Forbidden Love

Chapter 8

My first week back at school went well. I was still grounded at home but glad to get out of the house even if it was only to school. Joe continued to be kind and sweet to me in all our lessons and the butterflies in my stomach only seemed to multiply every time he looked at me or smiled. He sat next to me on the bus home everyday but we never got anytime together, just us.

On Friday lunchtime instead of going to the cafeteria he grabbed my hand and pulled me down some stairs I didn't know existed. At the bottom of them was a door that he pushed open and we were outside and alone.

I dipped my head back and took a deep breath of fresh air before his arms came around my waist.

"Hi." I smiled at him.

"Hi." He smiled back, "it's been two weeks. I'm not grounded anymore."

My mum hadn't made it clear how long I had to stay inside and I hadn't been brave enough to ask yet, "what are you going to do with your new freedom?" I brought my hands up to play with the hair at the top of his neck something I found I loved to do.

"I know what I want to do."

"What's that?"

"Take a pretty girl into town."

"Into Birmingham?" I hadn't been into Birmingham town yet. My dad had talked about taking us but seemed to have forgotten.

"No other."

"I'll see if I can help find you a girl then." I pretended to look around.

"Stop it." He pulled me closer against him.

I laughed, "there's no way my mum is letting me go into town with a boy! Or my dad for that matter! It's a nice thought though."

Joe shrugged and then leaned down and kissed me. I hadn't realised how much I had missed his kisses until he kissed me again.

After far too short a time he pulled back, "we can't miss lunch."

Over the week Ethan had also come to accept my closeness with Joe. One of the things I loved most about my brother was his absolute inability to hold a grudge. By Friday he was almost friendly with him again.

After dinner on Friday I don't know if my mum was in a good mood or a bad mood or if having the two of us around the house all the time was just doing her head in but she said we'd been in long enough and we were to go out and have some fun. We left the house with smiles on our faces and strong warnings to stick together and stay far away from any form of trouble.

We both knew we were heading for the youth centre and outside I saw Aaron chatting with Tim and George. So happy to see people outside of school I ran straight up to them and gave them all a hug.

"You're free then?" Aaron asked with a laugh.

"Free as a bird." I couldn't help the grin on my face and I didn't want to.

"Do I have completion?" I heard Joe's teasing voice behind me and spun around to see him standing with my brother.

"Joe!" I almost squealed as if I hadn't seen him only hours before and launched myself at him for a hug too.

"Woah calm down!" He laughed catching me in his arms.

I pulled away from him, "I'm just excited to be out of the house!"

"I know the feeling." He kept one arm around me and I didn't pull away.

"Do you want to go somewhere different?" Joe asked the group looking over at the youth centre he obviously didn't fancy going inside.