Contagious Chemistry by Sian Webster (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

was still asking for permission. I took my arms from around his neck and pulled my jumper over my head and tugged my arms out of the sleeves before returning my lips to his. Instead of putting my arms back around his neck where they had been before, I found myself undoing the buttons down the front of his school shirt. He gasped against my lips when he realised what I was doing.
“Absidy, I don’t think–” He started to say.
“I don’t care,”
Alex’s eyes widened and he brought his lips back to mine, even more urgent than before. He shrugged his school shirt off his shoulders and was left wearing a plain white t-shirt. Just as I started fumbling around with the hem of his undershirt, I heard footsteps coming towards the store room. Alex must have heard them too because in a matter of seconds we had sprung apart and he had his school shirt back on and was standing up. I hastily grabbed my jumper, throwing it over my head, and stood up with him.
Only seconds after I had stood up, the store room door opened and Mr Stewart stood in the doorway. I spoke before he could say anything.
“Mr Stewart, thank goodness! My friend locked Alex and I in here as a practical joke and we’ve been stuck in here all period!” I said dramatically.
Just as I finished speaking, the bell for second break went off and I squeezed past Mr Stewart and out of the tiny store room, glad to have some fresh air.
“Thanks again, Mr Stewart!” I called as I ran down the stairs, pulling my hair out of its pony tail and shaking it around my shoulders, hopefully getting out most of the glitter as I went.
12. Intense Interrogations

