by Lilly Purdon
“Are you saying I'm not?!” I gasped. “Did something happen Thursday night?!” I threw my hands up in the air, cutting him off before he had the chance to speak. “At your party! Did you just tell me something didn’t happen to prevent me from freaking out?!”
Everything felt jumbled up at the moment. I didn't know what to think or how to act. And there I stood in front of a junk yard with the badass I had been in love with for years.
“You really don’t remember what happened that night?”
I shook my head in reply.
“What do you think happened?” he questioned warily.
“I don't know!” I yelled in reply. “That's why I'm asking you! I wouldn't ask you in the first place now would I?”
“Calm down-”
“So what happened? D-Did anything h-happen between u-us?” I asked while stuttering.
“Don’t dwell on it. Nothing happened.”
His answer was too short for my liking. “Nothing at all?”
He nodded.
The way he avoided my eye contact and the way his emerald green eyes looked deep in thought made me suspect he was hiding something from me, but I didn't push it further.
He’d tell me sooner or later… right?
“So why are we at a junk yard?”
“I need to show you something,” he walked up to the gate and untangled the chains before pushing the gates open. “Ladies first,” he gestured me to go through first.
“Is that just a polite way of saying 'get in front of me while I check out your ass'?” I walked passed him.
“Pretty much,” he shrugged with a small smile.
“Pervert!” I rasied a hand up to smack him, but he caught it in time.
“You love it though,” he smirked making my cheeks heat up.
I looked around and all I saw were piles of junk everywhere. Thank god it wasn't completely dark though, or I would've thought he really wanted to murder me.
I mean, lights or no lights he could’ve kill me if he wanted to anyway. There were a few lights scattered about the place, but I didn’t want to go anywhere near those lights because the bugs were swarming the lights like there was no tomorrow. I was surprised there were still many bugs due to how chilly it was.
I walked forward but tripped on a piece of scrap metal on the ground. Luckily, Axel caught my waist and hoisted me up so I was standing again. “Thanks,” I said brushing the dust I couldn’t see off my shirt.
He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine. “Just so you don't fall,” he said. My hand felt so small in his. His hand was so warm, and though his palm was rough, his fingertips were so soft.
What'd he use to moisturize his hands? I really needed the moisturizer he used for his fingertips... We walked through the junk yard and passed gigantic mounds of junk. No wonder there's global warming.
“Have you ever climbed a tree?” he suddenly asked.
I turned to him, slightly confused. “Is that a trick question?”
“No, it's a serious question. Have you ever climbed a tree?”
“Of course, but Jaxon helped me…” I trailed off. Thinking of Jaxon made my blood boil and my heart clench at the same time. I felt Axel's muscles tense at the mention of Jaxon.
“I'll help you this time.”
“Woah! We're climbing?”
“Yeah,” he said as we walked into a dark area with no lights.
“Uh, Axel… I can’t see any trees…” my eyes traveled through the dark even though I couldn't see anything.
We stopped our tracks in front of the largest pile of junk I have ever seen up close in my life, “Rosie.”
“Axel, there are no trees to climb here.”
“No shit,” he snickered.
“Then what the hell are we supposed to climb?”
“What do you see?”
“Nothing right now.”
“What did you see when we got here?”
“Nothing, just piles of junk...” I trailed off. I froze when I realized what he was trying to tell me. Oh no hell no…
“Exactly,” he replied smugly. Oh no we weren't! There was no way in hell I would ever climb up a pile of junk in a freaking junk yard! Not even if the hottest guy on Earth (which was Axel) was going to get me to go up there!
He squeezed my hand making it tingle even more. “It’s not that bad.”
Okay, maybe I was completely lying to myself about not going up there with the hottest guy on Earth. I was really whipped. Fu-
~*~
Chapter 35 TEQUILA & FIREFLIES
“Ladies first,” Axel said while letting go of my hand and grabbing my waist.
“It's too dark to see my ass, you know?”
“Near the top it won't be as dark,” he nudged me towards the large pile of junk. “Consider yourself lucky you aren’t wearing a skirt.”
