Chapter 14

I wake up and do my usual morning routine. I haven’t heard from Conor since yesterday morning so I know things will be bad in school. I meet Lois, Jack and Conor at the shop and refuse to even make eye contact with him. I think I’m right about this situation. He’s in the wrong.

Wait.

It’s Monday.

I have science on Monday... Brilliant.

I ignore Conor all day until we get to science. My heart’s beating 100,000mph. I keep thinking of the kiss we had on Saturday before Jack was in trouble. It was perfect but now he’s acting like nothing happened. I hate how whenever we kiss, we argue straight after it. Why is he giving me mixed signals?

I sit down in my usual science place and get out all my stuff. Mr. Nicholas walks in shortly after and so does Conor. He slumps his body on the seat next to me so I roll my eyes and get on with the lesson. The teacher talks the whole way through the lesson and most of the time, I have my head on the desk, not listening to a word he’s saying until I hear “a paired project”. My head shoots up off the table to listen to what he’s saying.

“You are going to be doing a project about light. You have to make something that lights up by using a circuit. Be as creative as possible and you will also have to do some theory on it. Put in one hundred percent effort into it because the mark you will receive will help with your final exams” he explains. “You will be paired up with the person sat next to you so it won’t be too hard”

WHAT!? Conor and I have to ‘pair up’. I widen my eyes at his words and I know Conor’s surprised by his words too.

“You have a week to do it so it needs to be in for next Monday” he says in a slow voice like he’s talking to 5 year olds. Conor turns towards me.

“I guess we’re working together then” he mumbles.

“No shit” I say sarcastically. He rolls his eyes and says something under his breath that I can’t work out.

“You can spend the remainder of the lesson discussing your plans with your partner and nothing else” Mr. Nicholas says sternly but half of the class are already talking to their partners already, ignoring him.

“I don’t get why you’re being like this” Conor sighs.

“Because you screamed at me for doing absolutely nothing wrong, just like you always do, then you expect everything to be ok with us. It’s not” I snap. “One minute you’re nice to me, then the next minute you hate me. I don’t understand you Conor and I can’t be bothered trying anymore”

“I’m the one trying with you Lucy. I’ve tried so hard to get along with you because I know how much Jack means to you. I told you to stay at home because I knew you’d get even more drunk and make things so much fucking harder for me. I don’t hate you at all, you just fucking annoy me sometimes”

“Stop blaming last night on me! I didn’t know what would happen, Jack offered me a drink and I took it. If anything, all this is your fault. How many did you give me at yours? Like, five? Just so I was drunk enough to ‘do stuff’ with you” I say louder than I should have.

“You think I need to give you alcohol to get you to do stuff with me?” he laughs.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Forget it” he mumbles.

“Fuck you” I say and surprisingly, he doesn’t say anything to defend himself.

I get home and stay on my computer. My parents are working all day as usual so I have no company what so ever, just like always. I go downstairs and decide to start making my tea.

Conor POV

She’s been on my mind all day. Jack’s trying to ‘cheer me up’ by letting me play on the Xbox with him but it isn’t working. All I want is to be with her and I don’t know why. There’s just something about her that keeps wheeling me in. I hate how I feel about her.

Our kiss on Saturday night was perfect. I can’t stop thinking about it. She’s perfect. I wish Alex didn’t call telling me Jack was in shit. I could’ve lived that moment over and over again and I wouldn’t ever get bored of it.

I’ve thought about going round to her house as soon as I came home from school. I feel like if I do go round she’ll just argue with me and it’ll just make things worse, but another part of me is saying she’ll be nice or some shit like that.

“Jack?” I ask while Jack’s on Twitter on his phone.

“Yeah?” he mumbles.

“Do you think I should sort things out with Lucy?”

I don’t know why I’m so worked up about all this. Man up Conor.

“Yes. Please do. I can’t stand being in the middle of you two”

“How though?”

“I don’t know. You could call her?”

“She won’t answer. Or she’ll put the phone down” I sigh. He realises how ‘upset’ I am about this situation.

“You like her, don’t you?” he asks. I just put my head down. Do I ‘like’ her? “Conor it’s so obvious. You’re so miserable without her and when you’re with her, a completely different side of you comes out. I know you did something on Saturday night. And the night she slept. I just didn’t want to say anything to make things awkward”

“H-How did you know?” I stutter.

“I don’t know. You’re my brother, I can just tell” he laughs. I’m still not amused. “Conor, relax, if it makes you feel any better, I know she likes you too”

“She does?”

“Yup” he says, popping the ‘p’.

“How do you know?”

“She’s my best friend, I can just tell” he shrugs. “Right, enough of this soppy shit. Do you fancy another game?” he asks, grabbing his Xbox remote.

“No, I’m going out” I stand from my seat.

“To Lucy’s I suppose” he laughs.

“Bye, Jack” I smirk.

Lucy’s POV

I finish my spaghetti and start washing my plate. I’m just about to walk back upstairs, when I hear a knock at the door.

“Just a second” I shout, grabbing the front door keys. I go over to the door and unlock it to see Conor stood there. “Conor, I can’t be bothered” I sigh, shutting the door. The last thing I need is another argument. He puts his foot to the door so I can’t shut it.

“Just let me in for two seconds” he mumbles. I sigh and open the door in defeat. “Your parents not in or something?” he asks.

