"This is what she had become."
=====
Cleopatra Banks' last week in the small town of New Chelsea is nothing like she would have imagined it, but nothing could have prepared her for the stinging betrayal she's faced with and suddenly the prospect of...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
We make it back home in under thirty minutes and jump out of the car once Ethan has it parked a little way from both our residences. There is a chance that either one of our parents' could be up so we figured this would be the safest option.
We haven't quite narrowed down our story, however, we both agree that this is a step in the right direction. Dad will not spare me if he finds out I didn't sleep at home. Who knows what conclusions he'll come to?
I step out of the car and Ethan follows behind me, gently taking my hand in his.
That silly feeling of a lightness in my stomach makes me more aware of him, especially when he takes me by surprise and presses my body against the cold hard metal of his car with only a paper thin space between us. Heat radiates off of him and he locks his gaze with mine.
I lick my lips as I look into the deep blue depths of his eyes, his pupils dilating considerably. "I had fun, we should do this again," he says, his hand coming to cup the side of my face, a thumb gently stroking my cheek.
I lean into his touch and nod my head, the beast in my chest threatening to escape once again when I inhale his scent. He smells of cologne, pine trees, adventure and other wondrous things.
He leans forward, his lips descending onto my forehead causing bolts of lightening to fire in my brain and then he moves them down to the side of my face leaving a trail of heat wherever they brush, making my toes curl up in my sneakers and an unfamiliar whimper to escape from the back of my throat.
My arms snake around his torso and I pull him even closer to myself, eliminating whatever fragment of space was still between us. I can feel his erratic heart beat through our clothes and I'm pretty sure mine is dancing to the same rhythm. His lips dance a mere nanometer from the corner of my mouth and it slightly parts open, impatiently waiting for his lips to find mine.
But then it all goes to waste.
Ethan is yanked away from me by none other than his mother, a dark scowl painted across her usually pretty face. She's clad in pajamas and a sleeping gown and her blonde hair closely resembles the head of a scarecrow. She shouts at Ethan, an accusatory finger pointed at him.
"Go," Ethan nudges his head in the direction of my house.
"Cleopatra leave," he whispers when I don't move, a look of defeat shrouding his face, taking with it the boy I had spent an entire night under the stars with.
"Young lady, you heard my son. Please go home before your parents discover that you've gone missing again," Susan's eyes stare into the depths of my soul, a warning tone clear in her voice.
I gulp nervously and spare a glance at Ethan but he's not looking my way. His head is turned in the opposite direction as he runs a hand through his thick mop of hair, breathing exasperatedly.
