Steal my Heart.

42

Mel lived in this huge mansion at the end of the town. I loved her house, not only was it extremely pretty and modern; it was also the place where our friendship had bloomed.

As soon as she opens the door, she jumps on me. "I can't believe that my best friend finally likes a guy enough to date him." She says, her gray eyes alight with humour and happiness.

I giggle as I hug her back and we move upstairs to her room. She pulls my hand and makes me sit on the bed.
"Tell me everything, this still feels so unreal! You and Alastair, I can't wrap my mind around this." She gushes.

I tell her everything from where we left off the last time. How a boy with a sunshine smile stole my heart and has no intentions of giving it back. Not that I want it, I have his to keep me alive.

"Wow." Mel says dramatically. "Straight out of a fairytale huh? Has he kissed you?" She asks, a smirk now on her lips.

Colour tints my cheeks as I shake my head. "No, we just started dating. There's so much time to do all that." I keep my gaze down as I pull out a thread from the hem of my long top.

"Seriously? When will you do that babe? You want him to kiss you, don't you." She wriggles her eyebrows and pokes my sides.

Just when I thought I couldn't blush any further, I got rosy red cheeks again. "Leave it Mel, we got into a relationship too fast anyways. Kissing and everything else can wait. You do know I want it to be special right?"

"Of course, of course. What I know is that Alastair wants to kiss you, he'll lean in and do his work. Wait and watch." She winks and starts to go to the bathroom.

"How do you know that?" I call out after her but she just gives me a knowing grin and walks away. If what she is saying is true, I feel incredibly good about it.

How will kissing Alastair be like? An image of his lips passes through my head and I imagine what they will feel like on mine... Snap out of it! From what I've heard, first kisses are disappointing. It's more about practice than anything else if you want to learn how to master the art of kissing. Well, well, we have a lot of time for that.

•••

As I near home after spending the afternoon with Mel, I see Alastair, Stuart and Roland outside my house. It looked like they were ganging up on someone. As I neared them, indeed, Alastair was pinning a guy against the wall as Stuart and Roland helped him.

Immediately, I parked my scooter and took off my helmet. I hurried towards him. One look at the poor guy's face and I felt bad for him.

"Alastair please let the guy go. You can't go around threatening people like that." I hold his shoulder and he glances at me. He stares at me for a while before letting the guy go. The boy quickly scurried away.

"What were you doing?" I ask him, exasperated.
"He was the guy who was sending love notes to you." He says as he crosses his arms in front of his chest. He looks absolutely masculine and sexy at the moment, but I don't want him to keep beating guys to seem like a hero.

"How do you know?" I ask, curious.
"I was hanging about here and I saw him slipping another letter. Caught that douchebag." He smirks.

"I'm pretty sure you weren't 'hanging out' over here. You were waiting around to see who was stalking me, weren't you?" I frown at him.

"Whatever, Grace." He says in a no-nonsense way.

"You can't just hit people like that. You can get into trouble with the police for that. Not to forget, it is just not right!" I say to him strictly and he runs his fingers through his hair in frustation.

He looks over at Roland and Stuart who are standing there pretending not to listen. One simple look is shared between them and the two move away.

"I will hit whoever comes after you. Without hesitation and regrets. They don't get to fuck around with my girl. Also, you're not going to roam around with your hair let down anymore." He says authoritatively and my mouth drops open.

"You can't tell me what to do. You don't control me." I defy him. I can feel the volumes of our voices rising. So this is going to be our first official fight.

"For once, will you please listen to me?" He says, annoyance clearly evident in his tone.
"No, you won't tell me how to dress up. You're my boyfriend and I respect you and your choices, but this just isn't the way. It's not like I'm walking about telling everyone to get attracted to me." I yell at him and he holds his head in his hands.

When he doesn't say anything even after a few moments of silence, I start moving inside, disappointment coursing through me.

It is then that he holds my hand and pulls me towards him. In an instant, I am in his arms, my back pressed against his chest.

"I'm so sorry." He whispers into my hair. I turn around to look into his eyes. One of his hands holds me close to him while the other brushes my hair away from my eyes.

"I didn't mean to control you. It's just, I know how guys function. I'm one too you see. I don't want anyone to even look at you. You're mine, but more than that, you're a gem. You're meant to be protected, even if you can do it yourself." He says softly, placing a kiss on my forehead.

I hug him and he sighs, pulling me in even tighter. At that moment, I know, we may have our fights and issues, but it'll get better. It always will.