Tears of July | √

20. Better Together

Chapter 20

I untangled myself from Lyle, my cheeks flushing bright red, and my hands at my back as I stood beside Lyle who was running a hand through his hair nervously, his cheeks flushed and his lips red and swollen from all the kissing. Come to think of it, maybe my lips were swollen too.

I swallowed the lump on my throat and opened my mouth, but no words came out as Zara stared at me, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. And then Max emerged from behind her, dark ray bans over his eyes and a smirk on his face.

What do I do? What do I say?

"That was pretty intense kissing." Max blurted, taking off his shades.

I felt myself flush in embarrassment once more.

Zara composed herself and turned to Max, smacking him on the head. She whispered something to him then he bit his lip, obviously keeping himself from laughing.

My eyes trailed over to Lyle, and I glanced at his now relaxed face. How could he look so calm? There was nothing calm about what just happened!

"We've been together since Monday." Lyle said in a slightly quavering voice as he gripped my hand with his own, pulling me close to him. I leaned my head on his arm, closing my eyes partially so as not to see Zara and Max's humored faces.

"Yeah, we figured that out already." Max whistled, putting on his shades again. He put an arm around Zara who stepped away from him, scowling.

"We'll leave you to it, then." Zara said, moving to close the door. Before she could step away from the door, I yelled at them to come back.

"Don't tell anyone about us, okay?" I exclaimed, eyeing Max and Zara respectively.

They both nodded and murmured something about trust then I felt Lyle's shoulders relax. I let out a sigh of relief, giving them a small smile.

"Thanks." I said as I intertwined my fingers with Lyle's. Zara flashed me a wide smile, giving me two thumbs up.

"Don't forget to use condoms!" Max yelled before the door closed, a chuckle escaping his lips.

Ugh.

☂☂☂

With Marly not knowing that Lyle and I were together, lunch was a bit awkward because Max and Zara were there eating with us at Lyle's house, giving us sheepish smiles which made shivers run down my back.

And now there I was, fully bathed and dressed, with all the paint washed away from my body (which took almost half an hour of rubbing my skin and scratching my hair), so I had Lyle to thank for that, for making my skin sore and pink from the vigorous brushing against my pale skin. But I didn't regret it though, even if I got paint all over my body, and despite the fact that Max and Zara saw us kissing, no- wait, it was more like we were making out, I admit that I did enjoy it, as Lyle had said.

I bit my lip to keep myself from going wild as my mind replayed the kiss earlier. Butterflies hadn't left my stomach after showering and eating Marly's best-tasting lasagna, so a part of me told myself that maybe there was something abnormal going on in my stomach, but the truth was, that was just my hormones, kicking up higher than ever.

I stared at my empty plate, smiling and telling myself to stop thinking about Lyle and the kiss for a moment because I was head over heels for him.

"Why are you guys so quiet?" Lyle asked, inching his chair beside me. Marly flashed me a smile, offering me a cup of ice cream. Grinning, I took it from her and put a spoonful of vanilla ice cream on my mouth, averting my eyes away from Zara and Max because I was still embarrassed with what they saw.