Midnight Shades

Chapter 9

My legs give up underneath me and I collapse near a bush of trees, resting my back on them. My breathing is slowly returning back to its normal state, but I know that my heart won't follow these actions, neither will my mind. I know that I will not sleep; I'll stay up trying to empty my mind from all of these thoughts, trying to find answers to all of the questions inside my head. I'll stay inside my room, trying to calm my heart a little bit before I lose it and it explodes.

When my breathing finally returns back to its normality, I take a deep breath and force myself off of the dirty ground. I keep walking for about five minutes or so before I hear Esme's and Wren's voices from behind me.

"Damn it, Tallulah," Wren starts as they near me. "Where the fuck you have been? We're two hours away from the fucking sun!" She hisses, obviously flaring in anger.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't leave!" I try to protest but Esme just glares at me as Wren copies her actions.

"That guy is going to get your ass busted one day." Esme says as we continue walking towards our village, our footsteps faster than usual.

"He is not," I clench my jaw. "We are not going to get busted."

Esme huffs and rolls her eyes before she speaks, "Anyway, did you know what happened with him?"

I bite my lip in hesitation before replying, "No, I didn't."

"So, what were you doing all of that time?" Wren questions, raising her eyebrow at me.

"We went for a ride." I sigh. There is no point of lying to them, and why would I lie anyway?

"What do you mean?" Esme asks, clearly confused.

"We went on a ride on his motorcycle." I say, feeling oddly proud of having the courage to do that.

"What?" They both gasp and Wren continues. "As in a real motorcycle?"

"Yes." I say, grinning from ear to ear now.

"Holy fuck, that's awesome!" Esme gushes. "That's crazy."

"How was it? Was it cool?" Wren asks, grinning, too.

Feeling my heart pounding against my chest, just from remembering it, I smile and reply, "It was perfect. I felt absolutely free."

"Oh Lyara, I wish I can do that." Wren whines.

"He kissed me." I mutter, very slowly. I try to avoid their gazes as we walk more into the forest, only forty five minutes away from the village now.

I wait impatiently for their response but I get nothing, and I am greeted by incredible silence around me. No footsteps or breathings can be heard. I stop and turn around slowly, only to find two statues in front of me.

Wren is like a stone in her place, with her mouth agape and her eyes wide open. Esme has both of her hands on her mouth as she stares at me with wide eyes, too. I shift uncomfortably on my feet and look around me in nervousness.

"What?" I barely whisper, questioning why they are so surprised like that. It was just a kiss, it's not like he proposed to me.

You were just as surprised, Tallulah. I remind myself.

"He kissed you?" Wren is the first to speak as a wide grin slowly break its way to her face.

"He did." I say, a soft, small smile appearing on my face. "Only a cheek kiss, though." I feel like I might just swoon, from everything. Especially, from the way his soft, pink and thin lips touched my cheek.

"Aw!" Esme breaks out of her position and runs to me as she engulfs me in a big hug. "Oh, Lyara! Finally, something happened."

I weirdly chuckle in confusion as Esme backs away a little and Wren reaches us and we continue our way to the village. Should I tell them that he saw me before? I feel like I should but I don't want to, because I simply don't want to have all of my thoughts that I tried so hard to get away from, get back to me.