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Beautiful With You Part Ten |
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Chapter Ten
After Jade answered question after question, which most likely would lead nowhere, Norman thanked them for her, since at that point, she was too shaken up and now annoyed by the useless questions to say anything at all. It was pretty cold that night and Jade had forgotten her jacket at home. The two of them walked together to the parking lot and a gust of wind came and went and Jade shivered a little. Without breaking stride, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around her. She felt her cheeks burn and it warmed up the rest of her body but she kept the jacket on anyway until she got into her car.
“Thank you,” she said. He took it from her and she closed the door but rolled down her window so she could still talk to him. He just kind of stood there and had nothing really to say. Jade couldn’t blame him because she was at a real loss for words too. He finally stuffed his hands in his pockets and picked a little pebble, “Um, are-are you hungry at all? I mean, I feel kinda bad that your night has been so crappy and well I thought maybe I could-”
“Let’s go eat,” Jade stopped him before he could babble any longer and she started her car, “Just follow me. I’ll drop my car off at home and then we can go.”
Norman did as she told him and followed her back to the house, though he stopped at the end of the street so Jade’s parents wouldn’t ask any questions. This was just supposed to be a friendly thing. Nothing more than that. Jade came into the house to greet her Boston Terrier jumping all over her. Her mom came from the kitchen wiping her hands on a hand towel, “You aren’t supposed to be back for awhile. What’s wrong?”
Jade paused, trying to think of a story to tell her mom. She definitely didn’t need her mom finding out about what went down tonight. Her mom would freak out when the situation had already been handled…kind of, “Oh class was cancelled. So I’m going out to dinner.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know,” Jade shrugged as she grabbed her jacket out from underneath her Boston Terrier, who just rolled onto her back and then wiggled around until she was on her feet again, “A place.”
“With who?”
“A friend Mom goddamn!” Jade snapped as she headed out the door. She was already down the street by the time her mom came out onto the porch calling her name. Jade’s mom didn’t need to know that she was going to dinner with her professor. It was a tiny insignificant detail. Jade got into Norman’s car and fastened her seatbelt, “So, where are we going?”
Without responding, Norman started the car and ignored her constant questions as he pulled into the street and started driving. She nudged him, repeated her question and finally he nudged her back with a laugh, “Don’t you understand I’m trying to surprise you?”
Jade stopped and folded her hands on her lap, “Oh. That did not occur to me. I thought you were just doing it to be an a**.”
“And why would I ignore you just to be an a**?” Norman asked, thinking she was joking. But the more he looked at her, the more he began to realize she was being serious.
“I don’t know. It’s something this guy I dated once would’ve done,” Jade became visibly tense and angry at the thought of him.
“Well I don’t play that kind of game,” he replied, “I just wanted to surprise you. But if you really wanna know.”
“No, no. I like surprises,” Jade looked at him out of the corner of her eye and offered him a small, reassuring smile, “This will be fun.”
He parked in front of a little Italian restaurant and it made Jade’s stomach jump excitedly, “I love Italian food!”
She jumped out of his car before he had a chance to respond to her. He put his keys and followed her inside. He laughed at her excitement as they were taken to their table, “I didn’t know you got so excited over Italian food.”
“I have a never ending love for pasta,” Jade said. The two of them ate and talked and laughed and it was nice to have a real conversation with another person. With David, she had to hear about music all the damn time but never really listened to her much at all. He somehow related something she said to music. Norman actually listened to what she said and didn’t interrupt their time together halfway through to go to band practice or to leave because of some band emergency. She managed to get through a whole meal and Norman was still sitting there across from her. She hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time. She’d completely forgotten about tonight’s events.
When Norman pulled up to Jade’s street, he stopped the car and he got out of the car with her even though it was kind of pointless since he couldn’t walk her to her door like they both would’ve wanted. They both leaned against the car for awhile. Jade zipped up her jacket and wrapped her arms around his, “Thanks for everything. Despite what happened earlier, I feel a lot better thanks to you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, “I haven’t had such interesting conversations with a woman your age before. And ya know, I always like to go over to that place with a pretty girl on my arm.”
“So I’m not the only girl you’ve tried to win over with that restaurant?” Jade smirked playfully.
“Actually you are,” he replied, “I think it worked pretty well with your ‘never ending love for pasta’ and everything.”
“Well in case you weren’t sure,” Jade snuggled up closer to him and closed her eyes, “It did work. And it wasn’t just the pasta that won me over.”
Norman looked down at her with her arms wrapped onto his with no intention of letting go anytime soon. He grabbed her by her chin and lifted her head. He leaned forward and kissed her gently, moving his hand from her chin to the back of her head. Jade’s lips felt a burning sensation when they finally met his but the rest of her body was completely numb. It wasn’t until he finally broke away that she regained the feeling in her fingers and toes. She let go of his arm and he stroked her cheek, winking at her, “I’ll see you later.”
