Young Annabelle Series: Young Annabelle, the Truth About James, What My Heart Wants (57 page)

Her jaw dropped, looking horrified that I’ve just taken back that ‘power’. “But you’ve been only eating salad and smaller portions during dinner. I’m scared that you’ll go down
that path
, and then it might be too late.” Mom stressed.

“It’ll be fine.” I assured her. “I’ll be fine, just stop stressing me out. I have to be the one who controls this, not you.”

“Okay, fine.” Mom sighed, sounding frustrated. “I’ll take a step back.”

“For good?” I asked, warily.

“For now. That’s the best I can offer.” Mom said, getting off my bed. “Anyways, I’m glad we had this talk. Everything will be better again, promise. You’ve got some time before you have to go to school, do you want to go back to sleep?”

I nodded, even though I wasn’t tired anymore, but just to get her out of my room. She leaves without another word, closing the door behind her. I sighed in relief, feeling like a weight had been lifted off of me.

Last night during dinner was total drama. I was a cry baby, Mom and Dad were losing it over what I ate and didn’t. The mission from now on was to avoid situations like that…for the rest of my life. I had too many things to worry about already, and my parents breathing down my neck again was the last thing I needed.

I needed to control this, before it was too late. Lucky for me, I’m good at bouncing back in times of trouble. I smiled, reaching for my phone, pulling it from the charger. James was probably sleeping, but I wanted to know what time he’d be coming to pick me up.

Annabelle:
You awake?

My phone beeped a few seconds later.

Tiger:
Good morning baby.

I smiled.

It was indeed, sort of.

CHAPTER
46

Today.

Today, besides being rudely woken up by Mom, I’d woken up with a smile on my face. It was a far contrast to mornings of the past couple of weeks. After the ‘talk’ with Mom, the smile returned. Unlike previous smiles from when James and I were together secretly, this one felt genuine.

Genuine to my soul, to my state of mind, to each beat of my heart. I no longer hoped things were going to be okay, because deep down I knew they would be.

Call me the optimist why don’t you.

I don’t care.

Judgment be gone!

There was no room for pessimistic ‘He’s only going to hurt you again’ talk in this room. For the God of Love has casted her rainbow shine through me and everything I own. I wanted to jump high in the air, scream at the top of my lungs, twirl with the ferocity of a tornado to create a comparable electricity that I could pass on to everyone around me (Except for Donna, she could go to hell), just so they could all feel….
sigh
….this kind of happiness.

Maybe this wasn’t healthy too…feeling like this, because of him. Because of James.

Damn it…..yet another ‘issue’ I’d need to get a grasp on.  

The last of the wave of exhilarating emotion quickly gets pushed through the window as memories of yesterday resurfaced. Regarding Jenna and the Swim team. How was I going to deal with them today? I guess I’d deal with that issue when I’d come face to face with it at school today.  

I changed into my purple tank top and blue skinny jeans. In the kitchen, I forgo my healthy cereal for breakfast in favor of a healthy calorie crazed nutrition bar as I was in a hurry. I grabbed two nutrition bars and showed them to Mom just as I was leaving from the bottom of the stairway.

“Why are you leaving so early?” Mom asked, still in her pajamas from the top of the stairs, her long hair in a tight bun.

“I’m meeting up with Jenna to go over some notes for History. We’ve got a quiz coming up soon.” I explained. I was totally lying to her. She didn’t need to know about James. We settled on some issues this morning, but that didn’t mean I trusted her with information of this nature.

Too sensitive.

Imagine if she brought it up the next time we fought?

I could picture it, and it wasn’t pretty.

So James would be a part of my private life.

Indefinitely….or at least till Prom. 

“You don’t have to eat two to make a point.” Mom sighed, sounding distressed.

I shook my head. “I’m not, this extra one is for later, in case I get hungry. Anyways I gotta go, bye.” Without waiting for her to respond, I grabbed my bag and exited the house. James’ SUV was running idly a few houses down. I ran to his car before Mom could peek through the window. I opened the unlocked door and slid inside, a blast of air conditioning colliding onto me. I didn’t mind the SUV’s extreme coolness, it was especially hot today. On to things warmer to the heart though, before I could even say hello or wow its cold in here, I was pulled into a tight hug as soon as I shut my door.

My baby missed me?

James squeezed me tighter……so I guess the answer was YES!

A few glorious minutes later…..

