Lullaby

chapter 6 - Charmed

College ended at exactly 4:15 for me today, I didn’t care if it finished later for Leo… I really didn’t give a shit. I ran through the halls and toward the main entrance, I saw that I ran past Claire and Matt eagerly chatting it up… if Leo saw her later he would probably ask her where I was… good thing I didn’t give him my number. 

  Instead of going straight home like I planned to, I had the urge to get off the stop before and walk to rest of the way, it was still early and I wanted to clear my head and the cold air mixed with the walk should do just that. I stopped for a while to actually take in this breathe taking scenery, the sky was almost pure blue except for the little wisps of cloud that scattered themselves so beautifully across this blue curtain, it was autumn now so the trees were filled with gold, red and brown and every so often the wind would steal one and create a fine performance as this leaf swerved and swirled to the ground in the most gracious of manners, the streets were almost empty except for the occasional dog walker that would stroll along the path like a model on a catwalk.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket so I began to frantically search for it, seeing an unknown number pop up I was curious as to what this person wanted and how they managed to get my number, it read

‘Hey, Claire gave number, was worried, where are you?, Leo’ even in text he still sounded well punctuated, I replied telling him where I was and he said if it was ok he could be there in  ten minutes tops, I  just sent a quick text back of,

‘ok J’ and left it at that before hitting send, reminding myself to save his number later.

 I waited in spot for him to arrive, just staring content at the sky… then right on time he pulled up next to me in a black Citroen DS3, rolled down the window and cut the engine.

 “Jen where the hell did you go?? I waited for you… for like an hour! It was lucky that I spotted Claire and asked her where you were... ‘Thanks Claire...’ I thought, mentally rolling my eyes.

“I’m sorry but since when do you care anyway?” he was taken back a bit by that as I saw his eyes growing wide with worry.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me! Isn’t Jessica giving you enough attention” I snapped at him and saw his face tightened with anger “So why don’t you go crawling back to her and her jokes about my dead mom!” he just looked at me

“What?”

“yeah, she made sure I felt like shit today… she made the most horrible joke… but that’s not important” I lowered my head and heard him get out from the car, he tilted my chin upwards so I would look at him.

“Jen where did this all come from?” he pleaded “What have I done?”

“Nothing” I wanted to just avoid it all, I bit my lip again but he just used the side of his hand to brush the side of my cheek, calming me

“Oh Jennifer, I don’t care about that… girl… I only care about... “He swallowed hard “… I only care about you…”

“You barely know me” I bluntly stated becoming ever more confused every second I was with him, how was it possible to feel so fluttery over someone I barely knew?

“That doesn’t matter, I know that you are different than them… more special… more beautiful and definitely more kind… from the moment I saw you… I just knew…” I blushed as I felt him take my hand in his, he lead me over to the car and opened the door, ‘shit!’ I thought, he was serious about taking me for a ride, as if sensing my pain and confusion he turned around to face me

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine… just trust me” and seconds later I was sat in his car almost absentmindedly but shaking all over, he got in the car moments later with a big Cheshire cat grin on his face

“why-why a-a-are you s-so ha-happy” I stuttered, shaking from pure fear.

“Because you’re facing your fears!” he exclaimed still giddy with joy.

“N-n-n-not exactly…” but he just smiled and placed his hand upon my shaking one, radiating that same warmth through me that I felt earlier today, the next thing I knew… my fear was almost gone and I smiled, I truly smiled at him.

“Feeling better?” he asked, staring intensely

“Surprisingly… yeah”

“Good, because have I got a treat for you!” he began fastening his seat belt, and mirroring him I did exactly the same thing however I grabbed the ledge under my seat and the ledge under the mirror, once he saw he gave me the a twinkle of a smile before starting the car back up again..

“Don’t be scared…” he whispered unhinging my tight grip on the bottom of the seat, and placing it on his lap “trust me… I won’t let anything happen to you, now if it gets too much I want you to just pinch me and ill park the car for a breather… ok?”

“Ok…” I was blushing, mainly because I was fully aware of how close my hand was to his crotch, the more I tried not to think about it, the more I  actually did.

“Let’s go!” he shouted and we were soon off, I had a faint idea of where we were going thanks to our conversation earlier but I thought it best not to ask and distract him whilst he was driving so I just… sat in silence.

“Are you ok? You’re awfully quiet” he question, I just nodded to him but it wasn’t enough “we can stop if you want to?” I sighed, I didn’t want to stop “I’ll take that as a no then…cheer up yeah?” he gave me his most gracious smile yet and I couldn’t help but smile back… even if it was a weak one, his grins were contagious… but his eyes… well they entranced you and were just magnificent, I couldn’t help but feel I had known him all my life.. And that at any moment, he would be stolen from me.