Norman placed a good-bye kiss on her cheek and got back into his car and he drove away. Jade stood at the corner of her street and watched his car until it turned and was gone and she was alone again. She was in a haze when she walked into the house, too happy and out of her mind to acknowledge the dog when she jumped all over her. Her mom was already in bed so Jade was able to go into her bedroom before she was bombarded with questions. She opened her window to let some cool air into her bedroom and she rested her head on the windowsill, resting her eyes while the nice autumn breeze cooled off her burning face. When she opened her eyes, she saw that black figure standing across the street next to the streetlamp. She squinted, trying her hardest to see who it had followed her through campus and who was now standing on her street. How did they even know where she lived?! She slammed the window shut and closed the curtains. She slid down the wall, losing her breath again. She turned off her light so everyone in the house would just assume she was asleep and leave her alone.
Maya went back to Richard’s class in the early evening after her last class. Richard had been waiting for her and was sitting at his desk when she came in. He motioned to the door slowly closing behind her, “Lock the door.”
She did as he said and after she did, he stood up and came towards her and hugged her, kissing her tenderly. She reached up and stroked his beard again, smiling under his kiss.
“Why do you love my beard so much?” he asked, slightly muffled under her lips.
“I don’t know,” she shrugged and kissed him harder, “But don’t question it. And don’t ever shave the beard.”
They didn’t speak after that. Their kissing became intense and rough. Their tongues fought for dominance, though he seemed to win every time. He grabbed her gruffly by the hips and pulled her against him. When their bodies made contact, he pulled away and put as much distance between them as he could. Maya threw her arms up and scoffed, “Richard! What’s wrong now?”
“Last time we went too far, we almost got caught,” he said, “This time it was just your ex-boyfriend. Next time it could be a student or another teacher or the dean.”
“So what? We can’t have any kind of show of affection?” Maya grumbled.
“I didn’t say that,” he said, “Just…not here. We can’t do this here. If it’s going to happen, we need to do it right.”
“It just so happens that I live alone,” Maya said, “Will that work for you?”
Richard nodded, “It would. Now I have a lot of work to do. I’ll see you later Maya.”
Maya unlocked the door and opened it, smiling at him over her shoulder, “Yeah. I’ll see ya.”
Maya pulled up her driveway and rubbed her tired eyes as she got out. She had to find the energy to study even though she really wanted to sleep. She yawned as she held her house key up, readying herself to stick it in the lock. When she stepped onto her porch, there was Frank sitting on the bench by the front door. He had his head leaned against the wall, sleeping soundly. She reached out and poked him in the stomach with her key, which woke him up immediately, “Maya! I’m glad you’re home!”
“Frank what are you doing here?”
“I just wanna talk. Please.”
Maya sighed and after a minute of consideration sat down next to him, “Ok. Talk. You’ve got five minutes.”
Audrey headed straight for her dorm room after class. Normally she’d be with Tom now working on their project together but it was almost done and it wasn’t close to being done so they’d agreed a day off wouldn’t hurt them at all. And not only that, they tried to tone down the kissing on campus but their attempts were always futile and they always ended up kissing each other with their hands all over each other. She was just going to study and try not to think too much about Tom, though that’s where her thoughts usually ended up halfway through her study session.
Kelsey came in about an hour after Audrey began studying, “Hey Audrey. How’s your project with Professor Brooks going?”
“Great. We’re almost done,” she said, “And it isn’t due until the end of the semester.”
“I heard he got in trouble with the dean,” Kelsey’s shoulders fell and she looked down at her bed awkwardly, “I feel really bad.”
“Why would you feel bad?” Audrey asked.
“Well, I heard you in your dorm room talking a couple weeks ago and um…” Kelsey’s voice trailed off and she didn’t say another word. Audrey stood up slowly and pointed, “You started this? Oh my god Kelsey people think I flirted with Brooks to be able to work with him!”
“They don’t think that you flirted with him for the opportunity,” Kelsey said.
“They don’t?”
“Oh no. They think you did more than that,” Kelsey saw she wasn’t exactly making Audrey feel better so she continued on, “I’m really sorry Audrey. I didn’t think the poor guy was gonna get in trouble!”
“It was still horrible of you to go around and tell people my secret!” she said, “People around here think I do horrible things to get my way! I don’t want to be seen as some kind of slut!”
Audrey stormed out of the dorm room, shielding her eyes from the few people that stared at her like she was a disease. Because of Kelsey, people thought she did god knows what to get the opportunity Tom had given her. And there was no way to set them straight. No one would believe her and it could put Tom at risk. She had to take some blame too. She shouldn’t have talked about him so casually in her dorm, knowing Kelsey could walk in at any minute. She just wished she could take it all back, or at least make it so Tom’s name wasn’t trashed along with hers.
Again, didn't know what to do with Audrey in this current moment Pulling her stories out of my a** LOL
Rockstar_Angel17 · Mon Aug 19, 2013 @ 05:54am · 0 Comments |
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