Stolen Kisses, Pretty Lies

~Chapter 7~

Lover sat Reputation down on the closed toilet lid gently and sighed. Rep rested her chin on her hands and groaned, unhappy with how this had turned out for her. Lover stepped back, looking down at Rep like some misbehaving child.

Rep frowned and looked up at us, "what?"

"We agreed that you would stop doing that," Lover tightened her lips together.

"It's a hard habit to break," she grumbled.

"I know, Rep, I know. And you're-"

"Wait," I frowned and stepped forward, having noticed red marks on Rep's leg peeking out from under her shorts. I tugged the material up, ignoring the girl's protests.

We fell into an awkward silence as I revealed the partially healed wounds on Rep's legs. My heart sunk, if only I'd known to follow her into the bathroom.

"I'm sorry, okay? I-" she was cut off by Lover pulling her into a tight hug.

I smiled softly to myself as Rep accepted the hug. Feeling the need to excuse myself, I slipped out of the cubicle and out of the bathroom.

I returned to Midnights and Folklore, who were sitting our spot where they said they'd be.

Folklore spotted me first and perked up. "Nine! How'd it go?"

Midnights swung around as I replied, smiling softly at me.

"Crack Corner. Should've gone there first, to be honest."

Folklore sighed and nodded.

"Don't worry, the lovebirds have been brought back together and all is jolly."

"Is it though?" Midnights raised an eyebrow at me.

"Could be worse."

"Fair enough."

———————————

"I hate art," Midnights groaned as we took our seats.

"How come?" I sharpened a pencil.

"I dunno, it's just boring."

"I like how you can express your creativity through artistic form."

"Yeah well this class is full of autistic forms, so."

"Mid!" I snorted.

Beside me, the girl fell silent. I frowned. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just- you called me Mid," she said quietly.

"Shit, did you not like it? It just slipped out, I'm sorry, I won't-"

She stopped my blabbering with a shake of her head. "That was Poets' nickname for me."

I registered her words before replying. "I'm sorry, I won't say it again."

"No, honestly? It's nice to be called a nickname again."

"Oh, okay," I smiled softly and we made eye contact. My gaze wandered from one gorgeous, deep blue eye to her rosy lips, and back to the other. My heart pounded in my chest and my breath caught as neither of us looked away. In the moment, looking elsewhere sounded like the worst decision possible. There was nowhere I'd rather look. I was in a trance, and so was she.

After many long moments, I snapped out of the gaze and cleared my throat, forcing my eyes straight ahead. Midnights immediately did the same; her cheeks flushed. Mine were too.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on, every conversation we had was short and awkward, and my mind was buzzing with what had just occurred. 'What even had occurred?' was my main question. My stomach had fluttered, I'd blushed, I was entranced by her. All clear signs of the L word. But it couldn't be that. For starters, she was a girl.

I managed to successfully overthink and ponder the moment until it was time to leave, which was utter hell.

As I walked away from school, I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened Google. My thumbs hovered over the keyboard until I punched 'Am I gay quiz' into the search bar.

A voice from behind made me jump and quickly stuff my phone in my pocket.

"Nine!"

It was Folklore.

"Lorie?" I said as she caught up to me.

"I'm going home with you tonight, did you forget?"

The realisation hit me like a double-decker bus. "Fuck, I'm so sorry Lorie, my mind has been plagued all afternoon." I replied, feeling horrible.

"No worries, I'm not very memorable anyway," she chuckled.

My heart sunk a little for my friend. "I'm really sorry, how can I make it up to you?"

"Don't be silly, it's all good!"

"Bake cinnamon cookies when we get home?"

"Well... now that you mention it," Folklore giggled.

I grinned.

As we walked, I warmed up and started to feel hot in my jacket. I shrugged it off, knocking my phone from my pocket. It bounced in front of Folklore's feet and she picked it up.

"Here- wait a second," her eyes widened as she read my search in the Google search bar. "Oh my goodness, Nine!"

I quickly stashed it away, but the damage was done.

"I knew it!" She laughed.

"No! It want me- it's..." I scrambled for words that wouldn't appear.

"Don't worry, you have my full support. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm not gay!" I snapped.

Folklore went quiet and looked down. "You're right, I'm sorry for assuming."

"No, I'm sorry for snapping," I mentally scolded myself. What was wrong with me? I was going to turn all my friends against me at this rate.

Folklore nodded but didn't look back up at me. "It's okay."

We kept walking in silence, terrified thoughts swirling in my mind.

"I'm sorry, Lorie. I really didn't mean to snap at you, I'm not sure what came over me." I broke the silence.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," the girl gave me a small but genuine smile that I gratefully returned.

~~

I'm seeing Olivia Rodrigo tomorrow night whattttt

Also these chapters will be out every Wednesday (Australia time) from now on.