Willow by Angelina Brown (new ebook reader TXT) 📕

   “You alright?” Shane suddenly breaks the silence.

   “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

   “Well for one you have been staring at me for the past ten minutes with the same expression on your face.”

   “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize I was staring.”

   “It’s fine, I don’t mind it. As long as it’s you that’s staring at me.”

   “What!?”

   “I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Can we just forget I said that?”

   “No. What do you mean by If I’m the one staring at you?”

   “Nothing, please just forget I said that.”

   “Wait no. Do you like me?”

   “Of course I like you. We’re friends are we not.”

   “I mean do you like me like me. Like you want to be more than friends.”

   “Maybe.” He tries to avoid eye contact.

   “Really.”

   “Yeah.”

   “How… how long have you felt this way?”

   “Awhile. Why does it matter?”

   “It matters because I feel the same way. I have since we met.”

   Shane pulls the car over and looks at me in shock. “You have!?”

   “Yeah, I have wanted to tell you but I didn’t think you felt the same.”

   Shane suddenly leans over and kisses me. I kiss him back and wrap my arms around him in reply. I feel a fire rush threw my body again, but this time it is different. It feels so passionate and welcomed. I hope this feeling never ends.

   He pulls away “Ok, that was um.”

   “Great.” I smile as the word gently passes through my lips.

   “Yeah, great!” He continues to look at me. “We should get going if we are going to be on time.”

   “Ok.”

   He starts the car, and before pulling away, reaches over and grabs my hand. “Do you mind?”

   “No, I don’t mind.”

   It takes us about ten minutes to get to school. The whole time Shane never let go of my hand. I never want him to.

   “Shane, what is this?”

   “What is what?”

   “You and me, what are we?”

   “I don’t know. What I do know is that I want to be your boyfriend.”

   “So we are dating?”

   “Yeah.”

   “Now we need to talk about what we are going to tell Ashley. She’s my best friend I tell her everything. I can’t keep this from her.”

   “I know; we will tell her.”  He says with the most beautiful smile on his face.

   “Ok, but let me tell her.”

   “Alright. On another note, will you go to prom with me?”

   “Yes I will go to the prom with you!!!”

   We both get out of the car. Ashley was waiting for us. “Hey Ashley” we both say in unison with a smile.

   “Hey you two. What’s with the grinning?”

   “Nothing” my reply makes me smile more.

   “Really, so you're both extremely happy and have no reason to be happy?”

   Shane wraps his arm around her shoulders “just go with it.”

   “So there is a reason and you’re not going to tell me.”

   Shane and I reply in unison “basically”.

   “Great.”

   We head to our lockers. On our way there Shane tries to grab my hand but I glare at him and he stops. I wanted him to take my hand, but we need to tell Ashley first. I hate myself for stopping him. I just want to feel his touch again. I never want the fire to go away.

   Shane sits in front of me in Spanish. He keeps looking back at me grinning. I smile in reply every time.

   I feel like somebody's watching me. I look over to the other side of the classroom. It’s David. He is just sitting there staring at me and he looks mad. Why is he staring at me and why does he look mad? The bell rings.

   Shane and I start to leave the classroom when David walks up to us. “Hey Willow, Shane”.

   “Let us through David” Shane gets in between David and I.

   “Come on, I am just trying to have a friendly conversation.”

   “Yeah right,” the words just blurt out of my mouth.

   “Fine,” David turns and walks away.

   Shane looks at me “You ok?”

   “Yeah, let’s get going.”

   We started walking down the hall. “So, are you going to tell Ashley like we planned?” Shane asked.

   “Yeah, but I don’t know how she is going to take it.” I say with a slight frown on my face.

   Shane grabs my hand. “What is it?”

   “Ashley has been my friend for years. We have always gone to things like this together. I don’t want it to seem like I am ditching her for you.”

   “It won’t. Just explain it to her, she will understand.”

   “Alright.”

   I enter the courtyard, Shane stayed back so I could talk to Ashley. I see Ashley sitting next to the bushes across the courtyard. “Hey Ashley” I say as I sit down.

   “Hey where is Shane?”

   “Bathroom.”

   “Ok. Are you going to tell me why you and Shane were acting so weird this morning?”

   “Actually yeah, I was wanting to talk to you about that.”

   “Go on.” Ashley says seeming interested in what I have to say.

   “Well….” I hesitate to tell Ashley about me and Shane. Why is this so hard?

   “Come on just spit it out.”

   “Shane and I we’re together.”

   “Together, like dating?” Her eyes get wide as the words pass through her lips.

   “Yeah.”

   “Since when?”

   “This morning.” I can’t help but smile when I think of what happened this morning is Shane’s car.

   “You really like him?”

   “Yes, and he feels the same way. So you’re ok with it?”

   “Of course as long as he doesn’t hurt you I am fine with it.”

   “That’s good, but there is one more thing.”

   “What?”

   “I’m going to the dance with Shane. He asked me.”

   “I thought we were going together?”

   “We were, he just asked me this morning. I’m sorry.”

