WOMEN |H.F|

18

COOPER BARNES

"I really missed you, buddy. It's not the same without you." I tell Jace.

He sighs and laughs; "It's been only a few months!"

I hold on to my cup of water and look up at him; "I know but those kids are mean to me."

We laugh and stand in a comfortable silence. I watch Arden and Hava return to their seats, waiting to be called back on the set. Their wide smiles don't go unnoticed by me. I lean closer to Jace so he's the only one who can hear me as I point towards the girls.

"Those two, they've been hitting it off pretty well. Arden has been accepted in the group from the moment she arrived but Hava and her are closer than anyone else."

The adolescent gives a tight-lipped smile but doesn't say anything about it. He might be somewhere else with his thoughts. An awfully loud sound comes from my belly. Jace's eyes widen, I chuckle embarrassedly, rubbing my hand on it in circular motions.

"I think I need a sandwich." As I make my way to steal one of Michael's sandwiches, Jace makes his way to the kids.

ARDEN KELLY

Dana spurts to us; "I got an idea! It might be lame so say if you want to or not."

Havan perks up in her chair, confused by the excited girl. "Go on, tell us, what do you wanna do?" I ask.

"Hide and seek?"

Luca nods his head up and down, now just as excited as Dana. I jump up, stick out my left arm and pull Havan up.

"Who's counting?" Luca almost hadn't had time to ask his question when suddenly Jace joined the conversation. "I will." He responded. All of us were kind of impressed he wanted to join our little game. Jace raises his eyebrows before placing his hands in front of his eyes. When he started counting out loud we took it as the signal to run away, to go look for the best hiding spot. May the best win.

Running through the hallways we're not supposed to be in, I look for something like a closet or an empty room. As I kept seeking, a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards a storage closet. All that surrounded me right now was darkness. My heartbeat speeds up, my eyes try to adjust to the sudden decrease in brightness.

"Hi, darling." A soft whisper. Relief takes over me. Corners of my mouth turn upwards.

"Hello, Red." I whisper back, receiving a chuckle in return. Her hand reaches mine, stroking it with her thumb.

"New nickname huh?" the cheekiness is so obvious to hear in her intonation, "sad that I'm going to dye it. Won't be red anymore."

I shrug my shoulders, not sure if she can see it. As more seconds pass by I can make out the shape of her face. "Your suit will still be red!" Her bubbly laughter fills the storage closet.

"Okay, okay, fair enough." The smile is not disappearing from her lips.

It's quiet for a while, we're just staring into each other's eyes. Footsteps sound near where we're hiding. Both of us stop breathing for a second, in hope we won't be found any time soon, because we like it in here way too much.  When the coast is clear, we sigh and lock eyes again.

"Isn't it a bit ironic that we're hiding in a closet?"

Havan bursts out laughing but shuts up soon after that. She shakes her head, "You idiot."

My mind wandered off, getting kinda tired of hiding. Jace really does take his time.

"What if I take you out on a date? Have a little picnic in private, I have no idea where we could go but I'll find something. I just want to spend some time together," I rambled, "Oh! What if I make us a cake?! What's your favourite? Because I'm a chocolate cake girl but you might like something-"

It happened so quickly, her hands grabbed my face, pushing her lips against mine. I hum and melt into the kiss. Havan pulls back, staring at me with glistening eyes. "Shush now," she whispers.

"If you're going to do that every time to shut me up, I'll never stop talking" I hush, going in for another one.

Sucking faces in the twilight of a storage closet, how romantic.

Once we pull apart for air, still in each other's embrace, the door opens, revealing the content gaze of Jace which swiftly turns into a concerned one. He looks at us, at our arms that are wrapped around one another, our flushed cheeks and plump lips.

"Shit." He sighs, closes the door and walks away.

That's it, we're fucked.

HELLO LOVERS!!! I MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH, I'M SO SORRY I'VE BEEN ABSENT. SCHOOL HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE. TOMORROW MY EXAMS WILL START THAT MEANS I CAN'T BE ACTIVE FOR A WHILE(not that i've been this whole time but okay ;)) I JUST WROTE THIS ONE BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO MAKE YOU WAIT ANY LONGER. I LIKED WRITING IT THOUGH, EVEN THOUGH I HAD TO STUDY, THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME. BYE BYE HOPEFULLY SEE YOU SOON - LINDEN XOXO