The Phoenices Volume 1 - Expired

Chapter 20 - Aidan

I climbed out of my car, stepping into the concrete and tightening my backpack straps on my shoulders, hurriedly rushing into the school almost two hours before the warning bell that signaled the start of the day. I headed to the dark bathroom, where we had decided we were going to meet all of the dated students this morning, and we explained to them that it didn't matter if we were late for class anymore, at least not to us it didn't. I absentmindedly opened the door with my shoulder, slinging my backpack to the floor and reaching for my phone to check my messages, nearly jumping out of my skin when someone wrapped their arms around my waist, pulling my torso closer to theirs. I whirled around, making eye contact with Ben as he gently placed a kiss on my forehead.

"I feel like we're moving like really fast," I mumbled, not regretting for one second the speed of our relationship.

"Haven't really got a choice now do we," he mumbled into my hair, his hands firmly gripping my wrists and pulling me even closer, moving both of my wrists to his one hand and taking the other hand to my chin, gingerly lifting my face to his, our lips meeting in a sweet, slow kiss. I pushed a little harder against his mouth, letting my teeth run across his bottom lip and he shoved me against the wall, pinning my arms to my side, when the door opened, rendering him halfway across the bathroom in almost an instant, both of us bright red. Reilly stood in the doorway, her mouth slightly agape, her eyes flitting between the two of us, Ben making eye contact with me through the vanity mirror's reflection on the wall mirror.

"First of all, I'm so sorry I ruined that moment, second of all YOU TWO ARE SO CUTE," she squealed, her hands in fists and bundled up at her chest as she jumped up and down, "And third of all, I can get going if you want to um, get back to that," she winked suggestively at me, but Ben saw it and his face turned a brighter shade of red, if that was even possible.

"We scheduled the meeting here at this time, it's fine you can stay." I mumbled embarrassed, gesturing for Ben to come back over to where there were now several bags strewn across the floor, along with the blankets Reilly and I had packed in our school bags that we were now heaving out, Ben staring at us blankly.

"I know Aidan has missed classes for a couple days now, but how long have you been doing this?" He questioned Reilly, checking the date on his phone as she replied.

"Since like the 2nd of November. Haven't seen Algebra II for weeks," she shook out a blanket, laying it over four others and after squishing several places decided it was thick enough to be comfortable for hours, "Do you wanna skip with us today?" she looked up at him through her eyelashes.

"No, he doesn't he has an actual life to look forwards to," I answered for him, resting my hand on his shoulder.

"Missing one day won't hurt anyone too badly," she muttered, looking down at her hands, "But okay, be like that."

"No, I can stay I can stay," he corrected me, "Most of the stuff I'm doing today is review for quizzes and other stuff but I already have straight A's so I'm all good in that area." he nodded, checking his phone before looking up, "Do you have a USB-C charger by any chance?" He asked, immediately being answered by Reilly thrusting a charger into his hands and pointing out the door when he opened his mouth to ask where to plug it in. The younger freshman was already deep into her pre-meeting study session, a thing she normally did with me when we arrived together hours before the meeting was scheduled to begin. However, today we planned on everyone being here by 6:15, so I didn't understand why she would even begin her studying if she knew new people would be arriving soon. I glanced at my phone to check my messages, starting at the date. It was already the 15th, meaning I had very limited time to try to reverse this problem, and we were probably going to waste whole days teaching these new comers about how we function as a team and what our plans are. I glanced up at Reilly on her phone, giggling about something she saw on Instagram, Ben's face cracking a smile as he entered and looked over her shoulder as she read it in her head. "What's so funny guys?" I asked, wanting to see what they were laughing about.