Stay Close, Don't Go

Until Monday, my thoughts had been mainly consumed by my Saturday with Tom to the point that I had almost forgotten about my little spat with Mercy on Friday, but I guess she hadn’t. In class first hour, she was still shooting me those annoying glares like she knew everything. What a mental case.

Though Janie was obviously more Mercy’s friend than mine, and had been longer, she was still standing behind her and shrugging at me, sticking her tongue out at Mercy.

During class while Mr. Preston was talking, I kept all my attention on him and didn’t allow myself to look over at Tom. After our little awkward moment in his backyard, we started to work on the project before I made some lame excuse to leave. Now, I was suddenly shy all over again when he was around.

“I want yeh all to work on your projects for the rest of class.” He instructed, walking over to his desk and sitting down, “Remember, they’re due this Wednesday. Get to work.”

Only a few moments later, while I was lost swimming in my own mind, Tom approached me and sat down at my table, “Aye partner.”

I glanced at him quickly, muttering a greeting before grabbing my binder and pulling out the example sketch of our project board that I made. I slid it over the table top to him and looked up, waiting for his reaction.

I felt as though Tom and I had switched place; me now being shy and him not so much.

“Looks good, yeh need help with it? I could come over if yeh wanted me too…” Tom suggested, letting his voice trail off at the end.

This was him actually wanting to spend time with me. How do I know? We agreed in the beginning that if he did the paper, I would do the board, which means this could him wanting to hang out with me. Or, I could be completely wrong and he could just want to make sure I don’t screw the project up.

“Yeah, sure. Only if you want though.” I said. He nodded at me, those pretty blue eyes staring into my brown ones, “My house this time?” Tom nodded and I added a bit more information, “We may have to walk though. It’s not far.”

“Fine with me. I don’t mind much.” Tom said, leaning his head on the palm of his hand. He was now looking at me, as if studying me.

I looked down at my paper, not sure what to say anymore. The bell rang, signaling my freedom from this awkwardness. Tom exchanged a few words to me, telling me he’s see me in study hall before he disappeared into the hallway.

“So ‘ow did things go on Saturday?” Janie asked while approaching me. She was hugging two books close to her chest as we walked to our next class.

“Kind of awkward.” I told her before relaying what had happened. Once I finished my story she just began to laugh at me.

“Yeh should have just kissed him. Yeh know how bad that would ‘ave driven him crazy? Just a little peck on the lips an’ acting like it didn’t happen would ‘ave been enough tension to make him kiss yeh more.” Janie explained as if it was no big deal.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I mused, shaking my head at her while she winked at me.

The rest of the day went smoothly. During the lunch hour, I disappeared into the library to read. I hadn’t been able to get in a good time for reading in the past few weeks that I had been in Sheffield. Now, at a back table in the library with my feet propped up on another chair, I read silently and kept to myself.

My sixth period, English, was of no interest to me. So I read through the bell, not being disturbed by anyone as the pages consumed me. I would put up with the consequences later. Still captivated by my book I hardly noticed the seventh hour bell or the students in my study hall class suddenly piling into the library.

Ignoring Tom sitting next to me, I continued to read. Only now, I wasn’t as focused. Having him next to me was ruining my reading spree. I had spent the last two hours fully emerged in the book, hardly looking up at all and breezing through half of it.

With him near me now, I was becoming aware of my noisy surroundings and all the people. I’m glad he didn’t insist on talking, there was no way I would have been able to concentrate at all.

“Madison, the bell rang.” Tom informed me, setting this his elbows propped up on the desk and his head in his hands.

Peaking over the edge of the book I caught his eyes. I marked my page and closed the book, shoving it into my backpack and stood up, “Ready?”

&&

"What are yeh doin'?" Tom asked, his voice full of amusement as I stepped up on a knee high cement wall that lead down the street we were walking on.

With my arms out, steadying myself, I walked along the wall as if I was on a balance beam; one foot moving directly in front of the other. From the corner of my eyes I saw Tom watching me with every step I took.

