he started last night. “And behind my back. You’re wicked, Sherlock.”
My eyes dropped on the bruises on his knuckles. “What happened?”
“I had an encounter.”
“You fought someone?” I snapped my brows together. It seemed out of character for him. He typically exuded an aura of control, always impeccably groomed and composed. Yet this morning, he looked like he had been thrown underneath a bus.
“I punched a table. That was idiotic, and all because of you, for that matter. Now, can we move on to—”
