Jo
"OVER HERE!" Amanda hollers as she flails her arms about. The girl with the ballâHarper or is it Hannah? I'm not too sureâvolleys it towards Amanda and she shoots it back to me from behind. It's a high throw so I jump sideways and shoot the ball over the net. When it touches the grass, the girls around me cheer and I expel a labored breath just as our PE instructor calls time-out.
"You up for the next game?" Amanda asks as I shuffle towards my gym bag and sling it over my shoulder.
"No," I groan as I stretch my arms. She laughs. "I'm tired. You guys can go on without me."
She waves at me and I walk farther away from the makeshift volleyball court on the field to get a better place to rest. The sky is clear and the sun is shining and the only sounds around me are whistles, shoes hitting the track and students shouting as they engage in some athletic games.
I drop my bag on the grass once I'm a safe distance from the volleyball court and I take out a bottle of water and quench my thirst. Everyone is dressed in the usual dark red LHS gym wear which consists of an armless, collarless top, black shorts and knee-high red and white socks. The cheerleaders are trying to form a pyramid and some football players are running laps on the track.
Just before I plop myself on the grass, I spot Flynn sitting at the bleachers. I haven't seen him since he disappeared after English Lit today so I'm a bit surprised to see him sitting there in his gym wear with his head down and what I suspect to be a sketch pad in his hands. His fingers are moving so I'm assuming he's sketching something.
He looks up and I wave my arms so he'll see me standing there and his attention shifts to me. He gets to his feet so I plop down on the grass, lying face up and spread my arms and legs wide as if I'm about to make a snow angel.
I close my eyes and I hear his footsteps not too long after that. I feel his presence close to me and I hear him take a seat on the grass. Butterflies fill my belly instantly.
"Are you asleep?"
I don't respond. I remain still on the grass and for special effect, I release a soft sigh.
I can hear the surprise in his voice. "Are you really asleep?"
I'm trying hard not to smile as I remain quiet. After a few seconds, I feel him looking at me and then all of a sudden, he leans down and bites my nose.
My eyes fly open as though I was having a nightmare and then I fist his shirt and with my eyes wide, I ask, "Are you an animal?"
"Oh good, you're awake."
"Are you, by any chance at all, carnivorous by nature?" I'm only exaggerating. It was a soft bite but it made my cheeks turn red.
He shakes his head. "I'm not."
"Then why'd you bite me?"
He leans forward and pulls out a blade of dried grass from my hair. "I saw Teen Wolf last night."
"After you left my house?"
"Yup."
"Oh my god."
He grins and tells me he's just joking before bringing my bottle of water to his lips and drinking. I sit up and stare at him. He's wearing my scrunchie around his wrist.
"Did you leave school or something?"
He drops my bottle of water to the ground. It's empty. "Yes."
"Why?"
"I had to get something done."
"Is this related to your random disappearances?"
He chuckles. "Yeah, I guess so."
I lick my lips and place my hands on the grass behind me before leaning backwards. He's being cryptic again. "What happened in English?"
He doesn't look at me as he responds. "What happened?"
"You know what I'm talking about," I say and he turns to look at me. "You looked like you freaked out or something."
He runs his hands down his face. "It's embarrassing."
"What is?"
He sighs and then he gives me an easy grin. "I'll tell some other time. I brought my essay with me. You can go through that."
He digs his hand into his bag and I decide not to push it. Even though I'm curious as hell and theories are beginning to make their way into my head, I decide to let it go today. He did say he'll tell me later so I'll count on that.
He brings out a sheet of paper and I carefully read through it, paragraph by paragraph. It's a sample but it's well-worded and definitely not the three-lined paragraph he'd written the other time. When I'm done reading through it, I lift a brow feeling throughly impressed. And maybe a little proud of myself too.
"I'm impressed," I say and I look at the paper again.
He smirks and folds his arms. "You are, aren't you?"
"I am," I say. "You deserve a pat on the head."
He grimaces. "I'm not a dog."
"You keep this up and you'll actually get an A."
