Chapter 21- Tristan's POV

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James doesn't reply at first, and I'm about to just turn away when he suddenly grabs my hand. "Not here." he says.

"Where then?" I protest. "It's not like we can hide!" James ignores me, dragging me along by the hand. Miraculously, we find an empty classroom where hopefully no one will walk in. The words come falling out of my mouth before I can stop them. "I'm sorry." I blurt out.

James looks confused. "Sorry for what? It was me who kissed you. I shouldn't have done that."

"Not for that." I sigh.

"For what then?" James asks. "It really wasn't your fault. Please don't blame yourself."

I pause before managing to say "I'm sorry for enjoying it. That's fucked up."

James smirks. "I don't know about you, but I only tend to kiss people I actually like. Why would I do it if I didn't think I'd enjoy it?"

I blush, then find myself responding with "I wouldn't know. I'm far too innocent for my own good."

James laughs. "You're not wrong there." I'm grateful that the tension between us has eased, and things feel a lot better now. It's weeks, a few weeks ago we weren't even friends, but here we are now. James stands up and holds his arms out to hug me. "Can we go back to being friends now?"

I let him wrap his arms around me and I nod against him. We stand there hugging for a good few minutes, and embarrassingly I find myself getting a bit tearful. "What's up?" James asks, gently rubbing my back.

I sniffle. "Nothing. I'm just glad that things can be kind of normal again."

James smiles, and I actually feel a pang in my heart when he lets go. "I have to go to to science." he explains. "I'd stay here with you if I could."

Once he's gone, I feel weirdly lonely. Also, I feel a bit guilty that I didn't tell James the real reason I was crying. As weird as it sounds, I'm kind of disappointed that we're just friends. I want a bit more than that to be honest, but given the mess we just found ourselves in, maybe it's best if we don't get too serious right now. Still, it won't stop me from wishing.

I go off to find Connor as Brad's in a different lesson, and I update him about everything that happened between me and James. Weirdly, he seems much more excited than me. "I told you you'd sort it out." he squeals, earning a dirty look from the teacher who is supervising. "Why aren't you happy?"

I shrug. "I am. I'm just not as hyper as you." Connor rolls his eyes, but thankfully he doesn't press it any further. Neither him or Brad know about my crush on James, which is good as they would probably try to set us up, and that would inevitably end in disaster as so many of their plans do. Having said that, it's nice that they're so supportive. I wish I could say the same for James- I know he's super popular, but from what he's been telling me he doesn't seem to like most of his 'friends'. 

I can certainly tell from my own experience with them that they're not nice people. Some of them are, like Alex and Scott, and James mentioned a couple of others who would look after him if he needed it. I feel sorry for him about it- as he's captain of the football team, he's stuck with a bunch of people who aren't even nice. I haven't totally forgiven James for the way him and some of his teammates treated me, but I kind of get it now- his life is really stressful, it's not surprising that he's so angry. 

I suddenly feel myself being poked by Connor. "You're doing it again." he hisses. I blush- I have an embarrassing tendency to stare into space while daydreaming. I often think about James, and then it's like I'm in another world, one all of my own.

"Sorry." I say awkwardly.

"Don't apologise." Connor laughs. "Just stop doing it. It makes you look weirder than normal." I playfully elbow him and he shrieks, causing the teacher to give us a death glare. We try to get back to our work, but I just can't concentrate. Even though I'm relieved that James still likes me, I'm kind of upset that he said we should just be friends. Right now, I'm a mixed bag of emotions and I don't know how to feel.

Eventually, real life catches up to me and I can push James to the back of my mind, but he's still there. I know I should be careful what I wish for, but right now I'm just praying for everything to be perfect. Though knowing my life, it's not going to happen.

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What a crap chapter 😂 Never mind, I wrote it in like 40 minutes. Let me know if you liked it!

I came up with an idea for another bronnor story today whilst I wasn't paying attention in history (though we're getting the good teacher back, yay). Would anyone be interested?

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