Anyone Else But You

Chapter 18 - Through the Grapevine

Ingrid Michaelson – You and I

Jasper was waiting for her when Maddie left the house the next morning, he reached out his hand and pulled her towards him by the waist. He smiled then kissed her good morning, she stretched against him and deepened the kiss. They pulled apart and found both their sisters staring at them goggled eyed, Maddie flushed as she realised they’d been stood watching them make out.

“What? You knew the two of us were together!” Jasper questioned as he took Maddie’s hand in his and began walking down the street towards school.

“Yeah, but knowing and seeing is a whole different thing bro!” Lucy said shaking her head. “But you two are so cute together!” The four of them walked to school together, Maddie and Jasper hand in hand while their sisters made comments about them being a couple. When they got to school Maddie hesitated, she knew when she walked through those gates and everybody saw who she was with she was in for a world of hate and she wasn’t sure if she was quite ready for that.

Jasper stopped with her and looked straight into her eyes. “Hey, you’ll be fine, we’ll be fine. Look it doesn’t matter what any of them think, it only matters what we think. And we think we’re good together, well at least I think we’re good together. That’s all that matters!” He grinned down at her and Maddie felt herself relax and realise he was completely right, it was just about the two of them.

“You’re right, I don’t care what anybody else thinks. I want to be with you and that’s the most important thing.” She nodded determined to not let anybody get to her, she was happy with Jasper and nothing was going to stop that happiness. She grabbed his hand and near dragged him through the school gates, as soon as they were over the threshold her resolve dropped a little. People were turning around everywhere and staring at them, when they realised who it was the whispers began.

Maddie tensed as she felt the eyeballs of everyone in the playground swivel onto her, this was going to be worse than she thought. “By the way you look incredibly sexy when you’re trying to be serious. It is so hard not to kiss you right now, but I think you would probably kill me if I did that!” Jasper whispered in her ear making her shiver, she still couldn’t believe the effect he had on her. He escorted her all the way to her coaching room even though his was on the other side of the school and he would be late.

Maddie sighed as she leaned against the wall outside the door, Jasper was smiling at her lopsidedly causing her to sigh deeply at him. Today was going to be tough, even tougher than yesterday and that had been pure torture. The bell rang up the corridor and Jasper turned to leave, Maddie latched onto his arm and pulled him back towards her. When he was inches away from her she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him square on the lips.

When she pulled back and opened the classroom door he tried to pull her back but she just smiled and shook her head mouthing later. He looked at her with puppy dog eyes and she almost went back outside. “You’ll be late and I don’t want to be the reason you get detention!” Reluctantly he sloped off down the corridor, she watched him until he was out of sight and went inside the classroom.

She sighed and smiled to herself perfectly content. “You look happy Maddie.” Mr Donaldson looked up at her from his desk as she sat down.