Fairytale Green

The next day consisted of Stone touching me more often. It would alternate from small brushes of our hands to him resting a hand on my thigh. It was like he had held back from touching me for ages and now he would unleash it and not hold back.

I liked it. A lot.

That was until lunch when he did the inexcusable unforgivable crime that left me furious.

‘I don’t like you.’ I pointed to him as he stole more fries from my plate.

He leaned closer and lowly replied with a smirk ‘I must have been hallucinating when I heard you tell me you liked me last night while you were in my arms.’

My eyes narrowed at the giant ‘My exact words were what if I told I liked you. That is not a statement. Rather a thesis.’

He cocked his head and let out a chuckle. He did not believe me.

‘How can you even be hungry?’ I asked him before mentioning ‘Did the seventeen apple pancakes for breakfast not fill you up?’

I was annoyed at him and not just because he stole my food. Every time that I tried to eat something or speak to Lana, he would move his hand on my thigh a tiny bit higher. Which made it all that harder to concentrate and form a sentence.

I glared at him a few times and all he did was smirk, but not once did he remove his hand.

Brennan spoke up from the other side of the table by gleefully asking ‘Little Ella, I heard that you went and got a tattoo with Stone.’

Lana dropped the fork that had a piece of what the school called pasta on it from her mouth in shock.

Her head snapped up in my direction as she shouted, ‘You got a tattoo, and you never told me?’

‘Well—’ I started.

She quickly cut me off so she could ramble ‘Why did you not tell me? This is ridiculous. What did you get tattooed? When did you go? Did it hurt?’

I let out a small laugh at my best friends’ questions and then answered them all except the last ‘I had not told you yet because it was only last night I got it done and I got a dragon on my thigh.’

‘Did it hurt?’ She asked, noticing that I had never answered that part the first time.

About to lie that I took the pain of the tattoo like a badass, I was stopped by the expression on Stone’s face. He looked like he was reigning in a laugh.

Glaring at him, I kicked his leg under the table which earned me a sidewards smirk from him.

I remembered how worried he was about my fainting episode after the tattoo parlour, so I then considered pretending to faint off the bench just to get some sort of revenge.

When I looked back at Lana, she was watching both of us and decided to direct her question to Stone ‘Did she find it painful?’

He answered her back but remained smirking at me ‘She handled it.’

Lana nodded her head, but she was not done talking about it ‘I can’t believe you two managed to hang out without their being any La Petite Morts.’

The juice I had in my mouth went everywhere as I entered a coughing fit at her incorrect French phrase.

‘What?’ I said, mortified.

‘It is French.’ She explained like she truly believed the meaning was innocent ‘It means a war that ends up resulting in a small death. Like a blow to the ego.’

Brennan had a hand over his mouth and Stone sat back in his chair with a small smug smile.

She was obsessed with France. She took French as a subject but I guess the curriculum did not cover sex phrases.

‘It does not mean that.’ I told her.

She looked at the two boys and frowned confusedly ‘Oh. What does La Petite Mort mean then?’

Brennan then added while grinning mischievously ‘Yeah Ella. What does it mean?’

I sneered at him before responding to Lana ‘Ask your boyfriend.’

Lana nodded and then proceeded to ask, ‘So was it something else you did last night?’

‘No!’ I shouted and resisted the urge to climb under the table and live there for the remainder of the day.

I wished that I was a good liar. I wished that I was not thinking about good he made me feel with one little touch of finger.

‘Not yet.’ Brennan muttered.

I glared at him.

The terrible French speaker smiled at her boyfriend before announcing to us all ‘Guess who cancelled his plans the night of The Fall Ball to take me there? Is he not the sweetest?’

Pointing to my saviour Brennan with a handful of fries, I told him ‘You are back in my good books, Lover Boy. Now I do not need to go to this stupid dance.’

‘How is that?’ Lana argued, unimpressed by my unwillingness to go.

‘Because he is taking you and that means I don’t have to.’

‘That is not how it works.’ She said to me before claiming ‘We all have to go together as a group.’

Stone leant down to ask me while the other two were busy talking ‘Why don’t you want to go to the dance?’

I raised an eyebrow at him ‘Why would I want to go?’

Lana spoke so loudly that it broke me out of my intense eye-lock with Stone. We all looked at her as she ranted to Brennan.

‘We have not spent any time together all week because you have been so busy.’ She let out a sigh before snapping at him further ‘Where do you have to go that is so important? You are always busy, and you never tell me why.’

The Houdini acts by Stone had completely blanked my mind. Spending time with the man next to me had affected my thoughts and changed my priorities.

My leg went cold as Stone’s hand moved away from me. I looked up at him to see him scowling in the other direction.

