It All Started With A Lie

{9}

"Oliver Twist," he whispered. I turned to him expectantly. "I don't have the book," he said while everyone shuffled around, talking while grabbing their copies. 

"Why?" I asked, grabbing it out of my bag. 

"What do you mean, 'why?' I just don't have it." 

"You've lost it, haven't you?" I asked. 

"Maybe, but I don't have it," he clicked his tongue. 

"Then share with Ms. Carrington, Mr. Archer, or since you two don't quite get along, please find someone else to share with," Mr. Callum said while turning on the projector. 

"Why don't we get along, Mr. Callum?" he asked, putting an arm behind my chair. I stared at him while he faced Mr. Callum. He turned to me, threw me a wink, and looked back to the front. 

"Do you, Mr. Archer?" our teacher asked, looking up at us. 

"We most certainly do, Mr. Callum, we get along really well," he answered. 

"Why don't you just show the class how well you two get along?" Justin scoffed, a few seats to Ethan's right. 

"I can do that," Ethan turned to me, smirking while leaning in. 

"Ethan!" Mr. Callum scolded, "Please, get yourself in check. If you do not have the copy, share it with Ms. Carrington and Justin, please. Keep your opinions to yourself, their relationship is nobody's business but theirs. Right, let's start reading then," Mr. Callum announced. 

I stared at Ethan in disbelief. "Were you just going to kiss... were you going to kiss me? I- in front of everyone?" I stammered. 

"If we're dating, then I can kiss you in front of whomever I want, no?" he asked. 

"I-" I have nothing to say. 

Wow, he got you speechless. 

And that's a miracle considering my mouth never seems to stop moving and I've always got something to say. 

"It's saying things like that which get you speechless," he smirked. 

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes, opening the book. 

"Why? I can't kiss my girlfriend in class?" he chuckled, arching a brow at me sharply. I shook my head, focusing on the book in front of me. "Why, Olivia?" he asked, grabbing my chair and pulling it closer to his. "Why can't I kiss my girlfriend in front of whomever I want? If my girlfriend is mine and I can show her off, then why shouldn't I?" he smirked. 

"I didn't say that," I said, turning to him, realizing how close our faces were. 

"So..." he mumbled, his eyes flickering between my lips and eyes. "Can I kiss you?" he whispered. 

"Not in class," I whispered, pushing him back and looking down at the book. 

"Olivia Carrington, are you shy?" he teased, lowering his voice so nobody could hear while Mr. Callum started going through his presentation, introducing us to the book. 

"Ethan Miles Archer, will you shut up?" I chuckled. 

"No," he smirked, "He's watching," he whispered. 

"Well, you can't kiss me. PDA is against the class rules," I smirked back at him, raising my eyebrows, daring him to even try. He'd get in a lot of trouble. It's the one thing Mr. Callum doesn't tolerate. 

"Sure I can, who says I can't break the rules?" he asked while leaning in. I didn't bother pulling away until he got really close. I turned my head the other way, dodging the kiss, and kept my gaze to the front, causing his lips to land on my cheek. He sighed and pulled away, looking at me. "Was that necessary?" he asked. 

"Focus in class," I said, turning his head to the board while starting to make my notes. 

*＊✿❀○❀✿＊*

Lunch rolled around and out of the lessons so far, I've had three with Ethan, two with Sky, and none of them with his best friends. Currently, Sky and I are walking to the cafeteria from creative writing and Ethan is supposed to meet me there with his friends. 

Because in all the classes I have with him, I've been the one changing seats, he agreed to move to our table with his friends rather than making Sky and I move. 

Like every day, we grabbed our lunch and sat at our table. A couple of minutes later, the three remaining chairs screeched before two new faces, and Ethan's appeared next to mine, "Hi," he nodded, grinning at me, sending a nod to Sky. "Olivia, these are my friends," he said. 

"Daniel," the blond one said, sticking his hand out. 

"Hi," I smiled. 

"And I'm Austin," the other one did the same. The difference is, I know Austin. 

"Hello, Austin," I smiled. And I know Austin because Skylar used to have a crush on him. "It's nice to meet you guys, this is Skylar, my best friend," I said. She waved awkwardly, her eyes meeting mine. She might still like him, who knows? 

"You know, when Ethan told us he has a girlfriend, we really just thought he was messing with us," Daniel said. 

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Because Ethan doesn't normally settle, so you must have really caught his eye," Austin answered. 

"Did I? I don't know about that," I said, turning to Ethan. 

"Why don't you know about that? You did, I hated you, remember?" he asked. 

"Yeah, why did you hate her?" Austin asked. Everyone turned to Ethan. 

"I hated you because you caught my eye," he said, looking down at me. 

I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to figure out whether he was being serious or because we're in front of his friends. "I caught your eye in preschool?" I asked, just going along with it. 

"No, preschool I was just being petty," he shrugged, "I think around uh... late elementary maybe at the start of middle school," he answered. 

"Are you being serious?" I asked, genuinely curious. 

"I'm being dead serious," he nodded. I stared at him in shock while everyone fell into conversation. 

Since middle school?

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Chapter 9

AIGHT SO

The book is gonna go live on Amazon at the latest by tomorrow BUT BUT BUT

THERE'S A PROBLEM

I told ya'll that 10 people will get the book for free, UNFORTUNATELY, that may not be possible anymore.

BASICALLY

The shipping cost is a lot, especially internationally which is where most of you are and it would just take so much longer if I shipped it out on my own so I can't really do that anymore so I can really only ship it to people living within DELHI and that's really just a waste of time and money because it just adds more complications.

Therefore, I'll put up the link.

So sadly, you can't get a free copy but you can most certainly still order it on amazon which would also give you faster and safer delivery.