Innocence

Chapter Nine - Surprise!

“Tyler! Stop being mean to people! I’ll be fine. How did you guys even get into this to begin with?”

“That’s a pretty long story, Emma. You’ll need to be sitting down and have nothing else to do but listen.” James said. Damien agreed silently by nodding.

“I’m free now! I want to kn-” I got cut off by the bell.

“Wellllllllllllll that’s a shame. You have to get to class, I’m sure you don’t want to be late now, do you?” Damien said with a sly smile.

I opened my mouth to object then frowned in thought. He was right. “You guys won’t get away with this!”

“Actually, we will. Remember the deal we made? We tell our secret if you tell yours.” James said, grinning. They were enjoying this way too much.

I turned and looked up at Tyler. “Tyler?”

“No. You’re not getting involved in this and Damien and James, if I find out that you’ve told her anything, I’ll kill you both. Come on, let’s get you to class.” He grunted, steering me away to my biology classroom. Once we got there, he pecked my lips. “I’ll pick you up after school and then we’ll go and get Courtney and Katrina. Don’t talk to anyone.” He said before turning around to walk away.

“Wait, don’t you have class?” I asked with a frown. He turned back to me and shrugged. “I have better things to do. I’ll see you this afternoon.” Like be in a gang. I thought to myself as I walked into biology. Daniel was sitting at the end of the middle row and looked up and waved enthusiastically once he saw me arrive.

“Wassap one of my top 10 favourite girls! You know you’re still the talk of the school? This is weird, because the ‘new kid’ usually dies down after a week or so. I think it’s because of Tyler. I even overheard someone say he kissed you this morning in front of the whole school! I mean, not that he wouldn’t want to do that or anything, but that’s just complete and utter madness! The guy doesn’t show any emotions! And then another one said that you two are an item now! I wanted to walk up to those whispering little gossipers and just give them a piece of my-”

“Daniel,” I cut him off while blushing, “He did kiss me in front of everyone, and… we are together…” I trailed off, feeling my face getting hotter. Daniel stopped talking and stared at me with a hanging jaw. “What?” He asked, dumbfounded.

I was about to repeat myself when he started talking again. “No, no, I heard what you said. I mean what? As in when? And how? Weren’t you just complaining to us yesterday? Ooo I bet you the girls are so angry at you because you didn’t tell them! So how’d it happen? Didn’t he threaten you into it? I hope not. I’ll kick his ass if he did – I don’t care how mighty and powerful he is.” To make his point, Daniel punched the palm of his hand with a serious expression.

“No, he didn’t force me into anything. He isn’t like that...” I trailed off, thinking back to him telling me not to talk to anyone, then continued. “Well, most of the time. I mean, I guess we just silently understand each other.” I smiled to myself at the thought then turned back to Tyler. “And you know who else I see that in? You and Amanda. Did anything happen yesterday afternoon at my house?” I asked with a huge grin spreading across my features.

Daniel looked away and I noticed his cheeks turning bright red. “Ha! Something did happen? What? What happened? Tell me! Yes! One step closer! Did you ask her out?” I clapped from excitement as Daniel groaned. “I hate it when you girls do this to me. You get all excited then make me feel bad for not telling you.” He muttered.

“Well! I’m waiting! What happened?” I demanded.

“Well, we were in the kitchen trying to figure out how to make the mash potato like ‘the way Emma does it’ according to Courtney – she is very picky, by the way – and then we just got to spraying each other with the tap and throwing the tea towels at each other. I don’t know how it happened, but we ended up really close to each other, and, we just made eye contact for really long, so I leaned in and kissed her… and then Courtney interrupted wanting her mash potato and we didn’t speak about it after that.” Daniel muttered, looking distant. My guess was that he was mentally reliving the moment.