And here it is: Chapter VI. I hope you'll enjoy reading it. :)
Chapter VI
At first Jeremiah Valeska simply hadn't noticed the subtle changes in his best friend's body. He'd always been too focused on his school career and later his studies to become aware of the fact that Lynn had stopped being the ten- year- old girl he became friends with.
Which was why the dinner party his parents held to celebrate his graduation from university came as such a shock to him.
Whenever they met, she wore washed out jeans and oversized hoodies under whose hoods she liked to hide her long, light brown hair.
Now, though, seeing her dressed in an emerald green evening gown that hugged her body in all the right places made him suddenly very aware of the woman she had become.
He found it hard to breathe.
Had she always been so beautiful?
"Are you alright?", she asked as she sat next to him, bending forward a bit to pull her chair nearer to the table, and thus giving him a perfect view of her cleavage. His throat constricted, and his mind was flooded with an array of unwelcome thoughts...
"Jeremiah?"
"Yes,", he hastened to answer while his eyes landed on her lips. He promptly found himself trying very hard to stop thinking of how kissable her full lips looked. "I'm alright. I... I just... can't hold my liquor, I think.", he stuttered like an idiot. This lie for sure didn't go as smoothly as he'd intended. Jeremiah flinched.
"You had one glass of champagne.", Lynn remarked nonplussed and blinked.
How long her lashes were... These big Bambi eyes.
Jeremiah shuddered and felt himself blushing instantly. Fortunately, he was spared an answer since dinner was served.
Dinner didn't give him the peace he'd hoped for, though. It rather felt like he was swallowing rocks instead of a perfectly done steak. Sitting so close to her did things to him he hadn't thought to be possible. He tried to avoid looking at her which wasn't exactly easy as she expected him to engage in her conversation about school. Even focusing on her eyes, what he thought was a safe option to save him from any embarrassment, proved to be almost painful, for he feared to get lost in the whiskey-brown that was sprinkled with golden flecks.
His inner turmoil didn't go unnoticed for his foster mother addressed him worriedly during dessert.
"Xander, dear. You look like you're about to be sick. Do you need to lie down a bit?"
Grateful for the excuse to flee from Lynn's suffocating presence, he stood up abruptly, knocking his chair over in the process.
"Indeed I do, mother. Don't worry, though. I think I'll be okay soon enough. This day was a bit energy-sapping." He bent down to pick up his chair.
"Do you want me to come with you?", Lynn piped up, rising from her seat, and bending down to help him. Looking up a bit, his eyes unintentionally landed on her snowy-white, full breasts again. Something stirred in his loins. Horrified Jeremiah tried to prevent what seemed to be almost inevitable.
"NO.", he practically yelled, making his parents wince with a start and the Parkers gasp.
"No.", he repeated more softly this time.
By now Jeremiah was sweating profusely, hoping beyond hope that he would make it out of this situation without losing his face in front of his foster and his best friend's parents.
"I wouldn't want you to see me sick over the toilet, Lynn. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. Now, if you are willing to excuse me, I'll return the moment I feel better. Don't let my absence spoil the festivities."
He turned on his heels and walked out of the dining room as fast as he could.
"Poor boy.", Jeremiah heard his foster mother sigh behind him.
"I'm sure it was that damn cake they served after the graduation ceremony. I should have told him not to eat so much of it."
He closed his eyes and wiped the sweat off his brows. Cake had nothing to do with his predicament.
Jeremiah stayed in his bedroom for the rest of the evening. He just wasn't ready to face Lynn again. What had happened? Why did his body find it necessary to react to her in the most unwelcome way he could think of? Why now, after years of friendship? He curled up in a fetal position and bit his lips. He had always liked Lynn. She was his best friend, the only person he could confide in. The only person he truly cared about, but he had never before felt the urge to kiss her ruby red lips or to bury his face in the crook of her neck just to inhale her scent.
These new thoughts made him sick, and he knew with the distinct feeling of utter dread that things had just started to become complicated. How was he supposed to behave inconspiciuously around her while he was busy fighting against his urges at the same time?
For god's sake, sex had never once been on his mind. He knew how it was done, having had the misfortune to walk in on his mother's bedroom one too many times as a child, but he had never felt the need for it. So how was it that just the thought of her made his penis twitch with anticipation?
