I'll Always See You

Chapter 10 - And Another [Two] Bites the Dust

By the time the weekend rolled around, I was feeling much better about myself and the group project. Grayson hadn't had time except on Wednesday, so he'd be stopping over later today, I knew. I stayed in my room and finished homework and then took a nap, jolting awake in a panic about the time. I shuffled myself off to the bathroom, showered and pulled my wet hair into a bun on top of my head, wet curls falling out and around my face and I gave up on keeping them all controlled.

I ran down the steps and had my head halfway inside the refrigerator when I heard Grayson come in. I hollered a hello to him wherever he was at and continued looking for food. I grabbed the leftovers of a sandwich from Matt yesterday and pulled it out, unwrapping it and pouring mustard under the top piece of bread. I added a pickle to the plate for good measure and called it done. I pulled up a chair at the counter just as Grayson made his way into the kitchen.

He glanced at my sandwich and pickle and raised his eyebrows. "Food of champions," he remarked.

I nodded heartily. "Oh, for sure. Tastes a little more like cardboard the second day around, but you learn to get used to it," I mumbled around a mouthful.

He pulled up a chair at the opposite end of the counter and played around with his phone while I ate.

"You're early," I said absentmindedly.

He looked up. "I didn't have anything else to do so here I am."

Boy, he sure knew how to make a girl just melt, didn't he? I thought, literally hearing the sarcasm in my own head. I finished my sandwich, dumped the paper plate and cellophane into the trash, and downed a glass of water. "Okay, I'm ready if you are."

He stood up from the counter and I followed him to the steps into the den. He stopped at the bottom of the landing and with me not paying any attention, we managed to work it just right that I ended up plowing into him and knocking him off his balance. Within the framework of half a second, he tried to take a step backwards to save himself and instead ended up misjudging it altogether, tumbling forward. I tripped over his foot as it went up into the air and crashed down too.

I hit the ground completely tangled up with him. I lay still for a second, making sure that I hadn't severely damaged anything. I tried to sit up at the same time as him and our foreheads smacked together. "Fuck," he swore roughly, putting a palm to his forehead. He took the words right out of my mouth as I tried to kick my foot out from under him with no success.

I stopped struggling after a moment and he opened his eyes up. He huffed out a burst of laughter and I couldn't help but start giggling. A few seconds later we were both laughing so hard my stomach hurt.

Gasping in a breath and lifting my head up, it was only then when I realized our faces were only inches apart and I could feel his warm breath as he laughed. My own laugh got caught in my throat and my gaze involuntarily dropped to his smiling lips, only for a second. Forcing my stare upwards, I caught his eye and realized he'd stopped chuckling too. Not only that, but he was staring at me with those icy blue eyes. He ran his tongue across his full bottom lip in what I'm sure was nothing more than just a natural movement, but like a magnet, my eyes were drawn to it as something entirely unfamiliar kicked up low in my stomach.

In some form of torture, I looked up at him again and his eyes had widened. My pulse sped up and I sucked in a ragged breath. In an unexpected move, he gently reached up and tenderly tucked one of my loose curls behind my ear, letting his fingers trail down my jawline before dropping his hand. I stared at him completely dumbstruck like the twelve year old I currently felt like.

"Hello! Anyone home?" Matt hollered from somewhere upstairs.

We both launched backwards in a scramble to untangle ourselves before Matt came down the steps. He was up way before I was even in a position to stand and he bent over, wrapping a big hand around one of my arms and helping me as I unsteadily rose to my feet. Thoroughly confused at the second touch of the day from him, even though he'd since pulled his arm back, I just stood there awkwardly.

"You okay?" he asked me after a second.

I blinked a couple times and then against my will another laugh slipped out of me, a nervous one that quickly became full-blown hilarity at the whole stupid situation. I tilted my head back and wiped tears from my eyes before I nodded, biting my lip to hold in another laugh. He gave me a grin that totally said 'what am I going to do with you' and my shoulders started shaking.

"See, nothing broken," I giggled proudly, holding my arms out at my side.

"I see that," he said, and I detected a hint of something strange in his voice but it was gone in an instant.

"Down here, Matt," I hollered in the direction of the staircase, meeting his gaze again and smiling. "I'm probably going to need ibuprofen later, so thank you for that."

"You crashed into me," he said, feigning a look of incredulity.

"Because you stopped at the bottom of the freaking landing!" I protested.

He paused for a second. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry about that."

"I kind of want to know what possessed you to just stop altogether? Or were you just hoping I'd crash into you?" I teased, but regretted it the instant the words were out as his eyes went stormy and unreadable again as he looked at me. I swallowed hard and took a step backwards, not out of fear but something unidentifiable.

I could hear Matt lumbering towards the steps. Saved by the baby elephant, it would seem. I had to wonder what that look had been for though. Especially since I could almost still feel the warm path that his fingers had trailed along my skin for just a fraction of a second.