A Kiss From Any Other Guy

Chapter 5

Chapter 9

When the alarm rang the next morning, Sonia wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and wait till all the troubles on her mind would go away. She was quite the entire morning during breakfast, on the way to school even when Clary and Nat had started shouting, literal shouting, in her ears to get a reaction out of her. She hadn’t seen Theo all morning and he wasn’t in History either. Sonia couldn’t help but feel as though he were avoiding her, she wanted to talk to him, to tell him… what would she tell him?

Sonia put her head on the lunch table, she was really quite. Clary and Jack were in one of the science labs, finishing off an experiment.

“Sonia! What’s up buttercup?” Nat slung an arm around Sonia’s shoulders. “Come on, tell us what’s wrong?”

“Is it Theo? Did he say something to you? Did he touch you? He did, didn’t he? God I’m gonna cut his sorry hands off!” Keegan, frustrated, ran a hand through his hair, looking expectantly towards Sonia for a reply.

In response, Sonia just sighed, lifting her head up a little bit to shake her head to say no. But put her head back down returning to her table.

Every now and then Sonia’s eyes would wander, searching for Theo.  But when he came up behind her, her eyes were shut tight.

“Sonia” At the sound of his voice Sonia’s head perked up, looking around frantically until she saw him, standing behind her in the same clothes as last night, except now they were crinkled not crisp. His hair was dishevelled. The bags under eyes just that more obvious today, he touched her shoulder and that enough for Sonia. Keegan was ready to jump him, if it weren’t for Sonia to have signalled Keegan to back off; there would’ve been a fight right there.

She closed her eyes for a moment, just taking in the things his touch her did to her.

“Hey…” Her voice came out small, almost like a sigh of relief.

It was the first word she had said all day apart from the occasional grumble or nod.

“I don’t know if you got my message last night… I… was hoping if we could talk.” Keegan gave him a steely look. “Just quickly - but not here. Somewhere more quiet.”

“Yeah, yes. I did. Let me just get my bag and we can walk a bit.” Even though she was sitting down, Sonia sounded like she had run a marathon, breathless. Her voice had steadied now, but her chest still heaved with every breath. She waved a half-hearted good bye to her friends and jogged to catch up with Theo, walking in front of her; hands in his pockets, head hung low, and shoulders slouched as if he were defeated. It’s not like Sonia was any better, but in the few seconds Theo’s hand touched had her shoulder, she got back some of energy she was lacking.  

Theo led her down the empty halls and out the front doors of their school.

The blast of cold air sent a shiver through Sonia’s body causing an involuntary gasp to escape her lips. Theo looked back at her, amused as she looked down, arms crossed across her chest trying to keep the cold from seeping in.

“Cold?” He asked her, waiting for her to catch up to him, standing a few feet in front of her.

“Yeah, what are we doing out here anyway? It’s freezing.” Theo stepped towards as she took a defensive step back.

“Don’t worry.” She stayed put as he walked up to her placed his heavy arm over her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. “I’ll keep you warm, relax.”

“And we’re out here because it’s quiet, no one else is mad enough to come out here. A few degrees colder and it’d be a blizzard.” His deep chuckle vibrated through his body and into Sonia, instinctively, Sonia scooted closer against Theo, as another gush of air prickled the skin on the nape of her neck. He held on tighter, turning them around so that his back was against the wind, using his body as a barrier, she loosened her grip so she could see his face.