"Thanks Jo," he says and I shrug.
"There's no need to thank me. I'm getting paid for this."
"Still," he says. "It feels right to say thank you."
I hand his sample over to him and I catch a glimpse of his sketch pad when he unzips his bag to dump the paper in. "When are you going to show me one of your sketches? Or it's not made for others to see?"
"You might go blind if you ever see any of them."
My jaw drops. "It's that bad?"
"No. It's that good actually."
Cocky asshole. "You actually never cease to amaze me."
He smiles. "Tell me about it." A pause and then he asks, "What are you doing for Thanksgiving?"
A whistle echoes in my ears from a distance and out of habit, my hand flies to the two braids on my hair and I start to interweave the ends into a tighter braid. "The usual." I say honestly. "It's always just me, my mum and grandma and it's always the usual thanksgiving dinner. My birthday clashes with it this year though so my mum might bake me a cake if she isn't too busy at work." And I'll hear from my dad again.
"Your brother doesn't come home?"
"No," I shake my head. "He actually hasn't come home since he got into college. It's like we don't even exist to him. Not until he needs money of course."
He's quiet for a moment and then he says, "My cousins, aunts and uncles all come over for thanksgiving. Every inch of the house is literally filled with people. Including those I supposedly met when I was younger but don't remember."
I grin. "That sounds fun."
"Yeah, it's not that fun when you're babysitting eight kids at the same time. I swear, there's a new one every year."
"Your sister doesn't help you?"
"Ellie has other things to worry about," he says immediately. "Doesn't stop her from trying to help though."
Thanksgiving hasn't been the same ever since Dad disappeared from our lives. We don't hear from his relatives anymore and grandma is the only relative mum has left. So it's usually just four of us and that was until Drew left for college. I usually don't look forward to Thanksgiving but it's different this year. Not only because my birthday is on the same day, but because I'll finally get to hear from my dad again. Every year on my birthday after he left, he sends a greeting card and a recorded message of him singing a birthday song and asking about how I'm doing.
I don't know why he left. I also don't know why he didn't come back.
"If it gets boring, you should come to mine," Flynn says, breaking my line of thought and I meet his gaze with a quizzical look.
"What?"
"Thanksgiving," he says. Rays from the sun hit his face and it makes his eyes appear glassy and his hair a lighter brown. It flops around his head and a strand falls across his eyes. I ball my hand into a fist to stop myself from brushing it back. "If it gets boring at yours, you could come to mine. The Cauleys will welcome you with open arms. And possibly hugs too."
"Thanks," I smile. "But I hope it doesn't get boring."
I don't look away from him and everything I felt in the morning hits me at once again. But this time, it's with full force because he's sitting right in front of me.
I lean forward and brush my thumb over his shoulder. "I think you should see a doctor. Just in case."
His voice changes. "Don't do that."
"Do what?"
"Don't look at me like that."
I'm feeling warm all over as I take my hand off his skin. "Like what?"
He moves closer to me and traps me in between his arms. "Don't look at me like you want me to kiss you regardless of who's here or not." His eyes flit to my lips and back to my eyes. "Don't confuse me."
Is there some kind of banner that reads, 'I REALLY WANT TO KISS YOU' on my forehead? Because that's the only way he could have been able to know what I'm thinking. After he kissed me last night, all I could think about was why girls flocked around him in school. I'd seen why. I'd felt why. I'd tasted why. He did something to me when he kissed me yesterday and I don't like the result because he has now become a constant in my head.
I feign indifference and attempt to shove him away because if he moves any closer than he already is, there's a chance he might be able to hear my heart pumping. "I don't know what you're talking about." I fold my arms and raise a brow. "Does it look like I want to kiss you?"
He shrugs. "I don't know. There's only one way to find out, I guess."
His hands come around me and he easily lifts me up and sits me astride him. At this rate, my heart might actually beat out of my chest.
"Flynn," I whisper even though my arms have instinctively gravitated around his neck. "Do you want to die?"
