Life For Now

Chapter 26

"No" He looks away, but I can tell he's lying.

"Dylan. I was just being polite" I say, softening my tone.

"Yeh well he likes you, and you being polite just makes him have more feelings for you" He sighs, like he's fighting himself to believe me.

"What am I meant to do? Be mean to him? What's it got to do with you anyway?" I ask, and just when the words leave my lips, Dylan is right next to me covering my mouth.

"Shh" He whispers when I muffle into his palm, and thats when I finally hear Lewis and Jackson enter the room. He keeps his hand over my mouth, his eyes sinked deep with mine that i think it wouldn't matter if he moved his hand or not, because i'm at a loss for words anyway, like I always am whenever he looks at me like that.

"No ones in here" I hear Jackson groan.

"We haven't found anyone so it wouldn't hurt to just look" Lewis says, his footsteps getting closer to the room me and Dylan are in.

"What was that?" A bang is heard from the other end of the college, Dylan tightening his hand over my mouth.

"Lets go" Lewis says running further and further from us before the door closes, and Dylan finally moves his hand from my mouth.

"That was close" Dylan exhales a breath as I try and steady my breathing.

"Yeah, it was." I breathe, giggling to myself.

"Sorry about just coming on to you like that, you just weren't being quiet" He says, his smile coming to show for the first time since we've been in here.

"I don't like Lewis." I say searching his eyes, "Not the way he likes me anyway" I smile, but he moves away, sitting straight and keeping his eyes on only the darkness in front instead of me.

"D-do you remember...the first time we met?" He stutters, keeping his eyes to the ground as he traces his finger with the dust on the floor. It's the first time I've ever heard him sound uncertain.

It takes me a second to think of an answer. I mean of course I remember the first time we met, I remember almost every detail. But he doesn't. So why is he asking? He doesn't remember the actual night we met, the night I sat with him while he talked about life. So I can't tell if it's a trick question. But I know that the only answer to him is a lie.

"Uh, here...at the college" I say, trying to sound as casual as possible. But in reality, I'm burning inside.

"No" He shakes his head adjusting himself so that his body's tilted towards me, my heart feeling like it's going to burst out of my chest waiting for him to speak, "The first time." He adds, his brown eyes connecting with mine.

My eyes roam his, trying to find the joke, or the point he's getting at, because all I've known since I've met him is that he didn't remember. "But you said that you didnt remember?" I adjust myself too, so that we are face to face now. His arm wrapped around one knee, and the other on the floor.

"I lied" He shrugs, like there's a perfectly good explanation about to leave his lips.

"Why?" I whisper. It doesn't make sense. If he remembered me, he could have said when we were on the roof together, but no. Instead, he made me feel like an idiot for even hoping he could.

"Because" He pauses looking down to try and fine the words. "Because I was embarrassed with everything" He says, his voice sounding just like the night we met. Vulnerable.

"Everything?" I raise a brow. Whats everything?

"Yeah, I was crying and I never cry. Ever!" He looks up at me again, "But you, you stayed with me, even though I was so horrible, you sat with me while I cried like a fanny" I laugh at his use of words. I thought he was anything but a fanny. I thought that him crying meant he was actually hurt, and I think anyone who can show that amount of emotion when hurt is brave. "No one, not even my friends have ever seen me like that, and when you sat down after I told you to fuck off, I thought who is this girl?, no one has ever showed that much care to me, I mean you were a complete stranger" He bring his face closer to me. With lighter humour to his voice he adds, "The next morning I actually thought I dreamt you, but when James said your name I told myself there's no way." We lock eyes again, his lighter than what they have been, "Then there you were, sitting in the top row." Im surprised when he puts his hand to my cheek, his ring cold on my skin when his thumb starts to slowly caress that spot.