Read My Lips: Chapter 17

Chapter 17

By the time Friday came around, I was back at school. I’ll admit it was weird at first being back and, although quietly, hearing people talking and laughing. Considering it was weird, it was also nice. In a way, it made me feel like I wasn’t so left out.

Surprisingly, Zach’s friends (Jake, Dan and Ryan) were really supportive towards me when I returned to school this morning. Unsurprisingly, Rebekah was too. I expected that from her though, that was the kind of person that she was. She was kind and good hearted.

Since returning to school this morning, I thankfully hadn’t come into contact with Luke and Amy. That was the main thing that I was most worried about. They weren’t exactly the nicest people towards me and I wasn’t sure how they’d act towards me now that I could hear them.

The euphoria of having a large group of friends sat at the table at lunch time never seemed to wear off. The feeling was such a nice feeling and I never wanted it to end. I actually felt liked for once and nothing could compare to it.

“Are you picking me up tonight?” I asked Zach as we ate lunch. I was currently sat beside Zach who was sat in between Jake and me.

Zach nodded as a reply; he still had a mouth full of food. He took a sip of his drink before turning fully towards me. “I sure am. Oh! Make sure you dress up warm.”

Confused, I frowned at him. “Why?”

“Because,” Zach started before taking another bite of his food before continuing. “Its winter and you need to be all warm and snuggly.” After Zach had said that he reached over to pinch my cheeks.

I slapped his hands away from my face. “Stop it.”

In reply to my command I got a chuckle from Zach before he returned his attention to the mass amount of food in front of him.

Whilst Zach ate and talked to Jake who was at his other side, I turned my attention to Rebekah who was sat to my other side. She’d barely said a word all of lunch and I had noted the fact that she had avoided Jake at all costs who she’d previously gotten along with quite well.

“Are you ok?” I asked, leaning closer to her to try and prevent the others from hearing me.

It seemed to take a while for Rebekah to snap out of her trance and look up at me. “Hm? Oh, yeah.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

I raised an eyebrow at her short reply. Everyone who now knew Rebekah knew how much she liked to talk and that was a lot. There was definitely something up with her.

“You being so quiet,” I stated, picking up my juice box and taking a sip from it. “Why you not talking to Jake?”

I took in the way she attempted to discretely look over at Jake before turning her attention back to me. “I just… He… I’ll tell you later.”

“I holding you to that.”

My attention was turned to a question that Dan had suddenly asked Zach. “Hey, Zach, what happened to your face?”

I realised the way Zach awkwardly looked towards Jake before nervously looking at me. By the expression on his face I could tell he didn’t want to answer the question that was suddenly thrown towards him.

“Nothing serious.” He answered shortly and straight to the point.

“Don’t lie to me you little shit.” Dan laughed, nudging Ryan in the arm to try and get a reaction from him. Which, he succeeded as a laugh left Ryan’s lips.

“Like we used to, I just got into a fight with those other guys. It was a one off thing; I doubt it’ll happen again.” Zach answered. An answer that anyone would be able to tell was a lie.

“I don’t buy it.” Dan demanded, folding his arms and raising his eyebrows.

“You don’t have to buy it you idiot. You asked and that’s what I’m telling you now shut the fuck up.”

I think that after that response from Zach, everyone shut up. Nobody mentioned the so called fight with an old friend since it was obviously a sensitive topic to Zach. Also, no one really wanted to risk being snapped at my Zach.

His mood had suddenly changed after our little chat about wearing something warm for our date tonight. Something was on his mind and I was tempted to get it out of him.

But knowing better, I left it. If he wanted to tell me then he would eventually. I didn’t want to make him feel pressured and like he had to tell me if something was happening in his life. If something was then he could tell me when he was ready.

To make matters worse than what they already are, Ryan decided to speak up from his silent phase at the table. “Rebekah?”

Rebekah snapped out of her trance and looked up at Ryan. She stared at him waiting for him to say something to her. She didn’t even attempt to answer him.

“Why are you not sitting with Jake? Has something happened? Ooh, lovers tiff.” He joked wiggling his eyebrows at her.

I knew that he was only trying to lighten the mood and make her crack a smile but after what he said, that wasn’t happening any time soon. Because after what had mysteriously happened between both Rebekah and Jake, she had being in an awful mood yet Jake hadn’t seemed phased by it at all.

Either whatever had happened between then hadn’t bothered him or he just didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on between them two. Maybe he was just as oblivious to it as the rest of us were.

“Nothing has happened.” Rebekah stated before going back to her lunch which she hadn’t touched since I’d asked her that question before.

