The Silver Soldier

XV

"Stay away from her." He doesn't seem to be holding back his strength.

"Why?" I tilt my head, giving him a small grin. This only seems to anger him more. But he retains himself. He's shorter than me, not by much, but enough to be noticable.

"You don't seem like an idiot, Cole." He loosens his grip a bit but doesn't let go, using one hand to flatten the wrinkles he made in my shirt. "You have common sense. Use it." He growls. "Back the fuck off."

I push him off of me, he stumbles backwards, caught off guard by my strength. "You see, Austin, that's the difference between you and I." I look him up and down, staying calm. "You aren't smart, you don't have common sense. If you did, you wouldn't be threatening me right now." I drop my smile. "I'm not going to back off just because of your fragile ego. If Juliette wanted you, she would be catching a ride home with you, not me."

"You've known her for two days. You don't get to tell me what she wants."

"You've known her a lot longer than I have, that's true. But guess what?" I step forward, closing the distance between us. "You're still in the same spot as you were before I showed up. To her, you are no more than a friend, and you will never be more than that." I say quietly, straightening the front of his jacket. "Now you better run to class, I don't want you to be late."

"You're going to regret this, Grant, I can promise you that." He backs away, moving towards the school doors. I wave goodbye as he disappears in the school, getting a wonderful view of his middle finger in return.

"Bitch." I mutter under my breath.

My assignment is hard enough without his ass getting in my way. I can't get to Mr. Horivan without earning Juliette's trust. Her father is a hard man to kill, he doesn't have a schedule, no sense of structure. I don't know exactly where he will be a set time, and that is very inconvenient. There is top notch security around their house, he is always under protection.

I need to gain Juliette's trust fast. I need to get inside their house, learn the layout. I need an advantage point, somewhere I know he will be. His bedroom, the kitchen, the dinner table.

I just want to get this over with. I just want to go home, to my friends.

My family.

I need Juliette to fall for me, to like me enough to introduce me to her parents and her younger brother. I need her to invite me to have dinner with her family. This whole mission depends on her bringing me into her home.

The bell rings for the beginning of first period, telling me that I'm already late.

"Fuck it." I say, my voice barely audible. I walk inside, not bothering to put my stuff away. I make my way to homeroom, knowing that's where Juliette is. I put a desperate look on my face, running my hand through my hair to mess it up. As I approach the room, I hear our teacher starting his lesson.

"Juliette." I call her name, throwing myself though the doorway, holding onto the frame as I catch my breath, creating the illusion that I had just been running. "Juliette." I say her name again, desperate and out of breath. I lock eyes with her, she stands, walking over to me with a worried look on her face.

"Cole? What's wrong?" She asks.

"I'm so sorry, sir." I look at Mr. Saranto, taking Juliette's wrist as if I'm in dire need of her assistance. "I need to borrow her for a moment, it's a family emergency." I take a breath. "Her brother, sir, he-" I inhale again, acting as if I can't get the words out.

"Oh." He looks from me to her, conflicted between my urgent appearance and Juliette's worried confusion. "Yes, for sure. Let me know if I can do anything to help."

"Cпасибо, мистер Саранто." I thank him in Russian, pretending that I defaulted to my native tongue without knowing. "I'm sorry for interrupting."

I drag Juliette into the hall by her hand, pulling her with me as I walk quickly away from Mr. Saranto's room. "What do you mean?" She asks frantically. "What's wrong with my brother? Cole, what happened?"

"Shh." I look around, worried that someone will hear. Then I meet her eyes. "Everything's fine. Don't worry." She opens her mouth to speak, but I interrupt her. "Your brother is safe, I just needed an excuse to get you out of class." I whisper.

"What?" She whispers back. "Why?"

"Why not?" I answer, smirking. "What? You've never skipped class before?"

She hesitates. "Not really, no."

"Really?" I don't need to act surprised. Scott and I used to sneak out of class all the time back in Beacon Hills. Everyone skipped class. "Well, now you have." I walk faster, half running, worried that we'll get caught. "What do you want to do?"

"What?"

"We can't go back to class, so what do you want to do?"

"I- I don't know."

"Icecream?" I suggest as we open the front doors, the humid air hitting me instantly.

She stops running, grabbing my arm. "You took me out of class for... a date?" She grins, clearly finding this whole thing amusing.

"I thought that part was obvious." I smile back. "But yes, I am asking you on a date."

"You have a strange way of asking someone out, you know that, right Romeo?"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No." She laughs. "Not at all."