Beyond the Ordinary

Chapter 59

AXEL 

As promised, I dropped Kate off at her house, but I silently wished that I could've stayed in her company forever.

I dreaded the long drive home and with good reason, too. My mother was on my case the second I walked through the door.

"Axel, it's almost eight, where the hell have you been?" She demanded, slamming the door to the fridge shut with such a force that I was shocked it didn't come right off its hinges and crash to the floor.

"I told you, I had work," I responded, adjusting my backpack on my shoulders.

"The receptionist at your school called. You skipped school? Axel, that is not like you!" She yelled angrily.

"I needed to clear my head-" I started to say, but she cut me off.

"Axel, what is going on with you? You're different."

She said that last part like it was a curse, her voice barely above a whisper and yet it still broke.

"I'm not any different, mom," I retorted, spitting out the word 'mom' like it too was a curse.

"Then why are you just coming home now?" She asked, desperately trying to keep her voice down.

"I had to drop a fellow co-worker off at her house," I stated honestly, exhausted from all the lying.

Suddenly it wasn't just Tyler that was demanding to know everything about my whereabouts and my life. It was my mother too.

"Why am I just hearing about this now?" She asked, sitting down at the kitchen table tiredly.

Reluctantly, I put my bag down onto the floor, thinking, maybe if I'd just tell her about everything that'd been going on with me that maybe she'd get off my back. So, I walked up to the table and sat down beside her.

"Okay, my co-worker's name is Kate," I began. "She just started working there about a week ago and we exchanged numbers and social media sometime around then. She's really sweet, mom, and she's so passionate about people. Even me. We went on two dates before I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said yes. She's in the same grade as me but she goes to Santa Monica High, so we only see each other at work."

Once I was done explaining, I looked at my mother, her tired eyes meeting mine before she declared, "You should bring her over, I'd love to meet her."

Feeling relieved that she wasn't angry with me any longer, I smiled and got up from the table, saying, "Will do," although I doubted that I actually would.

"Do it this weekend, Jace is going to a party so it'll just be us."

I walked over to my bag, giving my mother one final nod before finally heading up to my room.

Dropping my bag onto my bed, I slipped out my shirt and my socks before I took out my phone and walked into the bathroom across the hall to take a shower. I stepped out of my jeans and boxers and walked over to the shower to turn it on.

Once the water was finally warm, I grabbed my phone and stepped into the shower, opening Snapchat.

I took a picture of the side of my face, making sure that the hickey on my collarbone was visible and typed, 'U rly nailed the hickey ;)'

I hit send and put my phone onto a shelf in the shower, grabbing my bottle of shampoo and massaging it into my hair. My phone chimed moments later and I picked it up, seeing a Snapchat notification from Kate.

I opened it, seeing that she'd sent a picture of her in front of her bathroom mirror, a towel wrapped around her head, and she was wearing her pajamas. Above her mirror, she'd written, 'What's a hickey?'

I chuckled, putting my phone down so I could wash the shampoo from my hair. She's so damn innocent, I thought.

Before I'd met her, I'd thought that I was pretty innocent myself. I mean, sure, I've masturbated as much as the next guy, but she didn't even seem like she'd done that.

Once the shampoo was gone from my hair, I picked my phone back up and sent a picture of my face, the grin still present. I typed, 'It's the name for the mark u put on my neck ;)'

I hit send and shut off the shower, drying my phone off with my towel before wrapping it securely around my hips. I stepped out of the shower, my feet pressing onto the plush blue rug placed in front of it. I walked up to the mirror, picking up my discarded clothes off the floor, before heading back into my room, drying off before slipping on a clean pair of boxers and sweatpants.

I picked up my phone off my dresser and opened Kate's snap.

She'd sent me a picture of her face, smiling. She'd typed, 'Oh ;)' I screenshotted the picture and added it to my camera along with all the others.

I turned the camera around and took a picture of me in the front of my mirror, remembering to flex. I typed, 'I wish u had put it a little higher... it's too easily hidden ;)'

I hit send and slid on a t-shirt before hopping onto my bed. She responded almost instantly, my phone buzzing lightly.

I opened her snap to see her smiling once again, her hair fanned out across her pillow. Above her head she'd said, 'Oh, really? Well, I can make that happen ;)'

My heart picked up its pace at the thought of her lips on my neck once again. I snapped a picture of me smirking, my eyes lifted up to the ceiling, with the words, 'I'd like that ;)' written out above my head.