Young Annabelle Series: Young Annabelle, the Truth About James, What My Heart Wants (26 page)

“No.” I gulped, shaking my head.

“Then I’m not either.” He answered, firmly.

I grinned, overjoyed. “Alright then, it’s settled.”

“Yep.” He smiled warmly. He was happy too!

“Good!” I continued.

“Great!” He grinned, matching my enthusiasm, making me laugh.

“I’m going to watch the movie now.” I informed him, looking away, but he was having none of it. He pulled my arm, pulling me closer to his body.

“I don’t think so.” He stated amusedly, an inch from my mouth. “You can’t just do that and leave me dry girl!”

“I left you dry?” I gushed.

He leaned closer, staring deep into my eyes, tucking a loose strand of hair over my ear. “Yep, and I’m about to claim what I deserve.”

“And what’s that?” I giggled a breath away from his lips.

“This!” He said loudly, then plastered his lips across mine, kissing me for the first time today. It wasn’t a delicate kiss, it was a hungry one. He leaned his body forward, pushing against mine so that my body lay back against the couch as he layed over me.

“Anna?” He whispered, looking deep into my eyes. “Fireball?”

“Yeah.” I responded softly, smoothing his wavy hair away from his eyes.

“You’re cute you know that.” He stated, and then rubbed his nose against mine.

“Yeah, I know.” I smiled and he leaned down, kissing me sweetly, softly.

Yeah, best Sunday ever.

CHAPTER 20

“Did you hear?”

A barrage of whispers echoed throughout the hallway Monday morning, making the back of my head tingle. I lowered my backpack to the ground, pretending to search through it as I waited to hear what news was traveling through the halls of school today that had everyone’s interest.

Why is my heart beating so fast?

“Donna!” The hall echoed whisperingly.

Donna!
My heart picked up in speed at the sound of her name. Her name was associated with someone else’s, especially the past few days since school had begun. Everyone knew she was out on the hunt for James.

But he’s with you now!
I tried to convince myself to ease my rapidly beating heartbeats for a second.

Even after I’d reminded myself of the amazing weekend James and I had together, really getting to know one another, it still didn’t help. The whispers continued and by the time the echoes reached me
at full blast, I only heard two words. “Hooked up!”

With who?
A small bead of sweat broke out on my forehead. The curiosity was killing me now. I’d hoped to God that it wasn’t him, begging him to make it anybody but James.

I slammed my locker shut, the hallway behind me overcrowding by the second, class was going to start in ten minutes.

“She hooked up with who?”

“The new guy on the
Baseball team?”

No!

“What’s his name again, the really cute one right?”

“James, I think.”

“When?”

“Last night, the
Baseball team had a little party out on one of the fields at the park.”

I couldn’t think straight, my heart was beating so fast, it made noise that made my brain feel drunk.

Last night…..last night, I wasn’t with him. He dropped me off at home around 6pm, saying that he had to go meet a friend. I didn’t think anything of it. I wasn’t going to be one of those clingy questioning types. But I didn’t know there was another party. And this was the second party he’d failed to mention.

I could feel my body sway drunkenly. I felt nauseous and I wanted to throw up. Struggling to contain the bile from stretching out my throat, I crossed the hallway, zigzagging around people towards the washroom.

I entered inside and thank God it was empty. I entered the stall furthest from the entrance, kneeling in front of the toilet just in time as vomit escaped me uncontrollably.

Why!
I cried to myself as I leaned back from the rim of the toilet, spitting out the last of it. I flushed the contents away and slumped down against the hard wall, panting and wiping away any leftover remnants of vomit around my lips with toilet paper. A flood of tears began flowing speedily down my face.

Why?

Why did he do me wrong again?

*~*~*

“Anna, where are you?” Jenna asked worriedly through the receiver. I didn’t go to home room after my vomit explosion in the washroom. There was no way I could face him after finding out what he did. I waited till the bell rang and the hallway to clear before leaving the premises. I called mom, telling her that my stomach was hurting and that I was coming home. I’d never taken a sick day in my life and I’d never skipped school before. So when I told her I wasn’t feeling good, she believed me and told me to come home right away.

