As if avoiding him wasn't already hard enough. Wren decided to show up to school the next day. And to make it even worse, our lockers were only a few feet away from one another.
"Pennie." His voice made my heart feel funny. It was that stupid feeling again.
"Wren." I put my books in my locker, avoiding meeting his eyes. Or looking over at him.
"Pennie, look, I'm sor-" He walked closer to me but before he could finish, I cut him off.
"I get it, Wren." I sighed, still not meeting his gaze. "You hate me. I get it, I will stay far away from you. Whatever I did, I'm sorry."
With that, I walked away. Not wanting him to see how much those words took out of me. I hated that he affected me this much. I hated that I somehow, somewhere fell for him.
***
After hours of studying and trying to catch up, my stomach growled. I made my way down to the kitchen as I realized the kitchen staff probably left since it was nearly 11 PM, which meant I was on my own for dinner.
Opening all the cabins, I finally found a good size pan to fry the eggs with and pour some oil onto it while turning on the stove. Everything here although looks different than the things we used at the Orphanage, the way to use them is still similar.
I think I used too much oil because as soon as I crack the eggs open and pour them onto the pan, the oil starts to sizzle up and jump onto my arm, making me yelp. I hold on to my now burnt lower arm and try to turn off the fire without getting any oil on my other arm.
"Here, I got it," Wren appears out of nowhere and runs over to turn the fire off, "What did you do?!"
Great, just great. So much for trying to avoid you...
"I-" I start to explain myself but shut up as soon as Wren touches my burnt arm and lifts it up to his eyes as he starts to examine the burnt spot.
"You got burnt pretty bad here but no bubbles, so I think it's not that bad," He looks at my burnt spot intensely before grabbing my lower arm and drag me over to the sink.
"What ar-" I yelp out in pain again as he turns on the water and puts my arm under it but I stop as it starts to feel nice under the cold water of the sink.
"Why are you so careless..." His calm and soothing voice sends chills down my neck, "Pennie..."
"I got hungry..." I frown, still trying to avoid looking up at him, afraid of what feelings I'd get from it.
"You should have called for Anne..." He whispers as he inches closer to me, so close that I could feel his breathe on my neck, "You dumb bell."
I frown again as he insults me, of course, of course he would. Typical, typical Wren and Pennie moment. Really, this is nothing new.
"Thanks," I mutter back at him, "I know I'm dumb."
"Well, why else would you burn yourself from making eggs..." He chuckles a bit, "Dumb bell."
He turns off the sink water and leaves my arm on the counter before walking to the cabin and pull out a new roll of napkins. He dabs the napkins on my arms and starts to dab carefully as he reaches the bright red spot on my lower arm that seems to have skin peeling off of it.
"Thank you," I whisper, staring at his face from above and realizing how fast my heart is beating. My heart is thumping so loud and so fast that I actually am worrying about when it'd pop right out of my chest.
He looks up at me and our eyes meet; it feels strange yet so comforting. This is what I meant... His eyes are so captivating that I can't seem to take my eyes off of them no matter how hard I try.
"Pennie..." He whispers as he stands up and becomes a head taller than I am, "I don't think my plan is working out very well... It's actually starting to backfire..."
"What plan..." I whisper back at him, finding it impossible to look away from his gorgeous brown eyes.
"My plan to make you hate me, Pennie..." He sighs and looks away, "It's not working out so well for me after all..."
"I don't get it..." I mummer, re-playing his words in my head, not sure if I heard any of them correctly, "For me to hate you...?"
"Do you want to go somewhere with me...?" He turns around and asks, looking straight into my eyes as I find myself falling deeper and deeper into his.
"Sure..." I whisper an answer and follow him out to the garden.
As we walk the familiar path to the playground, Wren turns to the right and heads down a path I don't seem to recognize. As we walk deeper into the garden, the lights from my main path dims out behind us, making the place almost pitch dark, but there's still light coming from tiny electric lanterns hung on big flower bushes. Even though my instincts tell me to run back inside where it seems safe, my heart allows me to follow Wren, to wherever he's taking me.
We make another turn from the main cemented path before I see a hidden tree house. If people pass by this place, they would never have noticed the tree house because it's hidden behind the big trees with humongous leaves that allow it to have a safe hide out.
Wren guides me over to the hidden tree house and takes my hand and help me climb up the tiny wooden steps that have been built into the body of the huge tree. My body shivers from the tingly sensation I'm feeling inside as I realize my hand is safely inside of Wren's.
As soon as we reach the top, Wren turns on his phone for light and flashes it around, searching for something. It's completely dark up here because the garden's lights can't quite reach this high, I believe.
The place suddenly lights up and I realize it's coming from the two strings of Christmas lights that are pinned to the walls. I let out a tiny gasp as I look around in amaze over how perfect this place is.
Bean bag chairs are all over the ground and to the right is a fair size wooden desk with a pile of paper on top. The walls are decorated with leaves, dried flowers and a few drawings that I can't seem to make out because the lighting is just too dark but they don't seem to be just silly doodles.
"This place... It's... It's so perfect..." I gasp again and take in the warm and cozy atmosphere of this wooden tree house that could fit maybe up to ten people.
"It's my secret hide out," Wren smiles as he sits down on one of the bean bag chairs and nods at the one next to him, telling me to sit with him.
"Did you build it?" I settle down on the orange bean chair next to Wren's black one," It's pretty impressive."
"It's creepy to say but I just found it when I was still a naughty nine year-old kid that kicked the soccer ball too high," He smirks, "I just fixed and cleaned it up. I also installed the steps down there."
"That's still impressive." I smile, "Do you go out here often?"
