25 Twenty-five: MTOABB

MTOABB

I grab my blue jacket from the racks just in case it gets a bit chilly. I make my way to my bedroom door, placing my one hand on the door knob. I pat my jean pockets and instead of feeling my phone, I'm welcomed to nothing. I turn around to find it laying face down on my bed.

I let go of the door handle and move towards my bed. I grab my phone and walk out.

With every step down the stairs, I can hear my heart hitting its drums.

He told me to meet him in 10 minutes. No "hello", no "how are you", just that I meet him in 10 minutes. How can I expect more? I'm the one in the wrong and in all honesty, I expected much less.

"I'm going out with Prinse, is that alright?" I ask mom, as she sits sipping her afternoon tea with biscuits in front of her radio.

"You have school in two days, I don't need you being out too late, okay?"

"Yes, mom," I say as I grab my house key from its holder.

I open the front door and I'm welcomed with Prinse leaning towards a car on the other side of the road.

I quickly walk to where he is standing. "How long have you been waiting out here?"

Is that even the right question to ask? Maybe I should have started with an "I'm sorry" or maybe something more than what came out, but I wasn't thinking.

"Not long," he says, moving to open the passenger door for me. I thank him under my breath and climb in as he nods.

He climbs in, buckles his seatbelt and I copy. He starts the car and he doesn't motion to say anything so I shift my focus to the road.

I missed him - His smile, the smell of his skin, the way he bites his lip when he is nervous.

There is so much of him that I missed, but Holly keeps popping into my head, having me doubt the boy seated next to me.

Why lie to me? Well, I can guess the answer to that.

He suddenly stops the car at an empty loft. "I'm going to teach you how to drive?" he turns to look at me as he unbuckles his seatbelt.

"Wait-- what?" I ask, confused.

"I promised to teach you, didn't I?"

"You did, but... do you think now is the right time?"

"We're not promised tomorrow, so we need to live in the present - in the now." He opens his car door and climbs out.

I follow suit, unsure what is going on in his mind.

Is this his way of dealing with his anger - is he even angry? It doesn't seem like it, but just maybe, I am wrong.

I walk around the car to get to the driver seat.

We're both now seated in the car with our seatbelts on and he leans in to whisper, "Breath."

I nod, trying to calm my racing heart.

"Turn the car back on," he says and I comply.

"Make sure your hands are at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock on the wheel."

"Huh?" I turn to look at him confused. He places his hands on mine and as he shifts my hands in the positions he wanted. I take in a deep breath as I realise this is the closest we have been since he arrived back.

"Relax your arms to increase your control."

"Okay."

After a few panic jerking of the car and placing it in the wrong gears, I got a hang of steering with ease.

"Turn the car and keep accelerating."

"But--" I turn to look at him.

"Keep your eyes on the road." I immediately return my focus on the road.

"Why am I driving away from the loft?"

"We're going to go get us some donuts, as your reward, of course."

"You trust me to have your car out on the road with other passing cars?" I ask.

"I trust you at least that much, maybe then you'll start to trust me too."

"Gomes--"

"Just drive, not now."

After a few minutes, we make a stop at the little bakery close to the engine garage.

"I'll refill the tank. Why don't you grab us some assorted donuts," he says as he pulls out his money.

"I've got it. I don't need your money," I say.

"I know you don't, but I brought you out."

"Maybe next time you will pay, as for now, it's on me." I walk away from him and I can hear him chuckling, and I can't help but smile.

My Type of a Bad Boy

"Her father is in the hospital and she needed me - she needed us. We've been friends for so long, I couldn't tell her no."

"At least tell me why you didn't tell me?"

"Don't know how you would react to me telling you that I would be spending the holiday with a girl."

"Next time, tell me. Let me judge how I will react."

"You are right and I should have." He turns to look away into the distance.

"Did anything else happen?" I ask.

"Are you asking if I went and started making out with her, knowing I was seeing where things were going with you, then my answer is no. I could retain myself, but I guess you had needs that needed to be fulfilled."

"Don't say it like that, I am so sorry and I regret it and I won't say it was a mistake because I was aware of what I was doing. But you need to at least see it from my viewpoint. Zack--"

"Don't you dare mention his name in my presence right now."

I sigh, taking a heave. "I find out that you're with Holly and you hadn't been sending me any messages and not to mention that you dated her. How do you forget to mention that to me?"

"I should have, but I needed to leave my past in the past."

"But she is not in your past, Prinse - if she was then you wouldn't have gone to her, am I wrong?"

He decides to keep quiet, which answers my question.

"Are we 'Rose and Jack' in our little ship?" I turn to look at him.

"What?" He asks with a dazed look of bewilderment.

"Titanic?" I bite my lip as I wait for his face to light up in understanding.

"You watch too many movies. And no, I would hope we're not Rose and Jack, I'd prefer to not be freezing to death." He throws his head back in laughter and I join him.

"I thought you would break up with me, and I wouldn't have held it against you." I focus my attention on my fiddling fingers on my lap.

"You are a page out of my book, and that page happens to be my favourite." He tilts my head forward and pulls me in for a kiss and for a moment, it felt like heaven.