Chapter XXII And Then He Kissed Me, Again

Chapter 22 And Then He Kissed Me, Again.

Jason

"Hug me brutha!" Nicklaus usually got a kick out of jumping on Jason out of nowhere, and he was almost worse than Jasper. This time it took place in the center of a school halfway. Nicklaus, like the ninja he was, tackled Jason to the floor. Every time Jason tried getting up, Nicklaus pinned him back down.

"Nooooo..." Jason was flat on his back while Nicklaus tried to awkwardly hug him with his upper body. Jason continued to squirm while trying not to laugh.

"C'mon and love me! You know you want to." Nicklaus had to pin Jason's arms down next before mounting him playfully. Jason felt the cold floor almost seep into his bones. He was also trying not to think about how dirty the floor was, despite that it still looked shiny and smelled clean. Not that Jason ever noticed before because it wasn't like Jason had a habit of being down on the school floor often.

"Nooooooo." Jason needed to get his arms free and go for his best friends ribs. That was where he was ticklish at.

"You know you love me, stop fighting it."

Jason thought about planting a kiss over his cheek. Instead he licked his ear. "There! I just gave you a kiss, now let me go."

"Nope, nope, nope. I needs me some more love." Nicklaus laughed.

"Boys!" They were busted by the school dean. "Not in the hallway."

Nicklaus didn't release Jason right away, when he did, it was because Caleb was now standing there right behind the dean. What started off as play fighting, soon turned into something more like a Mexican standoff. Caleb kept his face guarded and Nicklaus gave one of his masculine stiff nods. Even the dean sensed the tension.

"Not the time and place boys."

"Jason a word." Caleb hardly shouldered past Jason as he wordlessly shoved past Nicklaus. Now Nicklaus looked pissed and pressed his lips together that they almost disappeared. He had to bite his tongue and look up towards the ceiling, visibly holding himself back.

"I know he's your fiancé," Nicklaus said not caring that there were plenty of witnesses around (that meant Nicklaus was peeved alright, he almost never reacted this way), "But as of right now, I don't like him."

As of right now, join the club, Jason wanted to say. The flames in his cheeks of watching his best friend get treated like that, wasn't going to by unpunished. He turned after offering an apology on Caleb's behalf. Nicklaus only nodded on but his eyes were muted.

Jason turned to follow Caleb's figure, fellow classmates parted ways as he walked by. Was it because they knew he was royalty and thought that was the standard procedure? When Caleb entered a classroom, a class Jason never stepped foot in before, it was a different science lab, with the same set up. Jason assumed he might as well have been in it. He caught himself reminiscing a time two years ago when he used to fool around with his ex-

Not going there.

"That was rude." Jason cut to the chase by pointing out the most obvious. "Why are you being such an asshole?"

"You mean what you did would make headlines for an entire week." Caleb didn't have to shout to make Jason feel like he'd been slapped. "At the very least mind you."

He didn't think about that, if it was anyone's fault, it might as well have been his.

"I didn't know! I didn't think, but don't go blaming this on Nick, he's doing what best friends usually do with best friends. It's not our fault other people don't have lives and don't have best friends." Jason knew there was a better way to go about this, but he was not about to apologize profusely over something that couldn't be undone. Jason was NOT going to let himself go down that road. Why should he make himself feel guilty? Even though he kind of did?

Caleb first looked to his left, down at the lower portion of the wall. When he did look at Jason, their eyes instantly locked. Jason was having a hard time discerning which way was up and which way was down. Jason wished he could see the same in Caleb's eyes but he was locking Jason out. Caleb might as well have crossed his arms across his chest and glared, but he did nothing of the sort. Nothing that would give away what Caleb's real feelings were.

"You know it wasn't right the way you treated Nicklaus." Jason said instead. "So don't go pointing fingers at me." Jason did cross his arms across his chest and glare. Though it felt like he was trying to have a staring contest with a lion. A lion that could pounce at any moment.

A lion that had soft looking curls around the top of his head. A face chiseled from marble. Jason wanted to reach out to touch, but held himself back. They were having another one of those arguments for christssake!

"I don't care how hot you are, you don't go treating my friends like that." Even Jason felt the air vibrate from the way his words snapped. He flinched, realizing just half a second later, he called Caleb hot. No!

Caleb showed no reaction but there might have been a tiny hint of a smug twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Jason really wanted to slap himself but thought about how that would look to someone who didn't know him that well. He figured it was better to act as though he never slipped up.

But...

"You think I'm hot?"

Jason ignored that. "So are you with me?" He was trying again to look like someone no one should cross. With a head tilt, one foot forward and left thumb in pocket. At least he was hoping to look less dramatic and more serious. Instead that left him feeling silly.

"I'm engaged to you aren't I?"

Jason felt his nose twitch, all fight had fled from his system, left him feeling almost empty now. Like an empty shell.

"I'm being serious Caleb." It was almost a shout but Jason didn't want to be overheard. He wouldn't put it past his fellow classmates to be above eavesdropping outside the door at this very moment.

