U N T O L D
T R U T H
chapter twenty two
I've felt my lungs struggle so hard for air that I feared I wouldn't be able to take another breath ever again. What I have never felt is my lungs claw for more oxygen as my body can't hold itself up and my eyes blur because they dart around rapidly- until now.
"That was only five laps, you can't all be tired yet." Kyle Reynolds says with his arms crossed as he leans against a tree. He only stands and times us small group of four people who have been running the most intense track I have experienced. Most of it is uphill on dirt between thick trees, and we're expected to run it at an unachievable time. We are only allowed to stop once we do the track in under a minute, and after five attempts we are nowhere near it. "Go again."
"I don't think we can do it again." Isaac- a track team members heaves out from his outstretched position on the dirt. Not one of is is standing. I had crumbled to my knees with my hands on the ground in front of me as I try to get my steady breathing back.
"You can. Up, and do it again. If you all do it for longer than two minutes you all get extended PDHPE homework." Kyle threatens, saying it with a smile on his face.
I can't help but feel like this is my fault for managing to burst his anger. Not only am I suffering the consequences, so is Isaac, Harold, and Liam Fields.
"What the hell man." Harold, who plays elite baseball outside of school mutters under his breath as he pushes himself up off the ground and stands at the starting point. The rest of us follow, and I can everyone struggle to walk the same way I do. My legs feel weak enough to not be capable of carrying my body weight.
"Go!" We all start running the familiar uphill track with fragile legs and heavy chests. I know I shouldn't push myself to go hard enough to beat the time, but I feel the urge to not lose to Kyle's attempt of punishment.
I finish before the three boys do, and I crumble back down on my knees. My face is burning and my chest feels as if it is ready to explode at any moment.
"One minute and fifty seven seconds. Close." Kyle reads off his watch when the other boys slump to the ground. He has cracked us all. "Since Violet seems to be coming first every time, if she can run the track in under a minute you all can go back down the park. If she takes longer than a minute, you all get after school detention tomorrow."
My head perks up at the challenge, leaving everyone's punishment in my hands. If I don't run it fast enough, the boys would all be mad at me. I would feel guilty. I already do feel guilty about this all. "What? How is that even fair?" I pant out between breaths.
"You have one minute." He ignores what I had said and starts to set the time on his watch. My teeth grit together as I force myself to push past the pain of every bone in my body aching. I just manage to stand up and position myself in front of the starting point.
"Don't fuck it up." I hear Harold whisper.
"Go!" Kyle yells.
My body begs me to stop and give up. I want to give up. I feel dizzy from pushing myself to do more than my body can cope with. But I ignore it. I run as fast as I can to avoid more hateful glares being sent my way.
I finally make it back to the starting point after what felt like an eternity. My legs jolt forward and let my knees dig into the dirt as the rest of my body presses down into it so I can rest my whole body.
"One minute and eight seconds." My eyes squeeze shut with frustration. "See you all in detention tomorrow at three." Harold's familiar deep groan rattles its way through me. "Now let's all go so we don't miss the bus back."
I roll on my back with a struggle, watching Kyle leave the area with Harold and Liam stumbling behind him. I can already feel it within myself that I don't have the energy to get up and breathe steadily.
A hand stretches out over me. "Here." Isaac McGregor offers to help me up. "I'm not an asshole, Violet." He says after I hesitate taking his help.
I slowly take a grasp of his hand and try my hardest to get my body to stand up. I had thought he would pull his hand away at the last moment and walk away with a laugh. He didn't.
"Thanks." I squeeze out once I was back up on my feet. He says nothing more, all he does is offer a small smile before he turns around and walks back down the track and out of the trees to where the park is.
I have always felt as if the whole school have their backs to me after Sebastian. I tell myself that the students either hate me, or are scared of me. I believe they blame me. Although, I start to realise not everyone is evil.
Not everyone puts me at fault or treats me like it. Maybe it's not them, and it's me acting as if I do have everything to hide. The more I believe it's my fault, the more everyone else does too.
My legs struggle to walk down the track, every step feels harder to take. I can't wait to be able to sit on the bus to let my legs rest and drink water. This track has made me start to hold hate towards running, which has been something I've enjoyed all my life. I've never felt more physically weak and exhausted in my life.
