She blinked as if coming from a trance and stared at the hand cutting off my circulation. "I'm sorry."

We hurried down to help Ash gather his books. Some other students stopped to help as well. I recognized some of the nerdy types that had supported me in my war against bullying, among the helpers. At least not all of humanity was doomed.

"Are you okay?" I asked Ash.

His head drooped. "My dignity has dropped to an all-new low."

I saw Nyte, his neck glowing red, hurrying away. "I'll see you later," I said to Elyssa and kissed her on the cheek, then rushed to catch up with Nyte before he did something stupid. He entered the boys' room. I hoped he wasn't following Nathan in there. The results would not be pretty.

Nyte was alone at the back of the bathroom, banging his fist against the cinder blocks with all his might and sobbing. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure I'd want anyone bothering me while I was having a good meltdown. I opened my mouth to speak, then thought better of it and snuck back out. I stood in the hallway trying to decide what to do when he burst out of the bathroom, his face composed, but his eyes red.

"You okay?" I asked.

"No. Not even a little bit. I have never wanted to physically harm anyone in my life. But I want to kill Nathan. I want to stab him with a sword."

"I can't let you do that, but I can show you how to stab people with fake swords."

He cocked an eyebrow. "How?"

"Maybe you guys would like to join me for Kings and Castles this weekend. I don't have a squad anymore, but I'm still a member of the team. I'll register you guys and we can build some weapons and kick some butt."

"I've heard of that tournament. Maybe it would be fun to pretend-murder someone." He shrugged. "I'll probably suck."

"We all suck at something. The important thing is to have fun." Those words sounded strange coming out of my mouth. Winning had been the only important thing to me insofar as K&C was involved, but Elyssa seemed to have changed my outlook on everything that had been such a vital part of my existence before her. I hadn't even known her that long and already she was changing me. Was this what true love did to a person? Could it even be love yet? Probably just hormones.

Lunchtime arrived and I told Ash and Elyssa about K&C. "The tournament is tomorrow morning. I figure we could whip up some foam weapons tonight if you guys want to come over after school." That, of course, depended on whether Ms. Foreman let Elyssa and I go at a decent hour. Maybe she'd have mercy since it was Friday.

"Kings and Castles? Oh my God, you are such a nerd," Elyssa said.

"So are you."

She nodded. "Yep. Sign me up."

I looked at her and thought back to the strange path we'd taken to meeting each other, namely the day Steve had tried to smear dog poo on Ash but I'd intercepted him. "What did you mean that one day when you told me to never give up?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. It looked like maybe you could use some encouragement."

"You felt sorry for me?"

Her face flushed. "Don't let this inflate your ego, but I guess I kind of admired you for what you did. You protected someone you didn't even know from a bully."

"You admired me?" I was a bit shocked at her admission. I had done something to impress the tough Goth girl.

She sighed. "Oh, I just knew this would make you feel too big for your britches. It was only a little bit of admiration anyway."

I gave her a hurt look. "Only an itsy-bitsy teeny bit?" I held my thumb and forefinger in measurement.

She laughed. "Yeah."

Seeing her smile filled me with desire. I wanted to kiss her. I didn't even care if the entire lunch room saw it. I would stand on the table and declare my undying devotion to her. But the bell rang and the moment passed.

That afternoon, Elyssa and I kept our mouths shut and worked hard. Ms. Foreman let us go at five. Even the Devil wanted her Friday evening free, I figured.

I ordered pizza on the way home. Ash and Nyte were already waiting at the house when I arrived, and the pizza showed up a few minutes later. My dad was snoring like a chainsaw in his bedroom. I wanted to wake him and grill him about the strange phone call that morning but now was not the time. My friends looked at the mess of beer bottles Dad had littered around the house. Rather than ask the obvious questions, however, they grabbed the garbage can and scooped the mess into the bag. Elyssa showed up and pitched in. I was really worried she'd freak out thanks to my alcoholic father, but apparently her crazy family life had prepared her not to bat an eyelash.

The sour odor of beer saturated the den but I'd take that odor over high school grease traps any day. Afterward, I grabbed weapon-making supplies and we sat around eating pizza and making swords. It was the most fun I'd had in ages.