"So am I."

"You are so not."

"Then go out on a date with me."

Jason's head was already spinning when Caleb's last words hit him. He croaked out many words, none of them very nice. Jason finally managed to un-garble his language to say, "Are you deranged? Is there a few screws loose up there? You did all this just to ask me out on a date!?"

"Huh? Didn't you hear a word of what I just said?" Though he didn't mean it. "Caleb I'm serious! You can't treat my friends like that! I will not have it!"

Now Caleb crossed his arms across his chest and Jason was silently wishing they'd wrap around him instead. Jason did think Caleb was more than just hot. He had those breathtaking moments that was Jason was to develop an asthma problem.

"What is going on? Are we arguing? Making up? Does this turn you on? Pissing people off?" Jason felt he had no other way to go about this than to direct his anger at someone, anyone, might as well be directed at Caleb. People who treated his friends poorly really got under his skin. "I can't go on a date with you, not when you just."

Jason was so incensed he couldn't speak anymore.

"God you're adorable when feisty."

"Fuck you Caleb." Flames spewed from his eyes as he said the words. "You had no right."

"No, other than you said I was hot. Which I'm flattered by the way." Now he looked smug but that quickly changed into a softer expression. Jason was starting to feel his legs quake. How could resist the pull of Caleb's charm?

"This is not healthy."

"Shut up and let me kiss you." Jason felt his eyes go round like he'd been backhanded, sucker punched and was dealt with an uppercut all at the same time.

Say what now?

But neither of them made a move towards each other. Not right away at least. For a fifteen full seconds, they both stared at each other. The longer Jason stared into those blue eyed pools, the less restraint he felt. He could almost feel the ground shifting his feet forward, except they weren't moving, like he was being drawn further and further into the eyes of Caleb Montgomery Alexander Tre rutor af Slestand, Duke of Borlange, Earl of Boras, and Count of Nybro. Jason remembered it all amazingly enough.

"Kiss me? Why?" Jason wasn't his biggest fan at how weak he sounded. He found himself reacting suspiciously without any real reason to.

"I don't know!" Caleb suddenly exploded but not in the way that made Jason cringe. Caleb didn't make any sudden violent movements and he could have shouted louder. But he didn't.

"Because I want to." One step forward from Caleb as his voice switched to a softer tone.

Jason almost mirrored the same but his legs weren't as long as Caleb's. Their steps were inaudible due to the pounding of Jason's heart.

"Because you need it." Jason said as Caleb took another step forward.

"Because I need it." Yet another step forward as his voice lowered close to a whisper. "Because I need to know for sure."

"Know what for sure?" Jason barely heard his own voice but Caleb heard it.

"That these feelings are real. I'm tired of trying to avoid them." Now they were at arm's length. Jason was doing his best not to throw himself forward and it wasn't easy. Every cell it seemed, needed to be closer, but Jason continued to fight it.

"I'm sorry." But Jason had no idea what he was apologizing for. Now they were standing inches away. Jason didn't miss the way Caleb's arms twitched at the proximity.

"It's got nothing to do with you. Let's try this again."

What Jason didn't expect was for this kiss to be so gentle. It was nothing like their first kiss, where it was rougher and more demanding. This time, it was amazingly smooth. It was like Jason was kissing a different person this time. Caleb knew how to make one hell of an apology with his lips, but without using words.

"I still don't forgive him for doing what he did." Caitlin said shortly after she caught Jason and Caleb exiting an empty classroom. Jason was trying not to giggle like a schoolgirl. Those warm fuzzy feelings were lingering even now.

Jason felt like his hair was a mess but he wasn't doing anything to fix it. Not when he could still feel Caleb's fingers knotting and moving through his hair. His lips felt swollen, his bottom lip more so, from all the times Caleb nibbled at it. Then there was the taste of something citrus and minty. That's what Caleb tasted like. Like his mouth had never tasted an onion in all of its existence.

His shirt was a tad twisted from the places Caleb had touched. Jason had no idea of the amount of sensitive places on his body until up until a minute ago. His whole body was still on overdrive. Hyper alert. They'd been making out for how long?

All he knew was, the front doors were opened early because there was a thunderstorm on the way. That's why he was playing on his phone earlier. Then got tackled by Nicklaus. So there WAS still fifteen minutes to go before the first bell could ring. Most of that time flew by with Caleb.

"Are you listening to me?" She snapped, without shouting.

Jason could only whip his head in her direction. He had completely forgotten she was talking. He guessed he wasn't as hyper alert as he thought. He started to apologize but...

"Look, I'm sorry." She said, stopping and clutching her books close to her chest. "I'm sorry but I just got over being mad at him for jumping Nicklaus a few weeks ago. It was a misunderstanding. I'm sure Nicklaus already put it behind him, but we both know he's better at the whole forgive and forget thing than I could ever could be. This jealousy act is just not attractive."

The warning bell rang so they had to separate again. Jason knew without being told, this conversation was far from over.