Read Thin Love Online

Authors: Eden Butler

Tags: #Contemporary

Thin Love (10 page)

BOOK: Thin Love
9.99Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Next to her he sighed and the exhale was so forced that Keira was obliged to look at him. A quick eye shift from her face to her computer screen and she guessed that this was one of those moments where Kona actually wanted to kill the quiet.

“The Legends can be tied into just about any story you can think of.”

“Bullshit.” He nodded once when Miller cleared his throat and rumpled the paper in his hand, a clear reprimand that Kona should shut the hell up.

Keira lowered her voice so low that Kona had to lean next to her to hear her. “There’s an old theory that dictates only seven archetypes, or seven basic plots, exist in the world. I’d add that if there are only seven, then there are billion variations of those stories.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Keira leaned against her chair, pulled her hands away from the keyboard so she could give Kona her full attention. He gave her the same stare he’d been wearing for a days now, like he wasn’t quite sure what to think about her, but she had gotten through their meetings by not wondering what that expression meant.

“The Legends started as folk tales, parables and lessons on what you should and shouldn’t do. For the most part they are morality tales. Where do you think that sort of morality comes from?” Keira felt like a teacher, feeding bits of knowledge to a first grader. Kona was smart, she knew that, but literature and grammar weren’t exactly topics of choice for the mathematically minded linebacker. Kona had quoted figures and tallies to her when they discussed how much money someone would lose if they’d bet against CPU in a game like his brain was a calculator. He could tick off statistic after statistic and the tackling efficiency of every linebacker in the NFL for the past twenty years. But he just didn’t care enough to be interested in the Legends or Shakespeare, or Chaucer or any of the other poets and scribes she’d asked him if he’d read during their meetings.

Kona frowned, shifted his eyes to his hands and then back at Keira’s face. “God?”

She nodded, offering him a quick smile. “When you’re talking about the Legends, then yes. So we have a system of Legends that cover pretty much the gambit of morality; lying, stealing, cheating, killing and the consequences of all those things. You can pretty much use any story as an example and relate it back to the Legends.”

Kona didn’t miss a beat. “Die Hard.” His smile wavered and he looked around the room, Keira guessed to make sure no one was listening. “I watched those movies with my
tutu kane
.” When Keira squinted, confused, Kona clarified, his voice dropping an octave. “My grandfather. He’s the only dad Luka and I ever really had and we’d all sit around watching those movies as kids on summer breaks when Mom was off doing research shit.” Kona looked over Keira’s head, at her chin, but not in her eyes as though giving Keira that small bit of information had surprised him.

Keira smiled and she liked Kona, just then, with his voice soft, with his eyes relaxed when he spoke about his grandfather. Typical, though, that he’d choose a
‘splosion’ film,
that’s what she’d always called those gun-tottin’ ass kicking movies Leann loved to make her sit through. She wasn’t surprised that one of them was the first example Kona chose. “Okay. Well, Bruce Willis is a cop trying to get his wife away from terrorists.” When Kona only stared at her, seeming a bit more interested than he had a few minutes before, she continued. “He’s Arthur, on a quest. He’s searching for someone, like Arthur searched for the grail and along the way he has obstacles to overcome. Same as Bruce. The way the Legends unfold are what Joseph Campbell called ‘The Hero’s Journey.’ For the most part, every book, comic or movie is a hero’s journey.”

“Joseph Who?”

Keira tried not to sigh too loudly. They were getting along and she had to admit she didn’t hate his company as much as she thought she would. But damn, this guy was lazy as hell. “Kona, have you read anything this semester? It’s on our syllabus.” She pointed at the syllabus sticking out of his binder.

Kona took a quick glance down at his binder and then returned his attention to Keira. “I have ADD, Keira. It’s a little hard for me to focus on the material.” He shrugged, brushing off the revelation.

She nodded, offering Kona a grin that he seemed to like, telling her with his eyes that he was grateful that she didn’t pry.

“Campbell had a theory, several, actually, but his Hero Theory is classic, though he was a bit of a pig.” When Kona frowned at her, curious, she smiled. “He thought only men could be heroes.”

