My Lion. || BXB

chapter ten.

lionel and i started walking down the hall while his mom went the opposite way.
"i won't ask for your schedule since i still have it from last time." he said with a grin, and i rolled my eyes at him playfully.
"yeah. thanks for that, got me in trouble on my first day." i remarked, but my voice was pretty cheery so i think lionel knew i was only joking and i wasn't actually that bothered.
"something tells me you don't mind a bit of trouble." he said while halting in the middle of the hallway to read my timetable again.

i watched his eyes while his eyes watched my paper and wondered what on earth he meant by that. i glanced all across his face, the bruises looked like they hurt badly, but i didn't dare to ask. he had a few more bandages now, but some of the dark purpley-greeny bruises were on show.
"you're staring." he said before then looking up to stare back at me. oops, thats embarrassing. i moved my eyes down from his, to fixate on my shoes instead. that was probably the safer option.

i heard him fold the paper back up before holding it our towards me. my eyes glanced on the paper before hesitantly moving up to his face. "i don't need it, i got a new one yesterday."
"well i sure as hell don't need it." he rolled his eyes at me, and i scoffed but didn't take it. i was persistent that he could take the time out of his day to chuck it in the bin himself.

"well? lead the way." i said, and then he did. we started walking down the hallway side by side in silence, until he decided to wearily break it.
"huntley is a weird name." i scoffed at him simple but strange sentence.
"and lionel isn't?" i retorted, but i could tell we were only jokily being mean at this moment in time.
he scoffed at my remark, and i couldn't help but smirk at my smartass reply. "no. there are loads of cool people called lionel, look at lionel messi for example. but huntley? never heard of it."
"well that's why i go by hunter."

"i'm not saying it's bad, just weird." he shrugged, and i looked up to him for a moment with my eyebrows high.
"is there a difference?" and then he looked at me too, and suddenly i noticed we weren't walking anymore. instead, he was standing right in front of me.
"yes." he said simply, his eyes scanning all across my face, and then he shamelessly looked me up and down. my cheeks flushed as i turned away, facing my head to the side.

the feeling of his unexpected thumb lifting my chin up to face him again was a strange feeling. why on earth was he so close? and why on earth was he bringing me even closer?

"i like huntley." he said quietly, his eyes now challenging mine on who to look away first. and for some reason, i had a rather unexpected wave of confidence and decided i'd take the challenge.
i grinned at him. "you just said it was weird."
"weird is sometimes good." and i agreed with that.
"you're pretty weird." the words left my mouth before i even knew what i was saying. but he didn't seem to mind and took my banter with a grain of salt thankfully.
"and you are. you're called huntley for gods sake."
"oh fuck off." i laughed, bringing a hand up to cover my mouth without a second thought.

he smiled down at me, taking my hand away from my face and he just held it momentarily. with his thumb, he stroked my rough hand with his while maintaining eye contact and i felt as if i was going to faint. what on earth was this? why was i letting him do these things to me?

slowly, extremely slowly, lionel brought his free hand up and lifted it against my cheek, pulling my closer and closer. eventually, our noses were inches apart as he has previously bent down slightly to be at my level. our breath was now mixing but that wasn't what i was focusing on. his dark green eyes captivated me as the seconds went on, and i felt as if i couldn't breathe.

"can i..." he whispered, but then stopped himself before he said something he couldn't take back. my breath shuddered in my throat, what am i even doing?