"When I'm not feeling well," He sighs, "It's my little escape place that no one knows about, not even my siblings or Rosie."
"Why did you take me here?" I ask, "Now I know about your secret place..."
"You already intruded my precious library, so why not let you intrude this place?" He smiles at me, "You're a special guest."
"Boy do I feel honored," I giggle, "Thank you for showing me a secret part of you."
"I didn't choose to just show you, Pennie..." He whispers, "You made it appear..."
"What..." I whisper thinking I heard him incorrectly.
"You brought out this secret part of me that I have never shown anyone before..." He looks at me with serious yet soft eyes, "That's why I always try to push you away by trying to get you to hate me."
"But why..." I ask, "Why do you want me to hate you so badly..."
"Because I started to get these weird, anxious feelings whenever you were around," He looks away as he explains, "I didn't quite understand why myself... When I realized you could bring out this other side of me that people don't really know of, I started to try to get you to hate me. But it sort of... backfired on my butts..."
"Wren..." I whisper and try to restrain myself from reaching out to touch his perfect cheekbones.
"I started to become alert and aware of these strange feelings when you were near and realized I was..." He stops and looks into my eyes again, "That I was falling..."
My whole world seems to stop and everything stops spinning as I try to piece back together everything to what Wren just said. I probably look like a big idiot right now with my jaw dropped open and my eyes popped out but I don't care.
I feel like a big boulder just got lift off of my chest and I'm replaced with a familiar warm, tingly feeling I always get whenever Wren and I touch.
"I didn't mean anything I said," He sighs again, "I was forcing myself to stay away."
"Why..." I whisper, shifting my eyes away from his as I realize the pinch of hurt I got when he said the phrase, "to stay away".
"Because I was scared to let myself become attached to you..." He gets off his bean chair and kneels down in front of me, "I was scared you'd have to leave..."
I gasp again and my body stiffen because I obviously can't reply to what he said...
"Ever since your Mother passed away, I was always pushing people away and not letting anyone in because I was scared they'd end up leaving if I get too attached," He looks down at my lap, "It sounds strange but your Mother was like my biological mom... She loved me and took care of me when my Mother didn't..."
Acting on natural instincts, I push of the bean chair from underneath me and kneel down in front of Wren, pulling him into my arms and hug him as tight as I could.
"I would never leave you..." I feel as if my heart is taking over now, "Pinky swear."
His arms move up my back and he hugs me back tightly; resting his head on my shoulder like a little child looking for some comfort and love; although hardly audible, I swear I can hear him whispering, "I know."
"Wren... Don't you have a girlfriend..." I whisper the question as if it were a ghost's name, "That Ella person..."
"No, Pen. She's not my girlfriend," He answers, "She likes to believe she's my girlfriend, but she really isn't."
"I see..." I smile a bit at how relieved I feel hearing it from Wren, "I thought she wa-"
"Was what? My girlfriend?" He laughs, "Were you jealous?"
"I was not..." I frown, "Why would I be?"
"So now we're playing the lying game?" He chuckles, "Come on, Pen. I saw it in your eyes that day at Ocean Park. You were clearly upset."
"I was not!" I frown as I try to defend myself, "I was just irritated because of the heat that day!"
"Right, right," He rolls his eyes, "Whatever you say, Pen."
I punch the side of his chest lightly as I re-adjust the bean bag under my head. This is relaxing... The soft sound of the wind whistling by, the gradual sound of the crickets singing and the soft creaking noise of the wood underneath us each time Wren or I move.
But the most relaxing thing is lying next to Wren in this hidden tree house and talking about our past, our lives now and our next stops in the future.
"We have to go back soon before people notice we're missing," Wren says, "We'll walk back together but you'd have to walk in first and I'll follow after 10 minutes or so."
"Why do we have to sneak around like criminals?" I laugh, "Are we Bonnie and Clyde now or what?"
"Because if you remember, you're, although unofficially, engaged to my brother," Wren gets up and offers me his hand, "Bonnie and Clyde? That's admitting your feelings for me and your wanting to be my girlfriend, Pen."
I almost forgot the fact that I'm engaged to Colton, the older twin of the person I like. Coldon, who is also my closest guy friend, a best friend, even.
Pennie, oh Pennie, what are you doing...
"I didn't admit anything," I roll my eyes at him, trying to casually play the weariness off as I take his hand and help myself up, "Let's come back here again soon."
"Anytime you want, just give me a signal," He smiles, "How about touching the right cheek with the index finger?"
"And you do the same," I nod, "This place should be our escape... To talk when we don't feel so up and bouncy..."
Wren nods his head and smiles before lightly kicking the wooden door to open, making a soft creaking noise, gesturing me to come out first.
We quietly walk back to the mansion in silence and as we're about to part our ways at the back door, Wren takes my wrist with his hand and pulls me backward to face him, almost making me tremble to the ground because of his strong force.
"Wren!" I shout in a whisper, "I almost fell!"
"Sorry," He smiles, "I've been wanting to do this for awhile now..."
Before I could say anything, Wren cuffs my face with both of his warm, soft hands and his face inches closer to mine and I know what he's about to do. I have only seen scenes like this in movies Miss Ester used to watch every day... Now, it's happening to me... I don't feel like it's the same as it is in movies because at this moment, I don't think anyone could ever be able to describe how I feel inside or how Wren's lips taste like.
His lips were soft and sweet, but at the same time, the kiss was hungry and wanting, like we've been waiting for a long time to be able to be intact with each other like this. It feels like our lips just entwined together and I melt into him slowly every second.
"Wren..." I whisper in between our kiss and as our lips linger on each other afterward, "I'm falling..."
"Me, too, Pen..." He kisses me softly again, "Me, too..."