His Safety Net

Chapter 24

       Of course, my cheeks began to redden. "N-no. No other things."

       "So kissing is okay?"

       "What if someone walks in...?'

       Jerome didn't reply. He just gestured for me to follow him, so I did. He didn't lead us to the janitor's closet, so I was guessing that he was joking about us going in there. Well, knowing him, he was half-joking, half-serious. 

       He soon stopped in front of a door before opening it. I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at the sign beside the door. "The roof?" I asked. "Are we even allowed up there?"

       "Well, I don't see any signs saying we're not allowed up here," Jerome said.

       "Jerome..."

       "No, seriously, we're allowed up here. I wouldn't take you somewhere off limits. I may be fine with getting into trouble, but I know you're not." He gently held onto my hand before pulling me through the doorway, leading me up the stairs. "You're really going to like it up here."

       He was right. I did like it.

       It was basically a rooftop garden with so many plants decorating the place. There was even a sitting area with a lot of benches, tables, and decorative pillows right under a canopy so people could come up here even when it was raining.

       "Do you come up here a lot?" I asked.

       "Only when I'm hiding from people," Jerome said, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Believe it or not, not too many people come up here. Which means..." He gave me a lingering kiss. "We have the whole place to ourselves."

       "You make it sound like we're going to do dirty things," I said as Jerome's lips trailed down my neck.

       "We are," he murmured against me skin.

       "W-what?" I asked. "H-here? We can't..."

       Jerome laughed slightly as he lifted his head from my neck to look at me. "I'm kidding. I'm not going to take your innocence away at a place as shitty as this school."

       "S-stop saying that."

       Jerome just smiled widely at me before leaning down and pressing his lips on mine. Even though I wanted to be annoyed at him for always trying to fluster me, I couldn't help but reach up and wrap my arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. I could also feel myself smiling against the kiss. There was just something so special about Jerome, something that made me so happy to be around him.

       We did spend the rest of lunch on the rooftop. Not kissing the whole time or anything, because that would be inappropriate. We may have kissed a bit, but we also talked a lot. I normally wasn't a person to talk much but with Jerome, I could talk to him for hours on end.

       Once lunch ended, the two of us went our separate ways to our third period classes. As I walked into my class and sat down in my desk beside Orchid, my sister said, "Ryder's getting suspicious."

       "Of what?" I asked.

       "You," I said. "How you're never with us at lunch and how you're always getting secret text messages."

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "But... I thought it was pretty obvious it's because of Jerome. I-I mean, me dating him isn't obvious. At least, I hope it's not... But Ryder already knows I'm friends with Jerome..."

       "Yeah, but he thinks there's more to it," Orchid said. "Not more to you and Jerome. For all he knows, you're just friends. He thinks there's another reason why you're always, in his words, 'sneaking around' at lunch."

       "I wasn't sneaking around... I just wanted to give Jerome something..."

       "And I know you're not sneaking around. But this is Ryder we're talking about. Once he's suspicious of something, he's not going to stop until he finds out what it is. Remember what he was like when Mom and Dad were hiding the fact that Mom was pregnant with William? He would not leave them alone. I just wanted to give you a heads up. Just in case Ryder continues with his whole suspicious thing and starts being a bother."

       "Should... Should I tell him?" I asked. "O-or... will he get mad?"

       "I don't know how he would react," Orchid told me honestly. "But you shouldn't feel obligated to tell him just because he's getting suspicious that you're hiding something. You should tell him on your own time."

       "That's going to be kind of hard if he tries to figure it out..."

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i love this au version of jerome and nolan so much <3 

also orchid is sister goals thank you for coming to my ted talk.

also no spoilers or anything but things are going to get a bit dramatic soon...