| torn up

~ chapter 21 ☁️

'No fair.' I gasp, panting loudly and holding a hand against his chest in defence when he eventually stops.

'Fairer than you teasing me like that.' He cooly retorts back, smirking in satisfaction when his eyes catch sight of my own watery ones.

I scoff at his words, rolling my eyes at his response and still breathing heavily from his ambush on me. It's only after a few seconds pass and when my breathing goes back to normal that I notice we've just been staring into each other's eyes the last few moments.

I swallow nervously when I note the way he's still hovering over me, face impossibly close to mine with his hands still resting on both sides of my waist and one of my own now leaning against his chest.

He seems to pick up on this too, eyes openly darting down towards my lips before drifting back up to meet my own.

In the moment, I'm still and silent but I'm panicking in my head- ecstatic but nervous that it looks like I'm about to have my first kiss.

I let out a shaky breath of excitement when he leans forward a bit, lips getting nearer and nearer to my own.

This is it, I can't help but think.

Except it's not. Of course it's not, that would be way too easy and convenient for my mess of a life.

We both jump away from each other a second later as if struck by lightening when the door to his bedroom slams open to reveal Maxine.

'Oh my god, I thought I smelled pizza.' She squeals in excitement, her eyes immediately drawn to the open pizza box on Mason's desk.

Mason and I both sit now frozen in shock and staring at her as she skips over to the bed in glee, settling herself in between us and beginning to happily munch away on a slice.

'Oh, hey, Willow. Mason said you'd be coming over.' She casually says while starting to stuff her face and turning to face my own very red one.

She musters a best a smile she can with a mouthful of pizza and I quickly try to compose myself, both inwardly and outwardly so that I can return her greeting.

'H-Hey, Maxine.' I greet back with a shaky but fond grin, trying my hardest to appear calm and looking over in both embarrassment and amusement to Mason.

'What are you doing back? I didn't even hear the door.' Her brother eventually manages to groan out, turning to pause the movie to shoot her an obvious look of irritation.

'I'm not surprised considering how loud you had the movie on... Well that, and the fact that you both seemed pretty busy just now.' She shrugs innocently, a cheeky grin playing at the corner of her lips.

I almost choke on nothing at her blunt words, my blush returning at her frank remark and emotional turmoil washing over me at the prospect of getting caught in the moment by Mason's little sister.

'Max!' He hisses, gaze narrowing in warning at the smaller girl before sheepishly wandering over to my tense figure.

'What? It's okay, we're all adults here, are we not? Ooh, I must say, I do love what you've done with my fairy lights.' She gasps in fascination, eyes trailing the walls just like I had when I had first seen them.

I can't help but laugh at her remark considering she is only 15, observing in fascination at how quickly she jumps from topic to topic. It almost seems her attention has already been distracted from what she walked in on a few moments earlier, much to my relief.

'Wait, are you guys watching Halloween? I like totally love this movie. Mason, be useful for once and unpause it already, won't you!' She cheers in excitement when her gaze lands on the TV.

I watch in amusement as she harshly snatches the remote from her brother's hand to do it herself a second later when he doesn't make any move to.

Instantly she is completely engrossed, the previously bubbly girl now silent as she leans forward in complete concentration to analyse what's on the screen.

Mason just rolls his eyes at his sister's antics, leaning around her small figure to lock eyes with me and mouth a silent sorry. I shake my head at him, a small smile playing on my lips to let him know it's completely fine.

Oh well, I think with my eyes drifting back to the overexcited teenager in between us, I guess it's safe to say we won't be returning to our earlier moment anytime soon.

-

Later on, on the drive home, I find myself fretting the whole time about what's going to happen when we reach my front door and have to say goodbye for the night. We sit in a comfortable silence and Mason eventually turns on the radio but the seemingly relaxed atmosphere still does nothing to calm my nerves.

See now, if this was a date, I would think perhaps he would be likely make some kind of move to kiss me when we say goodbye. Especially if he makes the effort to get out of the car and walk me to my door. But this isn't a date, not technically and yet at the same time, I can't deny that it seemed something was about to play out earlier. All in all, I think it's right to say I'm driving myself crazy trying to figure out what exactly to expect when the time comes.

A couple minutes later, I look out the window to see we've turned onto my street and my heart begins furiously hammering in my chest.
I swallow nervously in anticipation when he soon pulls up in front of my house, turning off his car so it is now dead silent. I watch with baited breath when he turns to face me a second later, making sure the smile on my face mirrors his own

'So...' he says lowly, eyes searching my profile as if he is trying to remember every one of my facial features before eventually meeting mine.

'So...' I shyly whisper as I parrot his words, not knowing what to say.

He smiles at my bashfulness, twinkly eyes still exploring my own in the dim light.

'I really enjoyed tonight.' He softly murmurs, making me smile even wider when I hear the sincerity in his voice.

I don't miss the way he subtly moves forward so that his face is now just that tiny bit closer to my own. It really isn't by much but considering how much adrenaline is running through my body right now, you can sure bet I notice it.

I begin to wonder if this is the moment he's going to make his move, my mind flashing back to our earlier encounter.

And looking at him now and how handsome he looks in the moonlight, I'm not ashamed to say I really, really want him to.