Lavender Kisses

♥

Love in high school didn’t come as easily as it did in romance novels…even if you were a handsome boy with a sincere smile. The poetic words of aging writers fell uselessly on the ears of teenagers when actually spoken aloud, and then the normally articulate tongues of boys always fell prey to the malicious teasing of their other gender. The closest one could get to being the “artistic romantic” was plugging in your portable CD player and offering to share your carefully prepared tunes with someone who caught your eye. And even then it was a critical wait to see whether or not they’d comply. Manners had no business in school.

Inuyasha had indeed beat Kagome to the front doors…although he had chided alongside her for a few strides before taking the lead at the last moment. When he passed he she gave a small shout of excitement, spurring him onward to a reeling victory in the front lobby. Breathless and panting, his hands cupped on his knees, Inuyasha never saw her coming up tm. Bm. But when Kagome’s palm slid under the sleek groove of his chin and lifted his eyes to her level he felt a chill that was described all too well in the deep chapters of a love story. She did nothing more than smile before she released him from her vague grip, and he could only stare after her longingly as she walked calmly to her first period class.

He decided he too should make a dash for his classroom, and managed to clear the hall seconds before the tardy bell rang. When Miroku looked up from his paperwork and met his eyes curiously, Inuyasha waved a dismissive hand and sauntered confidently to his desk. This morning was good. It was beyond good! He slipped into his seat and attentively looked at the board, and throughout the period he enthusiastically tossed answers and ideas to his startled (but pleased) professor.

When the c too took a mild session before the break, Mrs. Talwrik peered intently through her silver-rimmed glasses at the boy who seemed to have been possessed since yesterday. Just the day before he had come in with a stormy frown and then refused to even pretend that he was paying attention. Being a sweet-natured and easily intimidated woman, Mrs. Talwrik had merely let the motive pass, but this change…this change was definitely unavoidable. Her eyes were still focused on him when he glanced up, stared directly over to her, and then waved. He actually waved. A deep crimson painted her cheeks as she resumed studying her grade book, one hand tightly clutching her favorite pencil. It was a useless gesture, seeing that the numbers blended together and absolutely refused to come back to focus. He thoughts ran savagely through her head, blinding her to her normal duties. What on earth had him so friendly? She couldn’t even begin to imagine…

It was exactly 20 minutes later when Miroku took Inuyasha by the collar and jerked his day dreaming friend out of the room and into the hall. Ever since the period had begun, he was bursting from toe to temple with questions, and now he was simply quivering…unable to ease the pressure that gloated in his comrade’s face. Inuyasha had never been one to smile at a professor, and he had never gone out of his way to throw out comments without being first commanded to. But that behavior was icing on the cake compared to the moment when he waved at Mrs. Talwrik!

“ Answer me God damn you!” Miroku was not very angry, but he was as impatient as a man awaiting his trail was. With each word he jumhis his fingers tighter into Inuyasha’s shirt, but his digits recoiled when they fell on something moist in the material. He dropped the interrogation to properly investigate the situation, leaning his face in to peer at the small spot of white. The small spot of…white?

Aghast! A perfect expression of disgust and horror wrought the boyish face of Miroku, and immediately he started to rub the flesh of his palms raw on the hips of his jeans. Gross! Just gross!

Inuyasha finally seemed to notice his friend, but it was only because of the trapped noises urged from the back of his throat. He glanced at him quizzically and then followed the gaze that was fixated on his collarbones. The verdict was unmistakable, making Inuyasha clear his throat nervously and try to think of an explanation that wasn’t so…weird. Being that the story could not be edited or altered in any way that would make it normal, he sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

“ I was sitting out by the tree before school like always and Kagome found me. She decided to make a picnic and shared a sandwich with me.” As he recollected the early morning meeting, Inuyasha felt a small grin creep notoriously along his mouth. “ We were starting to get along ok when I saw she had some bread crust in her teeth and it made me laugh. She said I was rude and I though she was mad so I got kind of tense. Then she threw her sandwich at my face and the dressing got on my shirt.” He nodded to signal he was throat with his tale, and then frowned as Miroku’s eyes widened and his hands reached out innocently into the air.

