A Tale of Two Centuries

a flick of my multi-colored hair, plop into it, suppressing the urge to laugh at my own actions. The part of enigmatic teenage rebel is such a contradiction to what I truly am that it’s fascinating.

“Someone’s the talk of the school this morning.” Lucas winks, and the gesture reminds me so much of Lorenzo that my breath catches in surprise. Of course, the familiar lilt of his voice adds to the overall effect. “And here I thought I was the mysterious Italian transfer.”

I grin and bat my mascara-coated eyelashes. “Moi? Mysterious?”

He gives an exaggerated look at my torn jeans and large slashed shirt, which is tied at the small of my back and hanging off one shoulder. The exposed band of my violet tank on my shoulder matches the color swept across my eyelids. Whenever I catch a glimpse of myself in a reflective surface and see all the skin I have on display, I can’t help but imagine Mama’s shock.

My stomach clenches. This is the longest I have ever gone without seeing either of my parents, and the separation has been tugging on me with each passing day. Strangely enough, the knowledge that I am one sign away from returning to them is both a reassurance and a source of turmoil.

“Yeah, you,” Lucas says. “Between showing up sweet and innocent on Friday, skipping out twice this week, then arriving today like this, you’ve got the school gossip working overtime. Mark my words, woman. Before long the entire hallway’s gonna be filled with multihued classmates. Hell, even I’m considering it.” He rakes his hand through his soft blond curls and asks with all seriousness, “How do you think I’ll look if I go blue?”

The image of his hair as blue as the animated creatures in the movie I watched the other night appears vibrant in my mind, and I laugh so hard, I snort.

“Oh, quite dashing,” I tease when I recover, and Lucas smiles. “And as for the others…” I shrug. “Let them wonder. It just so happens that I am a very complex woman.”

The fact that I nearly get through saying that with a straight face makes me laugh again. Just nine days ago, my own family would have found that declaration hysterically preposterous. I would have, too. Now, I am not so certain.

Lucas rolls his eyes. “Complex, huh? An exasperating trait you share with your housemate, then.”

He glances at his sketch and retraces a drawn line with his pencil. Realizing that this is the first time that the two of us have really gotten to talk without Cat’s presence, I lean across the aisle and ask, “You like my, uh, housemate very much, don’t you?”

He lifts his head and looks at me through the thick fringe of his lashes. “You must think I’m pathetic, huh? The way I chase after her?”

Shocked by the question, I widen my eyes in horror. “Of course not!”

He laughs at my outburst. “Well, that makes one of us.”

Yesterday turned out to be about twenty steps forward and five giant steps back in Lucas and Cat’s growing relationship. Their shared banter and affectionate looks lasted throughout the long rehearsal and well until we were halfway home from the theater. But then it was as if Cat remembered what she was supposed to be doing and retreated again. When Lucas pulled his car into her driveway a little after nine o’clock, Cat exited with little more than a mumbled thank-you, and she refused to talk about him for the rest of the night.

Squeezing Lucas’s arm affectionately, I say, “Things may not have ended precisely as I had hoped, but it looked as though you two did enjoy each other’s company.”

“Thanks to your obvious plan.” He gives me a depreciating smile. “You know, normally I don’t need help in the hookup department, but then Cat’s not exactly normal, either.” He blows out a breath and tousled strands of hair lift around his face. “That girl is so damn confusing. But no matter what she does, I just keep getting further hooked.”

As the classroom fills around us, I lean my cheek on my hand. “Lucas, what is it that first caught your attention about her? That made you want to chance her…perplexing, changing moods?”

He grins at my question, and I cannot help thinking that the description of my cousin sounds eerily similar to Austin.

Lucas turns at his desk to face me. “When I found out I had to move here, I hated it. We’ve lived in Milan for years, and I was happy there. I had a life; I had friends. You’re from Florence, so you know how beautiful it is. But Dad’s company transferred him, and I didn’t have a choice. Then I met Cat two weeks later, and, I don’t know…”

He shifts his gaze over my shoulder, and his handsome face clouds with some unknown emotion. I scoot to the edge of my chair, eager to hear his side of the first encounter, curious if he felt any of the shocking rightness she did.

Lucas shakes his head. “Look, I’m not an idiot who’s gonna say it was love at first sight or anything, but meeting Cat was different. Yeah, she’s gorgeous, she’s smart and funny, and she went out of her way to hang out with my sister. But it was more than that. When we danced…there was, like, a connection.” He winces. “God, that sounds like a bad teen movie. I’ll turn in my man card the first chance I get, but I’m telling you, I’ve relived that night over and over again, and it was there. And I know she felt it, too. Alessandra, for the first time since I found out I had to move, I had a reason to want to be here. To feel like this is where I belonged.”

Again, the shocking similarity between his relationship with Cat and my own with Austin cannot be ignored. Over the past week, Austin has given me a reason to be here—many of them, in fact. It is almost as if the fates made him especially for me.

Feeling closer to Lucas than I ever have before, I nod heartily in agreement, hoping he’ll continue. Maybe through his experience, he can offer insight into my own perplexing emotions.

He shrugs. “But then she ignored my calls and fell off the face of the earth. I thought maybe it would be different when school started, and we’d get back on track, but for some reason she’s fighting it. If she wasn’t interested anymore, that’d be one thing…” He trails off and kicks the leg of his desk with his heel. “I should probably just cut my losses and get over it, but I can’t.”

Wanting to offer encouragement, I place my hand on his forearm and squeeze. “I’m glad to hear it.” Then, careful not to reveal too much of my cousin’s past or betray her trust, I say, “Cat has had…a somewhat difficult life. Perhaps it takes her a little longer to open up than others, but I promise you it will be worth it. You’re right, she does care for you.” Lucas’s chest expands with a drawn breath, and I give him a reassuring smile. “I’m as certain of that as I am about the awesomeness of my hair.”

The skin around his intense brown eyes relaxes, and a soft smile tweaks the corners of his lips. “And no one could deny that it is awesome.”

“Exactly.”

We share a grin, and I relax against the cool wooden seatback. Then he says, “Speaking of your awesome hair, was it really Austin Michaels’s idea?”

I huff. “I asked Austin to bring me to the salon, but the idea and the choice of colors were mine.”

Lucas nods. “I figured that. You don’t seem like the kind of person to be talked into something you didn’t want to do.” He playfully punches my shoulder. “You seem pretty tough to me.”

Sounds around us muffle as the door to the classroom closes. Mademoiselle Dubois strides across the tile floor, calling out a joyous, “Bonjour!”

We both turn to face the whiteboard, and Lucas sighs the sigh of a student ready for the end of the day. As a class, we answer back, “Bonjour, Mademoiselle Dubois.”

But as the lesson begins and I mindlessly take part, conjugating endless verb tenses, my thoughts remain on Lucas’s last words.

I am tough. I’m not an innocent little girl anymore simply being led around by her nose. All of Austin’s adventures are things I want to do. And I’m loving every minute of it. Since my arrival, my entire world has shrunk down to the thrill of wondering what Austin will suggest next, anticipating that rush of freedom, and counting the minutes until I can see him again. This afternoon’s excursion includes the Rollerblades I discovered last week.

My gaze flits to the large clock on the wall. Just a few more hours to go.

…

Sea salt stings my cheeks, and the crisp scent of the ocean consumes my senses. All around me are sand, water, sky, and surfers. The early-morning sun seeps into the top of my head, warming me from the inside out… along with my temperature-raising tour guide. Austin’s legs are encased in the same wetsuit from our Jet Ski