The Marked

Jenna was talking. I was listening.

It was her per-usual morning discussion on how who'd invented alarms, clocks, tardy bells and time itself had been a coldhearted son of a bitch.

I still couldn't slurry more than 'hi' and this girl's mouth was running locomotive-speed. A quick grimace fluttered across my face as I remembered last week, when a painfully similar scene had happened. I'd told her to watch her caffeine levels and yikes! There was no one who didn't want to scamper off under her 'you're dead to me' glare. But it only lasted for about five, ten minutes then she became the best blabbing BF you could ever have.

"Can you believe my Mom put a password on her laptop?" She grumbled, locking arms over her chest like a petulant child.

A chuckle weaseled past my lips.

"Online shopaholic strikes again."

"Shut it. You have no idea how it felt to have my parents cancel my Amazon account..."

"Or your eBay account, or ASOS account—"

Jenna poked my arm with an elbow, glaring through green contact lenses. She liked to mix it up every now and then. Her real eye color was a soft blue.

"You are the worst. I'm looking for some comfort and you just keep gaping the wound." She sighed. "They took down my Paypal..."

My eyes widened in fake shock.

"No, not the Paypal account!" I gasped in feigned horror. Jenna blinked twice before clenching her jaw.

"This is a real issue, Chloe. I can't even buy my pens!"

Losing some morning idiocy, I dropped my arm around her shoulders, squeezing us together.

"I'll buy you pens," her vibrant green eyes latched onto mine. Seriously, it was like I'd just told her Justin Timberlake was dropping in for a secret concert or whatever. "But just one a month." I warned, knowing she was used to buying about ten cool-looking pens every thirty days.

Jenna nodded fervently before stopping, latching her arms around me in a quick, fierce hug.

"I take back what I said," she grinned like a goof. "You are the world's greatest friend. I swear." She held up her right hand and placed the left one over her heart.

The Scout's oath. Ha.

My mouth opened but anything and everything I'd been about to say dropped away. Over Jenna's shoulder I saw him. Wavy chestnut hair fell to his forehead—hair that curled at the nape, I knew—he was carrying a notebook and nothing more.

"Huh, where are you... Ah. McHottie has arrived." I heard Jenna say. She'd twisted around, to look at him, and was waving.

Wade's lips—pale, full ones—curled at a corner. Butterflies took flight in wild directions, crashing into my stomach walls making me nervous. Which was totally stupid. Wade and I... We were...

"Hi," he said, in a low but deep voice.

He was standing a foot away. God, he had long legs. Just seconds ago he'd been in the middle of the hall and now he was...

Kissing me.

Wade decided my lack of response and the little distance between us was annoying. This was... Yeah, this was much better. I leaned into him, putting my hands against his chest. A chest that made my imagination run mad, a chest that brought summer afternoons back. The minute I thought about us—together—about his laugh, just him...

His lips slid over mine, and I was sure he tasted the ChapStick. It was strawberry flavored. One of his hands cupped my cheek. A warm, gentle thumb brushed a straight, dark lock away.

Breaking apart, I drew in a long shaky breath lowering myself onto my feet.

Me and Wade were together. Had been for almost four months. But since we started dating in the summer I wasn't been sure how to approach him at school. He'd been taking care of it for one whole week, though.

Eyes were on us—I didn't need to see them, I felt them. Not that our friends didn't already know.

"'Sup, Jenna." He drawled, slowly turning from me to my smirking friend.

Jesus. She looked like a Paparazzi ready to snap photos of us and post them across newspapers and gossipy magazines.

"Oh, nothing. I was just raving about how Chloe's the bestest friend in the whole world."

Wade's right eyebrow arched as he looked down at me. Still flustered about the immediate show of PDA, I cleared my throat.

"Her parents have officially canceled all her accounts and taken away any laptops around the house. I said I'd buy her a pen once a month to ease the withdrawals."

Wade's arm snuck around my waist, nestling me into his side.

"I don't understand your obsession with pens," Wade started, in a total boy-talk manner. "But if you need them to survive... Chloe is the greatest."

