Damn Straight, Your Highness

Chapter 12 - Looks Can Be Deceiving

It sat before me, the same large brick building I was fearful of not so long ago, just prying me inside.

As I recall it all now, I can't exactly remember what I was feeling at that moment. Fear. Dread. Excitement. Fear.

I couldn't let it get to me though, or Cole would take one look at my shaky wrist and see right through me.

I needed to be bad ass. That was the only way.

I strolled through the doors, striving to have an air of confidence surrounding me. Students everywhere were swarming, running towards one another in greeting, bouncing from side to side in haste, making me feel incredibly dizzy. I steadied on forward, clutching my books to my chest and headed to my locker where I was to meet Emma.

We hadn't planned how to do this whole revelation thing yet but Emma said it was best not to plan at all. I wasn't so sure about that. Being the Virgo I am, I liked organisation and plans. Winging it was not my style. But nonetheless I had been thrown into this packed out school, within a 100 metre radius of Cole Walker, with no plan at all.

Winging it had to be the plan.

I looked down to my timetable that I had so astutely glued onto the front covers of my books so I could see what classes I had for the day. Barely catching a glance at all of my timetable before I lost my grasp, I traipsed straight into a stone chest, falling backwards as I heard my name being called with urgency.

"Anna!"

My arms flailed, as papers from my books wavered in the air and fell to the ground around me, my hair fanned across my face, my lungs slightly short of breath.

I pushed the hair out of my eyes hastily, cursing myself quietly for not tying it up this morning like I had planned too. Emma and I had practically no time once we got back from Theo's place at RPN. I had cut into the time I took to do my hair by having to change twice per Emma's request, because I thought that, maybe just maybe, she'd let me get away with wearing a long sleeve shirt to school that would cover the 'x'. But no, she sent me back up stairs with a pointed finger, and commanded me to wear a buttoned up flannel shirt where the sleeves stopped at the elbows.

I glanced up to meet the eyes of the victim I bumped into. The panic rose from my chest, my heart pulsating brutally in every part of my body as I stared into the sapphire eyes that could whisk away any heart of any girl, anywhere.

His sheepish smile revealed his pearly white teeth as he extended his hand out to me. Immediately I had an insane desire to hide the 'x' on my wrist. I wasn't ready to do this yet. Inhale. Exhale. All I had to do was take the hand. A few seconds slipped away from me as I stared at his hand, until he cleared his throat, jumping me out of daze.

I steadied my hand, wiping it quickly on my thigh to make my hand less clammy then placed it in his. Before I even processed it, he hauled me up until I was finally standing on my own to feet again.

"Sorry, I didn't see you there." Cole spoke, clear and crystal. Immediately he got to the ground and began to pick up my books and sheets that were haphazardly flung across the hallway. I knelt down too, picking up what was left of them.

"It's okay. My fault actually, I wasn't looking where I was going." I laughed lightly as he handed me a messy pile of my belongings. I took them from him as my hand protruded out, my wrist fully exposed.

I watched as his eyes caught sight of my wrist, then like an instinct and with fascination he gripped my wrist and pulled me closer to him, sending shivers up my arm. All the air in the world wouldn't have helped me breathe, I felt totally winded.