The John Hughes Club

Chapter Fifty Six

"I've got to give it to you, Mindy, that's an impressive way to get off Netball." Nudging herself against me, Ella's lisp sounds as soft as her jesting bump feels to my upper arm.

After suffering the humiliation of passing out in the sports hall in front of the entire Netball class, I've been playing down that humiliation. If coming to with an uncomfortable amount of eyeballs on me wasn't bad enough, to then get carted off to see the school nurse, took my embarrassment to a whole different level. Forced to remain in the first aid room for just under an hour, after a little chat and some low-key observation, I was eventually allowed to join my Citizenship class. I've never fainted before, and I certainly don't intend to again...it's more embarrassment than I can take. Now that it's break time, I just want to forget that my odd little fainting spell ever happened. "Well, I'll try anything to shorten a gym class," I joke, about to have a sip of my water, aware that tiredness and dehydration may have caused me to faint in the first place.

"She nearly made me pass out with fear," Ros animatedly interrupts, her eyes as wide as saucers. "Seriously, one minute she was looking at me, then she started swaying...good job that Stacey Barry girl was there to break her fall," she eagerly explains to Ella.

Feeling a crimson rush of burning shame reaching my cheeks, again, I'm ready to play down what happened, "Listen, I did you a favour. Not only was your Flossing really bad, but you were also in the bad books with Swanley. If I hadn't fainted, I'm pretty sure you'd have landed yourself in a detention for your disruptive and dire dancing."

Raising her one shoulder, Ros smiles a little. "You were so loving my Flossing," she musically quips, eyeing me with playful suspicion.

"It was impressively bad," I airily say, keeping my face free of a grin.

"Impressively good," Ros boisterously bats back to me.

"Bad."

"Good."

"Hilariously good," she offers up, now stupidly smirking my way.

"Hilariously bad," I say in a singsong fashion, almost smirking. "In fact, I think it was hilariously that bad, my over-revising self just couldn't take it."

Just as Ros is about to hit me with one of her witty comebacks, I spot an anxious Chas hurrying over to where we're sat. "I've just been told you fainted in PE, are you okay?" Out of breath, deep lines of worry have appeared between his eyes as his gaze heavily settles on me.

"I'm fine. Just tired and probably a little dehydrated," I lightly say, noticing more of his tight and stressed out expression.

Embracing me tightly, Chas heaves out a quick sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're okay." Hugging more of me, it's an instinctive gesture on his part to give me some of his boyfriendly comfort.

In a deliberately casual way, I smile up at him. "Seriously, I am. Nothing to worry about."

Drawing himself back slightly, Chas begins to study my face, allowing my assuring words to sink in. Caressing my cheek with the back of his hand, he finally accepts my explanation with a soft nod of understanding. "Maybe a walk on the beach after school might help? We'll wrap up warm, take our time, get some sea air in our lungs and face revising another day."

"Awwwwww, that all sounds lovely, Chas!" loudly, Ros gatecrashes his sweet suggestion. When his brown eyes narrow and harden on her, appearing somewhat confused by what she's just said, she's quick to respond with a grin, "ohhhhh, you meant just you and Mindy? Yeah, course you did. My bad!" her teasing of him causes Chas to drag his sullen stare away from her, shaking his head slightly as he does.

As I'm smiling to myself, Zigs is wobbling his way towards us, fanning his face with his hands, his expression all twisted up with an overdramatic wince. Once near to where we all are, he suddenly drops to the floor with the same over the top exaggeration. As he clambers onto the back of Ella's chair, a smirk of absolute stupidness stretches across his mouth. "Alright, Mindy, I hear this is the new way to get out of a lesson...I'm just trying it out before Spanish."

Shifting in her chair, Ella smacks him on the arm. "You're such an idiot!"

Chuckling, Zigs stands beside Ella, fixing his blue eyes on me with a sheen of friendly affection within them. "All joking aside, you okay?" he asks, all of his silliness now fading from his features.

Smiling in his direction, I gently nod. "I'm good."

Protectively, Chas holds me against him, his thumb rubbing my shoulder. "I think we've been having one too many late nights."

"I bet you have!" Zigs crudely blurts out, sniggering.

"What do you mean by that?" Chas demands, his face now tight with unforgiving seriousness.

Picking up on the confronting tone, and the way in which Chas has clamped his sour stare on him, the sniggering falls completely away from Zigs. "Nothing! Just me being a filthy-minded idiot," Zigs snaps back with.

"Well, just keep your filthy thoughts to yourself!" an exasperated response from Chas gravelly drifts between us all.

I know that Chas thinks the world of Zigs, but sometimes, there's a gulf between their maturities. I know that Chas is stressed about my fainting spell, so his sense of humour has most definitely gone AWOL. And Zigs respects Chas so much, that he always backs down when he knows he's rubbed him up in the wrong way about something...this morning is no different.

I also know that Chas is highly protective about us beginning a sexual relationship. It's something we are wanting to keep to ourselves, so along with Chas being stressed out about me fainting in PE, he's overreacting to Zigs simply being Zigs.

Aware of that, I look to Chas, my eyes rounding on him with understanding and a soft assurance. "Ignore moody boy, Zigs...he goes into full-on Hulk mode when worried about his fainting girlfriend and her doing too much revision."

Looking from me to Chas, Zigs lifts his shoulders in an half-hearted attempt to not appear hurt by the being put in his place by my boyfriend and his admired mate. "It's cool," he mumbles, obviously not cool about it.

Taking himself to where Zigs is, Chas reaches out, patting him a few times on the upper arm in a friendly manner. "I apologise, bud. Mindy's right, I'm being a tool...ignore me."

"Welcome to my world, dude! I wrote the manual on being a tool!" Not only does Zigs accept the apology, he appears chuffed to have it.

Ring! Ring!

Hearing the bell, we all set about getting ready to head to our next class. As I'm lifting my school bag onto my shoulder, Chas leans towards my ear, the warmth of his lips tickling against it. "You really do feel better, right?"

Turning my head, I'm close to those lips of his, and close to the worry still lingering within his brown eyes. "I'm fine, Chas...stop worrying." Smiling, it's hard not to react to his love and to his concern.

"Okay," is his humoured response, confidently giving me a sidelong glance. "I'll see you at lunch, yeah?"

"You will," I gushingly promise him, striding with a lightness to my feet. This lightness isn't because I'm feeling detached and giddy with a looming faint, no, this lightness is because I feel connected and happy because of the caring soul now walking me to class.

My dad has always been the one person who has made me feel safe. Now, Chas makes me feel like that too. With him, I know he'll do anything to protect me, anything to make me feel secure. I'm only just beginning to appreciate just how lucky I am to have that. I'm appreciating how lucky I am to have a boyfriend like Chas. I think from the moment we first met, our souls spoke the same language. We had this ingrained understanding of one another. An ingrained intuition of what the other person needed. Like Chas just seemed to know that today after school, some quiet time with him at the beach is just what my exhausted self needs. No revision. No talking of revision. No thinking about it. No feeling guilty for not doing it. Just us, the brisk sea air, the sound of the ocean in the distance, yeah, that's what I need...and that is exactly what I'll have.