A New Beginning

Chapter Twenty

020 – a new beginning

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            The only coherent thought that I could possibly muster was, shit. I’m screwed. He needed an explanation, one that I simply just didn’t have. Somewhere in the deep, darkest areas of my mind, I knew he was going to ask that question at some point.

          Somehow, when Jake and I first started this whole scheme, I had an idea that maybe—just maybe—Troy could possibly find out about it, revealing everything. And I felt incredibly stupid because I didn’t make up a lie to back up this one. So here I stood, with my heart racing and thrumming in my ears. Here I stood with my brain in a swirled mess that rivaled the other mess, the one of butterflies that spun deep in my stomach. Here I stood with Troy’s hands on me, causing these feelings to stir up inside of me.

          I didn’t know what the hell it was, or why the hell I was feeling this way. But I knew that I had to tell him something—anything—to get him off of my back. And trust me, it was damn hard to come up with something that wouldn’t completely and utterly embarrass me in front of him. So that’s when I came up with my brilliant, mind-boggling explanation.

           “I-I uh…” Okay, so maybe it took a little while of stuttering for me to fully gather my wits that had messily fallen all over the floor. “Why?” I asked, repeating his question. “Because I wanted to.”

          He narrowed his eyes at me, yet a ghost of a smile played at his lips, as if he was keeping a secret to himself. “Now, Sophia—”

          I immediately cut him off. “That’s not my name,” I growled.

          He glared at me, his eyes ablaze with an icy fire. “Because I wanted to won’t sail with me, and you know that.”

           “But that’s why I did it. Because I wanted to.”

           “There has to be some other reason.”

           “But there isn’t.”

           “But there has to be.”

           “You see, Troy, that’s where you’re wrong.”

           “Oh really?” He smirked, his usual, sexy smirk that screamed Troy. Whoa, wait. Did I just call his smirk sexy? Oh hell no. “Because last time I checked, I’m always right.”

          His voice was deep and husky. It sent chills running through me.

           “Is that so?” I asked him. I was disappointed because my voice ended up coming out breathy, like a whisper in the wind.

           “Yes, in fact it is.” He bit his lip and for a second I swear I stopped breathing. I think he could tell, but since the corridor that we stood in was dark as midnight, I couldn’t read his eyes. “And when I say I think you have a reason for lying to me, I know pretty well that I’m right.”

          One of his hands moved to my waist, and suddenly I couldn’t think of anything else except that his hand was on my waist. I could feel the heat from his warm hand through the thin fabric of my dress. I took a sharp inhale of breath. The rapid pace of my heart hadn’t died down one bit, and I’d be crazy to think that it ever could at a moment like this.

          I decided to play along with him, because at the moment I couldn’t think of anything else better to do. “And what may you think that reason is?” I realized then that I was breathing hard, with my body nearly only about five inches away from his. This was the closest I’ve ever been to Troy, and I think it was a bad thing that I was enjoying it. The way his hand was placed at the small of my back, and the way his other hand was entangled in my hair at the nape of my neck, cradling my head in his palm… it was mesmerizing.