When Summer Ends (25 page)

Olly grinned as we walked in and nodded his head towards the
empty seats next to his. Thankfully the seats weren’t at the front this time. I
smiled and walked up to him, plopping down next to him and Amy next to me.

“Hey, long time no see,” he joked, grinning as he scooted
his chair closer to mine. His side was practically pressed against mine, making
me feel a little uncomfortable.

“Yeah I almost forgot what you looked like.” I stuck my
tongue out at him making him laugh as his arm slipped across the back of my
chair, just resting there casually.

Will stood up. His body looking a little tense as he looked
around the class. “So we only have half a lesson today as there’s been an
assembly called for seniors at two thirty in the hall. We don’t really have
time to start anything new, so how about we go over some of the rules of
proportions ready for tomorrow.” He shrugged, his eyes scanning the room. When
they settled on me, he frowned and looked away quickly.

What on earth is his problem now? I honestly have no idea
how his brain works anymore. I thought I knew him well, but all this just shows
that I have no idea who he was in the first place.

I groaned and pulled out my textbook, flicking to the page
he said. All sorts of equations and formulas jumped out at me on the page. My
brain immediately started to switch off. I concentrated on what Will was saying
at the front of the class, trying to understand what he was talking about, but
I knew I needed more one to one help. I would never understand this stupid
subject so I thanked my lucky stars for Nick.

Olly was playing with the back of my hair while we sat
there, twisting it around his finger as I tried to concentrate, but failed miserably
as I started daydreaming about Will again. He was walking around the classroom
and I couldn’t help but watch his pert little behind discretely as I bit my
bottom lip. Thoughts of wrapping my arms around him, or trailing my fingers up
his spine, bombarded my brain.

Suddenly he stopped in front of me, looking at me
expectantly.
Oh God, what did I miss?
I looked around to Amy for help,
but she was just looking at me with wide eyes.

“Er,” I mumbled, not knowing what was expected of me.

He laughed humourlessly, his face hard. “Nice answer,” he
said sarcastically. He turned to Olly and narrowed his eyes. “Maybe you should
let her concentrate instead of feeling her up in the middle of my class,” he
growled.

Olly’s mouth dropped open as he whipped his arm off of the
back of my chair. “I wasn’t feeling her up,” he replied innocently.

Will made a scoffing noise in his throat. “Mr Hawk, I know
it’s hard to keep your hands off of a pretty girl when you’re seventeen, but
try and restrain yourself, at least on school property. Otherwise it’ll be
lunchtime detentions for the next month,” he snapped, walking back to his desk.
I watched his back in stunned silence.

Amy was giggling quietly behind her hand. A quick glance over
to Olly told me that he was grinning too, looking like he was trying not to
laugh.
What the heck is funny about that? Will just made me look like a slut
in the middle of his class and they both find it funny?
I ducked my head,
blushing like crazy.
Please, please, please let this class finish soon!
I
didn’t look up for the rest of the time and at half past two Will announced
that we were to head to the hall for the assembly with the Principal.

I packed my bag quickly not wanting to be in the classroom
any longer than necessary. “I’ll see you there, I need the bathroom,” I
muttered as I practically ran out of the room trying not to cry from
embarrassment and anger. I headed to the nearest bathroom and locked myself in,
slamming my hand against the side of the cubicle in frustration.
How dare
Will do that to me in front of everyone!
After a couple of minutes I took a
few calming breaths and unlocked the door. As I stepped out I almost screamed
when I saw someone standing there leaning casually against the wall. Will’s
grey eyes were alight with concern, but I could also tell by the set of his jaw
that he was angry too.

“What do you want? Don’t you know these are the girls’
toilets?” I snapped angrily as I headed over to the sinks to wash my hands.

“I need to talk to you,” he muttered, passing me a paper
towel to dry my hands on.

“Are you going to apologise for embarrassing me in front of
everyone?” I hissed, glaring at him.

“Embarrassing you? What the hell is that about?
You
were the one letting him paw you in class,” he retorted accusingly.

