Facing The Reaper

XVII

I sat in the clearing with Terra sat facing me in my lap and the fading scent of jasmine wafting in my nose. Our lips were pressed together, and my fingers were caught in the long strands of her hair as hers wrapped around the back of my neck. It was Friday evening, after school. Two days after our date and to say we have grown closer since then would be an understatement.

We sat in a comfortable silence with our mouths moving together, I removed my hands from her hair to place on her back and around her waist bringing her closer to me. I was not as keen on PDA as Dylan seemed to be, but Terra didn't seem to mind joining me in the clearing to share these moments at the end of the school day.

We broke apart from each other a few minutes later and I brushed my thumb across her lips as she leaned forward to tuck her head under my chin, moving her hands from my neck to wrap them around my waist. It was already half 4 and soon we would have to head home.

"Are you still up for meeting this weekend? My parents are going back to Bristol to see my brothers and grandparents, we could go to the arcade again, just the two of us?"

It was over a week now since I had last seen Kia, and in that time, I had made no progress in finding her again. But I couldn't exactly turn around to my new girlfriend and say 'sorry sweetheart, but I'm planning to spend the weekend either conjuring up or hunting down a dead girls ghost to tell her she was best friends with my best friends mum in a past life that she doesn't even remember living.' I also couldn't expect her to be ok with me blowing her off and avoiding her until I had solved this problem and fixed this mess.

"Sure, but you're not going to miss out on seeing your brothers?" I asked, rubbing her back gently with one hand and holding her close to me with the other.

"Nah, not this time. It would be too crowded with all of us there anyway. Plus, as much as I miss them I'm not to keen on sharing a room with them for a whole weekend."

I just chuckled at that. "I can imagine. Then let's meet tomorrow after they leave. Give me a call when your ready and I will meet you outside the arcade. This time I won't let you beat me at air hockey."

Terra pulled away slightly to hit my shoulder, a humouring glare on her face as I looked back at her grinning. "You didn't let me win, you lost fair and square you sore loser."

"Yeah, sure I did." As her frown grew deeper, I laughed harder. It soon morphed into a smile as she leaned in again, kissing me to shut me up.

We only stayed like this for a few more minutes before we had to leave. I walked Terra to the end of her street, are hands laced together the whole walk before I then returned to my own home.

As I opened the front door to my house, I was almost sent flying by Bernie and Edna charging at my legs and latching onto them. They laughed like maniacs as I tried to walk forwards into the house weighed down by them.

My mum came into the hallway then and lifted her eyebrows when she saw the twins clinging to me. They just looked up at her Innocently as she stood with her hands on her hips, before beckoning for them to let me go. As they released me and chased one another from the hallway she looked up t me and just rolled her eyes at their antics. "Your home from school late today, where have you been?"

"I was just hanging out with my friends after school. We weren't far away."

"Anyone that I know?" My mum asked as she started to head towards the kitchen to continue making dinner. I stood at the sink, washing some dishes as my mum started cutting up vegetables.

"Mum you know all of my friends already, who do you think it was/."

"Hmm." Was all she replied. I looked over at her curiously, why was she acting so weird? "You're not to old to be making new friends, I was just curious." There was a slight smile appearing on the corner of her face as she sent me a sideways glance before continuing with the cooking.