“Come on guys, I can’t take all of us and she needs to clear her pretty little head,” he says and moves when I try to pinch his side.
“Don’t muck around Lija, she’s not used to you,” comes from Amias, and he’s rewarded with a mock salute before I’m once again being dragged away from a mixture of worried and annoyed faces.
“Hang on there big guy, where are you taking me?” There’s laughter in my voice and little bit of worry. But that’s because of the way the other two looked as we left.
“I have a dirt bike stashed just outside the wall, and we know a way to get out without the required pass.” He’s waggling his brows up and down and he’s got this mischievous look on his face.
He leads me over to an old looking shed before he climbs up on top of the roof and offers me a hand so I can follow him up. The next thing I know, his big hands are on my waist and he’s lifting me up to sit on the wall. I’m well aware that his hands are slowly sliding down my waist and over my thighs. And I’m filled with the urge to either grab him or kick him, even though I know following out either of the urges would be wrong.
His eyes are on mine, but I see every time they dart down to my lips. Don’t kiss me, please kiss me. I’m feeling so confused, I can’t help it as my tongue darts out to wet my bottom lip and he groans, just before he moves away and hoists himself up to sit beside me on the wall.
“Up to you, foxy lady, we can stay here or I can take you for a spin on the back of my bike.”
“The bike ride sounds fun,” I reply quietly, I don’t take risks, but I want to, maybe I need to as well.
He swings his legs over the wall before flipping himself over and climbing down a conveniently placed ladder.
“Amias and I set this up so we could come and go as we need, eventually they’ll remember the shed and get rid of it but hopefully it won’t be whilst we’re still here.”
I follow him down and lose my footing on the third from the top rung, my body slipping and slamming into the ladder. My hands slip and I’m suddenly falling, right into Elijah’s waiting arms.
“If I knew that was all it would take for you to fall for me, I would have brought you here sooner,” he says with a wink and I can’t help but laugh, he’s a fool but he’s kind of fun.
He’s taking hold of my hand and leading me to a tarp that’s been haphazardly covered with leaves, and it doesn’t take long for him to uncover the bike and jump on.
I clamber on behind him and I’m sighing internally that he’s got a helmet for me and I realise I have no reason to refuse going with him, just as he kickstarts it and then we’re off.
It’s electrifying, the way the engine rumbles beneath us and how my body is pressed flush against his back while my arms are wrapped around his waist. He doesn’t go too fast, which I’m glad for, because I’m definitely not dressed in the correct bike attire, but screw it, I'm actually having fun.
I forget about the letter, my plan to get out of here and create a better life for myse
lf, and even my mission to discover a truth that should have never been kept from me. Come the end of this year I’ll be right where I need to be, but for now I’m content on just being here, with Elijah.
We have to come back to school unfortunately, but I’m buzzing, and I can’t get this stupid smile off of my face. Elijah is clearly enjoying my happiness as he picks me up and swings me around. I throw my hands up and face the sky with my eyes closed. I bring them back down as the spinning slows but before I open my eyes, he places a soft, chaste kiss to my lips and lets me go.
My eyes are pop open and what else can I do but look right at him. He looks sheepish and I’m surprised by the kind of kiss he gave me, I was not expecting shy and unsure from the big guy.
“Sorry foxy lady, I realised I shouldn’t have done that the minute I brought my mouth to yours, I just got caught up in the moment.” He sounds like he regrets it, but his eyes are saying the opposite. He’s looking at me with a hunger that feels all consuming.
“Don’t worry about it, I gotta admit though. That is not the way I imagined you’d kiss,” I can feel my eyes widening as the words slip out and it causes him to come closer once more.
“You’ve been thinking about how I kiss, tell me Henleigh. When you think about it, how am I kissing you?” He’s standing toe to toe with me, and I crane my neck to look up at him.
“That’s not what I…”
His lips descending on mine cut me off, and sure I’m going to get a name for myself, but damn can the guys around here kiss. He kisses like he has all the time in the world to explore my mouth and taste. It’s slow but filled with so much heat I could explode right here and now. I push up onto my tiptoes as I bring a bit more force into it, and a scrape of my teeth against his bottom lip has him moaning my name. I pull back.
I can’t kiss Amias and his friend on the same day, I mean I just did, but I shouldn’t. What is wrong with me? This is what happens when you only have friends to fool around with, you forget there’s a correct way of doing this kind of shit.
He’s looking at me with kind eyes as he leads me back to the ladder, and I wait at the top whilst he re-covers his bike and then we go back and part ways at my door. I wonder what the rest of my day will bring?
I should not have thought that, I run into my room with tears already streaming down my face. My pillows and mattress have been split open. Bright pink paint has been thrown everywhere. And the word ‘BITCH’ is scrawled across my walls. The drips run down my ruined bed and walls onto the floor, staining it. My laptop screen has been smashed and lies discarded in the middle of the room.
But none of this is the cause for my tears, what’s destroying me right now is the fact that I only brought one photo of Elliott with me and it resembles nothing more than confetti now. If they wanted to break me, they’ve gotten pretty damn close. The only thing I can be thankful of right now, is that they didn’t find my journal, I would hate to guess what they would have done with that.
I’ve never been to any of their rooms, but they must be here somewhere, I’ve already told the assistant head and, although she was sympathetic and is getting me a replacement for my laptop, the cameras had conveniently gone down just before it happened.
So, I’m just wandering the wing where our living quarters are, hoping that one of them will just pop up like they usually do. I can see lots of students milling about, off to do whatever they do on a weekend. But where are my people? When did I start thinking about them as my people? It hasn’t even been a week yet, I think those kisses have fried my brain.