Ash held up a sword he'd made. It flopped like a wet noodle.

"That thing needs Viagra," Elyssa said with a laugh.

I disassembled his weapon and showed him how to use PVC pipe to make it stiff. We had to use a certain amount of foam to meet regulations or the Dungeon Masters wouldn't let us use them. Elyssa built two small swords, one for each hand. She twirled them around like she knew what she was doing. We watched in amazement.

"I wanted to be a majorette," she told us with an embarrassed shrug.

Ash and Nyte made the typical medium-sized broadswords—at least I think that's what they were going for. They were so lumpy and covered in duct tape that a kindergartener might have made them.

"This is going to be a blast," Nyte said, his eyes alight. "I've never done this before."

"Well, let me give you guys some quick pointers before tossing you into the thick of things," I said.

I took them outside and gave them the skinny on how squad logistics worked, and how to keep an eye on each other's backs. Then I showed them the basics of swordplay. While I was no expert on fencing or swordplay, I was still much better than most of the people in K&C thanks to the fencing lessons I'd taken. Not that it really translated all that well to foam swords.

After Ash and Nyte said their goodbyes, I leaned against Elyssa's car and pulled her against me for a kiss.

"You're not a bad leader," she said with a hint of admiration in her voice.

"Holy crap. Did I just hear another compliment escape from those lovely lips of yours?"

She gave me a passionate kiss that left me panting then nodded. "You're a different person than the one I met. You've grown more confident." She chuckled wryly. "Maybe too confident at times."

"True," I said with a grimace. "Now, can I have another one of those magnificent kisses?"

I pulled her lips back to mine. Her scent was intoxicating. The touch of her body against mine was like being kissed by the sun. I ran a hand up her neck, clenched her hair at the nape, and gave it a gentle tug. She moaned. I groaned. Her teeth nipped my neck and I shuddered with pleasure. Fire rushed from my stomach and flooded my veins. My lust slammed against its cage like a wild beast. My control faltered.

I jerked away and took a few steps back. It took everything I had to keep myself contained. Thinking of baseball just wasn't cutting it.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't want to take things too fast," I said. "I'm just so attracted to you that I'm afraid I'll do something I might regret."

"You're a romantic, aren't you?" She tsked. "Silly boy."

"Actually, yeah, I am. I want my first time to be special." I braced for her response, scared that she might laugh.

She nuzzled my cheek with her nose. "Well maybe I'm okay with it."

I felt relief, but then another scary thought entered my mind. Before I could resist the urge, I blurted out the question. "Are you a virgin?"

She laughed. "One-hundred percent grade-A certified virgin," she said flashing a smile and flourishing her arms.

I almost leapt with joy. My heart lightened until I thought I might float away. This girl must be The One. "Do you want your first time to be special?"

She pressed herself against me and gave me a kiss that left me breathless. "How special do you want it to be, my knight in shining armor?"

Our bodies were so close I knew she could feel exactly what she'd done to me. "Are you saying you want to have sex?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not saying anything. Why do you have to put things into words so much? Can't you just flow with the feelings and see what happens?"

That would be very dangerous, I thought. My hyper-active sexual sense was hard enough to control around girls I didn't like, much less a girl I was falling in love with. And the spell it wove wasn't real. I had done so little experimentation with it that I really didn't know what the extent of my ability was. Most guys with my "problem" would gladly use it on women left and right without a second thought. Maybe guys like Nathan didn't have a conscience when it came to such things, but I wanted to know that the girl I was making love to was doing it because she was as in love with me as I was with her. It was disgustingly romantic.

"What happened to taking things slow?"

"I know what I said, but…" She smiled and looked down. "This isn't easy for me to say, Justin, but being around you makes me want to stop talking and thinking. What if today was our last day alive?"

I touched her chin and brought her gaze up to mine. "You're right," I said. "I talk too much."

"Yes you do." She kissed me again and shivered. "Have you been working out?" She squeezed my arm.

"A little."

"You're losing weight too. I hope you're not on one of those crash diets."

"Nope. Just eating healthy."

She traced a finger along my chest and looked down. "So, about my family. Maybe you can meet the rest of them Sunday."

"By the rest of them, do you mean your dad?"