There’s no way it can be Charmaine, as she has alone made out with half the boys in our year this semester. He’s probably asking himself who he grabbed in the dark. I swallow hard, nervous fear hitting me low in the stomach as I realize he might now go absolutely ape shit when he figures out who he was just making out with. He’s still close enough that his warm breath is fanning my mouth and chin, but his breathing has slowed and become almost non-existent as he thinks and questions internally.I should say something, but I am rendered mute and paralyzed by a sense of ‘I shouldn’t have kissed him back.’ This was so dumb. I know he is going to go crazy at me after the kitchen incident.My face flames, his hand on my throat slides up to my jaw and becomes searching fingers as he traces my cheek, then eyebrow, and I am assuming he can tell by touch this is not Charmaine's face. He’s trying to figure out if he’s imagining it and is probably confused about who else would be in here with hi
My face is sore and swollen from crying like an idiot for the past two hours, sitting on my bed, and rubbing in a moisturizer to minimize the mess I made after washing my face. I know my skin is blotchy and pale, my nose red, and my eyes are puffed up. I’m washed out, yet it felt good to cleanse my soul and give into everything that’s been eating at me for days. I am physically lighter, as though a huge weight I was unaware I have been carrying this past couple of days is lifted from my head.So much for controlling my ability to cry over the past years. I don’t think I have ever sobbed like that for that long in my life, and I feel so stupid that Dane triggered it. I guess crying that first time broke the off switch, and now my emotions are a free for all anytime I get sad.For what, really?Yelling at me, making me feel repulsive? Or because I got to kiss him, and he made it clear that this weirdness growing in me was so one-sided, and a small spark had held onto loose hope that it
“I have all those reasons too, but it didn't stop me feeling something for you……. I wouldn’t be mad at you for it. You can’t help who you like! You said that yourself! And deny it all you want and say you don’t care about me, but your actions say differently sometimes, so you confuse me all the more. I have never felt like I was your sister but at times ….. you make me think I’m something else to you.”This has always been the confusing thing about us, and maybe it’s where our constant bickering stems from.“Who said I don’t care about you?” he turns his head on me in a snap, eyes narrowed and a low simmering anger building. He seems outraged that I would say something like that, yet he’s been trying to make me believe it for so long. It’s grating that he only heard that in all those words I threw at him.I glance away from the intense gaze and return to pulling at my pillow. Pondering that by now, Dane would usually have walked away from me as the conversation was steering to somethi
“Oh, Hello…. How’re things going at school lately? It feels like I haven’t seen you in weeks,” My mom asks Elisa with a soft and warm smile at her sitting beside me at the breakfast bar as we share a plate of tacos that Monique made us. It’s early afternoon, after school, and we’re home to study together.“Good, Mrs. Masterson.” Elisa is always the model of politeness when it comes to my parents. “We’ve just been busy with some schoolwork. It’s only a few days till break, and I think we need it.”“Mom… Lees is staying here tonight. If that’s okay?” I ask as my mother wanders around the kitchen, looking for something, and gives another perfunctory smile as she tilts her head back to us. It’s obvious she is not fully invested in us and is distracted. She wanders to the cupboard where we keep the first aid and medicines and rummages inside, reminding me of that idiot Dane when I catch sight of the green box in full view, and my stomach sinks into my lap, churning up my nerves and anger o
I toss and turn, trying hard not to wake Elisa, the sleeping beauty who looks like she might be dead, and end up on my back. Exhaling heavily and flattening the sheets over my body while staring at the ceiling, I know closing my eyes is futile. By now, it has to be the early AMs, and I have not managed to stay asleep for more than short periods. I keep waking and feeling restless, with a million thoughts swarming me. I can’t stop the ongoing onslaught of mindless worries and woes, and of course, Dane is top of that list.Elisa mumbles something incoherent in her sleep, and I realize I might be disturbing her by moving around so much, so I shift to my side and stare at my desk by my balcony window instead. The clock there shines back at three am, and I deflate further. The night is ticking away, and I am wide awake.My mom and Bryan texted before midnight, saying they had decided to drink and stay at the hotel where the show was tonight. This means they’ll probably head straight to wor
I sit upright, narrow my eyes on him with severe scrutiny and start patting at his clothes, looking for the keys to his bike because I am sure he came here on it, and the accident line is bullshit. If he thinks I’m going to sit back and watch him ride off into the night, he’s got another thing coming.“What are you doing?” Dane sits up too, trying to catch my wrists as I slide my hands into his hoodie pockets, looking for them, and end up wrestling him while fighting to keep searching. Combatting his slower-than-usual responses and getting the upper hand because moving hurts him. Dane catches my hands, pins them behind my back, and yanks me into his chest so I can’t get loose. We end up nose to nose, with both of us half kneeling, half sitting, and breathing hard.“I know your bike is out front, so don’t give me this bullshit. You plan on taking your things and leaving? I won’t let you. I’ll call your dad and tell him…. I’ll stop you.” I can’t conceal the anger in my voice or the fier
“Dane, are you awake?” I rap lightly on his bedroom door, straining my ear to the smooth surface for noises or signs of life, and jump when the door clicks open, and he edges around it, so I only see his face. Cast half in shadow from the early hour, his bruises have progressed further, but much of his swelling has calmed down. He looks like someone went crazy with purple face paint.“Yeah. Did Elisa go home?” He eyes past me down the darkened hall and seems uneasy that he might get caught if he comes out further. I already know he’s safe.“Yep, she left a few minutes ago. Monique is up, but she’s cleaning downstairs before she goes to the market. She normally doesn’t come up here until after to sort the rooms. You have maybe an hour to get ready and for us to leave after she does.” I hold up the glass of orange squash in my hand and the tube of Arnica gel and wave them at him. “To take your meds and to help with your pain.” I point out and hold them out to him so that he slides back
My mom texted me this morning telling me Bryan heard from Dane, and he’s gone on vacation to a skiing resort, and I was glad she didn’t call me to tell me. I don’t think I could have stayed neutral and kept the lie. I didn’t even keep it from Elisa, who knew something was wrong as soon as she woke up. I haven’t slept and tossed and turned all night worrying about this idiot. So, of course, I look like death and have crazy dark circles over a dull skin tone.Dane wanders in a few minutes later, with his lower half dried and dressed in the sweats he had laid out. He’s carrying a tee and zip-up, but there’s still water over his shoulders, upper back, and hair. I move to take the towel he has under his arm and instinctively start patting his upper chest and neck before gesturing for him to lean down to run his hair. Dane narrows his eyes on me, obeys, and sets his gaze on his feet instead.We say nothing, just stand facing one another while I dry him off and then maneuver his clothes on c