“Leggings are just as bad,” I grumbled before wiggling out of his iron grip.
It wasn't that steep of a climb to be honest, it was like climbing up a hill. I took careful blind steps up the pile of junk. Surprisingly it wasn't that bad. I heard the scraps of junk crunch beneath my feet. Stepping on the tires were the most stable. The hard rubber beneath my feet gave me comfort that I wouldn’t fall through. Thank god I had sneakers on.
“Keep going,” Axel said from somewhere below me. I bit my lip and concentrated on taking my steps. I took slow steady steps to make sure I wouldn't fall through the junk. I didn’t want to fall on Axel.
My inner self giggled at the thought. Of course I wanted to fall on Axel. I wanted to feel his hard toned body pressed up against mine. I mentally slapped myself, now wasn't the right time to fantasize about him. “About that box turtle porn...” his voice was laced with amusement.
“Drop it, Axel.”
“Aw, you're not calling me prince?” I could just imagine him pouting while saying that.
“Why, you want me to?” I retorted while climbing the pile of junk.
“Someone's grumpy.”
“No thanks to you.” I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see it. “Why are we even climbing this.”
“I’m just tryna’ get a good look at your ass.”
I pursed my lips, trying to avoid any pieces of metal that I’d fall through.
“You're grumpy because I'm staring at your ass?” he asked, sounding amused. “Sorry, it's just so hard to keep my eyes off that beauty.”
“No-yes-no-that's not the reason I'm grumpy,” I snapped, “I’m just tryna’ concentrate here.”
“What do you need to concentrate for? I could climb this pile of shit with my eyes closed.”
I rolled my eyes at him even though I knew he couldn’t see it.
“Quit rolling your eyes.”
Was he psychic?
Before I could even reply, he took the opportunity to say more.
“I know you a little better than you think I do,” he chuckled.
He did?
After taking a few more steps up I was on top of the pile of junk. There was a couch sitting on the top. How the hell did someone get a couch up here? It looked dangerous as hell.
“How'd you get this thing up here?” I asked, slightly shocked at the old couch in front of me.
“Magic,” he said before pulling out his lighter. He grabbed an old jar from beside the couch with a candle in it and lit the candle up making the place glow a little brighter. I could see his face clearly above the candle light.
“There is no such thing as magic,” I replied before taking a seat on the old couch. It looked really dirty, but my legs were killing me. I was too afraid to shift in the seat, was the thing even stable?
He gasped, “You just killed a fairy.”
He was lucky he had his bad boy image, or everyone would assume he was a softy. Considering he quoted Peter Pan and fairies.
“The bad boy watched Peter Pan?”
“We were all kids once, oh- and be my guest, take a seat,” he said sarcastically since I wa
s already seated. He plopped down next to me, making the sofa dip. I almost had a heart attack. I didn’t want the sofa to end up sliding off the hill of junk.
“How romantic,” I said in a flat tone.
“That's a first,” he smirked before looking away and staring at the view in front of us, “impressive, ain’t it?”
I turned and looked at the view in front of us. The sky was dark but a million stars shone bright in the sky. Okay, I was exaggerating again. But the number of stars shining in the sky was just amazing. I had never seen so many stars in the sky before. Around us we were surrounded by nothing but fields. A few house lights shone here and there. We were really far out in the country.
Below us a few lights shone but disappeared quickly.
“Fireflies,” he whispered in my ear.
I turned to look at him, but my nose brushed his nose making my face heat up. He bent over to the jar with the candle and put it behind the couch, letting the dark surround around us.
“Why'd you do that for? Now I can't-”
Suddenly, a small bright light shone in front of me making me shut up. A little firefly was flying passed us. I stared at it in awe, everything I was going to say about the dark before disappeared in my throat. “They fly up this high?” I whispered, staring at the firefly. I had never been high up in the sky outdoors before. It was definitely something new for me.
“You look so young when you're all fascinated,” he chuckled while staring at me.