Not that it was really a lie, I was feeling horrible. Wasn’t heartbreak a form of sickness anyways, if not worse than an actual stomach bug?

I felt like I was dying.

I sighed quietly and answered her. “I’m not feeling good right now. I think I have a stomach bug.”

Silence

“Really?” She asked, the disbelief in her voice obvious.

I’d already lied to her about first meeting James and having this weird thing with him. She didn’t take it well. If she found out that James and I hung out this weekend after everything that’d happened between us, she was for sure going to blow.

But I didn’t have a choice, even though I was scared to tell her. I couldn’t lie to her again.

“No.” I murmured, confessing

“I figured. It’s him again, the douchebag?” She asked, surprisingly without a trace of bitterness considering I kept the truth from her again.

“I’m sorry.” I said quietly, feeling ashamed.

“What am I going to do with you?” She said, amusedly. “You don’t have to say what happened right now.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”

“But to be honest I kind of figured something involving him happened.” She confessed.

“How?” I asked, confused.

“Because he keeps taking pee
ks at my table. Ohh and there he goes again, should I wave?”

My eyes widened and I jerked off my pillow. “No!”

“How about the finger, can I give him that?” She offered, almost jokingly.

I didn’t think she was joking.

“I’ll deal with it, don’t worry.” I muttered, lowering back on to the pillow.

“Oh wait a minute, the rumor right?” She hissed.

“You heard too?” I asked, slowly.

Just great!
It hadn’t even been a full school day and it was already top news. Who was I trying to kid, thinking he was going to be exclusively with me.

“Anna, everybody heard!”

Silence

A soft knock broke the silence. “Anna can I come in?” Mom called from behind my closed door.

“My mom’s knocking on the door, can we talk later?”

“Call me later for sure. I need to know exactly what happened?” Jenna ordered.

“Alright.”

I hung up and called to the door. “Yeah.”

Mom entered in with a tray. “I brought you some soup.”

“Thanks.” I told her, sitting up on my bed.

She lowered the tray down in front of my folded legs, sitting on the other side. “It’s just some chicken noodle, nothing crazy calorie wise.”

As I leaned over and picked up the bowl, mom placed the back of her hand against
my forehead, taking me by surprise. Where did this motherly compassion come from?

“You do feel a bit clammy, finish the bowl and rest.” She ordered. I nodded and she left the room without another word.

*~*~*

My phone buzzed, waking me up from my nap. I brought it to my ear and answered the call without checking who it was.

“Hello?” I answered groggily.

“Where are you?” a familiar voice asked.

“Who’s this?” I muttered, holding the phone as my head lay deeper in the pillow.

“James.” He answered, impatiently.

My eyes flung open, shocked. “James!”

“Where are you?” He asked again.

I couldn’t believe it, he’d actually called me. I think this is the first time we’ve talked on the phone. What should I say to him? Why did I even answer? I was too sleepy to check call display otherwise I probably would have ignored the call from him.

“I’m at home.” I answered, nonchalantly.

“Are you sick?”

“Yes.” I answered stoically.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Nope!” I snipped.

James snorted. “Bullshit!”

“I’ve got nothing to say to you!” I screeched lowly, tucking myself under my covers to mask the noise level of my growls.

“Great, what did I do now?” James exasperated.

“What did you do?” I repeated, confused and appalled that he had the nerve to pretend he didn’t know what was going on, when he knew exactly what was going on.

He was the star…yet again.

“Yeah, because one minute I think we’re cool and then next you’re back to being pissed at me!” He snapped.

“You know what you did, stop acting innocent!” I snapped back.

“I didn’t do anything!” James pleaded, as if I were accusing him of a crime he didn’t commit. He did.

“You’re a liar!” I informed him.

“Oh yeah, then what the hell did I lie about?” James counterattacked.

