Peppermint

Chapter 2

She knew exactly who this exclamation was coming from and immediately picked up her tray to avoid any awkwardness.

Arthur caught up with her in a few steps and was obviously searching her eyes to find an explanation for the sudden escape attempt.

As he was still examining Georgia's eyes for answers, she was pushing her imagination to the limits to come up with a reasonable one. Finally when he realized this staring contest wasn't getting them anywhere, Arthur decided to make his intention clearer.

"Why did you run away from me all of a sudden?"

"I've been avoiding him since the beginning of the semester and now he decides to ask me why?"

"Oh, did I? Sorry, I've been really busy lately, my mind was on something... else."

"With that something else being?"

She knew they would've end up here, sooner or later and right now she was mentally insulting herself for not being prepared for it.

"You know, the usual, um... poetry.(?!)"

"Poetry?"

"That's right, poetry."

"Georgia you can't even stand poetry, why would you think about it?"

He was right, she hated poetry to the guts.

"Arthur, actually, I realized that my hatred towards poetry was because that I couldn't understand the meaning hidden under those magical words. But ever since I've started making an effort I kind of started to really see what's the purpose..."

Arthur had known Georgia for four years now, and over those four years never had came a day that he got sick of her. This wasn't a romantic love or a friendly kind of interest but whatever Georgia was doing seemed to fascinate Arthur like no one or nothing else did and he could simply watch her babble about how she "adored" poetry all of a sudden but there were things that needed to be done.

"Ok, Georgia I think since we both know that there's no point spending time lying to each other. Would you meet me after school? At the park?"

Georgia wasn't even a little bit of surprised, she knew Arthur could've seen through her lies immediately, especially when she started talking nonsense.

"After school as in today?"

"Yep."

"Today's thursday."

"I know."

"We're going to the teashop with April, as usual. "

"I am also aware of that too."

"Then what are you expecting me to do, should I clone myself? or even more impossible-"

"Ditch April."

She was guessing him to be bold, but that was more than she thought he could dare.

"Sorry, but-"

"You heard me right, ditch April."

Georgia could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks, whenever she was angry or embarassed she would always blush.

On the other hand, Arthur who knew Georgia so well, couldn't decide this time whether she was blushing because of his courage turned her on or she was furious with how shameless he could be after all that's happened.
The truth was, it was both.

"I don't think you're understanding this right, today's thursday, as in 'it's our weekly teashop afternoon and we never ever miss it'-thursday and you're expecting me to ditch April to meet his ex after school, at the park?"

"You know that I'm not and I've never been just 'April's ex' to you right?"

She knew that very well, indeed. Instead she chose to ignore that fact.

"Well, what's so important that we can't talk about it here, at school?"

"I'll tell you at the park, if you come."

Arthur's charm that had worked on every single human being, was starting to get into Georgia as well. He'd noticed how curious she was when they first met, and had been using this as a great weapon against her ever since. Though he felt a bit guilty, since manipulating Georgia didn't feel right, it'd become a very usual habit lately, and he just couldn't shake it off.

"I'm not ditching the teashop to meet with you."

"Oh, you will believe me."

The more Arthur was tempting Georgia, the more she realized how much she missed him, being with him.

"You know that April will murder me right?"

"I know you well enough that nobody will ever suspect anything."

Georgia realized that she missed that feeling of adrenaline rushing through her veins. She wasn't exactly a saint herself. She could trick people into believing what she wanted them to without much effort.

"I hate you, sometimes."

Arthur could see the Georgia he knew right now and the effect that girl on him wasn't something he couldn't ignore. After checking if the hallway was completely empty, he finally let it go and closed the distance between them by two short steps.

"Well, maybe. But I don't think right now you do."

Back then Georgia wasn't sure if she really wanted to go through all this again. All she knew was how much she missed him, his smell, his voice, his taste and his touch.

"No I don't.", she breathed out, eyes still connected with his.

Just like a meteor crashing to earth, they collided.