A H.E.R.O.S PROJECT 12

16. I love you

Tris finds me entangled with Adonis after the bell rings for lunch.

I told Adonis that we would eat together tomorrow, which upset him. His reaction didn't surprise me. I was breaking our routine, and not giving him an explanation only frustrated him.

"Now we're not having lunch together. What's next? Should I give you your phone number back?" Adonis quips, playfully handing his phone to me. I balk, taking it from him and tucking it into his jacket pocket.

Donny cornered me outside of my math class. Before the bell rang, he stood outside the open door and posed at the entrance, unraveling my math teacher with a flirtatious stare. She let us out of class early. It was as simple as that for Donny. He rewarded her with a bright smile and a seductive hello. She blushed, unable to talk, waving at him. And thank God Richie had to go to Principal Haaris's office for yelling at me in class. If he had seen Donny waiting for me, he would have lost it.

But back to Adonis, "Save me a plate, and we'll talk about how nasty our chemically engineered food is tomorrow." I'm careful not to get too wrapped up in him, spacing some distance between us as much as possible. It's so hard not touching him, feeling him.

Donny was wearing a shirt and hoodie this morning, but only his hoodie remained, temptingly zipped below his chest. His taut muscles flex as his hands brace my sides, trapping and shielding me from the hallway and people walking by. "Do you have to go?" he says, a breath on my lips, and kisses me, just soft enough that I might die. I don't move, merely there, existing in bliss. He kisses me again, and again, and again. I forget the rules I placed on myself, and my hand slips underneath his jacket and I scratch down his hardened abs, enjoying him, relishing in his soft skin. Adonis scoffs a small laugh, kissing me harder, his hands holding my face, caressing my neck.

Tristian whistles.

Dammit. And I pull my face from Donny, moaning my detest. "I don't have anywhere to be except with you tomorrow. I have to go."

He tries to kiss me again, and I curve my face, "Donny, tomorrow." We stop kissing, but Adonis's hands don't leave my face.

A flicker of pain washes over his eyes, and he looks at the ceiling. Donny's hands fall from my face to the inside of his jacket pockets.

Tris slouches on lockers across us and whistles at me again. Tris has her head down, fixated on her phone. She plays it cool, jerking her chin for me to leave my boyfriend. I'm testing her patience.

Someone walks to Tris and asks how it tastes, sucking Marcus the Walrus's face. The kid laughs at her, his phone over his ear. He's talking to someone.

Tristian takes the boy's phone. She dares him to get it from her, taunting him. The boy frowns and smartly walks away, his face sad.

I wish we had more time, but I have to go, and dammit, not being allowed to explain everything to Donny bothers me, and I'm sure he feels the same way. I'm putting walls between us, not him.

Wanting to tether some part of him back to me, reassuring him that he's not the problem, just me, I grasp his waist and shake him so he'll look down at me, "Just today. I have to go with Tristian."

And I meant what I said. I'm sure Richie can get Twelve off my back. Hopefully, it will take Richie one more day to figure everything out, and then Donny and I can return to normal.

Needing to feel close to him, I pucker my lips and gaze up at him. It's his signal to kiss me. He can kiss me, and I want him to do it.

Adonis's eyes sweep over me to the crowd of students flooding the hallway, waiting for the cafeteria doors to open. Usually, security opens the cafeteria doors exactly when the bell rings, but something special must be happening today.

"Kiss me," I say, my tone soft. I stand on my toes, so Adonis can easily reach my lips.

Donny pecks my cheek too quickly for me to appreciate his lips, his warmth. Too easily, he brushes off my arms and follows the eager crowd entering the cafeteria. Two all-black security guards open the double cafeteria doors, a baton in their right hands, their heads protected in black metal helmets. The tall, muscular guards tell everyone to line up and have their hands out for daily vitamins. They do as the guards say, lining up quietly, hands out, and waiting for a black capsule that tastes like water and iron.

The sting of rejection washes over me, hitting my stomach first, then my ego, and all I can do is stare at Donny's back. I watch him walk further from me. He walked away like it was easy and I was nothing to him, and he would find someone else to consume his time.

"I LOVE YOU, ANAYA, AND I'LL CALL YOU LATER!" Donny yells deep within the flock of teenage bodies parting for him. Some boys laugh at him, slapping his back for saying what he said. Girls giggle, smiling and admiring him.

"I love you so much more," I whisper, smiling, relieved.

"God, you two are so mushy and dramatic, but damn he has a nice ass." Tristian stands beside me, staring at Adonis's shrinking silhouette.

I swing to punch Tristian's arm, but she deflects my fist, counterstriking and thumping me on my forehead.

I cringe, thinking she'll hit me again, and instead, she takes my hand, "You're going to piss Richie off. We're late because of you," Tris wickedly grins, and I run with her. She must find it amusing that we're not on time to meet Richie. But anything that irks Richie brings her joy.

Lunch is precisely one hour. We need to hurry.