Do They Bother You? (Editing)

Chapter Five

Late February- Early March

The next day at lunch was probably the most awkward hour of my life. I could barely look at LJ and Kam without seeing the questions in their eyes, and I wasn't ready to face them yet. Luckily, the other two were unaware of our nighttime escapades- apparently, Finn had slept though the entire thing and was incredibly shocked to find Kam sleeping on the spare bed when his alarm went off that morning.

Not as shocked as I had been, however, when my alarm went off and I rolled over only to land on top of LJ. He had stayed with me the entire night and at some point must have fallen asleep as well, but that wasn't what made a blush stain my cheeks every single time I even felt him near me. No, it had been the way he pulled me closer and whispered my name into my hair, and the way his hand had made a lazy trail up my back before either of us had been awake enough to understand what was going on.

Even when he'd woken up, he'd not moved- and in all honesty, neither had I. It was only when my alarm had gone off a second time, signifying we had half an hour before classes started, that he had gotten up and left the room.

I hadn't looked into what that meant, and I was still trying to figure out what it meant for me. I didn't want to look into my feelings, and I knew it was because I was scared- though of what, I wasn't sure.

"Lena?" LJ put his hand on my shoulder, and I jumped. I hadn't heard him come up behind me. "Where are you going?"

I'd been heading in the wrong direction. "Um, nowhere. I was just...um..."

I heard him sigh. "Lena..."

The bell rang. "I've got to go! See you around, LJ."

I spun and ducked around him, running down the hallway in the opposite direction. And even though I couldn't see him, I knew he stared after me.

I avoided LJ the rest of the weekend, but Kam had decided that we were going to have our girl's night on Friday, and that was that. She purposely steered the conversation away from anything that had to do with LJ or my nightmares. I think she sensed that I'd be hearing about it from LJ himself some time later, and decided it would be okay to let it go for awhile.

All in all, girl's night was nice. We watched a movie on Kam's laptop and ate chocolate while she chattered on and on about meaningless things. Kam was good at that- I learned a few new things about every single person she managed to bring up in conversation, and quite a few things I hadn't known about Asher and Finn.

"Yeah, Ash's family is really, really crazy wealthy." She was saying. "And my family's got dough, but not like Asher. He and his sisters...goodness it would be nice to be them. I remember once they took us to Asher's condo in Miami for winter break..."

I'd never even noticed that Asher had a sister that went to school with us. I'd met Annabelle once, and I could see that as siblings, they weren't very close. His older sister Isabelle, however, he talked about all the time.

"Finn's mom was actually the one that pushed him into football. He likes it and all, but I think he'd rather follow in his dad's footsteps and be a doctor that specializes in sports-related injuries, instead of playing the actual sport."

Finn also hated the sight of blood, so I didn't think either profession was quite right for him, actually. But I held my tongue, not wanting to step on any toes.

LJ started his soccer season that week, and even though I was still avoiding him, I watched all of his practices. The air was still cold- we would be getting snow late in the season, was what the weathermen were predicting. I had to wear four layers and usually sat shivering in the bleachers, but still refused to leave. I think he knew I was there, too.