Choices

Chapter 14 - Spin the bottle?

1 month later

"You didn't dump him for nothing. Go talk to Chris, goooooooo." Mel says.

"I'm good here, Mel. I'll talk to him in class, alright." I say. "Plus, I dumped Jace nearly a month ago, stop bringing it up!"

"Fine, but I want to see some romance from this school. There is nothing to blog about!" Mel says

"Go taunt Samira, or Bethany. Or even Gabby. You know it won't work with me!" I say, trying to direct the conversation off of me.

"Fine. Actually, talking about Bethany, are you going to her 'spin the bottle' party?"

"Hmmmm."

"EVERYONE in the year is going, T! Why can't we go too?!" Mel pleads.

"Because, it won't be fun," I say.

"Chris isn't going, is he?"

"You got me, I really hate you and love you at the same time, Mel."

"Fine we don't have to go, but if you can persuade Chris to go then maybe if it lands on you or him then you guys will, ya know!!!!"

"Shut up. I'll talk to him about it. That's all."

The saving first bell rings before Mel can say anymore. I wave goodbye and I walk to my locker. I check my timetable. Science then English. Both with Chris. I'll have to talk to him at some point. I close my locker and James pops out at me.

"Hey. We have science. Let's go." He says.

"Ok, let me just get the rest of my stuff." I reply.

He waits for me until I have my books and we head to class. We walk down the stairs towards our classroom. Jace walks the opposite direction on the stairs. James nudges me and I turn around to look at him, confused. We head out of the stairwell and walk towards our class.

"What was that for?" I ask James as we approach the classroom.

"It was Jace, silly."

I shake my head at James and laugh.

"You keep forgetting, don't you. I broke up with him almost a month ago."

"Oh yeah, right. Oops!" He says, jokingly

"Congratulations James!" Chris butts in, letting us know that he has been listening to our conversation.

"When did you get here?!" I say, trying not to blush, or my heart to start beating out of control.

"I was just listening to your conversation, I was walking behind you guys from level 4."

"Oh, haha, we must of missed you." James says, saving me from having to speak too much. He knew, although he thought I was dating Jace still. Hmmm. Maybe he thought I was cheating. Damn.

"--- and it was really funny wasn't it Tara?" James says. I was so lost in thought that I didn't know what he was talking about.

"What?" Was the only thing I could come up with.

James and Chris both started laughing at me and I blushed bright red, I could feel the heat on my cheeks.

"No need to blush, Tara, no one has seen you naked." James says, playfully punching me on the arm, saying me from utter disaster.

That was too close. I could feel Chris's eyes on me as he laughed. I looked up at him and he was smiling. He always looked the best when he was smiling. Not a forced smile, but some sort of a laughing smile. That smile that you make when you are laughing. It made me smile too, although I didn't realise it. Until Chris looked at me, right in the eye. I didn't look away, I couldn't. It was like my eyes were locked, like they were fixated in this position. I thought the moment lasted forever. I couldn't even look down, or blink. I just stayed there. Staring. And he did too.

My eyes finally got the freedom to move and I shifted the, downwards, then up again to see if Chris was still looking my way. He was. He then moved his head to listen to what James was saying, but kept on moving his eyes to look at me. I was lost in the moment until I heard the words 'spin the bottle party'.

"Yeah, I really want to go." James says.

"Wait, really?!" I say.

"Yep! Surprised?" James replies

"Yes, yesterday you said you didn't want to go!"

"That was me. But I think I might go, actually." Says Chris.

I feel a pang in my heart, a jolt up my spine. Chris looked at me, smiled, and began to talk.

"You should! It will be so much fun!" I say

"James! James! Can you come here for a sec?" Shouts Mel from the classroom next to us.

"Coming!" He shouts back.

I crane my neck to find Mel. I find her. She sees me too and mouths 'this is your chance'. I roll my eyes and turn my attention back on Chris.

"Good, he's gone." Chris says, stepping closer to me.

"Why?" I ask

"Nevermind. When is the party?" He says.

"Friday night." I say, smiling.

He exhaled deeply. "Oh, good. If it was on Saturday I would have had to skip.

"Why?" I say. "Oh, teacher's here. Never mind." I say and we line up for class. Friday needs to come really quick.

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