“ Look man,” he started, obviously mortified, “ I don’t care what you do out of school. But don’t you dare ask me to be your partner.” His enarrnarrowed, and Inuyasha took a meek step back at the seriousness on his face. “ Don’t you dare!”

What did he mean by partner? Truthfully, Inuyasha thought at first that Miroku was grossed out because he might have thought it was Inuyasha -himself- that made the sinful spot of white on his shirt, but that realization that Miroku thought he was with another man made his stomach curl into itself. Shade by shade he paled, until he jumped forward and grabbed Miroku by the arms. “ I am not gay! I’m telling the truth!” His voice was tight and narrow, stated directly at his cringing friend. “ You hear me? Not gay! Not gay!” In fact, he was so busy getting his point across that he failed to control the volume of his voice, and it carried higher each time he said the words ‘not gay’. By the time a small hint of relief started to appear on Miroku’s face, the entire hall had stopped all movement. The fellow students had at first dismissed the shouts as some practical joke, but their repetition and increasing volume made them give sideward glances that turned into secret stares and then became obvious open-mouthed gapes of disbelief.

“ Did he say he wasn’t gay?”

The whisper provoked a twitch in Inuyasha’s left eyelid, and he released Miroku to sluggishly pick up his backpack. He was now entirely convinced that fate wanted him to be out of the country…even if he had made friends with Kagome.

This sucked. That was all there was to it.

♥

It was one of the rare nights in Kagome’s household that the entire family was together. As shambled and old the house was, it could still have a spice of fullness that made Kagome ache inside. She knew this was only a stone to disappoint her. By tomorrow morning she’s wake up to the scent of alcohol in the hallway and her stepfather passed out on the couch. By tomorrow afternoon she’d be cleaning up trails of vomit left by her stumbling mother. By tomorrow night she’d be hysterically sobbing into her old patchwork pillow and wishing desperately it was Sunday night so she’d have the hope of going to school in the morning. But even though this was a tried and true scenario, Kagome glowed as she worked alongside her Mother, routinely chopping the green peppers that were needed in the casserole. They were having a big dinner tonight, and she had heard a brief conversation between her Mother and Tyler about how another family was supposed to be joining them. Since this had never been done before, Kagome took extreme care in the preparation of her ingredients, and with bells on her toes she danced around the kitchen to aid her Mother in any rst. st.

“ Kagome Darling!” Her Mother’s sweet voice rang like a trickle of water on Kagome’s ears, and she looked up with a small smile. It was a sad token that made Kagome’s Mother take her daughter’s hand and gently give it a squeeze. Kagome looked at it thoughtlessly as tears rimmed in her hazel eyes, and then she somehow managed to blink them away and return the gesture. Her Mom always took her hand when she was scared. The fleeting memories of childhood taunted her with a delicious malice, and for a brief moment Kagome felt jealous of the time she had with her Mother.

“ Mommy?” Her voice was quiet and shy, and her Mother only had time to glance up from her pot of boiling noodles before her waist was corseted by Kagome’s arms. Her face was startled and somewhat nervous, but without Tyler around she was almost…normal. She loved her daughter…she really did. Her hands bravely took a mass of her daughter’s wonderfully silken hair and she stroked through it like she did when Kagome was a young child, and she watched her offspring contentedly as she felt Kagome twinge and cry into her bosom. Her lips spread thin and her hollow face briefly lightened into a young glow as she rhythmically combed Kagome’s hair with her fingers. She knew it was hard for her oldest child to adjust. She knew it was hard to accept what had happened. But she always knew Kagome was strong. She’d see to it that her daughter got through this unharmed.

♥

[Writer] Oh my goodness! XD I didn't mean to go so long without writing. I'm having major panic attacks with all my school work being piled toge for for the big "end o' the year" finals, and my french project is becoming somewhat of a crisis. Also I have prom this week (my Junior ^_^;;) and a friend is coming down tlebrlebrate it with us. In other words...I might not update until later next week. But you never know! Thank you for all of the kind reviews ^_^ [End Writer]