"If yeh lose balance, I'm goin' to laugh at yeh." He stated, still eyeing me.

"Why am I not surprised?" I asked plainly and continued to walk along the wall. "Its not even high up. If anything I'll jump off rather than fall."

"Don't matter if yeh fall or if yeh jump off once yeh start to sway, still counts as losin’ balance and I'll still laugh at yeh." He replied, his eyes having yet to leave me.

Tom walked a little bit closer to me, now within my arm’s reach. When he took another step closer I protested, "Don't you dare push me off of here, I'll be mad at you. Watch it."

"Who says I'm goin' to push yeh?" He asked, a smile on his lips. I knew he was formulating odd little plans behind those pretty blue eyes of his.

We had been talking freely since leaving the campus. I ditched my shy feelings along with my books in my locker and let myself get comfortable around Tom. He seemed to be doing the same, though there was no doubt that we couldn't completely stop the awkwardness. It's not exactly something that disappears over night.

Still looking at Tom, I pressed my palm flat against his shoulder and tried to push him away. I didn't know what he was planning, but just in case, I didn't want him too close.

As soon as my hand made contact with his shoulder, he stopped walking and turned to face me, his hand coming up and grabbing my wrist. Even though I knew what would happen next, I had no time to jump off the wall before he was tugging me off and towards him playfully.

I let out a loud, slightly over dramatic, squeal and fell into him, tripping on the wall as he pulled me off. As if on impulse, he looped his arms around me, pulling me towards him, and set me on my feet before I could fall over. Almost immediately, I smacked his chest lightly and pushed away from him and stepped out of his embrace.

"You're an idiot." I scoffed, trying to act mad though there was a smile on my face. I had just turned up the flirt level a few notches, hoping Tom would get the hint and do the same.

"Oh, I'm the idiot? I believe it was yeh who was walkin' on the mini wall, makin' yeh the idiot, not me." He retorted, a cute smile edging to the corner of his mouth. Rolling my eyes, I looked away from him and picked up my pace. This got a response out of him. "Yeh can't honestly be mad that I pulled yeh off the wall, can yeh? Quit walkin' fast."

Pretending to pay no attention to him, I kept walking, making my steps a little bigger to get away from him. Tom’s footsteps quickened a bit as well and I felt his hand grab my wrist lightly, trying to pull me back next to him.

With the small tug, his hand moved down my wrist and into my own palm before he successfully managed to get me to slow down. It took us both a moment to realize we were now technically holding hands. As if a lighter was pushed between our palms, we let go quickly and both looks opposite ways, blushing fiercely.

Too busy letting my eyes wander around the ground, I didn’t notice Tom’s hand creeping closer to mine again until his skin brushed against my own. Slightly startled by the touch, my head snapped in his direction. He was looking down at the sidewalk as his palm cupped mine. His skin was smooth and warm against mine own. I knew my hands were a bit rough from my rock climbing habit back in America, but he didn’t seem to notice or care.

It wasn’t until I held back, squeezing my hand lightly against his, that Tom decided to glance over at me, his eyes looking straight into mine. He smiled shyly before looking away again. The tips of his ears were turning pink as he blushed.

I let myself smile, looking down for a moment at our hands before straight ahead. I wanted to turn my hand slightly, causing his fingers to interlock with my own, but I didn’t want to do anything that might make him pull away.

We turned onto my street, still holding hands as my house came into view. As we approached the front door, I noticed the light on inside meaning my mom was home. Reluctantly, I let go of Tom’s hand and opened the door, yelling to my mom as we walked inside.

“Hey Buggie, how was school- Oh hi.” She walked down the stairs, suddenly noticing Tom and me.

“Hey mom, this is Tom. Tom this is my mom.” I informed quietly, shedding my jacket and placing it on the back of the living room couch.

