Soaring [ej caswell]

Five: Blocking

I sat on the stairs, reading my lines to myself, occasionally looking away to start memorizing them. I was already off to a good start.

We just went over singing "Stick to the Status Quo" and it was absolutely amazing. Stuff like that makes me realize how much I love doing all of this. It truly makes my heart happy.

I heard stomping coming towards me so I look up and it was EJ. EJ with a busted lip and blood on his shirt.

"Ej? What the hell happened to you?" I ask. He grabs my hand and pulls me off the stairs and to the library.

"Okay, we're going"

He leads us to the back corner and throws his bag down onto the floor.

"I can't stand him, Belle, I can't do it anymore!" He says angrily.

"Can't stand who? What happened?"

"Ricky is what happened"

"Ricky did this to you?" I ask reaching up and lightly touching his lip and he winces.

"Sorry"

"Yes, he did this"

"Why? Did you say something stupid?" I smirk and he gives me a death glare.

"Once again, sorry. Tell me what happened, Eej"

He sits down on the floor, leaning up against the bookshelf. I sit down beside him and wait for him to rain down hellfire.

"We were reading the scenes but Miss Jenn didn't like how we were doing it so she had us bounce a basketball back and forth and just "chat" and then we started throwing it and he threw it right at my face"

"Sounds like it wasn't going well in the first place"

"Why can't he just get over her already? He's trying to break us up"

"He's not trying to break you two up, at least I don't think he is anyway. EJ, it's not that easy to get over someone like that. It doesn't just happen with a snap of your fingers. I just don't think he wants Nini to hate him"

"He just gives me bad vibes"

"I think you're just paranoid"

"Why can't you be on my side?"

"I'm not on anyone's side, EJ! I'm just telling you that you need to worry less. You need to trust Nini"

"I do trust Nini, it's him I don't trust"

"You don't trust him, yes, but you also don't trust her, you think you do but you don't. Hence you going through her phone without her knowing. I think if you learn to trust her, then Ricky won't even be an issue"

He sat there in silence, I can tell his mind is working.

"Just think about it okay?" I ask, resting my hand on his knee. He sighs and nods.

"Thank you. Now here, let me put something on your lip so it heals quicker. That basketball screwed your face up even worse than it already was" I say digging into my book bag.

"Okay, that hurt me more than the basketball did"

"I'm just joking idiot. You've got a beautiful face" I roll my eyes and he smiles a little.

"There's that smile. I don't think I've seen that smile once today"

I put some Neosporin on my thumb and put it on his busted lip. He winces again and I apologize...again.

Next thing I know, our faces are inches away from each other. I look into his pretty green eyes and he looks into my hazel ones. Our breathing starts to pick up and my heart is beating so fast and so hard that I feel like it's about to burst out of my chest.