Dominion (Guardian Angels) - By Melody Manful Page 0,27

and agreed with him.

I felt my face turning red with anger.

“I think we’d better go before she explodes,” Gideon said—again to my friends’ agreement—and their laughter increased as they followed him outside.

Sarah hugged me, but I stiffened in her arms.

“See you guys later,” she told Tristan and me, laughing as she walked out.

“I hate that guy,” I whispered.

“I heard that!” Gideon shouted from the hall.

I walked over to the classroom door and slammed it shut. Tristan, who was laughing too, stopped instantly.

“Is he getting under your skin?”

“Getting under my skin?” I retorted. “That son of a—”

“Titanic,” Tristan interrupted, stopping me from saying what I wanted to. When my eyes met his, we started laughing. And that was all it took for my anger with Gideon to subside.

Since we had been assigned as partners on the Titanic speech, Tristan and I started working, and about an hour later, we had a full, seven-minute speech that sounded good.

“Okay, so you take the last sentences,” Tristan said as he pointed at my laptop screen where the speech had been typed.

I read my lines aloud, “The Titanic was like a kingdom that people didn’t know they were building. When the Titanic was built, it became a dream that people couldn’t believe was coming true. When the Titanic sank, the aftermath became a war that people didn’t know they were in. The death of the people aboard the Titanic became proof, the survivors of the tragedy became voices, and their voices became a weapon.”

Tristan started clapping when I finished.

“I’m imagining this is what will happen after we finish the speech,” he said. We laughed.

“Hopefully,” I said. “Mr. Bernard said the speech has to be a minimum of ten minutes, so we still have three more minutes before we can hope for an A.”

“We could focus more on the 1997 movie directed by James Cameron,” Tristan suggested. “What do you think?”

“That’s an idea. Maybe we should act out the last scene. You know…it’s the sacrifice that Jack made that became so popular.”

Tristan closed my laptop, and then he took my hand and led us to the front of the classroom. I started laughing when I realized we were actually going to act out the scene.

“Ladies first,” he said, and I giggled.

“Hmm…right, okay…Jack, I love you,” I whispered and laughed afterward. “This is just awkward. We aren’t actually going to act out the scene in front of the whole class, are we?”

Tristan stepped closer to me. “Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

His expression sobered me. “Hmm…” I mumbled.

Tristan took both my hands in his, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, “You must promise me that you will survive—no matter what happens.” Immediately my smile disappeared. My cheeks flushed as I realized how close together we were standing.

“I—”

Tristan cut me off and continued, “You must do me this honor.” He sounded so sad that it made me sad, too. His words reminded me of the reason why I cried whenever I watched Titanic. “Promise me, and never let go of that promise.” At this point, we were so close together that I could feel his body heat.

I whispered, “I promise.” I stared up at him and continued, “I’ll never let go. I’ll never let go.” Then both Tristan and I slowly leaned closer into each other. The closer we got, the louder my heart pounded. Soon, our faces were inches apart, and I could feel his breath against my lips. Our lips were inches away from touching when Tristan pulled away.

“That is definitely an A-plus,” Tristan said as he let go of my hands. “I’m a good actor. I didn’t even know that I could act.”

And just like that, I was pulled back to the real world. Act. The whole thing was an act to him. Now I could tell Sarah I knew for sure Tristan didn’t like me. He didn’t even look like he was affected by how close we were.

I faked a smile as I walked over to pack my things and said, “Yeah, I didn’t know I could act either. I don’t think we should do it.” I couldn’t stand being that close to him again and knowing that he was only acting.

“Why not?” he asked. “Unless Mr. Bernard says we can’t, I don’t see why not.”

“I’ll go check and see if he’s still here and ask,” I said, pulling my bag over my shoulders. “I guess that’s it. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I whispered, more