I got to the group of tables before any of the other girls even got out of their classrooms, thankfully. I lay down on top of the table, resting my head on top of my folded arms, the wind blowing my hair around me.
“Hey,” Someone said softly as they sat near me on the table. It was Jeremy. I could’ve done without talking to him at that moment, but I didn’t really have much of a choice.
“Hey,” I replied, not moving or rolling over to look at him. I barely trusted my voice, let alone my face. If I looked at him, he’d instantly know something was wrong. For once, I cursed how he was able to read me like an open book.
“What’s wrong?” He asked curiously.
“Just tired,” I lied.
“You should go to sleep at night then,” He joked.
“Sleep is for the weak!” I mumbled, sitting up, hoping he got my Bring Me the Horizon reference. If he did, he ignored it. The wind caught my hair and he grabbed a strand.
“How’d you get glitter in your hair?” He asked curiously. “You just had geography, not art.”
My heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know,” I said simply. “I didn’t even know it was there.”
“Did you see any weirdos throwing glitter down the stairwell?” He asked.
“No,” I said in perplexity.
“It was just an idea!” He said, putting his hands up in surrender.
I laughed and hid my face in my hands, hoping he didn’t notice I was acting strangely.
“Well,” he started, “I have to go and talk to Mr Howard, but I’ll be back soon.”
“Do you have a detention, Mr Taylor?” I teased.
He rolled his eyes at me. “Stay sparkly.” He winked before walking off.
When he was gone, the girls pounced on me.
“Where on earth did you go? Because you most certainly weren’t in geography – I was a complete loner!” Emily complained at me.
“I’m sorry!” I exclaimed. “I was feeling sick so I went to have a lie down in the sick bay.”
“What was it, AIDS?” Stacy snickered.
“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, Stacy?” I smirked.
Emily twirled a strand of my hair around her finger, and I cursed internally, knowing exactly what she’d say next.
“What? Does the sick bay now stuff their pillows with glitter?” She asked pointedly.
“No,” I scoffed.
Before she could reply, Casey ran up to us and almost fell onto the bench.
“Oh my god,” She breathed. “Did you guys see Alex just run out of the geography block a couple of minutes ago? He looked really attractive, I swear, I nearly couldn’t breathe! I mean, his hair was all ruffled up and his shirt was buttoned up wrong and he had glitter in his hair… I wonder how that—”
She stopped. She had just noticed the glitter in my hair. One by one, it slowly clicked in each of the girls’ heads. When I looked at Breanna, she looked like she was about ready to murder the entire school.
Meanwhile, all the girls were having a rushed screaming conversation and all I could get from it was my name and Alex’s. Nora turned to me.
“Hey, Abby, wasn’t your hair up in a ponytail before you went to geography?” She asked me. She must have heard Jeremy call me Abby before. To be honest, I liked Abby much more than I liked Dee, and Breanna didn’t look too impressed that no one was using the nickname for me that she came up with.
“Yeah…” I said slowly. “But… it was annoying me, so I took it down.”
Emily looked at my face, regarding me with scrutiny. “I think you mean Alex took it down for you because he likes it hot.” She smirked.
I sighed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get away with lying to them anymore. “Actually, I took my hair down myself after I ran out of that stupid store room he accidentally locked us in for the entire period, in a desperate attempt to get all of the glitter out of my hair.”
“He locked you in a store room?”
“You were locked in a store room with Alex Parker?”
“The whole period?”
“He wanted to talk to me. He asked me why I was hanging out with you guys. I slapped him on the face and tried to leave but the door was locked from the outside and we couldn’t get out. We were waiting for someone, like a teacher or something, to come and unlock the door to get something, and… he kissed me.”
“Well,” Breanna almost growled. “That is a bit of a predicament.”
All the other girls ignored her. They were too busy screaming about what I had told them. I heard a million questions being screamed at me from every direction, but couldn’t make out any of them. I looked at Emily in earnest.
“Everybody shut up!” She yelled over the noise. She continued when the girls were quiet. “Now, one at a time. Casey, you can start.”
All eyes suddenly turned to Casey expectantly.
“Did you kiss him back?” She asked, a huge smile on her face.
My eyes widened; I didn’t know whether to answer truthfully or not with Breanna there. “Uh…”
“Now girls, a lesson for you; in Absidy language, that means ‘yes but I don’t particularly want to admit it.’” Stacy smirked.
I blushed and looked at the floor. Once again, the girls started screaming.
“Roll up! Roll Up! Who’s next in line to interrogate Abby Tate?” Emily laughed.
A girl with long, wavy black hair stepped forward. I was pretty sure her name was Rachel. “Is he a good kisser?”
I racked my brain for an answer. I didn’t have one. “No comment.”
The girls laughed and Nora stepped forward. “How did you guys get glitter in your hair?”
“Uh, well,” I started, “We were sitting on the floor of the store room when he kissed me and I kinda pushed him backwards and he hit his head on the bottom shelf. There must’ve been glitter on one of the shelves that was higher up because I heard something fall over and the next thing I knew, we were getting covered in glitter.”
A girl called Kaitlin stepped forward next. “Who unlocked the store room and let you guys out?”
“Mr Stewart.” I laughed. “My maths teacher who knows how much I hate Alex.”
Next was a girl called Sam with long, brown straight hair. “What did Mr Stewart say when he opened the door?”
I laughed again. “I don’t actually know – I didn’t really stick around, but I told him one of my friends had locked us in there as like, a prank, or something.”
“Did he catch you two kissing?” The next girl, whose name I couldn’t remember, asked me.
“Luckily, no. He didn’t.”
Now it was Stacy’s turn. “Why did you kiss him if you hate him?”
“I… Uh…” I honestly had no answer to that one. “Pass.”
Stacy laughed loudly and moved off.
“Did you like kissing him?” Emily asked with a smirk on her face.
“Maybe?” I answered, though it sounded more like a question.
Finally it was Breanna’s turn. “I thought you were dating Jeremy?”
Every person in the group shut up when Breanna said that. Most of them looked incredibly guilty for saying that they were all probably used to ruining someone’s life. Yet they seemed to care quite a bit about Jeremy’s feelings.
“It’s not really… official,” I pointed out. “But you all have to promise me that none of you will speak a word of this to him. Ever.”
Everybody mumbled promises and agreements.
“What are we agreeing on, girls?” Jeremy walked up to our group, clearly having finished his detention.
“Just how lovely we all think you are,” I smiled, standing on my tip-toes and kissing him on the cheek.
“Why thank you,” He winked.
“No need to get cocky, Mr Taylor,” I smirked.
“Since when have I been the cocky one in this relationship?” He scoffed.
I punched him in the arm and turned back around to face the girls for a fraction of a second, my expression telling them all one thing; Jeremy considered our relationship official.
Shit.

13. The Real Absidy