“Are you sure? Because I don’t even think Jake knows what’s happened.” He pushed. He was trying to get her to say whatever had happened but by doing so he was going to make her snap. And I think everyone at the table could tell.

Jake nudged his friend hard in the ribs. “She said nothing has happened so why don’t you stop pushing her.”

“Ooh, defensive,” Ryan joked. His joking was obviously beginning to annoy everyone. Especially Jake and Rebekah. “Did he refuse to sleep with you or something?”

“Ryan, seriously, shut up.” Jake muttered, awkwardly looking around the table.

“You just don’t listen, do you? I told you nothing, accept it. Stop pushing me to tell you. It’s nothing to do with you either unless my friendship with Jake is suddenly a threesome involving you. So stay out of my business and stop being an annoying little asshole.”

And with that speech, Rebekah abruptly stood from the table and walked out, leaving her lunch behind. An awkward silence filled the room as everyone stared at where Rebekah was sat.

“I gonna go see her,” I awkwardly announced, picking up my bag from the floor beside my chair. I turned towards Zach so I could say goodbye. “I see you tonight.”

After saying goodbye to the other two boys, I left to find Rebekah.

It wasn’t hard finding where Rebekah was sat. She was hidden outside on the top field, out of the way of all the other students that could’ve surrounded her.

Quietly, I sat down beside her. I didn’t say a word; I waited to see if she was going to say something. I didn’t want to push her and make her snap like Ryan had.

“I’m sorry I snapped.” She suddenly spoke up. She lifted her head from focusing on a small flower that was only beginning to grown.

“You not have to apologise to me. What wrong?” I asked shuffling around so I was sat crossed legged facing her.

Rebekah sighed and began pulling at the grass in front of her. “Just… Jake… Everything to do with Jake.”

I felt like everything today was confusing me. “What happened with Jake?”

Everyone could tell that they liked each other but I was pretty sure they were the only ones who were oblivious to each other’s feelings. Maybe they were scared to tell each other, maybe not, who knows.

“I think I really like him. And not just in a friend type of way.” She muttered. Even though I’d only know Rebekah for a short amount of time, it was awful seeing her as upset as she was right now.

“Well, isn’t that a good thing?” I asked. If she liked him, why was it a bad thing? Surely it was good.

“No. It’s not a good thing because I saw him flirting with another girl and he was getting all close with her. And then I saw him kissing her. Do you know how much that sucks when you like someone and you see them doing that?” Rebekah was getting angrier as she spoke. She was pulling the grass from the ground more aggressively as she spoke.

Knowing I shouldn’t, I smiled at her reply. “So you jealous?”

Her head snapped up to look at me before she burst out laughing. “What? Me? Jealous? Ha, no.”

“You are!” I laughed, grinning at her reaction to my statement.

She automatically stopped laughing, like what I’d said to her finally clicked in her brain and something made sense to her. “I am not jealous.”

“I sense denial.”

“I am not jealous! I’m not even with him; he can kiss and flirt with whoever he wants to. It doesn’t concern me.”

“Why not tell him you like him?” I requested picking at the grass like Rebekah was.

She stared at me like I’d said something horrendous before laughing. “Are you serious? I’ve only known him a few weeks; I’m not going to scare him off by telling him that I may potentially like him.”

I shrugged at her. “Your situation, you choose.”

I guess in a way I could understand where she was coming from. She had only known him for the matter of weeks; maybe she’d be coming on too strong by telling him that she could have potential feelings for him.

But then at the same time, if she was feeling jealous towards him interacting with another girl then maybe it’d be better for her to just say something to him. It was obvious that her feelings weren’t just imaginable or unlikely; if she was jealous then her feelings could be stronger than what she thought they were.

However, I didn’t understand the way she went about relationships. She was her own person and I was mine, it wasn’t my place to decide how she felt about people or how she went about telling them how she felt.

“Now, are you coming back in? We’re going to be late.” I said, grabbing her arm and pulling her up from her position on the grass.

----

I had just finished putting on my shoes when there was a knock on the door. Like Zach had told me, I’d made sure that I was wearing lots of layers and that I was wrapped up warm.

No one was home tonight. My parents had taken Austin out to the cinema since they knew that I was going out with Zach. Since Austin was only little though, I knew that they’d be home for when I returned from my date with Zach.

Hurrying towards the door so I wasn’t making Zach wait for long, I grabbed my coat and bag from the hallway before opening the door.