“Is that an insult or a compliment?” I stared into his emerald green eyes that shone bright in the dark. I was captivated by him. My heart was beating rapidly against my chest. I swear, I almost had a heart attack.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
“Compliment,” he replied, still staring at me.
Suddenly he turned around, leaving me feeling empty inside. He got up and lifted up a pillow beneath him revealing a bottle of Tequila. He grabbed the bottle and sat back down.
“First swing?” he popped the cap off and offered the bottle to me.
I was about to deny his offer, but everything about Cleo and Jaxon flooded back to me. I accepted the bottle from him and took a swing from it. The liquid burned my throat as it went down. It stung at first, but the feeling after was worth it. I coughed after drinking it before passing the bottle back to him.
“I’m a terrible influence,” he said to himself.
“If it weren’t for you, I’d probably be doing worse.”
He covered up his guilt by taking a swing from the bottle. “I’m corrupting an innocent princess.”
Every time he called me princess, my heart fluttered crazily. Call me corny, but it was true. It was probably just a random nickname from the events that occurred, but I just couldn't help but to feel special.
I bit my lip while staring at his perfect form. Prince Charming drinking tequila, I've never heard that before. I giggled at the thought. Axel turned to me with raised eyebrows. “Are you giggling at me?”
I giggled even more, “maybe.”
“Princess Flower dares to laugh at Prince Badass?” he joked.
“I am stronger than you think I am, Prince.” I meant it as a joke, but he took it seriously.
His eyes suddenly softened, “I know.” He looked away. “I'm sorry for all those times at school when I didn't help you. I was just- I didn't know how to react or what to do around you. I usually keep to myself-”
I pressed my index finger against his soft lips. “It's okay, you didn't know me. You didn’t notice me.” I laughed, but he frowned.
“That's not true, I noticed you since the first day of school.”
I rolled my eyes at him, “sure," I said in an unconvincing tone, “you wouldn’t notice someone like me.”
“But I did-”
I wasn’t buying it, “prove it.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, but if you really did notice me… then prove it.”
I was fully convinced he didn’t notice I existed until this year. He had never glanced my way. He was just trying to make me feel better about myself.
“First day of school… middle school. I remember it pretty well. You were wearing a pair of shorts, an oversized white t-shirt that said ‘Princess’, and a pair of black high top converse. You had your hair up in a ponytail, and had blue bands in your braces.
You walked through the school doors with some kid who had a ginger afro- which I soon later learned his name was Jaxon. I saw you talk to Layla on the first day of school since she was new too. You told her your name and she disliked you immediately.
You met your emo friend in the school cafeteria while you were throwing your trash away. You two became friends right away because she was an outcast like you. You never got in trouble. You seemed to not mind being off the radar at school… self defense mechanism if you ask me.
Freshman year Layla threw a math text book in your direction and it hit your face. That gave you a black eye, and Matt tripped you, giving you a bruise right in the middle of your forehead. I'm not going to mention all the horrible things they did to you… this is just to prove that yes, I did notice you. And just about 3 weeks ago, or less than that, I witnessed you getting soup dumped on you when you were standing in line right behind me,” he finished. “I had to get out of there to stop myself from punching the bitch right in the face.”
My mouth hung open in shock.
He noticed me.
He noticed everything.
Even the slightest details I barely remembered…
He did.
From what I wore from the first day of middle school… to the things that happened during freshman year… till now…
He saw everything.
I was left speechless after his little speech. I didn't know what to think.
My head was a giant mess right now. I didn't know what to think, I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to feel. A little part of me was angry at him for not stepping in to help me at all, but he had his own problems at home.
“I-I-” I stuttered, not knowing what to say.
He left me speechless. How come he had that effect on me when no one else did? I grabbed the bottle and took a swing from it. The liquid still burned down my throat, but it wasn't as bad as the first time. It actually made me think straight.
“Still speechless?” he smirked at me.
“You wish.”
“Well then Princess, my wish came true.”
“Whatever, ass,” I chuckled, because his initials did spell ass. “Or should I say, Prince Boner.”