Distance

        Cassie was so into the shoot that she didn't even notice when Uncle Jon, that's what Tate told her to call him, mesmerized with the grace and beauty he was seeing, let out, "You are amazing Cassandra!"

Cassie danced with stoic, elegant excellence worthy of a prima ballerina from the famed Bolshoi Ballet. Her lines were long and lean, her moves intimidating, yet artistically breathtaking and powerful. 

The entire group noticed, but Philip burst out laughing and made Chester crack up too. Cassie held in her reaction, but in a matter of seconds the entire room was filled with big smiles and sounds of joy at Cassie's surprisingly creative contribution.

"It's Cascadia, Uncle Jon!" Lauren said covering her mouth with her hand while trying to contain her glee, her stomach and cheeks hurting from holding in the laughing and smiling she wanted to let out.

Finally, with Chester leading the way, everyone connected to the shoot broke the professional mood on set and gave into the joy of the moment all inspired by Cassie's beautiful dancing. Mac, always the one to put a damper on the band's fun, didn't like what was going on.

"Aw don't be jerk, we are having fun!" Chester hissed.

"But we have to finish this shit tonight! What time is it?" Mac chided.

"It's 8 P.M.," Lauren yelled from the other side of the room while she was in the midst of arranging some posters that fell to the floor.

"It's not even that late, Mac," said Lip while sitting on the platform, his legs dangling over the side.

"Mac...," called Chester, summoning up whatever ounce of seriousness was left inside him.

"What?"

"Mac...," Chester pointed at the red haired boy, "and Cheese!"

He was just being silly. Cassie shook her head, realizing that she was the cause of the shoot turning into a circus. With that, Chester started laughing so much he was on the verge of tears.

"They are not even that funny," Tate whispered to Cassie, his soft voice coming from behind her, but Tate wasn't there; he was across the room staring at her from a distance. He smirked, knowing he was showing off some of his powers. He was the only one entirely visible to her now; the others were just dark animated shadows.

"This is just like the last time but—without the vertigo. Like when I was at ballet class and you called me," she whispered in response, more to herself than to Tate.

"It is... the closer we are the better our minds connect."

Tate jumped off of the platform and stood in front of her. Just then Cassie remembered dancing with him in his house not that long ago, and recalled how she hated him afterwards... and she still does? But the way he made her feel... standing there right in front of her— she wouldn't describe it as magical, because there is nothing magical about being forced to love someone you are supposed to kill. It was more like a perfect storm where the sky looked alive, and the thunder was a vein furrowing the body of clouds. It was beautiful and scary, and tremendously dangerous. 

"Can I do it too?"

Cassie felt the flow of electricity pulsing through her veins whenever she was close to him. She recalled what he'd said that morning, that he would accept the fact that he liked her just so he'd have more time to love her. Could Cassie do the same? 

"You can do whatever you put your mind to... understand?" He did weird gestures with his hands above his head "Because it's... mind reading, eh?"

Cassie nudged him softly and giggled, mainly because his attempt at humor just didn't cut it. But then again, maybe she was so giddy over him that everything seemed laughable. So not like her, Cassie started wondering if there was something in the water...

"We didn't drug you, Cassie!" Tate's voice said, his tone laced with part yelling, part laughing.

"So you can enter my mind whenever you want?"

"Basically. You can do it too, you just don't know how yet." 

 Reading her thoughts, messy thoughts, he noticed they were all over the place and dark. Why were there scenes of a nasty thunderstorm swirling around in her mind? His focus shifted from her thoughts to her lush, red lips... part of the makeup put on heavy for the shoot. He wanted to be the one to clean her lipstick off with his own lips.

"So I can drive you crazy with my voice in your head?" Cassie teased, while the assassin in her imagined that might give her the upper hand in their life-and-death struggle should she decide to pounce on her unsuspecting prey.

He was too close so she placed her palms on his chest, feeling the need to push him back, while at the same time wanting to pull him even closer.