Once I step out of the tree line I see most of the students already huddled in front of both Kyle Reynolds and Mrs Lancaster. There is a few other students still trying to pack their bag as they stumble over to the group.
I try and spot my friends from a distance as I slowly take more pained steps. With every movement, I can feel my legs trying their hardest to support my body weight. "Is Darien Kummings here?" Mrs Lancaster seems to be marking a roll call as she stands on her tiptoes to find the students.
"How'd track go?" Dianna turns her head around to me once I found my friends and slump beside them. "You're covered in dirt." She laughs with her brows drawn in curiously.
"Did you all roll around on the ground or something like that? Everyone from your group is covered in dirt too." Camila says as she looks at my tights and sport shirt.
I glance down to see a thin layer of dust and dirt covering my tights and arms. "It went terrible." I pant out and notice Flynn has a hold of my bag. I move from being beside Dianna and squeeze myself between Camila and Flynn, taking my bag from him and sitting on the ground so my legs can rest and I can find my water bottle easily.
I still haven't managed to catch my breath from the intense track we were forced to endure. Even after drinking the remaining contents from my water bottle, I still ache for more water and air.
"I wouldn't sit down, everyone is starting to walk to the bus." Camila says and I glance at the crowd in front of us that slowly deteriorates when students hike out of the park and towards the bus.
I groan and shove my empty bottle into my bag. "My legs are killing me, I don't think I can even get back up one more time." I complain, watching the other three boys who did track stagger behind everyone.
Flynn holds both his hands down towards me and my fingers curl around his hands as I use my left over strength in my arms to stand up. I sling my bag on and start slowly walking towards to the bus, feeling my knees begging to buckle underneath me but I push through it.
Flynn hasn't said anything. He wouldn't let me get out of the car when he stopped at the supermarket after school. We are suppose to be going to bowling and ice-cream this afternoon, it is something I have been looking forward to.
He parks his car in the driveway of his house, grabbing the few shopping bags and getting out of the car as I follow. "Aren't we going bowling?" I ask the question I've been thinking about.
Flynn unlocks the front door, using his foot to kick the door open as he walks in and dumps the bags on the kitchen island. "We were until you tripped going up the bus stairs and fell asleep several times in last period."
I sit on one of the kitchen stools on the opposite side of the bench to Flynn. "I still would of been fine to go out." I say as I drop my bag beside me and Flynn puts away the food he had bought.
"No, you still look tired as anything." He closes the fridge and walks around the kitchen island to me. "But, I'm not going to let Kyle Reynolds ruin what we had planned as our first date. So I got all the ingredients we need to make our own flavoured homemade ice cream, and we can play board games, or watch tv, anything you want to do."
I submerge into a pool of feelings- both nervous and warm ones. I like his change of plans, although my body isn't as exhausted as it was after sport, so I could of handled going out, but I do prefer staying in more.
"Is mango one of the flavours?" I question, testing his memory to know my favourite ice cream flavour. He stands in front of me, reaching out and curling his fingers around the sides of my jeans.
"Of course." His infectious smile spreads across his face, making my own lips curl upwards. I loop my arms around the back of his neck and straighten my back so I don't appear as short sitting on the stool.
Human touch for a long time was something I learnt not to like. Although Flynn's touch is different, I don't hate it, instead I tend to want more of it.
I press my lips to his, fulfilling the urge I had swimming around within the pit of my stomach. Even after knowing him for less than a few months, I have become so familiar with these feelings of want and warm nerves.
I stand off the kitchen stool, letting my feet hit the ground so my back isn't strained from trying to lean to his height. Flynn kisses me back as his fingers dig into my hips, which forces myself not to smile against his lips.
Between the ages fourteen to seventeen, I would make out with random boys at a party that I snuck out to go to. I never did it because I wanted to, I did it because I was bored.
It has never felt as good as it does now where I want to with someone I care about. I feel my lower back hit the side of the kitchen island and I arch into Flynn, both to avoid the edge digging into my spine and because I want to feel completely flush against him.
My fingers glide to the back of his head, twisting amongst his brown locks when I feel his hands move upwards to press against the middle of my back. A sound of approval bubbles from Flynn's throat which erupts a sudden swirling in my stomach.
