The Eccedentesiast

Chapter Five

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Chapter Five
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"You know what I love about you?" Shawn turned his head for a second to look at Emma as he was only driving with one hand, the other was rubbing circles on her inner thigh.

"What?" She turned her head to look at him and smiled.

"That you're alive." Shawn grinned and turned to her once more, before yet again looking back at the road.

"Really?" Emma laughed lightly. "How is that something to like?" she asked.

"Well . . ." he paused, raising his hands further up her thigh, ". . . you see, if you were just existing, there wouldn't be that amazing and weird personality inside you." His grin widened.

Emma slapped her hand over her chest, "I'm hurt. You think I'm weird?"

"Extremely." Shawn stopped the car at the stop sign. He leaned over the middle compartment and stroked her cheek after slowly tracing it up her body. "It's just what makes you . . . my Emma."

Emma's breath hitched as he leaned in a little more. She could smell the minty toothpaste he used this morning and the lingering scent of coffee. It was barely raining while small drops of water fell from the sky and tapped the windows. Closing their eyes, they trapped themselves in a bubble with pattering rain and their heavy breaths that mixed in together.

Shawn pressed his forehead to hers and took in a deep breath. He wanted to say something—anything. He wanted to say what he was thinking; he was thinking about her. Just her.

He turned his head and kissed her. It was soft, gentle—like he was a gentleman with roses and a strong cologne loitering around him. As weird as it sounded in his head—he wanted her to feel okay about this. Not a random girl at school or one in the hundreds of girls he might have kissed before her. He needed her to know she was important to him.

Emma pulled away, looked up to only find his eyelids, and nearly sighed in disappointment. She almost voiced her thoughts aloud in a single breath—an exasperated exhale of disappointment.

When he opened them, they looked at each other in some way. Shawn couldn't hold in the wide smirk that he wanted her to see. He felt like such a boy.

"What?" she asked him, smiling for him.

"Nothing." He smirked as he turned back to the road and continued driving. "Nothing," he repeated.

"Oookay?"

"Okay."

𖨆

"Hello." Emma and Shawn joined her friends.

"Well, hello there." Connor smiled at both of them as he had his hands buried deep in his front pockets.

"Oh. Emma, finally." Daniel hopped over to Emma in his black converse and took both her hands in his. "We're skipping school and you have no say in this."

"What. Really?" She laughed for a moment.

"Mm-hmm. Shawn. You're coming with us." He pointed at him. "You, too, have no say in this."

He laughed. "Whatever you say."

"Perfect." Daniel let go of Emma's hands and opened his locker to take out a book. "Come." He waved for them all to follow him.

"Where are we going?" Emma asked him while she held onto the strings of his backpack to keep up with him while they snaked through the hallways packed with students.

"The only door in school that isn't guarded by teachers is in the library. Every other time we've skipped school we've gone out the main entrance. Evan showed me this." Daniel looked back at them and smiled. "We won't get caught if we go this way."