CAPTURE THIS (Updating regularly)

Chapter 10

She felt an intense gaze on the side of her face burning a whole through her hair. 

"You need to stop staring at me like a creep," Amber told her lightly as she turned back to her drawing of Zora. 

She knew Zora had rolled her eyes without having to look up. "You're sensing up Charming." 

"Sensing up?" Amber repeated in confusion. "Did you just make that up?"

"It's that thing where you sense a person around the room without staring at them," Zora explained amusedly. "You tense up and stop drawing whenever he gets close without even setting your eyes on him." 

Amber wanted to be able to roll her eyes but everything that Zora said was true. Her body seemed to unconsciously follow Alex, despite her trying her best to act normal. 

When the bell rang, Amber was relieved to leave Alex's presence. It was exhausting work trying to stop her body from reacting to Alex's every movement. She grabbed her bag and hurried behind Zora towards the door. 

"Miss Riley, could I speak to you please?" Alex didn't look up from his computer when addressing Amber. 

After hesitating for a moment and exchanging a confused glance with Zora, she paused in her tracks towards the door and turned to face his desk. 

"Sure, I guess." 

He didn't look at her until Zora, the last student in the classroom left, shutting the door behind her. 

When he was done aimlessly shuffling papers around, Alex glanced up at Amber with his sea-coloured eyes that she had been craving to gaze into for days. 

"I just wanted to make sure we were still on for today," he told her, slowly edging around the desk towards her. 

No matter how much her body screamed at her to inch closer to him, she forced herself to remain rooted to the ground. 

"We're still on." Her voice was hoarse instead of sexy and confident like she would have wanted it to be. 

With every slow breath she took to calm herself, Alex seemed to inch closer and closer towards her. 

"The forest..." he muttered quietly, halting when he was stood directly in front of her, only a couple of inches away. "At 5 o'clock." 

Amber took a deep breath, inhaling his smoky scent, trying to memorise it. She couldn't stop her eyes from flickering down to his thin pink lips surrounded by dark stubble. When she forced her gaze back up into his eyes, he wasn't even looking at her eyes, but at her own lips. She suddenly felt self-conscious as she took another long breath. 

He took another step forward. Their noses could have touched. He lingered for a moment, biting his own lip with one of his pearly white teeth as he gazed longingly at her bright red lips. 

"I guess I'll see you then Miss Riley," he whispered before pulling away. 

Amber almost let out a little whimper as she watched him head straight for the door. She sat in the dark classroom for a moment, listening to her own breath. She could still smell the mingled scent of smoke and coffee. She sighed. 

***

Mr Riley was not home when Amber returned from school, for which Amber was incredibly grateful. She didn't want him questioning where she would be going and the idea of lying to him after having just made up with her father was unappealing. 

Amber was still appreciating how easy it was to head up and down the stairs without her crutches. After sprinting up the stairs, she headed to her room and put on some music.