"I'm so down for that," was Tate's satirical comeback.

"Hey you two there, get a room!" Chester teased while coming up behind them.

The turbulent sky of their relationship drama cleared as they turned around, their moment of intimate connection interrupted.  

"Cassie!" Lauren placed her hand on her shoulder and the girl turned around. "We're going to our place and ordering pizza. You comin'?"

"Um..."

Cassie turned to see Tate had walked back to his spot on stage and was talking to his band mates.

"Tate is coming."

Lauren raised a red, almost invisible eyebrow and crossed her arms.

Cassie analyzed the possibilities... go with Tate's friends, try to have a good time and be punished by Piero later for not doing her job, or go back home and eat a single, sad and cold yogurt all by herself while watching an episode of So You Think You Can Dance?

 The first option seemed best.

"I'll go with you."

 ➳

Tate noticed that Mac had been quieter than normal, and even under the starlight his friend looked lost. He didn't even speak to Cassie once nor did he mention her. Tate decided to blame it on himself, he figured he's done something wrong but he didn't know exactly what.

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

"Yeah."

The word came out as just a gentle breath that passed between his lips like a spring breeze. His steps where heavy and slow, his hands usually in the air and gesturing along with his speech, were now locked in his jacket pockets.

"Have I done something?"

"No."

"Why are you acting so weird?"

"Stop whining like a ten year old, Tate!" Mac said, again only managing a whisper.

"Stop acting like an idiot then!" Tate yelled back as they walked down the street.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Is there something you want to tell me?"

"I just—" he took a deep breath. "You are going to hate me but I have, I have a bad feeling about this."

"This?"

"You and the girl."

Tate's heart stopped and for a minute. Stunned, he almost lost his balance before the raw anger surged up like a Tsunami about to crush everything in it's path.

 "She has a name... Cassie."

"Whatever." 

Mac rolled his eyes.

Tate grabbed him by his shirt then realized it was the second time this week that he'd almost punched him in the face for something he said.

"Are you a fucking—fucking" the words hesitating to escape his mouth, "some fortune teller or some shit?!"

"Can't you see why I'm concerned?" Mac tried to explain. 

"How do you know that and why you keep acting like that I don't know what I'm doing... like I'm not in control of the situation?" Tate shot back.

"Why are you being so sensitive, I'm just telling you the way things are--the way you want it between us, right?" Mac added, trying to bolster his case.

"You know nothing."

"When did you meet her? Where did she come from? Tate we know nothing about her and you don't seem to want to fill us in. Maybe the one hiding secrets is you."

 ➳

Mac and Lauren's place was nice; it had a huge backyard where Lauren told Cassie they hang out most of the time. They had an empty pool, which Chester used for skateboarding. Lip gave boarding a go but kept falling with every stunt he tried.

When Lauren went to order the pizza, Cassie found herself sitting alone on the edge of the pool.

"Aye, Blondie! Do you want to try the skate?"

"I rather keep my bones in one piece but thank you!" Cassie said, leaning her head back to enjoy the cold air biting her face and swirling the curls in her hair. 

"Come here!" Lip and Cheese said together as they took Cassie's hands, dragging her to the pool while she resisted.

"I don't know how to do this!"

"You'll learn," said Lip. "Place your feet...."

Lip showed her what to do while Chester laughed at every little thing she did wrong.

"You have tiny feet."

"No so... they're proportional to my body, Cheese."

"Okay, but you are closer to the ground which should help if you fall," the boy replied.

"I may be short, but you guys are like giraffes. How's the weather up there?"

All three laughed. She understood why Lip and Cheese where friends with Tate—opposites attract, they say. They were an open book, unlike Tate who was a mystery wrapped around an enigma.

Cassie surprisingly was able to follow Lip's skateboarding instructions without falling, of course she was being spotted by Lip on her right and Cheese on her left.

"Your girl is skating Tate!"

