Different

Chapter 3

Hero

Why? The only thought that flies through my mind as the girl walks over to me is why.

Why did my mum make me come here?

Why is it so damn loud here?

Why did Oliver and Ben just leave me alone with her?

And why is she still staring at me?

I turn up my music as 'Paint it Black', one of my favourites, begins to play. This will tune her out. She's obnoxious, loud, confident – everything that I'm not and quite frankly I do not want to spend time with her. I want to sit here, with my headphones in and mind my own business, like she should do. My brother and his friend are enough of a headache for one weekend, I don't need to watch yet another needy, desperate girl hang all over them the whole time. She doesn't know us, we don't know her and I'd quite like to keep it that way.

Oliver said I had an admirer, whatever that means. I'm the younger brother, and certainly the less outgoing of the two of us. If she was looking at me it was probably more out of curiosity than anything else. 

Or looking at my muddy trainers. 

As ironic as is it, as we trudged through the already saturated field I found myself wishing I'd put on the ridiculous neon ensemble Oliver threw at me back at home. In what world it would be a good idea to wear white trainers to a festival I have no idea, but then again I would have no idea – I've never been anywhere even remotely like this before. And I never will agai-

I'm snapped out of my thoughts when a whisp of wavy blonde hair flops down into my vision and the girl places her hands, palms spread out on my knees. She says something to me, but I don't hear what it is as my music serves its purpose in drowning her out.

Why is she touching me? And why do I kind of like it?

No, I don't like it, she's annoying and obnoxious and she shouldn't be touching me. I look up at her for the first time to find her still staring at me. She's quite beautiful really, that is if she wasn't so irritating. She's taken her jacket off now and is wearing a tight vest with thin straps, if I look down I just know I would see...no, stop it Hero. That's not you.

She draws me out of my almost perverted thoughts when she pulls my headphones from my head. I don't miss the way that her fingertips trail up the back of my neck as she reaches for them. I also don't miss the way that that small action causes goosebumps to raise on my arms.

"Did you hear me?" she asks, standing up straight now and looking down at me through her lashes. "You're at a music festival you know, you don't need headphones", she waves them in front of my face and I attempt to grab them back. I'm distracted by her accent for a second, there's a faint hint of Australian there but it's not strong enough to suggest she's been living there recently. I look down at my feet, not able to muster up the courage to look into her eyes as I mumble "give them back".

She stands still for a second and I can only imagine that she is contemplating doing just that, then to my horror she sits herself down. On my lap. Her legs drape over the side of the chair and her arm wraps around my neck and I freeze, literally freeze still. "Ok, you can have them back, but first I want to know what you're listening to."

The girl in my lap slides my headphones over her head and as she closes her eyes I steal a glance at her face. She scrunches up her nose in what looks like disgust, it's quite adorable and almost makes me laugh. Almost. But she's rude and expects me to help her and is sitting on my lap when I don't even know her. She pushes them off her head and lets out a shriek "oh my god what is that shit?" she laughs.

I nearly snap back at her, defensive of my favourite band but when I look up and see humour clear across her face I know she didn't mean to offend me.

A brief surge of bravery overtakes me and I tease her with mock horror "I can't be responsible for other peoples lack of education in the great hits".

She stops laughing and surveys my face for a second, stopping for a moment too long on my lips, then resumes what now seems to be normal service of being loud and laughing at me. "No seriously, what was that, they're awful" she laughs leaning her body further into mine.

"Are the rolling stones bad?" I ask, this time a little more serious. My courage from just moments ago seeps from me the longer she spends perched on my lap and the more 'aware' of it my body seems to become.

I need to get her off me before she feels anything. The panic starts rising in my chest, resulting, ironically from a certain rising elsewhere. I literally cannot think of a single thing more embarrassing.

"What's up?" she asks sweetly as she sees the fear on my face.

I laugh, literally laugh at the irony of her choice of words. You have no idea I think silently. But instead I blurt out "I don't know your name". She looks puzzled for a second but collects herself saying "oh yeah, you were listening to the 'great hits'" she punctuates with air quotes, "weren't you Hero?" she giggles. I feel my cock twinge under her leg at the sound of my name leaving her lips. I'm mortified and glance quickly up at her face to search for any sense of recognition. Seeing none, I quickly look away.

"My name is Josephine, but you can call me Jo".

"Nice to meet you Josephine" I mumble, focusing all of my energy on not thinking about the way her bare legs are draped over me, the way her crystal blue eyes are trying desperately to hold my gaze in the few times I've looked up from my feet, the way her small fingers are trailing gently up and down the back of my neck. Jesus, this girl.

"Now that we're properly introduced would you and your headphones do me the honour of helping me put my tent up please?" she laughs at her own joke while sliding my headphones around my neck. I feel her weight begin to lift off me as she props herself up using the arms of the chair. A surge of fear alone motivates my actions as I grab her wrist and pull her to sit back down in an attempt to keep my dignity. I whip my head up as her shocked, beautiful blue eyes meet mine and a small gasp falls from her full lips as she lands back in the spot she just lifted from.

I wait for the playful, confident, cheeky remark to come from her as I filter through my thoughts attempting to formulate an explanation. It doesn't come. She simply whispers "Hero" without breaking my gaze.

To my surprise, I don't look away either.

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Authors Note - 

uh oh, Hero's having some 'issues' ;) What do you think will happen next?

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Lots of love, Kate xoxo