Paw me? Is he kidding me right now?
“You really are
an asshole sometimes, you know that?” I shouldered my bag preparing myself to
storm off dramatically.

He snorted. “For what? Why am I an asshole? For telling that
kid to get his damn hands off my girl?” he shouted, throwing his hands up in
exasperation as he looked at me intently, his eyes boring into mine.

I looked at him in disbelief.
Did he just call me his
girl? Oh my God, is he jealous of Olly? Was that what that little scene was about?
No, no way, he can’t be jealous. He’s with Miss Teller. He’s just saying this
now because… because…
  But I had no idea why he would say it, I couldn’t
think of a single reason for those words to come out of his mouth.

“I’m not your girl,” I whispered, feeling my eyes fill with
tears as I said the words.

He sighed and turned away from me, releasing me from his
intense gaze. “I know that, I didn’t mean it like that, I just meant…” He shook
his head but didn’t continue.

“What?” I asked, needing him to finish the sentence.

“It’s just weird seeing it. I should go. I don’t even know
why I’m in here talking to you. I need to go,” he mumbled as he grabbed the
door handle ready to leave.

I gripped his arm stopping him from walking off; he turned
his head back to look at me. “Why did you come here then, Will?” I asked
quietly, not trusting my voice to speak properly.

He gulped and looked at me apologetically. “You looked
upset. I wanted to make sure you were okay,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I
embarrassed you in class, I didn’t mean to. I won’t do it again.” He frowned
and pulled the door open, walking off quickly, leaving me standing there for
the second time watching him shocked.

I stood there for a full minute wondering if he was jealous
because he still wanted me, or if he was just annoyed because Olly had his hands
on something that he’d had. I honestly didn’t know the answer to that question,
but I wasn’t going to let myself start thinking about it again. He’d just had
the perfect opportunity to tell me that he still wanted me, he’d had numerous
opportunities before too, but he’d blown it every single time.

I turned on the cold tap and splashed some water on my face,
trying to slow my breathing before I headed to the hall where the assembly was
already underway. I hid at the side and listened to the end of what the
Principal was saying. Something about voting with the social committee and then
they would arrange the trip. I scanned the room for Amy. She was sitting next
to Nick, both of them were grinning animatedly so whatever we were to vote for
was obviously something good.

When everyone started filing out I waited off to one side
for Amy. She skipped to my side happily. “This is going to be awesome, what are
you going to vote for? I bet you like the sound of the horse sanctuary right?”
She rolled her eyes jokingly.

Horse sanctuary? What exactly did I miss?
“I didn’t
hear any of it, what horse sanctuary?” I asked confused.

She squealed and jumped up and down. “You didn’t hear it? Oh
my days, you’re going to love this!” She grabbed my arm and started leading us
down the hallway towards our lockers as she talked non-stop, giving me a word
for word recount of everything that I’d missed.

Apparently because of the volunteer work that our year had
done at the environment agency planting trees and picking up trash from the
streets, we were being rewarded with a certain amount of money that was to be
used towards a day out of our choice in a month’s time. There were three
choices that we had to all vote on. The one that had the most votes would be
booked for one Saturday next month. The choices were: visit a horse sanctuary
and ride and groom the horses, a day at a theme park, or paintballing.

I stated to get excited. I loved horses, but I knew there
would be no chance that people would vote for that. My second choice would
definitely be the theme park - even though I was a little scared of rides. The
only thing I wouldn’t want to do would be the paintballing. I wasn’t into any
sort of sports or activity that involved running, hiding, or getting dirty.

Nick grinned excitedly. “I am
so
voting for the
paintballing.”

A load of boys all cheered and started talking animatedly
about who was going to shoot who, they started shoving each other around
playfully. I rolled my eyes and headed to my locker silently praying that there
was some way we could get out of it and do something fun that wouldn’t involve
me falling over, breaking my ankle, and making myself look like an idiot.