   “It’s ok. I shouldn’t get mad.”

   “So we are good?”

   “Yeah we’re good.”

   We see Shane walking towards us. “Hey Shane” Ashley says.

   “Hey” Shane looks at me and I nod.

   “Shane, just to let you know if you hurt her I hurt you, got it.” Ashley’s face looks so serious it’s funny.

   “Got it. I’m not going to hurt her.”

   “Good.”

   Shane sits next to me in the grass. I can’t help but smile. I take his hand in mine and he smiles back. I love him.

   The rest of the school day goes good. There are no more run-ins with David. Thank God.

   Shane drives me home. “Thanks for the ride.”

   “No problem.’

   “Do you want to come in?”

   “Yeah. Will your mom mind?”

   “She’s not home.”

   “Where is she?”

   “Work. She won’t be back until around ten thirty or eleven tonight.”

   “Ok.”

   We walk inside. “So where does your mom work?” Shane asks.

   “She is a nurse at the ER.”

   “How often is she on the night shift?’

   “Every other night except for the weekends.”

   “That’s a lot.”

   “Yeah. The ER only has three or four nurses so my mom and one of the others split up the week, and the other two work the weekends.”

   We walk up the stairs to my room. I put my bag on its hook. Shane sits on the bed. He has been in my room before but this time he seems different. “So what do you want to do? We could Study or watch a movie.”

   “How about a movie.”

   “Which one?” I point to the bookcase next to my desk.

   Shane walked over to the bookcase and started to look through the movies. “These are all horror or action movies.”

   “So what.”

   “Nothing I just figured most of them were chick flicks or something.”

   “God no. I hate those kind of movies.”

   “Me two. Why don’t we watch The Conjuring? I haven’t watched it yet.”

   “Good choice. I love this movie.”

   We walk into the living room. “You want to put in the movie and I’ll get the popcorn.”

   “Yeah.”

   I walk into the kitchen, get the popcorn out of the cabinet and put it in the microwave. For some reason I’m nervous. Shane has been over before but we were just friends then. What going to happen? Do I want something to happen?

I jump when I hear the beep from the microwave. I put the popcorn in a bowl and walk back to the living room.

   “Popcorn” I say entering the living room.

Shane starts the movie as I sit the popcorn on the coffee table. I watch him as he walks back to the couch.

“You're staring again” he says looking at me.

“Oh God, sorry.” I start to blush as I look away

“No need to apologize.”

Shane sits down and puts his arm around me. I lean onto him in reply. This is the first time we have gotten this close. The wildfire starts up again.

I look at Shane and he is looking at me. My eyes meet his. He leans towards me and presses his lips against mine. The kiss is so passionate that I feel like I am melting into him.

He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me closer as we kiss. My body is on fire. He lays me on my back. I want him but this is too soon. “Shane” I say fighting against my own will.

“Yes” he replies before kissing my neck.

It feels right but I can’t “We should wait.”

He stops and looks at me “you're right, I got carried away. I’m sorry.”

 “You don’t need to apologize. I want to, I do, but I think it’s too soon.”

“Yeah me too.”

“You’re not mad.”

“No I’m not mad.” He kisses me again then gets up.

I sit up. I’m such an idiot. He probably hates me now. I don’t want him to hate me. “Shane?”

“Yeah.” He doesn’t even look at me.

“Are you sure you’re not mad? Because I feel like you are.”

“I’m sure I am not mad. I agree that it’s too soon and we should wait.”  He looks at me and grabs my hand. “I’m not mad.”

“Ok.”

Shane puts his arm around me again. We just sit and finish the movie. I want to be closer to him. I want to feel his body against mine, but this is as close as we can get for now.

We finish the movie. Shane probably jumped twenty times before the movie finished. Although he denied it every single time.

The phone rings “Hello?” I answer the phone and I can hear breathing on the other side but there is no answer. “Hello? I can hear you breathing.” They hang up.

“Who was that?” Shane looks at me with a confused yet concerned look on his face.

“I don’t know. I could hear breathing but the person didn’t say anything.”

“Check the caller ID.”

I check the caller ID. “It says Unknown Caller and has no number.”

“That’s weird.”

“It was probably just a prank call.”

“Maybe, but just in case I should stay with you until your mom gets home.”

“I wouldn’t mind that…”

“I feel a ‘but’ coming on”

“…but if my mom found out you were here that late she would have a cow.”

“So bad idea?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I guess I should be heading home then.” He walks over wraps his arms around my hips and kisses me. “If you need anything call me or come over ok.”

“Ok.”

Shane leaves and I head up to my room. I sit at my desk and work on homework. Let’s see I have a work packet for chemistry and a test in physics to study for.

I hear a loud noise come from the hallway. I walk out of my room and get this weird feeling, somethings different. I look down the hall and notice something on the floor.

I slowly walk toward the object. It’s a picture frame. I look at the wall and saw where it was from. It must have fallen. I sigh a breath of relief  

I pick the frame and turn it over. What? Where is the picture?  The picture is missing.