The Inceptive Flame⎪✓

❨34❩

♀︎

"This is the bus, Ms. Moore. The other students are already working, the equipment is in there and you just have to get to it," Principal Miller directs me to the huge bus in the school's parking lot. It has two floors and I instantly know how long this will take. As a punishment for not being able to join them for the senior trip this Friday, I have to clean up their transportation and make everything ready for the other students. It feels unfair, but there's no complaining next to this principal. "Also, the assignment that you and Mr. Black turned in is very distinct, none of the other students chose the topic of making children. But I'll do my best to correct it like any other assignment."

It's actually a pretty rude comment he delivered, but I refrain from calling him out on it. We handed in an assignment, of course, he should correct it like he would have anyone else's. The small frown was inevitable and when he looks at me and my expression, he immediately opens the door and gestures for me to step in. Wanting to get away from the tension, I don't waste a second. There is a small radio perched on the first desk I spot, soft tunes flying from it. 

Principal Miller closes the door behind me and on instinct, I raise my middle finger in his direction. He can't see me anymore, so it doesn't matter. 

"And here I thought you were a good girl," A very familiar voice boasts from the stairs, looking at Elijah he supports his hand on the seat above him, standing three steps up on the stairs and giving me his beautiful smile. 

Smirking, "If that's what you thought of me, then you're sadly mistaken."

"So what you're saying is that my perception of you is completely wrong?"

"Of course not, Lij. The good girl in me is right under the surface, ready to show her face. She just needed some hot dude to tell her she has been there all along," The sarcasm makes him raise an eyebrow, my stomach flutters by how sexy he looks standing like that. 

"Lij?" He asks with a smirk. "That's so alluring. Oh, and also, this is officially the second time you have referred to me as hot."

"You're right, how despicably gross of me. Excuse me while I come up with a new adjective for you."

His smirk makes my heart pound in my chest, "Let me kiss you again, love, then I'm sure you will come up with something."

My eyes widen in alarm, he just boasted about our kiss, "That is not common knowledge!"

"That we kissed?"

"Yes! Now stop saying it!"

He comes down to me with a smile, tilting my chin up with his finger, "We're all alone in here, so don't worry so much."

"Why are we alone again?" I ask breathlessly, his hands on me and the proximity of his lips are messing with my mind. 

"The others decided to ditch, they thought you would be too kind to leave the bus a mess. So they chose to be idiots and leave you with everything," He explains and the anger bubbles slightly in my veins. His green eyes searching mine distract me from their stupid actions, taking a step back to breathe his hands fall from me. 

"But you decided to stay," I conclude and he nods. "Why?"

"Because no matter what you believe about me, I'm not the idiot this school makes me out to be."

"I know," I say without an ounce of doubt. "They're saying stuff about me, too. Some truths, but mostly lies. It's the typical high school drama and I'm a little too indifferent to care about it, you shouldn't care either."

"I don't," He smiles and sits down, patting the seat across from him, I sit down by the invitation. His eyes are honest as they gaze into mine and I have to remind myself of where we are, my fingers itch to reach out to him and the tingles reappear on my lips as if the kiss between us just happened. "What matters to me is that the people I actually care about ignore those rumors."

If I hadn't known him as I do, his reputation in this school would be enough for me to stay uninvolved. They are horrific when they talk about him, mostly the rumors come from the jocks, and they hate everything about Elijah. He does have anger issues, he is practically a loaded gun, he is violent when provoked, but he is not a monster, he is not the creep they make him out to be. I am a lot of the things they whisper about me, but no one needs to know that. I won't confirm their suspicions, they don't deserve it. 

"They think they know everything and act smart about it, none of them are worth my time," I explain to him with a shrug. 

"You know, even though the two of us have a tendency to lie, I feel like we know each other better than a lot of the idiots in this school think they do," He smiles and grabs my hand gently, the action making my heart scream out to him. He really has no clue how these small gestures push me closer to the edge, closer to falling. 

"Do they not say that a good friendship builds on a ground of lies?" I joke, lightening the mood immediately as his green eyes glint in humor and a smirk falls on his familiar lips. 

"Do you kiss a lot of your friends, love?" The underlying tones threaten to provoke a blush on my cheeks, but I get myself together. 

Smirking at him, "Well, of course, is that not the norm?"  

He shakes his head with a smile, his brown hair falls in front of his eyes, and my free hand acts on instinct by tucking the small piece of hair away from his face. He seems shocked for a second but regains his confidence almost immediately. Smiling at me, he squeezes my hand lightly and comes closer, leaving a lingering kiss on my cheek.

"Let's get to work, we have a long day ahead of us," The smile on his face is so painfully handsome, a small flutter teases my chest and along with the blush on my cheeks; I realize how deep I am in with him already. This will most definitely be the end of me.