Zach was stood there in casual clothing that still somehow made him look extra handsome. He was wearing simple jeans and a jumper along with a coat. Which I assumed was to keep him warm like he’d told me to dress.

“Are you ready?” He grinned, holding his hand out for me to take.

“Yup!” I grinned back, taking his hand and closing the door behind him. I let go of his hand for a moment whilst I locked the door behind me before I took his hand back into mine again. “Where we going?”

He smirked down at me. “You’ll see.”

Ice skating. That was where Zach had taken me for our date. If I was being honest, I had mixed feelings about the date. Had I mentioned that I’d never been ice skating before?

“Are you scared?” Zach teased as he stood on the ice. I was yet to step on it. It would be my luck that I’d step on the ice and fall straight away, automatically embarrassing myself.

“No.” I denied. I wasn’t going to let him see me scared. I didn’t want to come across as a wimp towards him.

Zach leaned closer towards me from his stance on the ice. “I’ll tell you a secret. I’ve never being ice skating before so we can embarrass ourselves together.”

Giving in, I took his hands and hesitantly stepped onto the ice. Unsurprisingly, I slipped straight away. Fortunately I managed to grab onto Zach to prevent myself from falling completely. The moment my eyes met Zach’s we burst out laughing.

“See! I told you I bad.” I laughed, gripping his hand tightly.

“Let’s just skate and then I’ll buy you some hot chocolate.”

“Promise?” I asked, gripping his hand even tighter as we skated around the ice rink as carefully as we could.

“I promise.”

I probably would have enjoyed ice skating so much more if I could actually skate. But on a whole, ice skating was amusing because neither of us could skate so when one of us fell, it would send the other off into a laughing fit.

“Ouch!” I exclaimed as I took a sip of my hot chocolate.

“What?” Zach smirked taking a small sip from his cup after smartly blowing it to cool it.

I could feel my cheeks getting warm. “I burnt my mouth.”

Zach burst out laughing, almost choking on his drink. “You would do that.”

Shaking my head, I looked down at my cup. Steam from the drink was rising from it mixing with the coldness from the winter air. It was freezing. A cup of hot chocolate was everything that you needed when the weather was like this.

“This is our second date.” Zach announced out of nowhere. I looked up at him to find him staring intently at me. It wasn’t like he was looking at me; he was just staring in my direction.

“Oh yeah, it is.” I replied not knowing what else to say. Was there anything you could say to that? Probably, but I was just an awkward person.

Suddenly, Zach froze up. His face paled as if he had seen a ghost. It didn’t even look like he was breathing. He’d zoned out completely.

“Zach… Are you ok?” I asked hesitantly. I didn’t want to make him snap considering the look on his face right now.

“I’m fine, are you ready to leave?” He asked, already standing up from his seat.

All I could do was nod as I stood up too, grabbing my bag from the end of the table and following Zach to the exit of the skating rink.

Instead of holding my hand like he normally would, Zach wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me as close to him as I could get. I liked the feeling of being so close to him. It was a nice, I felt warm, safe and secure. It was one of those feelings that I wouldn’t change for the world.

But at the same time, it made me suspicious. Zach didn’t normally wrap his arm around my waist; he’d just hold my hand.

When we arrived back at my house, Zach pulled me into a hug, holding me as tight as he could. The way he was hugging me made me feel like he was saying goodbye.

“Did you have a good night?” He whispered into my ear as he held me close to him.

“I really did. Thank you.” I tightened my grip on him before letting go and moving away from him. Ever since he’d brought up the fact that this was our second date he’d been in a really strange mood.

He smiled and ran his finger down my cheek. “I guess I’ll see you later then.”

I smiled back and leant up to give him a kiss. “I guess I’ll see you later too.”

Zach laughed before he leant back down and kissed me harder than I’d kissed him. His kiss held a lot more passion as he wrapped his arms around my waist so I was closer to him. He quickly turned the kiss a lot more passionate.

In the end, I hate to pull back so that I could catch my breath. “Wow.” I muttered, bringing a hand up to my face so that I could try and hide the blush that was slowly spreading across my cheeks.

“Goodnight, Maisie.” Zach smiled, kissing my forehead before turning away and walking down the path towards the gate of my house.

“Night, Zach!” I called after him. He turned around and blew a kiss then proceeded to make his journey home.

I was left feeling confused as I watched his retreating back. There was something slowly eating away from him. First his reaction at lunch when he was asked about the marks on his face and then again when he realised how many dates we’d been on.

And it only made me feel more suspicious.

----

Hello, i've got no school until September and i'm already super bored. Goodbye.

Vote/Comment/Follow?<3