31 A jumbled mess

Zara started pacing her room in circles while Jake tried to cool her down. She was muttering under her breath, "How did this happen? Is something happening to me?"

Jake tried to stop her nervous pacing but she wouldn't stop. "Z, wait."

Zara was getting jittery and her hands were sweating profusely. She couldn't believe that she had been passed out for a week. What had she missed? What was happening to her?

She suddenly saw the flash of her dream with Ryan asking her incredulously, "What are you doing here?" His tone was harsh and he hadn't seemed happy to see her.

Was that a dream or a reality?

Jake's pleas fell to deaf ears as Zara continued speaking to herself.

He finally pushed her to the door as it slammed on its frame. Zara momentarily forgot everything, her eyes were fixated on the face in front of her, mere inches from her gaze. Jake held her wrists, his hold light yet firm and her pace quickened.

Zara felt her nerves tingle at his touch. She forgot that she had avoided introducing Jake to her personal space up until now. And, for the last half an hour he had been sitting on her bed and now the door was locked from the inside with the two of them inches away from each other.

Zara recalled her first kiss with Jake and heat rushed up her cheeks. Veronica and her mother were downstairs, what if they came barging inside?

Jake's eyes darkened and he too looked surprised at his courage. Zara gulped unnecessarily before she realised she had been staring at his Adam's apple. Her palms were getting sweaty and Jake's hand slicked with it falling down to her elbows.

When Jake saw that Zara had momentarily subdued, he pulled her an inch closer, their lips a hair's breadth from touching. It was a tantalizing tease, he needed nothing more than to lean in and crush his lips into hers.

For the last week that she had been asleep, he had felt a miserable defeat, as if nothing that he did was ever enough to protect her. And now, she was awake and close to him, so damn close.

Jake lifted his hand trapping a lock of hair that was stuck on her lower lip. He delicately took the strand in his fingers as Zara shivered at the intimacy. Zara was sure her heart was beating so loudly, that the neighbours would hear it rolling like a drum.

Jake pushed the strand behind her ear and tried to speak but his voice sounded alien to him. He cleared his throat and released her. To ensure that he wouldn't go rushing to her, he took a step back.

Jake tried again, "Z, do you recall anything that might have led you to be unconscious for a week?"

Zara tried focussing her mind on the question but her brain seemed stuck at Ryan. She wasn't sure why she was thinking of him when Jake was near her. She abruptly changed the topic, "What did the doctor say?"

Jake sighed and went by the window placing his hands on the walls as if he wanted to jump outside. "Your mom called in your childhood therapist-the one you never told me or V about, mind you- to look into it. Your tests came normal and even she was confused as to what must have happened. She then attributed it to school and your self-inflicted pressure of going to Harvard."

Zara stared at the boy standing by her window, his lean muscles rippling in the afternoon sun. She had been held by those hands not a minute ago. The mention of Harvard brought her back to her senses.

Zara sounded indignant, "I am not pressuring myself for anything. I have worked hard for my goals and I don't think an angel would come down to bless me, so I am on my own here."

Jake turned around to look at her intently and closed the distance between them, "Is Harvard more important to you than I?"

Zara looked taken aback, "What does it even mean, J?"

Jake's eyes had the wild look again in them and he struggled to keep his hands off her. "My question is plain and simple, Z"

Jake reasoned with her, "Z, I am not fooling around with you. I want to spend enough time with you..a long, long time. And, I am not going to Harvard. So you better get things sorted."

"What?"

Jake moved near her and whispered in her ears, "If what the doctor says is true, I am not letting Harvard steal you from me. So, you are stuck with me." His breath tickled her ears and tiny goosebumps erupted on her hands.

He straightened and winked at her before walking out of her room, leaving her with a jumbled mess of emotions that would take a lifetime to unravel.