“Bullshit. I mean, hello, Sarah Conner?” he said, smile widening with Keira’s laugh. “You’d make a good teacher. You got the bossy, know-it-all tone perfected.” She punched his shoulder and his laughter rang in her ears.

“Music,” she said, not certain why she felt comfortable admitting that to him.

“What?”

Keira shrugged, tried to hide her quick blush by not looking him, returning her attention to the keyboard. “I don’t want to be a teacher. I want to write music.” The blush was there not because she was embarrassed to admit what she really wanted out of life, but because she was admitting it to him.

“Seriously?” Kona pulled on her sleeve to make her look at him. “But you’ve got a hard on for all this English shit.’

“I also have a mother who pays my tuition that doesn’t think music is a suitable major. But, I like words. I like stories, just not as much as music.” Another quick glance at him and Keira felt that blush deepening. But Kona didn’t laugh at her like she expected. He didn’t start to tease her for having a pipe dream. And so she felt relaxed, something that had been happening more and more frequently when she was around him. “Words and music, that’s my passion.” She laughed to herself when his smile got bigger, when he looked at her as though she’d just unveiled another piece in the puzzle he thought she was. Kona’s eyes were intense, moved over her face, landed on her mouth and Keira became uncomfortable, nervous at how he focused on her, how he seemed to be dissecting her expressions with that long, level gaze. “Um…” she started, trying to break his concentration, “what’s yours?”

“My what?”

“What are you passionate about, Kona?”

The smile left his face and Keira saw his lips move, she thought he was mouthing the word, “passion,” but she couldn’t be sure. When she nudge his arm, Kona’s grin disappeared. “Only one thing at the moment,” he said, recovering from that truthful admission with a shrug of his shoulders. “Playing the game.”

“Ah. The chase, I see.”

Kona opened his mouth, seemed determined to argue with her, but then Tonya Lucas, a rail thin blonde that lived three doors down from Keira, retrieved something from the printer. Her shirt was too tight, skirt barely covered her thighs and Kona noticed. Tonya’s gaze honed onto him and the low squint of her eyes, the way she barely pulled her bottom lip between her top teeth, told Keira that with Kona, there really wasn’t a chase.

When Tonya passed their table, gave Kona a wink, the linebacker smiled, watched her until she returned to her seat. Keira didn’t know why this bothered her. She didn’t know why she felt somehow slighted. But she didn’t mention it, didn’t let that overwhelming feeling that she was somehow less-than, somehow not enough, consume her. Instead she shifted her chair, pulled it closer to the table and the scratch of the leg against the floor, brought Kona back to her.

“Just so you know, I wasn’t talking about
that
game, smartass.” He nodded in Tonya’s direction. “Chasing ass isn’t a game for me, no matter what you think. I’m talking about football.”

“I guess everybody has to have something.”

“Exactly what I mean. You don’t get me playing, doing something I love and I don’t get why you’re so into a bunch of stories written a billion years ago.”

He wouldn’t understand,
she thought, convinced that Kona didn’t see the world like she did. He was beautiful and strong and clever, but he was all action, all grit and movement. She wasn’t. She liked the deeper meaning and believed that not everything in life was about the flux of motion. For some reason she didn’t understand, she wanted Kona to get that about her. She wanted him to open his dark eyes just a bit further and see her, really see her.

“Because it’s life.” Keira’s voice was low, but steady and she turned away from the monitor, twisted her body and her eyes to stare right at him. “Because it’s history. Stories, words, how they fit together, how they flit through time, how they connect people separated by generations, it amazes me.” She was gesturing with her hands, moving her fingers and Kona followed the movement, watched every expression that she made as though he’d never seen anything like her before. “There’s one big story working through this world, and we’re all a part of it. I love that. It makes me feel like I’m part of something greater than myself. Maybe one day I can write my chapter in the big story.”

She expected Kona to laugh at her, maybe tell her what a dork she was. But he didn’t do that. He only stared at her, let his eyes soak her up.

