Winning Hearts – 18 (Part 1)
*Vanessa’s P.O.V*
“Whoa! Check out Jasmine.” Mark murmurs from where he’s leaning against the locker beside mine.
I appear more than his shoulder just as he turns back to me. Frowning, I meet his eyes, “Why is she talking to Jason?”
“I don’t know but check out Teddy.” He nods at one thing behind me.
I turn around and see Teddy standing in the end of the hallway, a hurt expression on his face. His face is paler than usual and I’m sure that those are bags I see beneath his eyes.
I let out a sigh. “What happened now?”
Mark chuckles and leans forward and presses his lips to mine in a soft kiss. “Let’s go find out. You talk to Jasmine, I’ll see Teddy.”
“Okay.” I close my locker and then walk more than to Jasmine’s. Jason looks up when I approach them.
“Hey Jason. Um.. Could you excuse us for a minute? I need to talk to Jasmine.”
He shrugs, “Sure. I’ll see you two in class.”
When he walks away, I turn to Jasmine, my eyebrows raised.
“What?”
“What’s up Jazz? You’re talking to Jason?”
She groans, “I wasn’t. He just keeps blabbing. I swear, I’m gonna need to do some serious damage to his ego to make him understand he needs to leave me alone.”
I smile. “And what about Teddy?”
Her tone hardens. “What about him?”
“He’s standing in the end of the hallway searching hurt and your tone just changed when I asked about him.”
She sighs, “I lost it Saturday night.” She then tells me what happened. “And you realize what he said?”
“What?”
“Nothing!”
I appear more than her shoulder and see Teddy tiredly rubbing his face as he answers Mark. Jasmine starts turning around but I grab her arm.
“He’ll see you and know that we’re talking about him.” Jasmine sighs as she pulls her books out. I appear back and Mark nods towards her. Taking her arm, I lead her to our class. “So talking with Jason is a way to make him jealous?”
She gives me a small smile. “Could be. Let’s hope it works.”
I squeeze her arm affectionately. “It will.” I hope.
Mark catches up with me as I walk out of the English class.
“How are you?” He takes my hand, pulling me closer to him.
“Fine. What’d you get from Teddy?”
He sighs, “Nothing much. He just said that she was more than Saturday night and said a couple of things and left. You?”
I fill him in with what happened and as we reach my locker, he turns to me.
“What do you suppose we do?”
“I’m thinking just leave it to them to work out. If Teddy doesn’t do anything, then we can meddle.”
Mark nods, smiling. “Great idea, Princess.”
I lean against Mark’s car, Jasmine on my right and Justin on my left. Mark just ran back into the school to get one thing from his locker. I glance at Justin to see him seeking ahead and follow his gaze to see Amber finding into her car. I nudge Jasmine and she smiles, watching Justin.
“Justin- Ouch!” She exclaims as I stamp on her foot.
“Oh sorry. My foot slipped.” I give her a appear. “Don’t say anything.” I mutter under my breath.
“What is it Jazz?”
“Nothing!” Justin glances at us and then shrugs.
When Mark arrives, Justin and Jasmine both say bye and disappear to their cars. I slip into the passenger seat as Mark starts the car. He reaches more than and turns my face towards his, and after staring at me, lowers lips to mine. I wrap an arm around his neck, pulling him closer as he pries open my mouth with his. A soft moan escapes his throat when I brush my fingers gently down the back of his neck.
He pulls back, breathing in deeply. His gray eyes are shining as they bore into mine.. I swear, I could stare into his gorgeous eyes all day. Reaching more than he pushes my hair away from my face.
“Where do you want to go?” He asks, pulling out of the school parking lot.
I let out a laugh, “I thought we had been going home.”
“Well, you thought wrong.” He glances at me and I stick my tongue at him. As he comes to a stop at a traffic light, he turns to me and after studying my face, grins.
“Where are we going?” I ask suspiciously.
He throws me a breath-taking smile. “You’ll see.”
Five minutes later, Mark pulls into an empty spot outside of the amusement park.
“We haven’t been here in forever!” I say obtaining out of the car.
“I know.” Mark comes around the car and taking my hand, leads me towards the gate. He buys tickets for the both of us and once inside, pulls me away from the rides and towards the game stalls. I laugh when he comes to a stop in front of the exact stall he won a chocolate bar at, a couple of years back.
“This time,” He kisses my hand, “I’ll win you some thing better than a chocolate bar.”
“Really?” I ask, laughing.
“Yup.”
“Well, I don’t think I’d mind a stuffed animal, but I should tell you. That chocolate bar was the best one I’ve ever eaten.”
Mark smiles, “Still. I want to get you..” He turns towards the stall and looks around before pointing, “that giraffe.”
It’s a gray giraffe which has teeny tiny patches of cloth sewn on it in some different places, like the back of its head. As far as giraffes are concerned this is one has the smallest neck you’ll ever see. But it’s adorable.
“You better win it now that I’ve fallen in enjoy with it.” I say as Mark gets ready to play the game.
Five minutes later, my mouth’s hanging open as he turns around, giraffe in his hands.
“Have you been practicing all these years?”
The laugh Mark lets out makes my heart beat faster. Don’t ask me why though, your guess’ll be as very good as mine.. But it does seem to me that I’m still falling for this boy. Some thing I once thought was impossible.
“I took Lucy to a park the other day and for some reason, someone had set up a temporary stall there. She begged me to so I played a round. I warned her before that I’d be terrible, but it didn’t turn out so poor. So, no. I haven’t been practicing.”
I pull the giraffe out of his hands, “He’s so cute!”
