Bottled Up

The Acquaintance

The Acquaintance

Trinity's POV

My mom never brought up my appearance from the other day. She had probably forgotten.

I blamed the burn on my hand on the stove, and my mom bandaged it for me. I'm surprised that the lie went as smoothly as it did. While I was still confident, I also lied I was doing extra credit after school for missing part of History class the other day. She bought this as well, giving me the chance to walk down the road with Tucker to Starbucks.

I put on some white jean shorts and my purple hoodie and climbed in the car. The sky was still glommy, but the ground was dry. When I hopped out and walked into school, it was only a little cold. I snuggled into my sweatshirt and pushed through into the warm building. Liz was waiting for me at my locker, along with Melody.

"Hey guys." I said, making Liz move so that I could click in my lock combo. Hanging my backpack on the hook, I took out unnecessary books and folders and grabbed my history textbook. Liz looked at me a moment, her eyebrows knit in concern. I blinked at her.

"Any reason for the examination?" I asked. She blinked back.

"Are you calmed down? I see you're not dead..." she looked at my wrapped up hand. "Although not unscathed."

Melody looked back and forth at us. "I was just wondering if I could walk to class with you, Trin." she said. Liz looked up at her, then back at me.

"Talk to me later, please?" she said. It sounded like a question, but I knew otherwise. I nodded and she went on her way. Melody and I walked arm in arm to combined history. Otherwise known as the scene of the crime.

Nate and his friends stood in the back corner of the room, leaning up against the wall and talking. He glanced over and saw me, looking down at my hand, and back up to my face. I had to be imagining it but - he looked... concerned. Melody went over ot her desk and her senior friends while I put my book down and sat, holding my chin in my hands. Well, hand.

Nate was suddenly squatting down next to my desk.

"Hello." I said. He smirked.

"That's all I get? Hello?"

I looked over at him. "What were you expecting, a welcome party?"

"No, just more than a simple hello from my friend."

I lifted my head from my hand. "Since when did we become friends? I didn't agree to this."

He leaned in closer as if someone was listening. "We're just making people think we're friends. We can't have the rumor that we're matches while we're constantly fighting and punching." He grinned. I just now spotted the small purple spot on his chin.

I rolled my eyes. "Just because you want to maintain your social status does not mean we have to be friends."

"Call it whatever you want, but we can't be enemies or something stupid like that."

"We weren't enemies." I said, and thought for a moment. "We're aquaintances."

"Aquaintances?"

"Too big of a word for you? Need me to spell it out?"

He gave me a murderous look. "Fine then. We're aquaintances. See you, Trinity."

"Goodbye, Williams."

He stopped mid walk away and turned back around.

"Oh and you should drop the whole last name formality. We're on a first name basis now, hun."

He then floated away. I balled my fist - that little idiot. I hated him - I knew that deep inside.

I thought of my afternoon to come, and tried to calm myself down.

Combined history began and I watched the rain start to fall again.

~

I was walking on my way to lunch alone, swinging my lunch bag when I was suddenly up against a locker. What the f-

"You have to just shut up and let me do this, ok?" Nate said. One of his hands was pinning my shoulder to the locker, the other stretched above me holding himself up. He looked at me for a moment, his eyes wild with a thousand thoughts before he leaned down and kissed me.

Despite wanting to struggle (which I had been doing until he told me to shut up) and despite wanting to knee him in the place that hurts, I looked behind him and saw a group of girls rounding the corner. I quickly understood, hating myself for doing so, and closed my eyes, losing myself. This kid had obviously done this before.

Nate broke the kiss for just a second and whispered, "Tell me when they're gone." before leaning back in again. I peeked my eye open a crack and saw the girls looking quite distraught, pointing and sighing dejectedly. I closed my eye again. Nate showed no sign of breaking this up - and I realized I couldn't exactly pull away. My head was pushed against the locker - he had pinned me here on purpose. Finally, Nate let go of my shoulder and pulled back. He stood and opened his eyes. I told my heart to stop racing.

Nate's face was as red as a tomato - his hair was tousled and sticking in every which way. Had I done that? Somehow my arm had slipped around his neck and into his hair. I quickly let go of him but sayed leaning against the locker. I didn't trust my legs to fully support me.

Nate's chest was heaving in and out, in and out as he ran a hand through his hair. I straightened my hoodie, pulling at the strings. Neither of us said anything.

Finally, after an agonizingly awkward minute, Nate smirked at me. His face had returned to it's normal color.

"You're a good kisser, you know."

I looked at him incredulously.

"What the hell was that?"

"Those girls haven't been leaving me alone. I thought if they saw me with you-"

"No not that part. I got that - you pinned me on the locker on purpose. You did it so I couldn't get out of it. You wanted to kiss me!" I accused. He just laughed.

"That's funny. You're overthinking this - you're telling yourself I wanted to kiss you because you wanted to kiss me."

"What? That doesn't even make sense!"

He shrugged. "Suit yourself." he started to walk away, until I called out to him. He turned slightly.

"Do I look like I was just pushed up against a locked and kissed now?" I asked. Hands on hips. "If I go to lunch looking like an idiot, people will believe our act a little too much for my liking."

He walked back over, crossing his arms over his chest and looking me up and down. He leaned in close to my face and slid a finger across my forehead, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. It sent shivers down my spine, but I didn't let him see.

"You're funny when you try to be romantic, you know that?" I told him. He chuckled.

"I still gave you chills." he started walking away again as I stared.

"And you enjoyed the kiss!" he called behind him. I stomped my foot like a two year old.

"I did not!"

"Did too!"

"Not!

"Uh huh!" he disappeared around the corner, leaving me flustered, angry and confused. And doubting my afternoon a little more now.