The quarterback’s arrival could not have come at a worst time.

Chase stood at the end of the table and his attention was on the mountain of a man next to me.

He was smirking at the giant meanwhile Stone addressed him with an emotionless glance.

None of us said anything to him.

The blonde quarterback was the one to fill the awkward hostile silence by meeting my eye and asking, ‘Can I speak to you?’

That was when Stone went from emotionless to ferocious. He was a sleeping bear at that moment and one move would result in Chase leaving the school in a body bag.

I missed the La Petite Mort chat.

‘Is it about your Shakespeare paper that you asked me to mark?’ I asked Chase.

He nodded ‘Yeah. That is what it is about.’

‘It is in my locker.’ I told him and then I thought it best to keep Chase away and safe from the wrath of Stone, so I added ‘I have to go there anyway to get the stuff for my next class. I will go and get it now.’

Chase put a hand on his chest and feigned hurt ‘You only want to talk to me as as my tutor. I thought we were more than that.’

A growl was heard, and it reminded me that Stone had as much social etiquette as someone raised by wolves. He was also as ruthless as one, so I stood up and did not meet the pair of dark eyes.

I could feel them on me though. They followed me until I left the cafeteria with the jock.

The corridor was empty when I arrived at the locker with Chase. We made small talk from the cafeteria to the hallway. The usual stuff from football to parties to gossip. Topics that I did not care for, but they kept the conversation going.

Putting in the combination for my locker, I pulled out my English folder and rummaged through the unorganised pieces of paper until I found the one that was not in my handwriting.

Handing him the essay, I smiled in encouragement ‘It was a good paper, but I think you need to work on—’

Chase put his hands up to cut me off and then he laughed at me ‘Ella, did you really think I wanted my work back?’

‘No, I thought you were taking me out of the lunch hall to take me to Disneyland.’ I bit out sarcastically ‘Of course I thought you wanted your work back.’

Ignoring my sarcasm, He explained his real motive ‘Come to the dance with me.’

‘I thought you said something about not being able to go.’ I recalled, ‘You mentioned that there was a massive event at your beach fight club thing.’

Chase nodded ‘Litora Bello got pushed back until midnight so I can now make it.’

I bit my cheek to contain my laugh. The way he pronounced Litora Bello like it was some god-given sacred gift in his dramatic tone was amusing.

‘You know that I loathe stupid school functions and I hate dancing.’ I spoke truthfully ‘Also, I am sure you would rather take someone that is more than a platonic date.’

He did not seem disappointed at all. He was not looking at me at all. Something behind my shoulder him occupied his attention but he still replied cockily ‘You are missing the opportunity to go to the dance with the best-looking guy in the school.’

‘And the most humble.’ I joked before I apologised ‘I am sorry. It is just not really my thing.’

A smirk made its way onto his face as he moved in closer. I was just about to pull away, but he managed to leave a quick kiss on my cheek.

‘It is fine, Ella.’ He assured me ‘We can do something else another time.’

The move was a dead giveaway. I turned around to see what Chase had been looking at or more appropriately who he had been looking at the whole time.

The ginormous eavesdropper was leaning on a wall of lockers a few steps away. His expression was not like anything similar to what I had seen in the past days. He looked mad. Mad was not a strong enough word for it. Livid was probably a better description.

His jaw muscles were tightened, and his hands were clenched. It was predatory and ravening.

Stone did not say anything, but it was enough to make Chase disappear down the corridor. The blonde male was gone when I turned back to face him.

One thing I had learned about Stone was that his muteness was one of the most intimidating things about him. He went quiet and calculating when he was mad.

That is why I never shied away from him. He was never silent around me.

Although if I had received even a quarter of the fury, I had seen a minute ago then I would have run down the corridor too.

His silence was chilling.

There was no point in avoiding him so like a lamb to the slaughterhouse, I loitered over towards him.

His face and dark eyes softened when he seen me making my way to him.

Only slightly because faster than I could say Chase-and-I-were-only-talking, he was dragging the both of us into the closest room to where his lookout spot was.

He lifted me into the janitors closer and slammed the door behind him.

The small, confined space smelt like feet and cleaning chemicals. I had never been in the tiny room. I was not one for a rendezvous in the janitor’s closet.

I did not get a good look around the place. That was due to Stone’s large body blocking my view as he caged me against the wall. His two hands went to either side of my head as he neared me.

He was still furious. His eyebrows were furrowed, and his gaze was darkened. His veins bulged in his arms and hands as his jaw ticked in a fast rhythm.

The way he asked his question was more like a demand ‘What were you doing with him?’

