Tarnished

Chapter 5

I bite the inside of my cheek to keep a huge smile contained, loving this bold side and revelling in it. I don't know why this feeling is so thrilling. It's what I imagine it to feel like when sky diving — from the very first moment you jump out of the plane to releasing the parachute.

I bring the weed up to my mouth and he tries to snatch it off me. I tsk and quickly put great distance between the two.

Resting an elbow on the bed, he sits his head on his hand and peers down at me. "A simple please would have sufficed."

My eyebrows soar on my forehead as I chuckle half-heartedly. "Cocky much?" And selfish. Here I let him get away with dropping and humiliating me all just so he could steal my weed, yet after all that he won't be courteous enough to show me how to make smoke rings? It's the least he could do.

His eyes lazily drag over the length of me. Goosebumps trail in their wake and create a low buzz within my skin, raising the little hairs at the nape of my neck.

I disregard the sensation and take a quick inhale from the bud, barely catching anything in my rush to prevent him from stealing it back. "You're in no position to make demands," I mumble.

As I'm taking a long, fast drag, he says, "you're lucky I'm a gentleman. If you were a guy, I would have snatched it off you in the blink of an eye."

"A gentleman!" I choke on the smoke as I burst out laughing. Into full-blown hysterics where tears form in my eyes and my stomach begins to hurt from the force of it. I laugh so hard, I fear I might piss my pants but I can't seem to stop. "You caused me to fall so you could steal my weed. And you call... you call yourself a gentleman!"

All the while, he stares at me, a smile plastered to his full lips as he shakes his head like I'm a strange creature.

It takes me an awfully long time to calm down from my laughing fit, and even then it hangs on the edges, waiting to burst forth once more.

I haven't laughed like that in over a month. I would set it free just because of that fact. It's almost worth the embarrassment I would feel from peeing my pants.

But like I said. Almost. I haven't flown so far off the rails.

Panting hard, I focus back on his face and I smile a little at the sight — He has a cute grin on his face. "You done?"

I mentally slap myself along with the smile off my face? A cute grin? What the fuck.

I wipe away the tears that trailed down my temples. "Yeah for now. Until you sputter more bullshit lies."

The look he gives me sears dark and hot, but in the depths of his eyes, I catch a hint of mischief which he tries and fails to hide. "Since I'm no gentleman, I guess I should have no qualms against snatching it off you?" Despite his words, he says it like a question.

The daredevil in me wants to tell him to try it. But I've already pushed my boundaries enough today. Like my best friend, Hazel always says; baby steps. On the contrary, what I've been doing is jumping around on a pogo stick. If I risk stretching my boundaries more than I can take, I will fall and hurt myself and damage the progress I've already made.

And I've come too far to tarnish it.

Plus he can't because of his broken rib.

I hate myself for wishing that was the only reason.

My eyes take on a sharp note as I shake my head no.

Understanding flickers in his eyes before he falls back onto the bed and into character — letting out a dramatic breath, he grumbles, "Okay fine. But I need to do it myself to teach you."