A Darker Love

Chapter Ten- Chemistry

He got out the ingredients and boiled the water in a pot for the noodles. I wasn't that good at cooking so I said I'd just cut up the vegetables. There was a lot of them, his uncle looked like he was on a health craze or something. There were three different kinds of peppers, onions, beansprouts, asparagus, baby corn and mushrooms and I was so proud I got as far as the baby corn without an accident until I accidentally sliced my finger.

"Oww." I looked at the cut and then sucked at it.

"Whats-" He looked at my finger then his face went weird and he turned away.

"What happened to your face?" I tried to turn him around.

"Nothing, I'm fine." He took a deep breath and then faced me. "See, fine."

I looked at him, confused. Something happened to his face when he saw the tiny cut on my finger that was now oozing with blood. He quickly tried to distract me but I never forgot about it.

"C'mon, you need to finish chopping up those mushrooms despite your injury." He chuckled.

I laughed back. "Don't worry, I'm done. " I dumped the veggies into the pan with the chicken while he added the sauce.

It looked amazing and it tasted even better, we ate it at a massive wooden dinning table. It was really nice and Caleb even poured us a little glass of wine each. I'd never really liked the taste and I was a reluctant to drink it because of the whole bonfire thing but it was actually surprisingly nice. The dinner was good, I really needed it but there was a slight edge to my happiness because of what happened to his face in the kitchen. What was that? His eyes were different...they were kind of red and it was like he had dark veins snaking from underneath them. I really wanted to ask him about it but I didn't want to break this moment, we were having such a good time until he popped the d word.

"So, is this a date?" His eyes searched mine as he smiled.

"Uummm." I looked down at my empty plate.  "I don't know."

"It's totally fine if you don't feel that way."

"No, I do. I just don't know if I want something like that right now."

"I understand." He smiled at me, a little disappointed.

"That's good, I don't want anything to be weird between us though. I'd like to go on a date sometime in the future though, when I'm ready."

"Okay, then I'll wait for you." He smiled again, more happily this time and picked up the empty plates to take them to the kitchen.

I felt relived but oddly annoyed at myself. I did want to go on a date with him and I didn't want to push him away but I had to find out what he was hiding from me.

"Hey, this is a weird question but do you want to come on a sort of roadtrip with me?" He called from the kitchen.

"What?"

"I'm going up to my parents old house in Virginia next weekend to sell and sort some of their stuff and I kinda don't want to do it alone. I've been keeping all their stuff up there for years and I thought it was about time I moved it."

"Wow, um yeah I'll go. But you have to do something for me first." I walked into the kitchen and helped him stack the dishwasher.

"Okay, what is it?"

"My Dad is weird, he's really protective and stuff so he wants to me you. How about dinner at mine on Thursday at about seven?"

"Sure, I'll come." He smiled. "I'll try and be on my best behavior."

I checked my watch, it was already eleven o'clock. "Oh, shit. I have to go, I don't want my him to come home and see I'm not there."

"I'll drive you if you want."

"Thanks, that could be great."

He drove me home in his car, I liked the smell of the leather and it was almost as comforting as his own leather jacket. There was a figure sitting on my doorstep waiting for me and it started walking over to the car.

"Who is that?" Caleb parked the car in the driveway, staring at the figure approaching us.

"I don't know." I stared shaking, it reminded me of the woods where Isaac had kissed me.

Caleb got out of the car before me and went over then he started shouting. I got out the car and ran over, the figure was Isaac again and Caleb was holding him by his shirt collar and swearing at him.

"How could you do that to her?! She has fucking bruises all over her body because of you, you bastard!"

"I know, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Isaac sniffed.

"Oh well, that makes it okay then, doesn't it?!"

"Caleb, stop!" I ran over and pulled his arm. "He's not worth it."

"He hurt you, Sam. He can't get away with that!" He raised his fist in the air, about to punch Isaac in the face.

"No! Don't do it! He's not worth your time, just let him go."

Caleb looked from me to him and then pushed Isaac on the ground. "Go. Your lucky she has such a big heart or you'd have a broken nose. Go home and don't ever bother her again."

"I promise." He scrambled away from Caleb. "I'm so sorry."

He ran down the seat as Caleb pulled me in for a hug.

"You should have let me punch him, he deserved it."

"I know, but it wasn't worth it."

We broke the hug and looked into each other's eyes for a long time, the electricity between us strong. The hairs on my neck and arms stood up as the current grew stronger and every impulse told me to kiss him, every part of my body burned as I wanted to touch him, to feel his body against mine but I looked away. I broke it and looked down at the ground, smiling awkwardly.

"Thanks for dinner, it was amazing. I'll see you later."

"See you." He turned down the path and waved until I couldn't see him anymore then I could finally breath again.

I went inside and flopped back onto the couch with a sigh, why didn't I kiss him when I had the chance?