CHAPTER 28
NEVER KISS AND TELL
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"Its...its... awesome." I nodded and chirped, trying not look thrown or anything.
I was able to make my voice sound normal but not my face look normal. I knew the look on my face was so stupid. I hurriedly put the notebook in my bag and I shoved the pencil inside my bag. I stood up pushing the chair behind but not enough for me to move away and that made me stamp on my raincoat, which I held so low and I stumbled. He stood up and in one swift movement with pushing the chairs aside, he caught me from hitting my head in the cupboard door which I obviously hadn't closed in curiosity. Well, that must be how the curiosity killed the cat. I wouldn't have got injured if I had hit on the cupboard door but the door wouldn't have held me; eventually would have let me fall on my back. He held me with his hand behind my back and I dropped my bag from my hand as his movement was too swift for me to handle. He raised his free hand above my head to shut the swinging cupboard door behind me.
"Did you really write that for me?" I was still in denial.
He nodded his head in short pulses. "Margo Fawn, I like you. Abysmally." His voice was breathy and throaty, which was a tone I had never heard from him. "And I know you like me too."
"No... I don't." I lied deliberately to see if he had any proof.
"Oh! Really? Why haven't you moved away then?"
"What?" I scoffed as if he was lying.
"If you don't like me, you would have punched me in the face now or would have used your pepper spray on me. If you don't like me, you wouldn't block my thoughts. You would just address those and move on. If you don't like me, you wouldn't react like you experienced a jolt of electricity every time I touch you accidentally."
I wondered how much in detail he had been noticing things about me. "How do you know I blocked thoughts about you?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. Verena Arevalo. That PSB; she told him about me.
"So, I am right?" He was too cocky... too brash. "You have been denying yourself that you don't like me." Beyond overconfident.
I gave him a stare and then looked away from him. He caught me in a lie there. "More like I was blocking your thoughts not to get confused."
"Are you confused now?" He slightly frowned; mischievous.
"Maybe," I muttered, bravely and looked into his eyes.
"Am I confusing you now?" he asked again with that brash smile growing.
"Am I confusing you now?" I think I tried to mock him.
"Margo, you have no idea."
I tried looking for a way out because I was still in denial and I couldn't handle the intensity. He stole the last centimeter between us. This time he was closer to me than usual. One hand was still holding me and I felt his breath as a feather over me. He took his time in removing his hand from my back but he didn't move back and I didn't move either. I realized I was caught in a small space between him in the front - a cupboard behind my back, wall on my left and chairs on my right. Well, now I understood why he told me I looked like I appeared out of a book. He tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, sending jolts of goosebumps around my ears which followed down my neck and nape. He brought his hands to my flushed cheeks cupping it. I was too caught up in the moment... maybe more preoccupied with how he moved toward me leaning his tall body in to reach my cheeks... my lips. His lips brushed me slowly and maybe I shivered a little but most of me was frozen by his smell, his chiseled jaw, his beautiful lips and his strong hands were weak over my cheeks. I never realized his eyes were the same color as mine. Brown. He kissed me. Slow and steady but it brought my heart to a burning race. Though my palms rolled into fist, my lips did it all. My eyes were shut but I felt his lips getting sweeter by parting mine more with every movement and for a moment everything got fierce and then he pulled away. Like totally away. I still stood there gasping with tons of thoughts in my head but nothing was too important than knowing why he had pulled away.
"I am sorry," he muttered. He was puffing as much as I was. "I am sorry," he said again.
"Why?" I asked, puzzled. I took a step forward to him and he took a step backward.
"I kind of lost myself there." He pointed to his cupboard and shrugged. "I am sorry, if I have offended you. I've liked you for so long now. I've wanted to kiss you for some time now," he dragged, still slightly out of breath.
"Then do it...," I said; still out of breath more than he was. I said with a new found confidence and wanting more of him
He still had that frown in his face but he shot right back to me. This time quicker than last time that he moved me back to the cupboard with one hand around my waist. His free fingers traced my hands and then roamed along my torso; making me ticklish, making me gasp more. His fingers ended up holding my whole face, jaw and even slightly my neck. He had to lean down on me so much but he was skilled enough not to put his weight on me. We were eating away each other's emotions, the raw passion and maybe even breathed each other's breaths and still wanted more of each other. I wrapped my hands around his nape and weaved my fingers into his hair. This time I sealed the gap between us by putting my body over him. Like that wasn't enough, he pulled me tighter by my waist with a throaty sound and oh God! I realized I've never been kissed like that before. I had butterflies in my gut and his fingers had the power to make me lose my mind.
My phone rang at a very bad time and he still didn't let go off me. Actually, I didn't want him to let go of me. Again, my phone rang and I just didn't care. I was too dissolved in the kiss that I wanted to reach saturation and beyond that. Well, his phone rang and that's when I came to my senses and I took my lips from his. I laughed. He chuckled.
"We should stop." I giggled. He gave me a peck on my cheek and I loved it. "Pick your phone. It's probably Irsia."