I'm barely aware of the students around the field anymore because his hand reaches up to the side of my neck and his thumb brushes my earlobe. "In a way," he smirks. "Yes."
He leans forward and I don't stop him because whether I like it or not, I want him to kiss me.
"Why haven't you told me to stop, yet?" His voice is low as he speaks and his nose brushes mine. If I lift my chin a little bit higher, our lips will touch.
"Why do you think I haven't?"
He grins like I just asked him the simplest question of all time. "Because you want me to kiss you."
"And you?"
"What about me?"
"Do you really want to kiss me right now?"
He doesn't hesitate. "I do."
My heart hammers against my chest. "Why?"
"That's easy," he says. His thumb is still stroking my earlobe. "Because I enjoy kissing you."
I don't know what I was expecting but for some reason, it feels like a punch to the throat. Don't be stupid. Were you expecting him to profess his undying love for you? "You've only kissed me twice."
"That's enough for me to know that I enjoy kissing you."
I lick my lips out of habit and he ducks, before pulling my lip between his teeth. "Now are you going to let me kiss you or not?"
I don't say a thing so I guess he takes that as a yes. His lips are as light as a feather when they brush mine but that's it, because I hear a thud and I watch a ball bounce against the grass beside us. That's when I remember where I am and I swiftly disentangle myself from Flynn's arms and get to my feet.
I can't believe I almost let him kiss me right here. In the open. On the field.
"Sorry," a girl shouts from a distance but I don't care because I'm already reaching for my bag and trying to make a run for it but of course, Flynn is faster than me and he grabs both of our gym bags and hangs them both on his shoulders.
"Can I have my bag?" I ask in a clipped tone and fold my arms as I wait for his response.
He's oblivious to the tone of my words because he's staring at my face. "You okay? You look pale."
No, I'm not. I can't be. I have a silly crush on you and it's bad for my health.
"I'm okay." I stretch my hand. "Bag?"
He gives me a puzzled look. "What's the rush?" And then he turns around and starts walking, so I'm forced to walk with him. "You going somewhere?"
"I am." I lie.
He turns to look at me and brushes his hair out of his face. It's adorable. I want to die. "Okay, well, stop standing there." He grabs my hand and tugs me forward. A zing of pleasure runs through my arm and spreads around my chest. "I'll walk with you."
I search through my mind for an excuse or a way out but the excuse walks right towards us with flaming red hair and short shorts. It's not the kind of excuse I was hoping for.
"Hey guys," Semia waves as she approaches us. Her hair is tied up in irritatingly cute pigtails and her eyeliner wings are sharper than my mum's cutting knife. She walks closer to Flynn and touches his arm.
"How are you feeling?"
"Peachy."
"I was so worried about you," she says in an unusually gentle manner. "I'm sorry about last night." She tells me now and I shrug, surprised I'm even able to move my shoulders because I went stiff immediately she showed up.
She turns back to Flynn with a certain look in her eye. "Hey, uh, I need to talk to you." She cocks her head to me and gives me a tight-lipped smile. "If you don't mind, that is."
Flynn looks at her and there's a look of understanding that passes between both of them. Like they're both aware of something I'm not. It makes me feel like a third-wheel and then I remember why I agreed to fake dating him in the first place. I remove my hand from his hold and the warmth from his palm quickly transitions into a biting cold.
"Sure," I say because I don't belong here anymore. I grab my bag from Flynn and pivot on my heels but he grabs my elbow and stops me. I close my eyes tightly and breathe properly before turning around. He can't just be touching me like that. Especially now that I find him more attractive than normal.
"You don't have toâ"
"Actually I do," I say in my most concrete voice. "I told you I have somewhere to be. I need to get my article to the news department today."
Which inadvertently means, I'm going to have to see Daniel. And I'm lying. All of this is a lie but those are the first words that come out of my mouth so that's what I stick with.
His hand drops from my elbow immediately and his jaw hardens. "Right."
I nod. "Right, well, have fun." And then I turn around and leave them with a hole in my chest.