‘I was giving Chase his English paper back’ I replied and then added, ‘He also had something to ask me.’

‘I know he had something to ask you.’ He growled, ‘I was listening the whole time.’

‘Why would you eavesdrop?’ I asked him as he pressed his whole body against me but not enough to fully squash me.

He did not answer.

I poked his solid chest to tease him and to turn the conversation light-hearted ‘Were you jealous?’

‘I am not jealous.’ Stone gritted out, roughly.

‘You are not?’

‘Jealous is when you want something that is not yours.’ His face moved until it was inches away from mine then he growled “I am territorial. I am protecting what is already mine.’

I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes “I really want to slap the smugness out of you.’

The darkened eyes lightened a little as he replied, ‘I am sure there will be a stepladder in here for you to do so.’

‘I am not small!’ I stood on my toes but ended up just falling onto his chest.

‘The little fucker kissed you on the cheek.’ Stone grumbled murderously to himself.

The funny thing was that Chase was over six foot, so he was hardly little to a normal-sized human. He was to the giant in front of me.

‘A kiss on the cheek?’ I repeated in shock ‘That is what has got you riled up?’

‘Drizella.’ He uttered my name darkly like it was a curse and a prayer ‘I am envious of the wind that touches your skin.’

Stone closed any remaining space between us and I thought he was about to kiss me when he gnarled again.

‘What has got me wanting to destroy the little blonde prick and take his pathetic life is that he is trying to get my girl.’

The last two words sounded so tantalising and sensual coming from his lips that my knees almost gave in.

‘Your girl, huh?’ I crossed my arms ‘Since when?’

‘Since fucking always.’

I went back on my heels and argued ‘Well that is the first of me hearing about it.’

He ignored my comment and instead darkly assured me ‘You are my girl.’

At his words, I tilted my head to face him again ‘You can’t just stop Chase from talking to me—’

‘I can.’

‘I wouldn’t stop you from talking to Lacey.’ I countered back.

It was my argument, but it was not a very strong one. If she tried to speak to him again then I would probably try and gauge out her eyes.

‘Who the fuck is Lacey?’ He replied and he sounded genuinely clueless as to who I was speaking about.

If we were not arguing, then I might have twirled in glee.

I was not going to remind him of the pretty blonde who was trying to flirt with him. Alternatively, I kept quiet and tried not to kiss him.

I was scared of him. I was so scared of him but not in the way everyone else was. He could hurt me. If I did not have strong feelings for him then I would not have been terrified of getting hurt.

Stone spoke but it was in a much softer tone ‘Are you ignoring me now?’

‘I am not ignoring you.’ I answered honestly ‘I am simply evaluating. Sometimes I don’t think I know you.’

He cupped my face and gently moved my head upwards, so I was looking at him.

‘Ella, you know me better than anyone.’

‘Lana is upset about the whole disappearing act that Brennan does and I don’t know how I feel about it either.’

The body against mine stilled and the wide shoulders tensed.

I interpreted his tenseness as the cause of the earlier topic, so I made sure he knew ‘I don’t not like Chase. He is my friend-ish and I don’t have any romantic feelings for him.’

The lip that was set in a frown twitched once.

‘Although,’ I lingered on the words.

‘Although what?’ He replied in his deep commanding voice.

I smiled up at him ‘I am really starting to second guess wanting a guy that pulls me into smelly closets and does not bother to kiss me.’

His smile turned to a full one and I could not help but mirror his expression.

I leant on my toes and noticed that I only managed to reach the top half of his chest, so I said, ‘Get down here, Lurch.’

A chuckle left him, and his mouth twitched into a smile as he stared down at me.

‘Get down here.’ I ordered, motioning for him to bend down closer to me ‘Or I will have to climb up there.’

His laugh became closer as he leaned down and brushed a piece of hair out my face.

Just when our lips brushed, the door to the closet gets slammed open and we pulled apart.

Mr Dankworth stood in the doorway with an expression that should not be on a teacher that had caught two students kissing in a cleaning closet. He looked full of glee.

The English teacher sounded apologetic as he rambled on ‘I am so sorry. This is usually where I go to get some peace and quiet to read. Some loud birds sit on the window of the classroom, and I cannot enjoy Dickens there. However, I will find somewhere else to read today. See you crazy kids around.’

I was standing there gaping at him as he started walking out of the small room.

The old teacher was about to shut the door but then felt the need to add “I knew you two were getting together. You two are just like something out of Pride and Prejudice.’

The door closed and I let out a groan as I let my head fall onto the well-built stomach.

Stone chuckled at my embarrassment, and I found myself laughing into the chest of my darker, scarier, leather-jacket wearing Mr Darcy.