The Snowy-haired Genius

Chapter fifteen

I wasn't exactly great at playing piano. Even Winter got frustrated with me. He let out sighs, which made the hairs on my neck stand on end, and sometimes pressed his face into my back to let out a groan. "I told you I couldn't just teach you piano, Jace, you need lessons for this type of stuff!" But despite his frustration, he continued to attempt to teach me, which I found sweet, to say the least. 

When he gave up on teaching me, we sat in his art studio for a few hours listening to Arctic Monkeys. I laid by the glass walls as the music crooned in the background, watching as birds flew past. I could see the dog pen from my position, but ignored the mutts and instead focused to the voice behind me.

Because Winter was singing again.

I rolled over onto my side to look at him, leaning on my elbow. He was painting a storm this time, but the storm was inside somebody's eyes. Dark blue, filled with rain and lightning and thunder clouds. Part of the rain was leaking out of the eyes -- tears. They were tears.

It was a gorgeous painting, but when he felt me looking at him he stopped singing and put his paintbrush down. "You hungry?" He murmured.

"I could eat," I answered.

But there was too much running through my mind for me to enjoy the food that was set on the table in front of me.

Winter was driving me insane, and I was letting him. I liked him, a lot. I had too many fucking feelings for him and only him, and yet... Yet all I had said was "I don't know."

But I do know.

I know I have feelings for him.

By the time Winter had finished his meal, my food was in a mush on my plate because I had accidentally squashed it all with my fork. Not a single bite had entered my mouth. I had no appetite. 

"What's wrong with you?" Winter asked as I dropped my fork onto the plate in boredom and heaved a sigh. I just shrugged.

"Come on," He pushed the food away and crawled onto the table, sitting in front of me. "Come and sit on the table. I'm sure you'll find it surprisingly comfortable."

Again, I sighed. Winter pulled at my sleeve. "Come on," He whined. I climbed onto the table and sat next to him.

"Wanna tell me what's wrong?" He asked. I just stared at him. He poked my cheek. Rolling my eyes, I brushed him away and brought my knees up to my chest. 

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"Come on, just tell me."

"I wanna go home," I said suddenly, surprising myself. What home? The place I lived? The place I was bullied and neglected? No, that was bullshit, and I knew it was. I didn't have a home. A kid like me, with a fake family like mine, wouldn't get a real home until I moved out. I didn't want to leave.

I... I don't want to leave?

"Well, you can't. You've been kidnapped and until I get mine back you can't have yours," Winter said haughtily. My eyebrows stitched together as I ran his words over and over in my head. His what? His what? 

"What do you mean?"

"That is none of your business," Winter turned away.

"I mean, technically I'm the one who's been kidnapped. I should know why," I tried to reason with him, but it didn't appear to be getting anywhere because he just let out a huff. "What does my family have that you don't?" I continued. "You have money..." I looked around. "I assume..."

"Yes, I have money," Winter answered. "But there is something worth far more that your family is keeping from me. Something that doesn't concern you."

"What? What is it?"

"That is none of your business," He said again, more firmly this time. I scowled at him, scrunching my hands into fists as he looked back at me with exhaustion crossing his features. "Will you please drop it, Jacey?"

"But I want to know!" I protested loudly. "I deserve to know! I've been kidnapped, Winter! Kidnapped! I at least deserve to know why I'm still stuck here!"

He rolled his eyes, then smirked to himself and looked back to me, leaning in closer. "If I kiss you, will you stop asking?" He murmured, our noses brushing.

I snapped my mouth shut. He raised his eyebrows, amused. "Well, apparently just mentioning kissing shuts you up, Jacey! Very cute. I'm going to do it anyway," He pressed our lips together, and for a moment it was only me and him, but I found myself pulling away. 

"Is this what's going to happen? Just this?" I asked him quietly.

"What do you mean?" He asked, pecking me on the lips and then moving forward for a longer kiss. This time, it lasted about ten seconds. I kissed back before breaking it off again. 

"This," I said. "We act exactly the same, do the same things every day, except now we've kissed a few times. Is this all that's going to happen?"

"You don't know if you like me," Winter said seriously. "And that's okay. You need time to figure it out. I'll just... Give you a little help until you do."

"I..."

He pulled me closer. "It doesn't have to be anything serious if you don't want it to be, Jacey. Just a casual thing until your parents pay up. I don't mind."

I stared at him. He had a smile on his lips, but there was something about his eyes. They seemed so... broken. So hurt. Because of me? Was I slowly breaking him down by leading him on? Impossible... No one could like me enough to actually be affected by my stupid actions. "What if I want something more?" I questioned.

"Jason..." He sighed, running his hand through his snowy hair. "Maybe you should have asked me this before I kidnapped you and asked for a ransom from your parents."

"Maybe you should have approached me when I was at school or something, since you followed me," I shot back. "I was just wondering."

"We've kissed..." Winter started to count on his fingers. I sighed. 

"Five times."

"Yes, five times," He agreed. "Clearly you don't want anything more, so we'll leave it at that. Making out is the furthest we'll go. I get that. Its technically not a proper hook up because we haven't had sex yet, but it's not... not a hook up. That makes sense, right?"

I stared at him, confused.

"All I'm saying is that I won't push it," Winter tried to explain, looking confused at the words that were coming out of his mouth. "If kissing is all you want, then it's all you'll get. I'm not the type of guy to force anything onto anyone..." He paused. "Actually, now that I think about it, I forcefully pulled you into a car and brought you out to my house in the country and don't really let you out of my sight and sleep in your bed whenever I want despite the fact it annoys you. Hm. Maybe I am. But not sexually. Never sexually. Are we done with this?" He leaned forward again. I swallowed but let him.

Too many feelings, too many feelings. Too many fucking feelings.

All I have to do is tell you how I feel.

So why can't I?

Author's Note:

Ahh, so much kissing. Jason's getting addicted to Winter lol. Winter rants, too! Oh my god, he rants so much. He's a bit like me haha. When I start going on something, I ain't gonna stop for the next hour or two.

I hope your day is going okay. If not, that sucks, but if so, yay!

Please vote/comment/share if you feel like it.

Thanks for reading my darlings,

Xoxoxo,

-Kai