'Hi, Z!'
Very blond, very cute, and very tall Cole Clifton, who was currently dating Shaunee (which also meant he was very brave), whispered a perky greeting to me, breaking through my inner babble. 'Hi,' I said back, giving him a big smile.
'Oh, hey, this is excellent. Thank you for volunteering, Zoey.'
'Huh?' I blinked up at Erik.
His smile was cool. His eyes were blue ice. 'You were talking, so I assumed that meant you were volunteering to read opposite me in the Shakespeare improvisation.'
I gulped. 'Oh. Well. I—' I started to try to beg out of doing whatever the hell a Shakespeare improvisation was, but when his cool gaze turned mocking, like he was looking forward to me totally chickening out like a giant dork, I changed my mind. Erik Night was not going to embarrass and bully me all semester. So I cleared my throat and sat up a little straighter in my seat. 'I'd love to volunteer.'
The quick flash of surprise that widened those gorgeous blue eyes gave me an instant of smugness. That instant evaporated as soon as he said, 'Good. Then come on up here and get your copy of our scene.'
'All right.' Erik and I stood on the stage that faced the drama class. 'As I was explaining before Zoey came in late and interrupted, Shakespeare improvisation is a great way to exercise your characterization skills. It's unusual, yes, because Shakespeare isn't usually improvised. Actors stick close to the playwright's words, which is why changing up famous scenes can be interesting.' He pointed at the very short script I held in my nervously sweating hand. 'That is the beginning of a scene between Othello and Desdemona—'
'We're doing
'Yes.' His eyes met mine. 'Do you have a problem with that?'
'Good. So you know the story of the play, right?'
I nodded. Of course I did. Othello, the Moor (a.k.a. a black guy), had married Desdemona (an extremely white girl). They'd been majorly in love until Iago, a crappy guy jealous of Othello, decided to make it look like Desdemona had been messing around on Othello. Othello had ended up strangling Desdemona. To death.
Ah, crap.
'Good,' he repeated. 'So the scene we're improv-ing is at the end of the play. Othello is confronting Desdemona. We'll start by reading the actual lines. I've copied them onto the scripts for us. When I ask if you've prayed, that's your cue to improv. Then try to stick close to the plot, but make it work in today's language. Got it?'
Sadly, I did. 'Yes.'
'All right. Let's start.'
And then, just like I'd watched so many times before, Erik Night stepped into the character of someone else and
I swear he changed physically, and even through my nerves and the mortification I could feel building inside me because I knew this was bound to become a very public, very embarrassing scene, I could appreciate his amazing talent.
Then he turned to me and I could barely think above the pounding of my heart when he took my shoulders in his hands.
. . .
Then, utterly shocking me, Erik bent and kissed me on the lips. His kiss was rough and tender—passionate with anger and betrayal, yet it seemed he didn't want to take his lips from mine. He made me breathless. He made me nauseated. He made my head spin.
I pulled myself together as he spoke the lines that cued me to begin mine.
'Who's there? Othello?' I glanced from my paper to Erik, blinking my eyes and trying to look like his kiss had been what woke me up.
'Ay Desdemona.'
Oh, jeesh! I couldn't believe what my next lines were! I gulped, which made me sound all breathy. 'Will you come to bed, my lord?'
'Have you pray'd tonight, Desdemona?'
Erik's handsome face had gone all tense and scary, and I swear it wasn't much of an act for me to look freaked. 'Ay, my lord,' I read the last lines of my script quickly.
'Good. You'll need to have a clean soul for what's going to happen to you tonight!' he improvised, still looking like the Othello who had been driven insane with jealousy.
'What's wrong? I don't have a clue what you're talking about.' Improvising to this wasn't hard. I'd forgotten about the class and all the watching eyes. All I saw was Erik as Othello, and I knew Desdemona's fear and desolation at the thought of losing him.
'Think hard!' he ground between clenched jaws. 'If there's anything you're sorry for, you need to ask for forgiveness for it now. Nothing will be the same for you again, not after what happens tonight.'
His fingers were digging into my shoulders so hard that I knew they were going to leave bruises, but I didn't flinch. I just kept staring into those eyes I knew so well, trying to find the Erik in there that I hoped still cared about me as my forgotten script fluttered from my numb hands.
'But I don't know what it is you want me to say!' I cried, trying to remember that Desdemona was
'The truth!' he stormed, his eyes looking wild. 'I want you to admit just how much you betrayed me!'
'But I didn't!' I could feel tears stinging my eyes. 'Not in my heart. I never betrayed you in my heart.'
Erik's Othello blotted everything out of my world—Heath, Stark, Loren. There was only him and me and the need I had to try to make him understand that I hadn't wanted to betray him. That I still didn't want to betray him.
'Then your heart is a black, shriveled thing, because you absolutely did betray me.'
His hands began to slide from my shoulders up to my neck, and I knew he could feel my pulse that pounded there like a frantically fluttering bird. 'No! The things I did were mistakes! I broke my own heart, not just one time but three times.'
'So you would break mine along with yours?' His fingers closed around my neck, and I could see that there were tears in his eyes, too.
'No, my lord,' I said, trying to hold on to some part of Desdemona. 'I just want you to forgive me and—'
'Forgive you!' he yelled, interrupting me. 'How am I supposed to do that? I loved you, and you betrayed me with another guy.'