Chapter Seventeen

An arm slung around my shoulder. I smiled and rolled my eyes
thinking it was Nick, but when I turned around it was Olly’s smiling face that
greeted me instead of Nick’s. I resisted the urge to shrug his arm off. It was
different when Nick did it because I knew it didn’t mean anything, but with
Olly I knew there was a motive behind it. That motive made me feel a little
uncomfortable.

“Want a ride home?” he offered.

I flicked my eyes to Amy. I always rode home with her so
maybe she desperately needed me to go with her or something, I couldn’t help
but hope. She smiled excitedly, and I mentally groaned.
I should have known
she wouldn’t help me!

“Thanks, Olly, that’d be great,” I lied, smiling back.

He waited patiently, talking to one of his friends from the
swim team, while I grabbed my books from my locker. When I couldn’t put it off
any longer I turned towards him, plastering on a fake smile as he held his hand
out to me again. I forced myself to slip my hand into his and he led us towards
his car in an uncomfortable silence. Well, it was uncomfortable for me anyway;
he didn’t look like he felt that at all.

On the way home we made small talk about the day out. In
typical boy fashion, he was going to vote for paintballing. I told him that I’d
be voting for the horse sanctuary, and about how I used to go riding when I was
a little girl but gave up a few years ago because it didn’t fit in with my
school schedule or going out.

I stole little glances at him on the way home. I had to
admit, he was actually quite handsome. His blond hair was kind of messy and
sticking up everywhere but looked nice like that. I’d never actually dated a
guy with blond hair before; usually my type was brown hair. I guess there was a
first time for everything.

When we pulled up outside my house I smiled gratefully,
expecting that to be it. But much to my utter horror he turned the engine off
and looked at me hopefully. “Think I could come in or something? Or we could go
out and catch a movie?” he asked nervously.

I flicked my eyes to the house. My parents wouldn’t be home yet;
we had another hour and a half before they were due home from work.
I guess
I can invite him in, that’s the type of thing you do when you want to get to
know someone, right?

“Sure, come in we can watch a movie.” I pushed the car door
open and walked towards the house, feeling a little sick.
Is he going to
kiss me? What do I do if he does?
As quickly as those thoughts formed, I
dismissed them again. He’d said we could take it slow so he couldn’t be
expecting much today. I hoped not anyway.

He grinned sheepishly as he stepped over the threshold. “So,
are your parents home or…” he trailed off, looking around nervously.

I chuckled. He was probably scared of my dad. “My dad’s upstairs,
he’ll be down in a minute,” I joked, nodding towards the stairs. His back
straightened as he gulped, looking at the stairs with wide eyes. I burst out
laughing and shook my head.
He is too easy to tease!
“I’m kidding, Olly,
you’re safe. They’re both at work.”

He laughed nervously and rubbed his hand on the back of his
neck. “That was cruel,” he scolded, but smiled at the same time.

An hour later and we were sitting watching a movie. I hadn’t put
on anything too romantic, not wanting to give him the wrong impression, so we
settled for a comedy. The Hangover part 2. At the start of the movie Olly had
sat himself close to my side and had his arm resting across the back of my seat.
The whole time my heart was beating just that little bit too fast because I was
just waiting to see what he would do next.

About half way through I turned to ask him if he wanted
another drink or anything, only to see he was already looking at me. I smiled
nervously and his arm moved to my shoulders, his hand playing with the back of
my hair. He smiled, and I couldn’t help but smile back. He had a really cute
smile. It didn’t make my stomach flutter like Will’s smile, but it was cute
nonetheless.

His eyes flicked down to my lips and my breath caught in my
throat. “So, would it be moving too fast if I kissed you?” he whispered.

Oh crud. I guess I need to take the plunge sooner or
later, so maybe it’s best just to get it over with!
I shook my head, not
really trusting my voice to speak; he grinned and instantly started inching his
mouth towards mine. I held my breath as his lips pressed against mine softly. I
didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would. I kissed him back, and after a
couple of seconds, he pulled away, smiling at me tenderly before he pressed his
lips to mine again.