Cassie looked up but couldn't see Tate anywhere.

"Nice!" she heard him call out from some distant location.

Lauren returned with three boxes of pizza. One of them already cut in half and a big hunk was missing.

"Uncle Jon wanted a pizza and a beer," explained Lauren, triggering a giggle from everyone. "Pssst, little one," Lauren called out to her.

Cassie had picked up so many nicknames that day she couldn't remember them all.

"Take this to Tate... he looks so lonely over there," Lauren teased, her suggestion dripping with sensual innuendo in her tone. 

Lauren handed a beer and a slice to Cassie who walked up to Tate and put it in right in front of his nose. Tate widened his eyes and took a bite, and then went back to his grabbing. About to take a sip of the beer, he stopped. 

"Do you want...?" he politely offered.

"I don't drink."

"I guessed... okay so what do you really want to talk about?"

"What?"

"You've wanted to tell me something since we all got here."

"Not really... well... if you insist... I'm confused... I want to be near you, but at the same time I don't want to."

After mulling over the implications of what Cassie just said, Tate stooped down to lay on the humid grass.

"I can understand," he replied, without pushing the matter one way or the other.

Was Cassie cracking, would her vulnerability to Tate give him the edge? But then, did one of them have to die?

"I really have to do what I was born to do—" Cassie stated boldly and coldly.

Cassie managed to press the issue in favor of doing her duty. That was her head speaking, but what about her heart?

"It's okay Cassie... really, I understand."

Cassie couldn't help but notice that Tate actually looked upset, but she didn't asked him to explain.

"You do?"

"No, but if lying to you makes you relax then I do... I get where you're coming from."

"Well, thank you... that helps."

"Just lay here with me and let's look at the stars."

"What?"

Tate placed his hand to his side and patted the ground, indicting she should lay down with him. Laying side by side they gazed at the sky, looking like a giant mural painting, the background a deep blue pigment spotted with splatters of white.

"Are you afraid to die?" Tate whispered. They didn't look at each other, but Tate tried to hold her hand. Cassie quickly snatched it from his grasp.

"I'm not... afraid to die. My human soul died a more than a week ago... I'm immortal now."

"Are you afraid of me, then?"

"No."

"It's okay if you hate me, you know, I've been despised by so many over the centuries, I don't really care anymore."

"You don't care?"

"Life's too short to care about people's opinions of you... don't you agree?"

Cassie frowned, "But doesn't my opinion matter to you?"

"Cassie... we only met about a week ago."

"What do you mean?"

"This is not a love-at-first-sight fairytale... or at least it shouldn't be."

"I still don't know what you mean."

"I think... I think we should put some distance between us for a few days. We have to figure things out."

"What do I have to figure out?"

Cassie sat on the grass and turned to face him.

"You? you need to figure out if you still want to kill me of if you want to be with me because right now I can't trust you. I thought I could, but it's difficult when you're constantly changing your mind."

Cassie stood up.

"Where are you going?" Tate questioned, not really expecting she would act on his suggestion so quickly.

"Putting some distance between us. I agree... I think it's better if we give each other a few days," Cassie replied, then turned to walk away.

"Or maybe a few weeks," Tate added.

"Or weeks then... " Cassie nodded in agreement without turning around to face him.

"You know girl, I've already accepted that I like you. Have you done the same? Have you ever felt something just thinking about me? And I don't mean some teen fantasy about a stupid forbidden Romeo-and-Juliet affair, I mean have you ever felt your insides heating up and a touch overwhelmed with the thought of being with me?"

Too far away, Cassie couldn't hear him anymore and continued walking on the small stone path leading to the front of the house. Cassie was hoping for Tate to stop her or come after her, but he didn't.

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YOOOOOO hey there, what do you think of the chapter? do you like long chapters like this or nah? I'm not used to it idk, tell me what you think in the comments and thank you so so so much for the 20k reads they mean a lot ♥

xxMad