this is the start | gilinsky

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"I'm officially ungrounded."

I don't think I've ever been so happy to hear those words come out of Gilinsky's mouth. It's been almost a week since I've really talked to him last. Sure, I've been grounded too, but I had a much longer leash than he had with his dad. Perks of it being my first time visiting mine since I was thirteen. 

"Damn, I was hoping for a few more weeks away from you," I tease, intertwining our hands together as I pull him in my house through the front door.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a horrible liar?" He questions, closing the door behind him. I roll my eyes and try to let go of his hand but he doesn't let me get away. 

"Yes," I reply, biting back a smirk. 

"Can I kiss you?" Jack blurts, squeezing my hand tighter.

I furrow my eyebrows and feel my mouth part open slightly. I'm so taken back by his question that I can't even form a coherent sentence. Jack doesn't even bother waiting for me to answer before he cups my face up in his hands and presses his lips down firmly on mine. Pretty soon I'm knocked back into reality and I start kissing back. 

When we finally pull away from each other I watch as a goofy smile makes it's way onto Jack's face, and I feel one on mine too. "I've been waiting forever to do that again," He admits, brushing his fingers through his hair.

"That was nice," I whisper. My cheeks instantly heat up. That was nice? Who even says that after a kiss? 

"Yeah," Jack's smile continues to grow wider. I guess it wasn't a stupid thing to say I mean, it was nice, and Jack didn't seem to care what came out of my mouth after his mouth had been there.

"So, what've you been up to?" I ask, changing the subject. I make my way into the family room, flopping down on one of the couches. 

"You're dad's home, right?" Jack doesn't even bother to answer my question before asking his own.

I almost laugh. "Yeah, of course he is." 

"Okay, just don't wanna get on his bad side," He jokes. 

"You'd never be on his bad side," I promise. 

"What've you been up to?" Jack says, pointing my previous words back at me. 

I shrug. "Nothing, I just have been taking Violet out for her walks and going out to the grocery store."

I leave out the parts where I sometimes snuck out to have lunch with Sammy while I was supposed to be walking the dog. That probably wouldn't go over well with Jack. Not that he didn't trust me with Sam, I know he did, or at least thought he did, but I figured it'd make him a little uneasy thinking about me hanging out with another guy while he was grounded. 

"I think we've already established that you're a horrible liar." 

My heart beat starts to pick up, so I take a deep breath. "Huh?" 

"C'mon, with your dad barely paying attention you could've easily had some fun this week." 

"Not really," I lie, or at least try to. "Anyway, how was your life being cooped up?" 

I feel Jack tense next to me and listen to him clear his throat a couple times. "Fine." 

"Just fine?" I inquire, surprised by his reaction. He'd been so playful two seconds ago and now he's suddenly acting like someone died. "Um, everything alright?"

Jack looks up at me and nods his head. "Of course," He forces out a laugh and stands up. "Listen, uh, I'm gonna head to Johnson's, I'll catch up with you later." 

"Okay..." I say, standing up off the couch with him. I lean over and peck him on the cheek and he nods his head again. 

"See you."

With that, he's gone. What was up with him? He had to be hiding something, he always got like this when he was hiding something. I just hoped it wasn't anything bad. We've only been together for a couple of weeks and half those weeks we've been grounded...how could something be going wrong already?

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HELLO!!! wow I haven't updated in forever I'm soooo sorry and I also apologize for how short this chapter is I know I say that at like the end of every chapter but I just feel bad lol. Anyway, thank you for reading and chapter thirty-nine will be coming (sort of) soon! If you have any advice or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments, and don't forget to vote if you'd like! I'd also like to say sorry for any spelling or grammar errors I try to go over my chapters before I post them but I usually miss a lot of stuff since I'm just skimming through. Anyway, much love! gilinskyshigh