Stayin' High

Chapter 1

*Jai's POV*

"We'd like a salted caramel hot chocolate and a chai crème frappuccino" she said to the Starbucks guy, who was clearly checking her out with a certain amusement.

"She's mine, thanks" I wrapped my arms around her waist and she started to laugh, nodding her head at me and at the guy.

He didn't reply to me, which was pretty okay because his expression already was priceless.

"Names?" he asked her, trying not to look at me, failing miserably.

"Nora on the frappuccino, Luke on the hot chocolate" she answered brightly and I swear my heart started to break so bad that I thought everyone in Los Angeles could hear it breaking into pieces.

I knew this was going to happen since I began with this shit, but I didn't think it was going to hurt that bad.

"Are you okay?" Nora stared at me, her expression told me she was nervous, maybe a little frightened, too.

"I'm fine; I just hate it when some random assholes look at you like that. I guess it's normal?" I mumbled almost under my breath; I was trying my best not to lose it, I had to keep this going, at least until we got home, otherwise she was going to kill me. Not to talk about Luke's reaction. He probably wouldn't speak to me ever again. Was I really ready to face all of this? I don't know. Did I care? Hell yes, I did. Did it change anything, the fact that I cared? Not at all. Did I have any choices? Nope.

"It is normal, I think" she suddenly found the ground really interesting. It was so obvious that she didn't want her eyes to meet mines. And all I wanted now was to know why the fuck she didn't want to make eye-contact with me.

"What's wrong? Starbucks' ground doesn't seem that interesting to me" I tried to brighten up the mood a bit, failing like the guy preoviously did.

"Smiiiile, please" I begged her.

"Why?"

"Because I want you to?" it sounded more like a question, but I really really wanted her to smile. Her smile made my world go round.

"That's not a valid reason to me" she said, but a small smile was growing on her lips.

"Sounds like a valid one to me"

"Shut up" she grinned at me, making me smile even more.

"Make me"

"You bet, I will" she replied, slowly pressing her warm lips against mines. It was different from our previous kiss, something was slightly different. It was like her desire had gone, leaving space to passion, pure passion. This kiss wasn't that wild, this one was slow, passionate. Hard to say but, hell, it was even better. Her tongue didn't immediately look for mine, she kept her mouth closed for a while, so I had to caress her lips with my tongue, which was probably something I had always dreamt of. When she unlocked her lips and our tongues met, they didn't move as frantically as they did the first time, they slowly moved in sync. It felt as if our mouths were slow-dancing together. Fireworks in my stomach, demons in my head. I shouldn't have let her do that. But how could I have stopped her? She wanted it, I wanted it. I desired her, with all of me.

"Seems like I did" she smirked at me, a dirty look in her eyes.

"You fucking did" I smiled as I put my arm around her shoulders, following her steps as she looked for a free table.

People were staring at us. They were staring at me. Maybe they were wondering how someone like me had been so lucky to have found someone like her. Or maybe they knew. Maybe they fucking knew what of an asshole I was.

They can't know it, it's scientifically impossible, I told myself. But perhaps they really knew, and they were all silently judging me.

"Now you look like the uncomfortable one" she told me, having a seat right in front of me.

"They are all staring at me" I whispered

"Yes, they are"

"That doesn't help, you know?"

"I mean, they are looking at you because you are beautiful" she looked me in the eyes; she was being sincere. Or maybe she was just really good at lying, like me.

"They are wondering why in the world someone like you choose someone like me, that's all" I grumbled.

"Probably" she laughed "I'm joking" she added, noticing the look on my face.

"C'mon, smileeee" Nora hummed

"Why?"

"Because I want you to" she smirked

"Why do we always have to make all these references to each other's sentences?" I wondered

"Because we are cool kids"

"You are"

"When did you become so insecure?" she took my hand into hers, trying to comfort me; but it only made things worse. I wanted to tell her everything, I wanted to kiss her and let her know that I loved her, that I always had. But I couldn't. If I told her the truth, she wouldn't even want to breath in my direction again, let alone let me kiss her again for one last time.

"Talk to me, Luke" she whispered to me, tracing small circes on my hand with her thumb.

Talk to her, Jai, I told myself.

"Let's finish this drink, I want to show you something" I tried my best to smile and apparently she believed I was okay, or perhaps she understood I wasn't ready to talk about it so she let go of it. Both ways, she was good. She was a good girl, she was a good human being in general. She was good for me, I thought, or better: she would have been good for me if any of this was real.

"Okay" she smiled up at me.

I didn't reply, I had to think of where to take her. I didn't know why I told her I had to show her something, but it worked. So now I had to think of something impressive.

Okay, Jai, it's 6PM; you can take her somewhere cool and then to dinner. But where?

"Are you done?" Nora's voice interrupted my thoughts and I still hadn't got any ideas of where to take her. What could I show her? Where could I take her for dinner? No ideas at all.