I receive a text from James telling me that he's waiting for me outside so I quickly grab my jacket and head to the door, silently praying that my mom didn't see him. She's going to make a fuss about it, probably even ask me to invite him for dinner and I'm not ready for that. I wish to keep this relationship or whatever it is, a secret from my family.
I find him outside leaning against his car, a dark red Ford Mustang. I am actually so into mechanics, I practically know what each student in our high school owns, an obsession that I only share with Carl.
He smiles at me as soon as he sees me and no matter how hard I try, I can't ignore how handsome he is. He holds by the waist and kisses me when I reach him.
"Hello girlfriend!" he says between two kisses and I can't help but laugh.
"Hey" I say kissing him back.
We spent the whole night texting yesterday and it was fun. I was expecting it to be boring especially when he seemed like he didn't want to stop the conversation. But I actually had fun, I was getting to know another side of James and for a moment I thought that maybe, just maybe, this will become something real.
"Let me take this." he mentions to my backpack and I give it to him willingly. He then opens the door for like a gentleman and I was going to get in before I notice Mark heading our way.
I wave at him and he waves back, he probably already heard about us dating. He hugs me quickly after a simple "morning" and then turns to James, he was actually glaring at him, I didn't want him to cause a scene in front of our house.
"If you ever dare to post anything on the platform, I will make sure you don't live to see the next day!" he said to him threateningly, I like this protective side of him but I don't have time for it right now.
I grab him by the hand and take him a few steps away from James, just enough so that he doesn't hear us.
"Listen to me, you know me and you know that I won't be fooled into any of his games. I don't want you to fight because of me!"
They were both playing in the soccer team and it would be really awkward if any of the team members ever fought because of a girl and it will be especially awkward for me if they fought because of me. I can already picture coach Miller screaming at us to fix whatever problems we have out of the school grounds.
"But what if he does it! We all know that he's been putting up his scores since the first day he entered the school."
"He won't, you just have to trust me on this."
The platform is some dirty private site for the boys in our high school that's been going on for ages, they tend to post about the girls they mess with and get scores for that. Apparently, if you mess with a girl that no one else has already dated you'll get a huge amount of points. It's truly disgraceful and shameful, the school tried to put it down but they always end up fixing it until they just gave up. Some boys back then used to even post several pictures of the girls they've been to prove it but thankfully they ended up taking them down. Mark once showed it to me and I almost threw up, it was one of his ways to keep me from dating anyone from our high school. Thankfully, there still are some decent boys that don't ever go near it but James isn't one of them.
"Fine!" he says under his breath.
"Thank you!" I hug him which gains me a smile from him "now do you want to ride with us?"
"Nah, I'll see you later." he pats my head before leaving.
"I'm sorry about that." I apologize when I reach James.
"It's fine," he says caressing my hair "let's go!"
I get in the car and we head directly to the school.
Coming to school with James Moran is different from coming by yourself, everyone was practically watching us until we reached my classroom and he gave me a little peck on the cheek.
I had the time between classes to talk to Callie about what happened this morning since our classrooms were next to each other but Ethan was nowhere to be seen yet. I bet he'll applause Mark for threatening James. He's been nagging me to end this play, he kept telling me that it won't benefit me in any way, claiming that I'm not leaving in a rom-com where everything will be forgiven at the end.
I head to the cafeteria with Callie since it was lunchtime and I find James waiting for us by the door. Callie winks at me before we reach him and I could swear that she's enjoying this which is driving Ethan crazier, it's like she's been secretly shipping us together for the past year.
"Hey!" I greet with a little kiss on the cheek and he returns it.
"I was thinking maybe we could have lunch together, with the others" he's probably referring to his group of friends which now includes Ian "you can join us too." he says now looking at Callie.
"Thank you but I'll pass, I'm satisfied with having my lunch with Ethan but you two enjoy." She's holding herself from laughing and I can't understand what is wrong with her.
"Are you sure!" I didn't want to have my lunch with them, if he asked me to have lunch together just the two of us, that would've been totally fine but I don't get along with the rest of them which will make it awkward, along with other reasons.
"Of course! Go!" she pushes me into him and we end up practically hugging.
He takes me by the hand and practically drags me inside, we fill our plates and head towards his table. Everyone was already there, Ian had his back to me and I could feel something building up in my stomach which will probably keep me from eating.
"Look who decided to join us!" Shawn was the first one to notice us coming their way.
They all greet us and I take place next to James, soon after, they resume their conversation and James catches up quickly while I just played with my food.
"Hey!" it was a quite voice almost inaudible and when I raise my head and see Ian looking at me, apparently he changes seats because he wasn't sitting across from me when I first joined them.
"You okay?" he asks "if you don't like the food, you can have mine, it's a homemade sandwich." he offers.
I politely decline his offer, I wouldn't eat anyway "I'm fine, I just don't have much of an appetite."
"Hey babe, you didn't touch your food yet!" James now had his hand wrapped protectively around my shoulders "do you want me to get something from the vending machine? Or would you like to go?" he asks and I can't be any more glad.
"I'd prefer we go."
He stands up and takes my plate with his. We head to the soccer field and he insists on getting me an energy bar along with a bag of chips from a vending machine, on the way.
We were sitting on the bleachers, there were a dozen of boys practicing, none of them that I recognize and I had already opened the bag of chips, thank God he insisted on getting me this one.
"I'm sorry," I look at him perplexed "I didn't know that you'd feel uncomfortable around them, you already knew all of them and I guessed that it would be a good opportunity to become friends."
"You did nothing wrong," I smile at him because he did not, I'm usually comfortable around new people and they weren't even new "it'll be better next time, I was just feeling a bit down."
"Are you okay now? do you want to go to the infirmary?" he's being so considerate and caring, it makes me feel guilty for whatever reason that kept me from having fun and including myself in his group.
"I'm good." I hug him because he was making such a worried face that I couldn't keep from comforting him.
How am I getting to know a totally different James in just one day! Did I trash him for no reason? He's making it harder to keep this play by the second. Is this some kind of tactic he has to get me between his sheets?
This is all driving me crazy!
And why did Ian have to act concerned earlier!
As if this situation wasn't complicated enough!