His lips make my already closed eyes want to roll into the back of my head as he continues to kiss me back greedily. I melt into his touch, shivering slightly when his teeth nibbles on my bottom lip as a silent plea for my lips to separate.
My fiddling fingers that are buried in Flynn's hair become more agitated as I give into his request, feeling explosions of butterflies within me after I feel his tongue push itself through my now parted lips.
I hear a sound of metals clinging together, reminding me of keys chiming as the sound of the front door clicking open. Flynn hears it too which is why a wedge of air comes between us after separating.
No words are muttered between us, I don't think either of us can. Flynn appears less flustered compared to what I feel, but there is a visible blanket of dazed emotions.
A tired groan comes from the hall followed with a heavy thud. Dianna trudges into the kitchen with sagged shoulders. She walks straight to the fridge, pulling it open and taking out a bottle of water before she finally turns around and looks at Flynn and I.
I look down at the kitchen island and quickly take a seat back on a stool, whereas Flynn lingers closely beside me, some sort of unspoken tension between us.
"I should of realised staying behind school for volleyball was a stupid idea, especially after sport this morning." She let's out a long breath, and when I look back up most of the contents in the water bottle has been drunk. She suddenly frowns. "Aren't you two suppose to be out?"
Beneath the bench that divides us from Dianna, Flynn's hand rests itself on my lower back. The pads of his fingertips draw tingling patterns above the top of my jeans where my shirt leaves a gap of bare skin as it doesn't quite reach.
I bite down on the inside of my cheek and stare directly at Dianna so my mind can't wander. "Yeah we were." Flynn answers his sister with a small smirk plastered to his face that he obviously tries to force away. "But I didn't know that the excursion today wouldn't leave us with enough energy to go out, so we bought our plans back here."
I lean forward to press my elbows onto the marble island and rest my face in my hands. "Fair enough." Dianna tucks her hair behind her ears and puts her water bottle back in the fridge. "I'll be in my room, probably asleep, but if you're doing anything interesting I don't want to be left out."
Flynn chuckles at his sister when she yawns and let's her shoulders slump again as she drags her feet out of the kitchen. "She can be so elegant at times, can't she?"
He takes his hand off my bare skin, acting as if he hadn't been trying to make the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I feel them calm, reminding me that he had managed to make them stand.
"She's just doing what any teenage girl would be doing if they can." I watch Flynn go to the other side of the island, taking items out of the shopping bag and scattering them around. He moves around with ease, the corners of his lips curled upwards as his eyes focus on the ingredients he sets out.
His eyes flick up to me. "So you don't want to make ice cream?" He asks with amusement laced through his words.
I shake my head and slide off the stool. "No, no. I want to make ice cream." I follow Flynn to the other side of the bench and smile up at him. "What's the first step?"
He chuckles and opens a cupboard below the counter to pull out an electric mixer. "Well, the first step is to whip all the cream, and the machine does that for us, so all you have to do is stand there and look pretty."
The smile he throws over his shoulder flashes all of his confidence in showing his sudden need to act flirtatious. The tightness in my chest is my way of my body telling me that I like his small compliments and actions.
As much as I like it, I don't act all sappy and shy. I don't like being seen as a vulnerable person, although Flynn is starting to chip away that barrier. I can't help but smile and let a small chuckle push past my lips.
He turns back to the mixer, undoubtedly feeling my eyes on his back as I watch his every movement. The cream is placed in the bowl and Flynn switches it on to it's correct speed. "Easy peasy." He dusts his hands together and eyes the machine. "Now we wait a few minutes for it form soft peaks, then we add more ingredients."
He turns away from the buzzing mixer, taking the condensed milk and placing the tin because the mixer. "You didn't tell me what happened at the sport excursion this morning with Kyle." Flynn asks whilst he moves towards me, leaning his side on the bench.
The front of his jumper tickles the bare skin of my arm, reminding me of how close he stands. I hadn't thought about this mornings dramas at all. I had pushed them to the box in the back of my mind where I stuff as many thoughts and memories into.
