It's a gentle kiss, lips slightly parted.
His lips meld into mine and I'm awed by the way they feel. They're soft, but firm- and it follows the trace of my own lips, like he's tracing them, mapping them out.
Kissing Cory is warm and simple, unlike Noah's possessive and demanding one that steals the breath from my lungs.
Holy shit.
I can't believe what's going on. I'm kissing Cory.
I'm kissing Cory.
I'm... wait. What the fuck. I'm kissing Cory!
Suddenly, an image of Noah flashes through my mind in a blur, startling me for a moment that I pull away from him so fast I almost trip and fall. Before I can do that, Cory circles his arms around me and catches me before I can stumble. We stare at each other, breathing heavily as I try to figure what the hell that was about.
I should be happy Cory kissed me, it's what I've always dreamt of. Then why did I see Noah's face when he kissed me? <
TWO YEARS AGO.Simone thought I'd gone insane in the head. Sometimes I felt like I had."Clarke's three years older than you. Don't be stupid. He's in College, you're a junior in high school," she sighed heavily. "Be reasonable."She kind of flipped when I told her about my new relationship with Lakeview's high former golden boy, Clarke Sherri. I thought she was just being jealous I got a boyfriend and she didn't."Age doesn't matter when two people are in love." Was my only valid excuse. She looked like she was tired of hearing that. "You should try it sometime, falling in love.""I can't even fall asleep. Look..." she was interrupted by some group of students in the cafeteria who repeatedly banged on their table to the tune of a song while singing. "HEY! No singing in the cafeteria. This isn't high school musical or some shit."They all stopped at once. Almost everyone felt intimidated by her height. I also wa
If I knew it was going to hurt this much, I wish I never laid my eyes on him.I see Noah's nostrils flare, and his eyes go a deeper shade of red than his usual blue-grey. All he needs are fangs to complete the look and bite my head off my neck.I've never seen him this angered, and I've never cried so much that my throat feels sore."You let him go to jail for something he didn't do—" He trails off, and a weird strangled sound comes from the back of his throat. "Do you have the slightest idea how much guilt I felt when I thought my brother went to jail because of me? All the months of being a family pariah..." He pauses, as if trying to get his emotions back in check.My hands are shaking as they try to pull the hairs out of my head. It feels like I'm drowning underwater, with air being knocked out of my aching lungs."I always wondered what happened that day, but he'd never tell me the full story.""I... I was scared—" I f
Consciousness comes slowly, by long, painfully disjointed degrees. Throughout the overly prolonged process, I feel strangely lightheaded, almost disembodied, as if I'm floating through space without having my body weigh me down.Is this what death feels like?I'm I dead?I don't think so, but the last thing I remember was bleeding. Bleeding a lot and feeling weaker and weaker.After that, everything was blank.Is heaven blank?Struggling, I try to push my eyelids up so that I can look around and find out where I am. But I feel as if my eyelids has been glued down. Not only that, but someone had put anvils on each of them for good measure. Otherwise, why couldn't I raise them at will?I become determined to open my eyes.Something tells that me if I don't open them, I'm going to fade away until there's nothing left of me but dust. Dust that would be blown off to another universe.&n
It's August twenty-one.A.K.A My sister's birthday. A.K.A two days before the hotel's thirtieth anniversary.A.K.A six days since I last saw Noah.I wake up a little after nine a.m on Thursday and prepare myself for the day ahead. I decide to go for a run this morning, wanting my thoughts to myself and not Lacey's relentless ranting. After six miles, I head upstairs to shower and get dressed to join the chefs in the kitchen for the preparations on the party.We had a week's break from our assigned works, but everyone is back to their duties since we've got the anniversary to prepare for. Staffs are allowed into the party this time. No need for sneaking in.I slip on an apron and whip up the cream cheese icing for the cake. I curse myself for thinking of Noah at the sight of them and whip faster. It makes me remember when we tried to bake a cake and failed drastically at it.I suddenly have a craving for
I awake groggily to the sound of my cellphone. It's been ringing for awhile, and I've been ignoring it for awhile. The sound however, manages to sweep through my REM activity and become part of my dream soundtrack, forcing me to wake up.I look up for the clock. It's ten in the morning. The room's tidied up from the mess we made of it last night. Lacey and Simone are nowhere to be found, and the Llama's still by my bedside, staring at me like it needs more underwear's.The phone rings again. As I take it, I make a mental note to change the alarm into some meditation music next time. "Hello?""Allie," The voice on the other end is Lacey. "The event is about to start. Get your ass down here.""What?" I rub my temples to hold off the painful headache from the hangover."Anniversary. Party. Today. Ring a bell?"Lacey usually has a nice voice, but when you have just literally been woken up two minutes ago, even the most beautifu
"Allie and Noah sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Lacey dodges a pillow I aim at her face. "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage.""I have never been this humiliated in my entire life.""Come on, it was romantic," Lacey says dreamily and bats her lashes."Define Romantic.""I bet he was swept off his feet."I dramatically fling myself on the bed and spread out my limbs. "My life is over."Let's get one thing very clear, especially now that a certain plague with the name Noah Gallagher is now fast spreading through my life like the Coronavirus. Even though I'm the kind of girl who likes to blend into the crowd and attract attention, I like my privacy sometimes. Most of the time. The purpose of this brief explanation is to highlight how frustrating it is to be constantly watched. Eyes follow me everywhere I go after my drunken confession was broadcasted to the world. Ok not the world, just hu
I don't speak.I don't say a word even though I know perfectly well who it is. How did he manage to find me? It's completely dark and he could've mistaken me for someone else.Being trapped in a closed up space with someone you've been hell bent on avoiding has to be one of the awkwardest things ever."You scared me." I manage to say."You're handling it well.""I was this close to screaming your ears out.""Remind me to gag you next time." He moves backwards so that our breaths are no longer mingling. "Could we please address the elephant in the room?"I play dumb. "What elephant? I don't see any elephant.""You've been sneaking through the walls of the hotel, hiding from God knows what.""I just figured things would no longer be the same after finding out your brother's in prison because of me." A sigh leaves my mouth and I rest the back of my head on the wall. "It's okay to be mad a
"Oh. My." Is all I can say. Almost all I'd managed to say since we'd driven to the Mountain King Spa and Resort. And by 'we' I mean Lacey, Simone and I.The main lodge of the Spa spreads for acres, glass and wood and clever pebbled paths through evergreens and heated pools where steam curls in dreamy mists.I clutch the strap of my purse tightly as we check in, my head swiveling in wonder around the plush lobby with it's double fireplace, atrium ceiling, and lush plants.They somehow managed to drag me down here for a proper clean-up after I told them about my not so official date with Noah. I wasn't even half as excited about it as they were, and it's almost as if they've been planning this for a long time.Lacey greets the desk clerk with a friendly smile, calls him by name, and chats easily about how much she and her companion had enjoyed their stay earlier in the season.He all but simpers over her, calling up a bellman