Salty Licorice

Chapter 28

Liz's POV

I look out the window of my classroom to see the still green grass and trees, no fallen leaves or sprinkling of snow. It's gonna feel weird having a green Christmas. I miss the mountains already, and the snow.

I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket so I pull it out and see a text from Emily. I don't open it up seeing as I'm in class and don't feel like reading some condescending text that will only put me in a sour mood. I attempt to pay attention to the rest of class, failing on all fronts.

After the bell rings I pull out my phone and finally take a look at her text:

can u hlp me with a paper about germany?

I shrugged and texted her back telling her I could and asking where she was which she answered promptly saying library. I head towards the library while I ask her where in the library she was. I follow her duration towards the back corner in the non fiction section. As I round on the bookshelf I see her in a sundress, sitting back on her heels while kneeling with a book in her hand and her hair hanging around her face like curtains. She has various books laying around her and her notebook and pen next to her with bullet notes. I slip my bag off my shoulder and put it to the side before kneeling in front of her and peering over the book.

"What do you need to know about Germany?" I ask quietly.

Instead of receiving an answer I get the book still held open pushed into my sternum forcing me to lean back till my back hits the bookshelf behind me, I knock my head against one of the lower shelves making the back of my head throb slightly. I watch as she loosely tosses the book to the side and leans forward bringing her face close to mine. Subconsciously I let my eyes drop to her lips before bouncing them back to her hazel eyes that give nothing away.

"So no Germany-'' She doesn't even let the sentence leave my lips before I feel her lips against mine.

Emily hasn't exactly been the kindest person towards me, and there definitely has been shady stuff happening around me that always has her name being brought up. But I can't deny that she isn't pretty, and I have wondered what it would be like to kiss her. So I don't exactly have the initial desire to push her way so I let her continue curious as to where this was going.

I try to kiss her back but she doesn't leave much room for me to work with. I feel sharp pain from my ear down my neck, realizing its her nails scratching me. But she doesn't stop kissing me when I flinch slightly from the pain. I try to find some way to find control during this but she doesn't give me a second, and it's a sloppy kiss with too much tongue. I feel another sting from my cheek this time. She pulls back and stands up grabbing her bag and notebook and leaves as if nothing happened. I just sit there baffled and trying to catch my breath. I wipe my mouth off of saliva and sigh, getting to my feet grabbing my bag and walking out of the library still confused. I send a fast text to mom asking her to pick me up to take me home.

I stammer my way into the art room from the Library and slip inside trying to avoid gaining the attention of the class that's going on right now and creep into the clay room knowing I'll find Marisa in there. Sure enough she's sitting at the wheel with two paint brushes holding her hair in a bun with her sleeves rolled up and almost up to her elbows with clay. I walk up behind her and notice she has her headphones in, clearly in the zone. Normally I just walk away but I really just don't care at the moment, I just feel very strange and not myself at the moment. I pull out one of her ear buds, surprisingly she didn't even move from being startled or even just to glance at me. I want to kiss her cheek but then I remember Emily and I cringe internally and decide against it, I don't want to put that on poor Marisa.

"You should clean up, if you wanna go out to your truck and smoke," I suggest. That gets her attention, her head looks up from her pot and she turns slightly to look at me, but I keep my scratched up side of my face on the opposite side of her so she doesn't see it, yet anyway.