I was blushing so hard.

Jenna looked between us, toying with a short strand of Californian hair.

"Okay, I'm going to take care of... stuff. You guys enjoy the ten minutes of lasting freedom before trig."

While she had nothing but good intentions, Jenna sucked at coming up with excuses.

"That was... sudden."

I laughed, looking up. Wade was looking down with real-life green eyes. They were bright, leafy-green bright.

"That's Jenna for you. Her subtly knows no bounds."

"She's being really cool about our alone time, though. I say we enjoy it." He lowered his head, brushing our noses together. "I've missed you."

"You were with me yesterday."

"Yeah, and it wasn't enough." He shrugged. "It's never enough when it comes to you, sweetheart." Wade's breath tingled my lips and chin.

I lifted a hand to his face before closing in for a deep, quick smooch.

"You're unbelievable."

Straightening to full height—half a head taller than mine—he looked incredulous.

"I've been trying to tell you, I'm pretty amazing."

Smiling like a fool, I found Wade's hand, he threaded his long fingers with my thin, delicate ones.

"Speaking of my unparalleled awesomeness..."

"And your undeniable modesty." He spied me a hurt look. "Puppy dog eyes don't work on me."

He smirked, knowing fully well they did. Dropping the pouty face and puppy-eyes, Wade turned serious. Seriousness made his high cheekbones higher, the whole face structure pieced together in statue looking-perfection. In moments like these, I thought Wade had been carved from a damn stone.

He was drop-dead handsome.

"Like I was saying, I'm all about awesome and I'm your boyfriend."

"Okay..." I wasn't sure what conclusion this would bring.

"Your birthday is in less than a week, Chloe. Please tell me you didn't forget your own birthday."

I was a mess with dates. Wade was my polar opposite. He remembered everything—every special date, including the day we met, the day of our first date, first kiss, day we started dating... Yeah, he had a gene for awesome.

"I didn't forget. How could I? You've been reminding me every day."

"Right. Because apparently I'm more invested in celebrating your seventeenth birthday than you, babe."

"We've talked about this. I don't do big celebrations." Wasn't like Mom was around much. Not that she was a lousy detached sort of Mother, she was just a doctor. She had to work crazy hours for multiple days. "I'm okay with it, really."

"It's not everyday you turn seventeen—"

"In my defense, you only turn eighteen once. And nineteen, and twenty..."

Wade knocked his knuckles against my left temple—gently—and I snickered at his flushed cheeks.

"No need to be a smartass, Missy. And in no way are you derailing me from the issue: You are not spending your birthday alone."

I managed to lock eyes with the familiar locker number before we totally walked past it. I had too many books in my bag, heavy enough that my back would need surgery if I carried them two minutes longer. Shrugging off my bag, I unzipped it, reaching for the sheet of paper where my combination was scribbled on.

There was a tap on my shoulder. A quick glance made me stop the search.

Wade was leaning on my neighbor's locker, a proud smirk on. My locker was wide open for everyone to see. The guy added my locker combo to his brain's-database. Neat.

"Seriously," I muttered, pulling out the stuff I wouldn't be needing until after trig. "What do you eat for breakfast? Omega-3s?"

He patted his chest, "Milk does the body good. You should try it sometime."

Hahaha.

I didn't do milk. I had a theory it was because I had so much of it up until I was six—with literally everything, I even drank it when I was eating fish—that my brain now rejected the simple thought of it. Wade knew it.

"And maybe you should try tuna." I stacked my books and notebooks, then, stared at his disgusted expression.

"Touche." I closed the locker. "But getting back on track—"

I heaved a great big sigh.

"Okay, stop. Is it really so important to you that I have plans on my birthday?"

"Yes! I can't understand why you wouldn't want them. I figured you'd do something with your friends—Jenna, at least—but you're... You're not planning a single thing." He paused, flicking wavy hair from his eyes. "And... I really want to be with you."

Those glittering bottle-green eyes bored into my brown ones. An intensity I only saw when Wade stared at me melted my heart to its core. I had no clue how he did it, maybe he didn't even know. But this boy... This boy was a real catch.