He couldn't fathom what had happened in what felt like a matter of seconds. One moment his world had been okay, the next it had been turned upside-down. It was surreal, and he was struggling to process what had changed. God, he couldn't think straight, and that was something he absolutely hated, for he was nothing if his brain ceased to work the way it was supposed to!
He heard the door open and hastily closed his eyes, pretending to be fast asleep. As he inhaled, he could smell Lynn's perfume. His stomach dropped.
He heard her chuckle and the floor boards creak as she walked over to him.
"Fallen asleep with your glasses still on? You must have been really exhausted."
The mattress sank a bit under her weight as she sat down next to him and took his glasses off, placing them carefully on his nightstand.
"Sleep well, my little scholar. I'll see you in a month.", Jeremiah heard her whisper lovingly. Then she kissed his cheek, and he momentarily forgot how to breathe.
Lynn got up, walked towards the door and exited his room. Jeremiah drew a deep, albeit shuddering breath.
His heart felt ready to break through his ribcage as he got a sinking feeling...
*
"What a brilliant movie! God, I loved the hero. He was so sweet and handsome, and strong and..."
"... and you are infatuated with a fictional character.", Matt interrupted his sister with a grin.
Lynn chuckled.
"Says the boy who had been madly in love with Lara Croft when he was younger.", Sarah retorted teasingly.
"Anyways, I need to go to the bathroom. You two can go ahead. I'll meet you outside."
She turned on her heels and walked away.
Lynn snorted and went towards the staircase that led to the lower level.
On their way to the cinema's entrance Matt suddenly held her back.
Confused she turned to look at his face.
„"Is something wrong?", she asked a bit concerned. Her best friend's brother looked quite pale.
"I think we should talk.", he began all of a sudden.
Lynn stared at him, taken aback. She felt her heartbeat quicken.
"About what?", she wispered.
Matt raked his fingers through his hair.
"For months now I've tried to tell you, but I either ended up losing my courage or got interrupted. If I don't do this now, I might never get another chance, so please just hear me out."
He took a deep breath. Then he continued.
"Lynn, I... I think I've fallen in love with you and I just... just want to know what... uhm..."
He stopped, lost for words.
Lynn blinked. Then she did the only thing her addled brain had been able to suggest as a proper reaction to his words. She closed the space between them and kissed him.
"Finally!"
Startled they pulled away and turned their heads to stare at a beaming Sarah.
"You don't know how annoying it was to watch you two dancing around each other.", she said as she approached them.
"No snogging in the car, though. I don't want to vomit all over the steering wheel."
She wagged her finger at them.
Matt was the first to regain his composure.
"Alright, dearest sister. We'll make sure not to disgust you.", he laughed.
Lynn looked at her feet, sheepishly.
Her best friend had known all along? For how long?
God, how embarrassing!
*
"Soo, would you like to meet tomorrow at nine? We could have a pick nick in the park."
Matt looked at her expectantly, and Lynn couldn't help but smile. They stood in front of her house while Sarah was waiting for her brother in the car.
"Of course. I love the idea. I'll meet you at your place."
Matt sighed in relief.
He gingerly bent forward to kiss her once again and she all but melt into his hands. Damn, that man could kiss.
"Matt, come on. We are already late for supper, and you know how much mum values punctuality. You can snog her to death tomorrow."
Sarah urged her brother through the open car window.
Matt reluctantly pulled away.
"Tomorrow's so far away.", he pouted adoringly causing Lynn to giggle like a little schoolgirl.
Then he gave her one last, short kiss and turned towards Sarah's car.
"Sleep well, my princess.", he said, got into the passenger seat and waved goodbye.
Lynn saw Sarah roll her eyes in fake annoyance. Then her best friend started the engine and drove away.
Lynn shook her head in bewilderment.
Matt and her... It had finally come true.
Smiling brightly she opened the front door and stepped inside only to be greeted with the ashen faces of her parents.
Fear crept up her spine in an instant, extinguishing all thoughts of happiness.
"What happened?", she croaked, already dreading the answer.
Her mother was the first to answer.
"Anne called. It's Xander... He lost consciousness while taking a bath."
The words reached her ears, crawled into her mind and shattered her little, cheerful world with undreamt cruelty.
"No... please, Mum, please don't say that...that..."
She couldn't say what was on her mind. She couldn't say it. Saying it might have made it true. And it couldn't be. It just couldn't be. He couldn't be gone... Not him, not Jeremiah.
"They had to reanimate him. He's in the ICU."