“Thanks for everything.” I say, leaning my head back to appear at him properly. We’re standing in front of my door and it’s just gotten dark. We’d played a couple of games and eaten some snacks before heading back, considering that we have school tomorrow.
“You don’t have to thank me Nessie.” Mark whispers, closing the distance between our lips. I’m playing with his hair as he bends closer, crushing his mouth to mine. When he pulls back, I bury my face in his shirt and he wraps his arms around my waist pulling me close.
I hear a motorbike drive up into our driveway, but I don’t appear up. It’s Brian.
“Hey lovebirds.”
“Go away Brian.”
He chuckles, “That’s just mean Ness. Anyway, you’re parents and out and you’re to stay at our place. I’ll see you guys later.”
I don’t pull back till I’m sure he’s gone. Searching up, I see Mark smiling.
“Aren’t I lucky? Not only do we not have homework, but now you’re staying more than.” He pulls me towards his house, my backpack already slung more than his shoulder.
“Isn’t he the cutest thing ever?” I ask, sitting on his bed and playing with my giraffe.
“Yeah yeah. He’s cute.” Mark plucks it out of my hands and puts it on his table, before pulling me into his arms.
“You’re just jealous.” I say as he buries his face in the side of my neck.
“Hmmm.”
A shiver runs down my spine as I feel his breath against my neck. Suddenly, I’m super aware of him. His left hand is running up and down my arm, leaving goosebumps behind. My fingers are laced via his and he’s rubbing his thumb against my hand in a very unsettling way. Unsettling yet pleasant.
Mark breathes out, deliberately against my neck, his breath cold against my skin, producing me shiver yet again. I feel him turn his head to the side and press his lips to my neck. Mark starts dropping little kisses all more than my neck and I lean back into him, my head back on his shoulder, giving him far more access to my neck. When he gently tugs at my earlobe with his teeth, I gasp and turn around in his arms. My hands on either sides of his face, I attack his lips.
“Are you comfy?” He asks a while later as he pulls me down beside him.
I turn around in his arms so that I’m facing him. “Your arms are the most comfiest place in the world.”
—————————————————————
Winning Hearts – 18 (Part 2)
“Look out.”
I appear up from my lunch and appear towards the direction Mark’s gesturing. Searching out of the cafeteria windows I see Teddy outside, running laps around the field. It’s been far more than a week considering that the incident and Jasmine’s pretence of not caring is starting to fall off. Teddy isn’t any better. He’s crawled right back into his shell and isn’t talking to anyone of us. And as far as I know, has stopped eating at school.
Sighing, I get up, just as I spot Jasmine start creating her way towards our table. “I’ll go talk to him.” I dump my tray into the bin and after buying a sandwich, make my way outside. I jog across the field and then fall into pace subsequent to Teddy. He turns and gives me a small smile once we reach the bleachers. I fall onto the grass.
“I don’t know how you do this everyday.” I pant, out of breath.
“Practice.” He sits down subsequent to me and drinks water from his bottle. I stare at him as he gazes ahead and I know he’s avoiding searching at me. Finally, he gives out a sigh and turns to me. “Okay. Give it to me. How much trouble am I in?”
I shake my head, “I don’t like to see you like this Teddy.” When he doesn’t reply, I take in a deep breath, “Do you like her?”
He doesn’t answer for a long time, but then he nods. “Yes.” Turning to me, I can see in his eyes just how much pain he’s in. “I didn’t mean to hurt her. I don’t know what to do.”
I smile. “I’ve got a couple of ideas, but first..” I hold out the sandwich and Teddy gives me the first genuine smile I’ve noticed on his face this past week.
“Vanessa!”
Mark and I turn around to see Justin walking down the hallway towards us, books in his hands.
“Hey.”
“Where are you guys going?”
“The library.”
“mind if I tag along? I’m going there as well.”
“Sure.” Mark and I exchange amused glances. I’d caught Justin searching at Amber once again and although, Justin’s been here a while, they haven’t met yet. Not a surprise using a school as big as ours.
When we get to the library, we’re the only ones there, except for Amber. Once Justin finishes with what he had to do, I swiftly hurry towards Amber to give in the books I’d checked out.
“Hey Amber.”
“Hey Vanessa. Where’s Mark?” She asks, checking the books.
“Looking by means of books more than there.” I turn around and see Justin approach us. He looks up from his book and his eyes widen the smallest bit when he sees Amber.
“Amber, have you met my brother, Justin? He’s our English teacher.”
“Oh, no. I haven’t. I-” She stops brief as she sees Justin standing beside me. I’d grabbed hold of him and pulled him subsequent to me just as he was about to turn away.
“Hey.” Justin smiles.
“Hi. I’m Amber.”
“Justin.”
Mark walks out from between two bookshelves just then. “Nessie-” He glances from Amber to Justin. ” Hi Amber. You’ve met Justin?”
“Yeah. Just now.” She smiles.
“Thanks Amber.” I take my books, “You must be bored. The library’s empty today.”
“Yeah..” She glances around. “It’s not that poor.”
“Well, Justin has a free period right now, so he’ll hang out here with you. Right Justin?”
“Uh, Nessa-” Justin looks like a deer caught in headlights. I bite my lip to keep from laughing.
“It’s all right. I’m sure he has work to do.” Amber interrupts.
“No he doesn’t. You guys’ll have fun. And you must have loads in common, so you’ll get along fine. For example… You both adore to read, you both work at this school and you’re both single. See? Come on Mark. We’ve got to get to class. Thanks again Amber.”
Grabbing Mark’s hand, I drag him out of the library before I burst out laughing. Justin’s going to kill me when we get home, but the expression on his face was so worth it.