After a moment, Kona blinked, nodded once as though processing her words and organizing them into files of Crazy Things Keira Says in his mind. “I get that. You want to be part of something. I totally get that.” He sat up, came close to grabbing her hand, but then just rested his elbows on his knees. “It’s why I play. It’s the team, the work we have to do to get our win.”

“It’s your grail quest.” He frowned, confused. “You and your teammates are like the Knights of the Round Table. All of you doing your part to grab the grail, the football, and to win. See? Everything goes back to the Legends.”

He smiled and sat up with his back straight. “I like that.” Kona’s mouth took on a stupid smirk and he puffed his chest out. “I’m a Knight.”

“Yeah,” Keira said, turning back to the computer. “Lancelot.”

“Why am I Lancelot?”

She laughed, trying to keep the sound low before she leaned toward him, narrowing her eyes. “Because he couldn’t keep it in his pants either.”

Kona’s laugh was loud, sudden and earned him another glare from Miller and quick shush from the librarian walking around the lab.

When Miller rumbled his paper again, Keira stopped laughing, but kept the smile on her face before scrolling through another list of article. “Okay, so we have to connect one Legend or at least a theme in it to a contemporary work.” Kona opened his mouth and she shook her head. “Not
Die Hard
.”

Keira came across an article from 1985. The piece was useless, but one particular word caught her eye. Betrayal. “We could explore Lancelot’s infidelity and how he and Guinevere’s betrayal impacted Arthur with the elements of betrayal and forgiveness in
Les Mis
.”

“What’s that?”

She stared at him, but was speechless. “You’ve never heard of
Les Miserables
?”

“Is that on the syllabus?”

She laughed. “No. It’s about the aftermath of the French Revolution… it’s about several different… it’ll work.”

Kona squinted and he wore a frown that Keira suspected was forced and mocking. “You expect me to put all my faith in you on this?”

“You have another suggestion… aside from
Die Hard
?”

“No, but I need more information.”

“You can always read the book. Victor Hugo. I’ll even help you check it out.” When Kona wrinkled his nose, Keira held back the urge to search the racks. “Fine. Um…” she clicked onto the keyboard, pulling up the library’s media database. “We can rent the musical.”

“Musical?”

“God, Kona, you really should invest a little more attention into stuff off the field.
Les Mis
is one of the longest running Broadway musicals of all time and has the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard.” He seemed dubious, so she hurried to explain. “We can rent it and watch it in my room and I’ll explain the stuff you don’t get.”

“Okay.” When he said that too quickly, Keira was surprised to see a crack in his constantly cool composure. He’d seem too eager, too willing to relinquish his argument. “I mean, whatever. You’re the Word Lady.”

“Good. When are you free?”

“Tuesday night. That good?”

“Yeah. That’s cool.”

“Sweet. It’s a date.”

Keira frowned. Whatever this was between them, it wouldn’t add up to much, she knew that. The mild flirtation with that tart Tonya made that clear. Kona Hale was beautiful, an athlete, part of the crowd that Keira would never be welcome in. No matter what she thought she felt that night in her dorm, the two of them together would never be a good idea. With one glance at Kona that invented idea of something between them deflated and Keira was brought back to reality. Kona wanted physical connections, not attachments. An attachment was all Keira wanted, just once in her life. An attachment that stuck. Love that didn’t leave. So she took a breath and watched Kona’s smile twitch until it disappeared when she shook her head.

“It’s
not
a date. It’s research.”

 

 

“Is your mom coming to campus or something?” Leann’s voice was a little worried, anxious as though she was concerned Keira’s mother could be showing up. Leann was her mother’s only niece, the only person left of the brother she lost years before. But Keira’s mother always had a somewhat Scrooge/Fred relationship with Leann. They’d never gotten along.

BOOK: Thin Love
9.99Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Pájaros de Fuego by Anaïs Nin
Wave of Terror by Theodore Odrach
Annabel Scheme by Sloan, Robin
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
Claimed by Stacey Kennedy
Haunted Legends by Ellen Datlow, Nick Mamatas
Death Before Facebook by Smith, Julie