“‘ello Ms. Collins,” Tom greeted politely, shaking my mom’s hand with a smile. “It’s nice to meet yeh.”

“Nice too me you too Tom. So you have a school project then?” She asked. We nodded at the same time. She smiled, “Well don’t mind me.”

“We’re going to head up to my room, that’s where I have the board and stuff.” I said explained quietly directing Tom towards the stairs as I spoke.

Once he was in front of me, I looked back towards my mom. She pointed at him and mouthed to me, Is that the guy?

I nodded, starting to blush again. My mother, however, just grinned like a mad woman and gave me two thumbs up and winked before disappearing into the kitchen. She’s crazy, she really is.

Skipping a few steps, I caught up to Tom on the stairs and walked up behind him. He looked over his shoulder at me, a faint smile on his lips, “Which room is yours?”

“Last one on the left.” I replied, pointing down the hall. Tom nodded and headed that way, hesitating to open the door until I was right behind him.

Once inside, he stood for a moment looking around. I still had a good amount of full boxes stacked in a corner. My room was plain; very plain. My bed had simple, white blankets on it, and the walls were white as well. There was a desk in the corner that held my computer and the only real source of color in my room, but that was the poster board which would be removed tomorrow before school.

“Hmm,” Tom made a noise as he looked around and copied me when I took of my shoes.

“I know,” I sighed, setting my bag down on my bed. “It’s really boring. I haven’t had much time to decorate it or anything.”

“Has potential though. Yeh just need to paint it for sure.” Tom replied honestly. He walked over to my computer chair and sat down, looking at me.

“So the project,” I muttered, sitting cross legged on my bed. I watched as Tom looked over at the almost complete poster board and picked it up.

I untangled my legs and stood up, walking behind the chair and looked over Tom’s shoulder as he surveyed the board. He nodded, as if approving, before setting it on my desk. He turned the chair around and stood up.

As he stood up, I sat on the top of my desk, my feet dangling off. He faced me, only about a foot away, before he started talking, “Too bad we don’t still have that monitor.”

“Yeah? Why’s that?” I asked, staring down at my feet as I swayed them back and forth over the edge of the desk. Tom’s legs came into my view as he took a step forward.

“It was kind of fun.” He said innocently, a small smirk on his lips. We both knew exactly what he was talking about.

I shook my head no while smiling lightly. “Yeah, fun for you. Not so much me.”

“Aw, why not for yeh?” Tom asked. He knew why and he wanted to get me to say it. He was majorly flirting now, I could hear the smile in his voice. Sadly, I didn’t mind it at all.

In my mind, I tried to think of a response. I couldn’t just blurt it out there that the monitor detected when he made me nervous and he could tell I liked him, because that would confirm what he was trying to get at. Without having a better response, I shrugged, eyes still focused on my feet.

“I think I know,” Tom replied for me, taking another step towards me. Finally, I looked up and stopped moving my legs. His icy blue eyes met mine and I chewed on my bottom lip nervously.

“Oh?” Was all I managed to get out as I watched his eyes flicker to my lips and back up. His new found confidence faded suddenly and he started to blush again.

Maybe Oliver had been giving him pointers, and when I didn’t react just right, he got nervous. Same thing with me, because I had all the intentions of kissing him today like Janie said, but now I couldn’t seem to get myself to do it.

We were both too shy for our own good. It was a disastrous combination of shy vs. shy.

Tom sucked in a slow breath of air, our eyes still locked on each other, and it looked as if he was making up his mind about something. Knowing he was taking to long for my liking, I became bold, not caring if I would regret it later.

Reaching out, my arms reached far enough to touch his shoulders. As I did, he inched a bit closer, letting me lock my arms around his blushing neck and pull him towards me slightly. Knowing I couldn’t turn back now, I refrained from blinking and stared into his eyes as I leaned my own face up, now only inches from his own.

All I was thinking was that Janie better buy me some type of chocolate for doing this, before I closed the small gap, touching my lips gently to Tom’s.