Behind the Scenes

Chapter Eight

Tom slammed the door to his apartment, beginning to pace. His mind kept going back to the kiss, unable to shake the feeling of her lips out of his brain. The way she had just pulled him in, desperate and hard and needy. He groaned at the thought and gripped onto the kitchen counter hard enough for his knuckles to turn white. Her words had hit him like a slap in her face, and the way she'd run out of the room earlier had done the exact same thing. He stripped his shirt off and moved into his home gym, wrapping his knuckles and venting his frustrations onto his punching bag, slamming his fists into it over and over again, hard enough that he didn't hear the door knocking. He turned around when he heard a wince to see Jacob and Harrison stood in the doorway.

"You didn't answer so we let ourselves in with the spare key." Jacob explained as Tom's chest heaved up and down, confusion written across his face and he relaxed slightly. He unwrapped his knuckles and flexed his wrists, bringing feeling back into them.

"Beer?" He offered, walking into the kitchen and opening his fridge, getting out one for each of them.

"Tom, Jacob told me what happened. We're taking you to a club." Harrison said softly. "So get dressed, and go hit on some other girl. What's so special about this Amanda chick anyway?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

"She's just, fuck, I don't know how to explain it. I can't get that stupid kiss out of my head and I hate it." He groaned, opening a beer anyway. Harrison sighed.

"Tom, I've never seen you this pent up over a bird." Harrison said. "I'm actually worried about you." He added and Tom rolled his eyes, swigging from the bottle.

"I'm not in the mood to go out, okay?" He said gruffly, trying to hide how pained he is by the idea of trying to get over Amanda with some random drunk girl. Harrison sighed and nodded.

"Okay. Then we can drink here, watch some football, get pizza?" Jacob suggested, already dialling for takeout.

Two hours later, they were all pissed, surrounded by empty bottles.

"Th-that kiss, yano?" Tom groaned, his hands tugging on his own hair. "It was so - so perfect - yano?" He added, annoyance obvious in his voice. "Why did the girl who doesn't want me have to have the best fucking lips I've ever kissed?" Jacob rolled his eyes.

"Seriously, mate, you need to take your mind off her." He huffed. "I want you to be happy and the mess you are now is not fucking happy." He said, before losing his train of thought. "I'm gonna order another pizza." He decided, dialling again as he hiccuped.

Harrison turned on the Xbox, setting up so the three of them could play Halo. Tom sat back with his hands over his face, still unable to stop thinking about the kiss. Jacob looked at him and quickly added more cheese fries to the order before hanging up, sending a text to Zendaya asking her to bring more beer.

She knocked on the door 15 minutes later, two twelve packs in her arms and she dumped them on the floor, sighing at the sight of Tom before leaving, explaining she had to go check on Amanda.

At the sound of her name Tom whimpered, making Harrison sigh.

"What do you like about her?" He asked, and Tom looked at him.

"Everything. She's gorgeous. She has a brilliant mind. She's so tragic and beautiful and broken but she stands so fucking strong." He mumbled, before he got an idea. "I should go visit her!" He exclaimed. "I should go and tell her everything I feel." He said excitedly and both of the other two were too drunk to stop him from calling a cab and telling the driver Amanda's address.

Amanda jumped out of bed at the knock on the door, opening it to see Zendaya and she smiled softly.

"I'm okay. Really. I'll see you at work tomorrow, okay?" She whispered and Zendaya sighed, passing her a bag of chocolates and sweets.

"If you're sure... these are for you. I know you're not going through a breakup exactly but it's something similar, and these should make you feel good at least for tonight. I recommend a Harry Potter marathon." She said, stroking Amanda's shoulder before turning to leave. Amanda didn't lock the door, instead settling down on the sofa and turning the TV on, following Zendaya's advice and putting the first Harry Potter movie on.

Zendaya stared at Tom as he stumbled up the stairs of the dorm building.

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked before scrunching her nose up at all the beer on his breath. "Jesus, Tom, have a mint." She said as she forced a piece of gum into his mouth. He pouted at her. "You shouldn't be here." She said, her voice softer.

"I have to tell her how I feel." He grumbled in between chewing on the gum. "Was my breath that bad? I bet it was all the pizza." He said with a scrunched up nose.

"It was definitely the beer. Go home, Tom." Zendaya said before sighing and making her way out of the building, knowing that she couldn't force him to do anything.

He made it the rest of the way to Amanda's floor and knocked loudly on the door. She paused the movie, barely five minutes in and opened the door, suddenly very aware she was wearing Tom's sweater and nothing else as she saw him stood outside.

"What are you doing?" She started to ask, before he cupped her face with both hands and kissed her softly, stepping them both into the dorm and closing the door with his foot.