It's a different box to where I leave my thoughts of things alike the night Sebastian had been killed, and the night I had barely scraped dying. The box holding this morning are filled with events that i tend not to think about them so rethinking them can't drown me in feelings I don't want.
"On the track course?" I double check he is asking about after I had to separate from my friends to run so much that my legs could barely hold me. He nods. "He made us run a track that was uphill a ridiculous amount of times, and we couldn't stop until we had gotten it down to the time he wanted. Then the last lap he made me run in a certain time otherwise we would all get detention."
"How did that go?" Flynn asks with his eyebrows pulled down.
I sigh. "I landed us all in detention tomorrow after school." I turn on my side so I can properly face the brunette. I can already see the glares being shot at me from the boys in detention, it makes me shutter having more blame on my back.
"Hey-" he pauses, reaching forward as his fingers tuck some of my long red hair behind my ear. "Don't frown. Kyle Reynolds is not worth creasing your beautiful face over. I'll help you sneak out of detention if I need to."
"Can you stop with the compliments?" Sheepishly, my lips spread to flash my nervous smile. I'm not use to being called so many nice things in such a small time frame.
Flynn's contagious grin takes over his face. He visibly is proud that he had managed to have me in a ball of giddy mess. "Nope, never." I purse my lips as he pushes off the bench and turns off the mixer to add more ingredients.
My cheeks feel slightly sore from smiling so much- all because of one person. The face of that very person holds both the best and worsts parts of my mind. Sebastian's face keeps me from sleeping, and Flynn's makes me want to stay awake. Two very different things.
"This is almost done." Flynn jabs his thumb at the mixer where he had added condensed milk and other ingredients. "What did you want to do once it's finished and in the freezer?"
I shrug since I can't think of anything. "You pick." I leave the decision up to Flynn, and it earns a small laugh from him as he puts away the rubbish and cleans the area.
"I hope you like movies." His choice was predictable. Watching movies together has become a cliche thing in society, and I hadn't doubted someone like Flynn who is warm at the heart would take any opportunity they can to watch a film and embrace someone in their arms.
"Sounds like a plan." Despite my opinion on the matter being cliche, I don't disagree. If Flynn's touch was enough for me to lose touch with reality, then the idea of being close is appealing to me.
He turns off the mixer and pours the thick orangey-yellow liquid into a plastic container. I assume he made the whole batch mango flavoured. Within minutes, he has the mix in the freezer and all the dishes stacked in the sink.
"What movies do you like?" Flynn asks me when he starts walking out of the kitchen and I follow.
"Nothing sappy, and no chick flicks. Otherwise, any movie is fine." I answer and stay close on his trail down the few stairs to his room. It still baffles me that the space use to be a basement, but it has been done so well up that it is unrecognisable.
"V For Vendetta it is." The movie is easily chosen by Flynn who pulls his hoodie over his head, revealing the plain white shirt he has on beneath.
I take the opportunity to finally take off my shoes once Flynn searches for his tv remote. I kick my shoes beside the stairs and welcome the ache in the souls of my feet from sport today.
"Did you want anything to eat before I get the tv up and running?" He asks and tosses the remote he found on the sofa.
I shake my head as an answer and place my phone on the stand beside Flynn's bed, watching him walk to the other side of his room to get a blanket. I hold back the urge to laugh, knowing I had guessed correctly about Flynn wanting to be closer for the movie. It isn't cold enough for a blanket.
"It's not that cold." I say and walk towards him and the sofa. He has left the fluffy blanket at one end and adds a few extra pillows.
His head snaps up to me, showing me his attempt to frown questionably, although his lips curl upward and twitch so he can smile. "What are you talking about? It's freezing." I play full roll my eyes at his terrible act. He walks around the sofa and grabs both of my hands, pressing them to his cheeks. "See? I'm cold."
"You feel warm, not cold, Flynn." His cheeks not only feel warm, they heat up to a light pink when the blood rushes to them. He smiles and stays silent. I'm not sure what is, but the moment we stepped out of school and it was only us two, he has been heartwarming and dazed.
Almost every second has been spent with him smiling and staring deeply through me. Even when he spoke, I could feel his eyes making my spine sting in a foreign feeling. The unspoken tension has never felt more thick. I am almost choking on it.
