You Made Me Fall, But That's Okay

Chapter Eighteen - He Looks Good In Uniform

Nothing really happened on my last no-school day of the week. James had a day off so we went with him to the park. Kyle and Scott tagged along, too. It was gorgeously sunny, but I got more freckles. Ryan insisted that ‘freckles are a sign of beauty’. Well, that didn’t work on my face. I hated my freckles, but, as Sinead had explained before, it was the Celtic blood in me. Whatever that meant.

Kyle told James and Scott about me not being a virgin any more, something that made them very ‘proud’ of me. Scott reckoned that he’d be much better in bed than Ryan, who ended up punching him in the face. Despite how guy-ish they were, I was already starting to feel as though they were my friends, too. Well, definitely James. He was just way too nice to be a gangster. Was I just being stereotypical?

I was dreading school and the Sunday just wouldn’t crawl slow enough. We were having too much fun, and time flew by when you were having fun. I didn’t want to go back to school. I wanted to be with Ryan. I didn’t want to wear a stupid uniform, or spend a stupid time in all my classes. I wanted to be in Ryan’s strong arms, safe.

Another worrying thing was that Travis was going to be alone with Sinead. But, as Ryan had pointed out, we had left them alone before and nothing happened. He claimed that I wasn’t their babysitters, and I had to be focusing on school because I was a senior now. It was true, but it was Sinead. My lovely sister wasn’t the luckiest person in the world, either. We were going out with two gangsters – that summed it up. It didn’t help that they were enemies.

I woke up at six o’clock on Monday morning, even though school didn’t start until half eight. Ryan slept over in my house, his arms locked around me when I finally did wake up. It took me ten minutes to get him to release me. I had a shower, threw on my uniform and fixed my hair. I completely forgot that Ryan didn’t want me wearing anymore makeup, but when he woke up, he obviously forgot, too. He didn’t mention anything at all, although he did make some remarks about my uniform. My skirt was apparently ‘too short’.

He agreed to give me a lift to school and I was there at quarter past eight, yawning and stretching. I could see my little group of friends waiting for me outside the gates of the big red-bricked building. Although I was excited to see my friends, I was tempted to ask Ryan to turn around and bring me back to his house. He was a bad boy, of course he would let me skip.

I gave him a quick kiss before saying goodbye and hopping out of the car with my backpack. I couldn’t even smile, too sad about leaving him.

‘Hold on a second, Laura.’ Ryan said, pulling me back into the car by my hand. I frowned, wondering what the hell he wanted now.

He grabbed my face, and closing my eyes, I expected him to kiss me. I wasn’t going to refuse another kiss. I was addicted to his lips, for crying out loud. However, I soon felt a horrible wetness smother my face. That was not a kiss.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ I demanded, opening my eyes. He was wiping my face with a baby wipe. Furious, I grabbed it off him. ‘Ryan!’

‘I said no more makeup, Laura! Do we have to get into another debate about this?’

‘You are unreal!’ I growled.

Ryan took the baby wipe back off me and continued to clean the makeup off my face. ‘You didn’t think I’d let you go in to school like that, did you? I want your friends to see how gorgeous you are.’

When he was finished, he gave me one of the longest kisses ever, as if trying to apologize for taking my makeup off. ‘I love you,’ he grinned.

‘I love you, too.’ I grumbled, still pissed with him for taking it off. I was dreading school even more now. My friends were going to be making such a big deal because I wasn’t wearing makeup. In all my six years of living in America, I never ever let my school see me without it.