“You hooked up with Donna, Sunday night!” My screeches were getting louder, so I tucked myself underneath the pillow, which was also underneath the blanket.

“You actually believed that stupid rumor!” James said in disbelief.

“So you’re denying it again?” I told him slowly.

“I’m stating a fact. I didn’t hook up with her!”

I shook my head. “Oh really, well answer me this, did you go to a party Sunday night!”

He stalled for a few seconds before answering. “Yeah, but_”

“And was Donna there?” I asked.

“Yes, but_” He started, but I interrupted him. I heard what I needed to hear. And I’d had enough of his games.

“Don’t ever talk to me again, you hear!” I ordered him sternly.

“Will you shut up and let me explain!” James snapped.

“Why should I?”

“You know what, fuck this, I don’t need this!” James announced.

“That’s fine by me, bye douchebag!” I growled.

I hung up the call, fuming, feeling slightly better after ripping him a new one. As I exhaled the angry breath from my system, my door knocked, hard.

“Annabelle!” Mom called worriedly. “Is everything okay? I heard yelling!”

“Everything’s fine, I just had a nightmare!” I called at the door.

“Okay, are you okay?” Mom’s voice went down a peg.

“I’m fine. I’m going to take another nap, calm my nerves.” I announced.

“Okay sweetheart.” She said and I heard her footsteps stalking away from my door. 

Sweetheart?

*~*~*

My phone buzzed again, waking me up. It felt as if I had only slept five minutes. I checked the time before answering the call. It was ten after three, school was over.

I checked call display this time, just in case. I wasn’t worried that James would call again, he seemed pretty angry during the demise of our ‘not-even-a-relationship’.

It was Jenna.

I answered the call. “Jenna?”

“Bitch! Of course it’s me.” She yelled through. “You better be filled with answers, because I have questions, a lot of them!”

I sighed. Great! “Alright.”

“I’m coming over.” She declared firmly.

“No, don’t, my parents are home, I don’t want them listening in. I’ll meet you somewhere.”

“Fine, but be quick. I’ve been on edge since lunch!” She exclaimed.

*~*~*

We met at a park in-between our houses. Children were running around, screaming and laughing while playing tag. I remembered that used to be Jenna and me, back when things were simple and easy. And no boys to disease our brains and make our bodies betray us.

“So, spill!” Jenna ordered as we sat down on a park bench that was ten feet away from a water fountain.

Taking a breath, I explained. “He cornered me at the party, we talked, and I forgave him because he
explained why he didn’t tell me about the party last Friday. We hung out on Saturday and he took me to the movies. We made a pact that going to the movies was our thing now. I liked that a lot and it made forgiving him easier. Then on Sunday we hung out again, at his house.”

Jenna’s jaw dropped, but snapped it closed and took a noticeable gulp. “What did you do at his house?” She asked me slowly.

“Not what you’re thinking! We watched movies in his basement and talked.”

“I’m sure.” Jenna rolled her eyes, the disbelief evident in her tone.

“Fine, we kissed a little, but that was it.” I confessed.

“Really? No over the clothes action? How about under the clothes action? Come on now, out with it!” Jenna ordered, clearly amused by the twinkle in her eyes.

God, my friend is funny!
I stifled a smile knowing that it would only grow into laughter.

Screw it!
I smiled big and laughter spilled. It filled me with joy and peace, something I’d been lacking since opening my locker this morning and hearing the echoes of the scandal dance from person to person.

“There she is!” Jenna shouted, happily.

“I’m here.” I sighed.

“So what happened next?” Jenna pressed.

“He dropped me off at home at 6pm, he had to go somewhere with his friend after.” I explained.

“And then?”

I continued. “Then this morning as I was opening my locker I heard some stuff traveling through the hallway. Everyone was talking about it.”

“Wait, that thing about Donna hooking up? That was him?” Jenna’s eyes bulged, she looked deadly.

“I heard someone say it was the new guy on the Baseball team, the really cute one.” I explained further.