My hands stay to the side of his face when I press my lips to his. The unspoken tension was my view and want for touch- his touch.
He kisses me back, sending a sensation through my body and making my toes curl. My hands slowly glide to his hair again, twisting and weaving through his soft hair.
His own hands I feel everywhere. I feel them leaving their burning trail everywhere on my back, my waist, my hips- wherever he could reach. We share the desiring passion for each other.
My feet step back, allowing Flynn to follow without having to separate are dancing lips. The soft material of his bed hits the back of my legs, which forces our lips to divide.
His face remains close to mine, letting me feel his breath through his smile he can't contain. I lie back on the soft mattress as my chest rapidly rises and falls. Flynn hovers over me with his weight being held on his arms that are either side of my head.
I try to match his intense silent staring, biting down on my bottom lip to ease the winding nerves in the pit of my stomach. My legs are either side of him, and I move my hands down to the hem of his shirt, slowly pulling it upwards until Flynn tugs it off himself.
He presses a kiss on my jaw which makes my eyes shut, biting harder down on my lip to stay at ease. His lips travel down my neck, kissing and sucking the sensitive skin in his sweet assault.
My lips part, letting shaky breathes escape. My fingers grip onto Flynn's back when I can barely focus on his wandering hand that let's his fingers dip beneath the material of my shirt, the pads of his fingers warming my stomach.
His lips leaves my neck and I immediately feel the sensational imprint of them being there. I open my eyes, meeting Flynn's which already are looking down at me. His eyes allow me to notice my beating heart that hammers so harshly.
I reach down to the bottom of my own shirt, pulling it over my head with ease and leaving it falling down on the floor.
The last thing I see is his smile before he leans down and has his lips back against my own. My back arches into him, feeling his bare skin against my flesh.
"As much as I want to-" Flynn breaks his lips from mine and leans above me. "If I keep going I won't want to stop, and my parents will be home soon." I bite the inside of my cheek, understanding his words. He smiles, "besides, I don't think right now is even the right time."
He is unapologetically different from most boys I've known. Flynn wants to have things the right way, unlike me who doesn't care how things are. He is wrapped in his world of perfect and harmless feelings. I smile when I realise his respect to not let anything more happen than it should, is appreciated to me. He cares enough to make things right.
His phone blares loudly from his jean back pocket, forcing a groan out of his since it has completely broken the mood. He wraps one arm under my back so he is cuddled into me, and uses his other hand to get his phone out. I don't miss his sneaky attempt to glance at my dark blue bra whilst grabbing his phone.
"Hello, this is Flynn speaking." He answers the private caller, as I snake my arms around his waist- still craving more of his presence and touch. His eyebrows shoot up shockingly because of what the person on the other end said. "Yeah, yeah, of course. I can be there tomorrow afternoon, is that okay?"
I press a kiss to his jaw, earning back his wide grin. "Okay, thank you so much. Bye." He ends the call and tosses his phone gently on the ground beside the bed.
"Who was that?" I ask as he wrap his other arm under my back and presses his face into the base of my neck.
"I had contacted the hospital where my biological mom was staying at before she died. I asked if I could speak to a doctor there about a relative that was there, and I guess they're letting me." He is visibly happy that he can learn about his mother, and I am happy for him that he had reached out to do so.
"Flynn, that's incredible. This is the closest you've been to the centre of where you come from." He nods, the grin still never leaving his face.
"Can you come with me?" He leans back up to look at me. "It's about an hour and a bit drive from here, so we would have to leave in last period class to get there."
I frown. "You know I would love to, but I can't tomorrow. I have detention and plans after school." I try not to give too many details on promising Camila I would go to a party like the old times with her. His lips purse. "You should take Dianna, after all, it is her birth mom too."
"Yeah, I will." He agrees with me.
"Promise me you'll come over first thing in the morning afterwards so you can tell me how it all went?"
"I will."
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This update was long overdue, but I had some serious writers block, no motivation to even pick up my phone, and I was too busy planning all of the upcoming dramas in UNTOLD TRUTH.
Since it is day 5 of my quarantine (it's currently 12:40am) and I have stopped watching tv, I have never been more excited to write more in here. There are so many more updates on the way!
Until Next Time,
Hannah