I took a step, ending our distance. Wade lowered his head, touching our foreheads.

"Okay," I gave up. "Look, if my Mom gets the day off I'll be spending it with her." I really missed her and we had lots of catching up to do, including watching Big Bang Theory episodes.

"Of course," he agreed quickly, causing me to smile a tiny private smile.

"If she doesn't get the day off, I'll call Jenna and we'll figure out something crazy to do. But no matter what I do during the day and afternoon, I'll go out with you at night."

Wade's lips twitched.

"You're asking me on a date?"

"Well, you kept insisting." If I didn't tear my eyes from his lips there was a good chance I'd end up making an embarrassment out of myself. "Dinner and movie?"

"Hmm," he shook his head. "Sweetheart, you don't get to plan this date." Huh. Why the hell not? "It wouldn't be much of a surprise if you already knew what we were doing, now would it?"

My mouth dropped to my feet.

"You sneaky bastard. You were waiting for me to cave in all this time, weren't you?"

"Why, yes, I was. You see, never doubt my super nagging skills." I snorted. He scowled, "Hey, it's true. My nagging got me a brand new car last year."

"Oh."

He tweaked my nose.

"Yeah. Oh."

Walking beside Wade in a hallway packed with people was a different experience. Not because guys from all sports teams greeted him with high fives and weird guy shoulder bumps—he was in the soccer team after all—it was the way people parted to let him through. Like he was this wrecking ball everyone was afraid to be hit by.

No one had bumped into me once. Wade was this super-duper-useful WARNING sign.

I stumbled.

I had to brag about not being bumped... bumped into...

I reached out for something to hold onto. I found air. Shot out my left arm and bumped a warm thing, soft. My fingers didn't get time to work, wrapping whatever it was so I wouldn't fall face-down. A strong hold held my body up, pressing my face into hard-warmness.

"...Chloe...?"

It was like someone had slapped ear-muffins over my ears. Sound reached me in a deep, distort manner. I was underwater and it had to fight its way to me. There was a stabbing pain between my shoulder blades—a needle stab.

The arms around me stiffened.

"Chloe!"

This time, the sound came through without problem. Like I'd broken the water's surface. I took a big gulp of air, flinging my eyes open. They'd been so heavy just seconds ago. My head... there had been something, a loud noise, echoing around it.

"Chloe, hey, you okay?" Wade's voice broke the final sound barrier and everything came into perspective. Wade had caught me, had pulled us aside, against a wall. The few people who hadn't gotten to class yet were sending me weird looks.

That was a first. I'd never been the type to get bad attention. Still, this high school was pretty gigantic.

"Hey..."

My eyes shot for his, holding on. My hands had balled up in his T-shirt.

"I..." I did my best not to freak out. Not to let my mind go for the worst case scenarios, like, brain cancer. "I'm okay..." He looked as convinced as Mom did when I told her I hadn't finished the ice-cream in the freezer. "I'm okay, Wade, really. It... it was just a dizzy spell."

Wade's eyebrows were still drawn together in serious worry. I let go of his Tee, pressing my right palm to his peck.

"Wade, I'm okay now. For real." A muscle ticked in his jaw, but I kept holding his stare, channeling 'I'm fine' a hundred times over.

It seemed to work. He finally breathed out, nodding. He kept a steadying hand on me as he reached down for my bag, flinging it over a shoulder. I might've argued with it if I wasn't still queasy.

"What did you have for breakfast?"

"Toast," I shrugged, pulling away from the wall. My stomach was settling, I could tell because it no longer felt like I was on a boat during a hella of storm.

Wade grumbled something about my breakfast not being nutritional enough. I rolled my eyes. Although, he might be right.

We ambulated a couple more steps before we arrived at trig. Wade kissed my temple right before we went in. He dropped my bag at my desk, taking his seat—behind me. Once I sat down, I felt like praying.

My knees were jelly.

As our teacher started drilling on about numbers, I thought about the strange needle-stab in my back. That pain had lasted for about ten seconds, still, for some reason, it bothered me more than the headache had.