He raises an eyebrow and whispers, “Golden knight?”
I shrug and his smile widens, revealing perfect straight teeth. He’s kind of cute, actually.
“May I ask for a token to bring me luck?” he asks out loud.
“Sure.” I give him the hairband I had around my wrist. “Here. Good luck.”
He brings it to his lips, kissing it before putting it on his own wrist. The crowd cheers as he stands and returns to his place in line. The same theatrics follow with the other knights until they all find their maidens and get their tokens.
Then the silly tournament begins. They look like children, dueling with their fake swords and wooden horses. But the crowd is into it, cheering and screaming as if they were watching a real live duel.
“Are those guys all in the drama program?” I ask Robbie.
“Some, yeah, but not all of them.”
The tournament comes to the final duel, and I’m not surprised that my knight is one of the last guys standing there. He looks in my direction and winks. To my surprise, I laugh because this situation just became too ridiculous for me to take it seriously. Besides, it’s okay to let myself have some fun.
He charges his opponent with a loud roar, hitting him on his shoulder. The guy trips and ends up falling on his ass. The crowd cheers once, the noise much louder than before. Robbie jumps from his seat, dragging me with him.
“He won! Your knight won.”
“Okay, okay,” I say, not understanding his enthusiasm.
My knight walks over to collect his prize.
“My lady. May I now have your name, please?”
“It’s Chiara.”
He puts his hand over his chest. “The brightest of them all. I knew you were special, my lady.”
Apparently we’re not putting on enough of a show because the crowd begins to chant, “Kiss, kiss, kiss.”
Shit. I didn’t sign up for this.
Robbie is the only one not chanting, and he seems a little annoyed about the situation.
“We don’t need to kiss, you know?” the golden knight says, but his eyes are hopeful.
In that precise moment, the image of Alistair pops into my head and how much I’m still hurting because of him. A reckless idea takes root, and before I can overthink it, I go for it. I stand up, stepping closer to my knight. I have to look up since he’s so much taller than me.
“What the hell? We can’t disappoint them. Just one kiss.”
His lips curl into a crooked grin. He grabs my face between his hands and brings his mouth to mine. It’s innocent, just a brush of lips, but the crowd goes wild.
I thought kissing another guy would make me feel better, but it has the opposite effect. It just makes my chest tighter. There’s no extracting Alistair from my heart anytime soon.
25
Chiara
I could have never foreseen that my chaste kiss with the golden knight—Phillip—would be such a big deal. Since I didn’t go out last weekend again, preferring to watch sappy movies on Netflix rather than partying with Robbie, I only get the full effect of my actions Monday morning while I walk to Alistair’s class. Whispers calling me “fair maiden” follow me, and people are staring a lot.
When I enter the classroom, the few students there turn to me and start to clap.
“Ugh, what the hell is going on?” I ask.
The guy nearest to me answers, “You broke the curse.”
“What curse?”
“Peter is being dramatic. There’s no curse, just a very long stretch without any wins for our football team,” someone else replies.
“Yup.” Peter bobs his head up and down. “But that changed last Saturday. Your kiss must have special powers, because our QB was on fire.”
“Who?” I look from Peter to the other girl who spoke.
“Phillip Harrison, our quarterback.”
Understanding finally dawns on me. “Ah, and you think that silly kiss has something to do with it?”
“Yes!” they both answer.
Josh comes into the room, tapping my shoulder as he walks by. “Good job, Chiara. You saved the school’s honor.”
I follow him, grumbling. “Not you too.”
Chuckling, Josh takes his seat, and I do the same. “Do people really believe I’m somehow responsible for this miraculous win?”