“No. What do you want?”

“Um, I don’t know. I just wanted to sort things out I suppose” he mumbles.

“Ok...”

“I-I um, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blamed it on you” he sighs. “And I didn’t make you drink to get you to do stuff with me. I’d never do that”

“Really?” I say sarcastically.

“Why don’t you believe me? Why do you think I’m this bad person when I’m round here trying to apologise? You’re so fucking stubborn” he shouts.

“Because I never know when to believe you. You confuse me!”

“Well I can’t help that, can I?” he sighs.

“I just hate how whenever we kiss or something, we have an argument. Why does it have to be like this? I hate how much I like you Conor” I blurt out and only realise what I said after a few seconds. Why did I just tell him that?

“Why?”

“Because I know you don’t feel the same”

“How do you know?”

“I just do” I sigh and look at the floor, biting my lip.

“Well I promise we won’t argue after it next time”

“Next time?” I shoot my head up to look at him smirking.

“Yes, next time” he laughs dryly, taking a step towards me. He puts his hands on my waist and I put my hands around his neck, leaning in towards him until our lips finally touch.

-

“Lucy?” Mum shouts from the front door, obviously just coming back from work. I jump out of bed and Conor and I get changed as quickly as possible.

“Stay in here” I whisper to Conor. “Coming!” I shout to my mum.

I go downstairs and she apologises for being late. Not that I care, I had longer time with Conor. I go back upstairs when she finishes talking to me.

“Ok, I’ve been planning an escape route. I could jump out of the window, onto the garage and jump off the garage and no one will ever-“

“Conor, shut up” I interrupt him, making him laugh. “You can go out of the front door, I’ll just make sure no one’s there”

“But I want to jump out of the window” he pouts.

“You’ll fall through the roof!”

“How heavy do you think I am?” he gasps.

“Fine but if you break any bones, don’t blame me” I sigh making him smirk. I open the window and let him crawl out. “Conor you’re insane” I sigh.

“You love it though” he winks, jumping on my garage that’s just outside my window. “Aren’t you gonna kiss me goodbye?” he says, standing on his tip toes and turning his cheek to the side. I roll my eyes, bend down and kiss his cheek but he moves so I kiss him on the lips. I laugh and he just smiles. He gives me another kiss, “I’ll see you tomorrow ok?” he says seriously, looking into my eyes.

“Ok” I smile.

“Bye” he shouts, jumping off the garage. “I didn’t break any bones!” he cheers, walking away from my house, making me laugh.

I close my window and throw myself back onto my bed. My phone vibrates from the table in my room.

From - Conor: does this mean we’re friends now? ;)

To - Conor: hmm, I’m not too sure;)

From - Conor: you’re so stubborn

To - Conor: fine, we won’t be friends

From - Conor: what did I do!?

To - Conor: called me stubborn

From - Conor: I was joking :(

To - Conor: It wasn’t funny...

From - Conor: I tried :( just be my friend ok?

To - Conor: fine. Only because it’s you

From - Conor: well ;)

To - Conor: don’t push it

From - Conor: hahaha

It was 9 o’clock and I was pretty tired already so I decided to call it a night, and went to sleep, memories flashing back about tonight.

I wake up at 6:45am by my phone vibrating.

From - Conor: morning beautiful x

To - Conor: you woke me up 15 minutes earlier than usual but because you’re being nice, I’ll let you off. Morning babyy x

From - Conor: I won’t be nice in future then x

To - Conor: you put a kiss at the end of that meaning you’re being nice;)x

From - Conor: you’re stressing me out, see you later x

To - Conor: sorry ;)x

I start getting ready for school; shower, hair, make-up, change, food and go. I get to the shop and see Jack having a deep conversation with Lois while Conor’s on his phone. He sees me walking over and double turns at me, making me laugh. He puts his phone away and walks over to me, smirking. He pulls me in for a hug that lasts about 10 seconds.

“I missed you” he whispers into my hair. Oh my god. I’ve got those butterflies again.

“We’ve only been away from each other for about twelve hours” I laugh.

“The longest twelve hours of my life” he jokes.

“Conor stop being greedy, we want a hug off her” Jack frowns and pulls me in for a hug, spinning me in the air when he holds me. I start laughing.

“I’ve missed you!” I smile.

“Same! Although I saw you yesterday” he laughs and I just roll my eyes.

“Ruined the moment” I mumble making him laugh.

“Hey Lois” I smile and give her a quick hug.

“Hey, you alright?”

“I’m good, how are you?”

“I’m great” she laughs.

The day goes pretty smoothly. I start hanging around with Ben and Mike more today. They’re great and I don’t know why I’ve not spent much time with them. You can tell they’ve been hanging around with Jack too much.

At lunch, I get a table with Lois, Olivia, Leila and Charlotte. I can’t stop thinking about Conor who’s sat on a table with the boys at the other side of the cafeteria. I’m daydreaming and the girls are talking about something I couldn’t care less about.

I sit back in my chair and eat the chips off my plate when suddenly, someone walks past me and steals one. I turn around to see who it was and Conor turns around, puts the chip in his mouth, winks and walks off with the rest of the boys. I laugh to myself and the girls look at me with confused expressions. No one obviously saw what Conor just did.

“I just thought of something funny” I lie. They raise their eyebrows and I just smile. They let it drop – thank goodness – and continue their conversation.