Never Letting Go (Book 1)(Reuploaded)

Chapter 2

Words: 1522

I woke up Friday morning with my mom banging on the door.

"Winter! You overslept! Get up sweetheart!"

I threw the covers off of me and ran to my closet. I quickly put on some clothes and shoes, then raced downstairs to see my mom in the kitchen. I walked up to her and hugged her. I put my chin on her shoulder and saw that she was cooking eggs.

"Do you want some, my little butterfly?" I smiled at the nickname she gave me from when I was young.

"No thanks, I have to get going, mom," I kissed her cheek and sped off to school.

~

I walked into the school building just as the bell rang. I sped to my home room and sat down in a desk to the far left corner. Lucky for me, Gray hadn't bothered me the past couple days and I haven't had any other interactions with Zach. Until now. Zach walked in and, unfortunately, saw me and walked over to me and sat in the desk next to mine. I didn't take a second glance at him as the teacher started talking.

"So as most of you know, today who ever wants to sign up for camp is welcome to. I will put the signup sheet on my desk and whoever signed up, we will line up later today and head off to the camp," she put the paper on her desk, then started roll call. After roll call, she gave the kids in class a chance to sign up. I glanced around at the kids who were left sitting in their seats. I looked beside me and saw Zach stand up and get in line. I sighed as I decided to just go for it. I stood up, slowly walked down the aisle between desks and stood behind Zach, who was a good three inches taller than me. I sighed and looked out the window. Zach must've heard the sigh and turned around.

"Oh hey! You're gonna sign up for camp?" He asked me, looking into my eyes, giving me butterflies almost immediately. 'Ugh why can't these butterflies just leave me alone' I nodded and looked back to the window, ending our short conversation. Or so I thought.

"I heard that they are gonna use the buddy system. I hope I don't get someone either A. Annoying or B. Boring. I hope I get someone interesting." He paused for a second, looking back at me.

"Someone like you," I stopped in my tracks and held my breath. I looked down as my cheeks turned a dark maroon. He laughed and leaned down to where he could see my face.

"No need to be shy, I just find you very intriguing," I slowly looked up, his motions following mine. He put his hand on my shoulder.

"You don't have to be shy around me," he said, while I stared deep into his dark brown eyes. Someone then tapped him on the shoulder and he turned, seeing that the line had vanished. I looked around. All the kids were looking at us, in the middle of the room. Zach looked back at me.

"I guess we'll talk later...buddy," he winked and smirked at me. I stared at him with wide eyes as he turned around to go sign the paper. He walked back to his desk, me still looking at him with a shocked expression.

The rest of class just consisted of me glancing over to Zach.

~

I stood in line as the teachers started putting kids in buses. We were being separated by ages. 6-7 were on one, 8-10 in another, 11-13 in a third bus, 15-16 on a fourth, and 17-18 on the last. I slowly climbed up the stairs, behind a shorter kid, who I believed to be younger than 15. I sat just a few rows away from the very back. Two kids could fit in one seat, which was easier for all of our age group to fit in one bus. I looked out the window and watched as the other kids climbed into their assigned buses. I felt the seat shift as someone sat down. I hoped and prayed that it wasn't who I thought it was, but when I turned to see who it was my eyes met gorgeous brown ones.

"Hey buddy!" Zach cheered. I waved shyly and turned back to the window. I heard someone clear their throat, so I turned to see our teacher standing at the front of the bus.

"So class, look who is sitting next to you," everyone turned and looked at their seat partner. I looked at Zach and saw him smiling, "that is your buddy for the next week, if you are seen without your buddy there will be consequences." she finished as she sat next to another teacher in the front. I rolled my eyes and looked away from Zach. He continued talking to me, me either nodding or shaking my head in a response. He started talking about music and how he's always wanted to be in a band and go on tour. I wasn't really interested. We were about an hour into the ride when I started to feel sleepy. 'Gosh I really should've slept last night' I looked around and most of the kids were awake, but some were in such a sleep that they looked dead. I looked at Zach. He was facing the front and had a smile on his face, which caused me to smile slightly. I leaned my head on the window, but soon lifted my head finding the window cold and uncomfortable. I sighed and leaned my head back closing my eyes. Again, I lifted my head due to some kid poking the top of my head. I gave up on trying to get some sleep and looked out the window. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I looked to see Zach smiling with humor, probably because he saw my struggle to get some shut eye.

"If you want to get some sleep you could just put your head on my shoulder," he suggested. I looked at him like he was crazy, but then again it wasn't a bad idea. I debated on whether I should take up his offer for a few seconds more before deciding that sleep was more important to me right now. I slowly scooted over to him, as there was a good amount of space separating us, and leaned my head onto his shoulder. He tried putting his arm around my shoulders, causing me to lift my head. After he had settled, I put my head back in its place on his shoulder and slowly drifted off to sleep.

~

I opened my eyes and saw that we were still on the bus. I tried lifting my head, but stopped as I felt something holding it down. I remembered that I fell asleep on Zach's shoulder. So I figured that the thing holding my head down was Zach's head. I could just see it now. Me sleeping on his shoulder, his head on top of mine. A typical couple thing to do. I could hear slight snores coming from his, probably, open mouth. 'Aww how cute! No! Winter stop! You cannot fall for this boy! You cannot let yourself be hurt again' I mentally shook off my previous thoughts as I just sat there, waiting anxiously for him to wake up. I felt for my phone in my pocket and checked the time. I had only been sleeping for an hour, so that meant that there were two and a half more hours until we'd be at the camp. A piece of my hair fell into my face and I tried brushing it away with the hand that wasn't holding my phone, but soon found out that I was holding Zach's hand. I mentally freaked out, but tried not to wake the sleeping boy. I soon stopped freaking out and just started thinking, which, for me, is very bad. 'Wow I never realized how small my hands were. They're so small compared to his' I looked at our hands more intently. 'I could get used to holding his hand... Woah Winter, slow down. Don't think about stuff like that. You don't like him. Even if you did, what are the chances of him liking you back...'

"Do you enjoy studying our hands?" I heard a voice and a slight chuckle after. I slowly lifted my head, coming face to face with Zach. We were so close that I could feel his breath fan across my face. We looked into each other's eyes, not a word spoken and still holding hands.

"Hi," he said, slowly leaning closer as he glanced at my lips, then back up to my eyes. I looked away and pulled my hand from his. I scooted back over to my side of the seat and looked out the window. We didn't speak for the rest of the ride. 'This is gonna be an awkward week'