Unfair

We sat back down at on the bench, Caeden with his arm around me and me sitting there not really sure what to do. I contemplated putting my head on his shoulder, but what if it annoyed him. I kept my hands in my lap, and they sat there useless. Like wet paper napkins.

I glanced over at him and saw him staring at me oddly. My face reddened and looked him full in the face.

"What?" I asked softly. He smiled and drew me closer to his side so that my head fell on his shoulder. I stiffened in surprise, but he chuckled. The vibrations tickled my cheek and he loosened his grip to let me relax.

"Now don't tell me that yeh weren't worryin' over what to do with yerself," he smiled down at me and moved his hand up and down my upper arm, as if to reassure me. I let myself relax completely and nuzzled my head into his shoulder. He made a noise of contentment in his chest and rested his cheek on top of my hair, after kissing the top of my head softly. Heat rose up my neck. "What's yer favourite season?" he asked suddenly.

I sighed and thought for a moment. "Winter," I answered after a long pause.

"Why?" I smiled at his curiosity.

"Because everything is in the middle of a change. Everything is silent and waiting. It's calming." He was silent as he took my view in. "What about you? What's your favorite season?"

"Spring," he stated simply. I waited for him to explain. Finally I laughed.

"And why is that?" I felt him smile.

"Because everything is full of life and enjoying it." Again it was a simple answer. Like he thought it out all before and knew his answer well.

We continued discussing our likes and dislikes, learning about each other as people woke up and began to fill up the courtyard.

"How can yeh like the Thunderbird over a GTO?" he stumbled over the words in his rush to get them out.

I lifted up my head and looked at him, "I don't know. I guess I just like how it looks. " I shrugged and smiled. He shook his head and sighed.

"Well I'll have to show yeh jus' how different they are…" he trailed off as a group of girls walked toward us, both of us stared at the group waiting for one to speak.

"Hey Caeden!" one redhead said as snapped her gum as she shot me a strained smile.

"Yeah?" he asked. The girl looked at him, confused, but shook it off and kept the smile on her face. "Do yeh need something?" A few excited whispers broke out of the group as they discussed his accent. Caeden looked at me and rolled his eyes minutely.

"Nope, just wanted to be by you." She sat on his other side and rested her chin on his shoulder, fluttering her eyelashes and placing a hand on his arm. I stared at her in shock. I never really thought that there were girls this cocky. Caeden looked at her, disgusted before he turned to me and nodded in the direction of a building. He placed his hand on my waist and guided me to stand as he rolled the other girl's chin off his shoulder. "If yeh'll excuse us we have teh get teh class."

She looked at him and sputtered, she was obviously not used to this behavior from him. Her brown eyes shot a disgusted glare at me and the other girls murmured and shot me glares as well. I shrunk into Caeden.

He glanced at me quickly before looking right at the girl, his face blank, but somehow menacing. "I don't think that yeh should be shooting glares at Deirdre. Yeh see, she's the girl I'm fallin' fer so if I ever hear of yeh glarin' at her or talkin' to her in a tone that isn't considered friendly I'll have to have a talk with yeh and next time I won't keep it as child friendly as it is now." He turned his back on their disbelieving faces before replacing his hand on my waist and guiding me toward the buildings. I just stared at him "What's yer next class?"

I continued to stare at him and spoke, "Philosophy." He nodded and smiled.

"Mine too." He paused when we got into the main hallway of the building. "What's the matter?"

My mind struggled to think of the words that described the kind of shock I was in. "I think that's the first time anyone's defended me…" I looked off into the distance thinking back on my life. Not when someone pushed me in the hallway in middle school making me drop my ceramics project on the floor. Not when I lost a game for my team in history class and they called me names. Not ever. It was an odd feeling to have someone tell another to stop glaring and get to know me before they judged. "Yeah, that's the first time."

My eyes focused back on the present and I looked up at Caeden. Some of my past pain must have shown in my face when I had reminisced because he had a wounded look, like he wished that he had been there for the other times to defend me from the evils of childhood. It made my stomach flip.

He gently pulled me into a hug in the middle of the empty hallway. "Well it'll happen from now on, I promise yeh that." I tentatively put my arms around him and laid my head in the crook of his neck, reveling in the warmth that seemed to fill me at the moment. He lowered his head to let his forehead rest on the side of mine. "I'm sorry I wasn't there fer yeh back then."

I smiled and turned my head to look at him, he kissed me lightly on the lips for a few seconds. That little touch made my skin tingle with an invisible yet insatiable force and when it was over I hid my face in his chest.

"What?" I could hear the curious smile on his face. I shook my head while keeping my blushing, shy-smiling face out of his sight. It was embarrassing that I couldn't stop smiling whenever he did something sweet or intimate, but that in addition to blushing? My body wanted me to embarrass myself.

Caeden tried to shrug his shoulder and get me to face him, but I turned the other way and made a low whine in my throat. "Caeden…." He stopped trying to look at my face, his entire body froze.

"Say that again." I turned my face to him, keeping my cheek against his chest. His face held an awed look that made me speechless. I sputtered for a moment quietly before I could speak again.

"Your name?" I bit back a smile as he slowly nodded his head, his face more serious than I had ever seen it. I took a quiet breath in and allowed a small smile to escape before:

"Caeden." He blinked at me and kissed me lightly on the lips once more.

"Again." A grin was beginning to form, I could tell.

"Caeden." Another kiss. "What is all this about?" I laughed as he pulled his head back.

"I love the way yeh smile so cutely when yeh say my name."

"I smile?" The grin broke through.

"Yeh never noticed that?"

I shook my head as best I could with my cheek against his chest.

"Say it one more time." The first bell tolled and the students began to filter into the hallway, the current of bodies breaking around us.

"Caeden."

He kissed me and I let myself enjoy the insatiable feeling once again.