Picking his phone on the bed, he sat. I mouthed him the words 'tell her I am in the restroom' and so he did. As he put the phone down, he still had that stupid grin on his face.
"What?" I asked, noticing my pink lip stain over his chin and lips and his hair messed up. I laughed seeing that.
"What is it?"
"You have my lip stain on your chin and on your lips and your hair." I giggled. "Messy."
"You have it all smudged over your lips too. Wipe it off. By the way, what was the flavor? I liked it but I would love to know the taste of your real lips."
"Don't get too cocky," I said and I started packing my things. But I loved him being brash. "I still have a lot of questions to ask you." I wiped off the lip stain and I raised and dropped my eyebrows - asking if it looked okay now. He gave a nod in assurance.
"Then stay...," he pleaded.
"Nooooo...." I dragged. "If I don't go now, my mom would call me next. I'll try to come over tomorrow," I said, grinning.
"Okay..." He was brooding.
I walked up to him and gave him a peck on his cheek that smelled so good and he smiled. A genuine; soft smile. "There is the Aiden Wilder I like." I admitted aloud for the first time.
Waving him bye, I left his home and I walked toward Irsia's. I tried and succeeded in wiping the stupid grin on my face. As I entered her room, I saw Elec lying on her stomach with Irsia's laptop on the bed. It seemed that they had finished the essays. Elec was scrolling through the screen, checking if there were any mistakes. I would never know how they pull it off. They made me feel like I'm very slow; like I'm a tortoise.
"What happened to your lip stain?" Irsia asked, examining me. Elec flipped straight and looked at me with a quarter stare.
"What do you mean?" I got a little nervous and looked into the mirror. There was no trace of lip stain on my lips.
"I have never seen your lip stain smudged or faded and today there is not a tint of it on your lips," Elec was slitty eyeing at me.
I was shocked to hear her say that. The tone of her voice scared me. It was as if she was threatening me to get the truth from my own mouth and also, I knew she would hate the truth.
"Oh... Aiden gave me some chocolate chip cookies his mom baked. I ate those. It was sooooo good," I paused to click my tongue to add more essence to the lie. "It must have faded when I ate those cookies."
Elec still wasn't convinced. Irsia stirred the flame more. "But you are always careful while eating."
"Umm. Yeah. Maybe I lost focus today. It tasted really good."
"But you don't like chocolate..." Elec connotated.
Before I could answer anything, Irsia said, "his mom isn't home. She has gone to see her daughter in Ironwyn."
"The cookies were baked before she left," I declared in a firm voice. I was so annoyed by their questions. "Did you finish both the essays?" I asked, trying to get off that subject.
"Yeah... did you?" asked Elec; still with that accusatory look on her face.
"No... we both completed one essay. For the other one, we just wrote down the hints. It was me who wanted to make the essay perfect and we typed and retyped and wasted time," I explained too much.
"When are you planning to complete that?" Elec still didn't remove that look. If looks could grow, then this was it.
"Tomorrow. Are we going home now?"
"Yeah... we should." She got up and it dawned on me that the window was open. Despite the advice of Verena, Irsia had her window open.
"Irsia, why is your window open?" I pointed out.
"Oh! I shut it in the evening. It gets too stuffy here."
We looked through the window at the same time. I knew we all felt the same eerie feeling wash over us with that frigid breeze that came out of nowhere; given the fact that the weather wasn't supposed to be cold.
The car was overflowing with silence the entire drive home. Elec kind of knew what was going on but I just wasn't ready to tell her yet. Irsia was cool with everything. She wasn't angry or anything. Then again, her curiosity at things could be very inconvenient. Elec drove with a look, which was a conglomeration of confusion, anger, concern and something else I couldn't decipher. I didn't know what would calm her. Truth wouldn't calm her down and lies weren't doing any good too. I huffed and she sighed. When we reached her home, I couldn't contain it anymore.
"Elec, what is it?" I asked as I got out of the car.
"Nothing." She finally looked at me, "I am just..." She took a deep breath, "I feel like I am big sistering you," she said, walking from the other side of the car to the porch.
"No, you are not." I laughed, giving her a hug. "Do you want to go get a new phone number this evening?" I asked, letting go off her.
"I am going to my uncle's this evening," she said, pinching her forehead - meaning she was tired.
As I reached my home, I realized that Aiden and I had a lot to talk about but just not over phone. First, we needed a discussion about how to hide it from our friends - at least for a while. I napped briefly. That evening, Aiden called me. I said hello with an involuntary smile. His hello wasn't like the usual one. I sensed an agitation behind his voice.
"What is it?" I asked, sitting up. My legs were still under the blanket. It was suddenly cold outside from late afternoon.
"Where are you?" Again, with an agitated tone.
"I am home. I was sleeping. Is everything alright?"
"Verena is here. She says she needs to talk to you."
"About what?" Now I had an agitation in my voice with something building up from my stomach till my throat. Nothing that involved Verena so far had been any good.
"The ghost... she says it's not there in Auroville Villa anymore. She says you might be in danger."
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