“I just want to hold you.” James murmured into my neck. “This is my spot right here.”

“Oh yeah.” I giggled, rubbing my cheek against his searing hot skin. “Your air conditionings on full blast, but your skin’s freaking hot. Why are you so heated?”

“I’m a little on edge.” James sighed, letting out a deep breath. “But it’s all good. I’ve got you, here, with me. I just have to hold you and all the shit from home goes away in an instant.”

I squeezed his shoulder. “You got into it with your dad again?” I asked.

“That asshole had the nerve to stop me as I was leaving to lecture me on the proper way of giving respect and that my brain was small.” James murmured, sounding exhausted. “He got in my face after.”

“Why?” I asked, rubbing the back of his neck, trying to sooth the stress out of him.

“Thank you, baby.” He hummed into my skin, his arms growing tighter around me. “Because, I wouldn’t give him anything to use against me. My face was neutral. That asshole was so mad by the time I left. It was priceless.”

I chuckled at his description. “So I take it you didn’t have breakfast this morning?”

“No, I walked out before he could piss me off some more.” James grunted, pulling back and lowering his arms back down into his seat. I missed his warmth already as the A/C gave me goose bumps.

I leaned back into my seat, rubbing my prickled arms and took out the extra nutrition bar from my bag, handing it to him. “Here.”

He took the nutrition bar from my hands slowly, staring at it. After a few seconds, he murmured, still staring at the bar. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I sighed, leaning my head against my seat.

James began unwrapping the bar. Halfway through releasing the bar completely from the wrapper, he eyed me amusedly. “So Fireball, are you going to fix my wounds.” James smirked.

“I don’t know Tiger, I’m kind of still bleeding from that nasty fight I had with my parents last night. Are you going to fix mine too?” I bantered back, playfully.

James reached over and squeezed my hand. “Babe, there’s nothing I’d rather do then make you happy.”

This was one of the greatest moments of my life. So I made a wish. I wished it would always be like this. We’d had enough bad times in the past. Now, it was our time to be happy and enjoy each other to the fullest without worry of outside parties, or complicated situations interfering selfishly.

I hoped……my wish stayed true.

James ate his nutrition bar fast, finishing it in three bites. Following the promise I made to myself this morning, I ate mine too. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel like I overate or anything. In fact, I could probably eat again if I wanted to.

“I’m still hungry. You mind if we go to Denny’s for some more breakfast?” James turned on the car and faced me before pulling away from the curb.

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” I grinned, feeling….amazing. We were going to have an official breakfast together for the first time.

Are you listening….God of Love…..THANK YOU….Thank you…..

I know…I’m lame…but I don’t care.

We drove to Denny’s, squeezing each other’s hands, listening to music and leaving the crap involving our parents behind. Once in Denny’s we had about an hour before we had to head to school. The restaurant was crowded, but right when we arrived a table left.

A booth.

Our first booth together!

“We should do this every week.” James said, pulling me down the booth and into his side.

I gazed at him with stars. “Like every Friday morning?”

James nodded. “Yeah, it’ll be our new thing.”

I grinned, feeling my heart beat rapidly. “Breakfast before class every Friday, from now on?”

James nodded, giving me a sweet smile and squeezing my waist. “Yeah. Sounds like a plan.”

*~*~*

After a….relaxing breakfast, we headed to school forty five minutes later. James had a huge plate of chocolate chip pancakes and three large orange juices. My jaw was wide open as I stared at him down each glass as if they weren’t even a drop in the bucket.

I guess he was a growing boy.

I had eaten the nutrition bar and in my mind if I was being honest I thought that was enough for breakfast. But I wanted to break this bad habit of monitoring calories every second, so I ordered a bowl of cornflakes loaded with strawberries and two percent milk, with a small glass of orange juice.

“You ready, baby?” James placed both his hands gently on each side of my face.

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Just so you know, we are officially about burst Donna’s bubble.” James mentioned, widening his eyes like it was ‘big’ what we were about to do.

It probably was. Donna wasn’t known for not getting what she wanted.

I smiled at the news nevertheless. “So today just became the absolute best day of our lives?”

“You’re damn right it is!” James grinned, then leaned in and pressed his lips against mine for a quick kiss that was as far from chaste as possible. I felt every molecule in my lips ignite as if fireworks had been imbedded inside them.

How come he was such a good kisser?

“Let’s do this.” He murmured after pulling away, staring deep into my eyes. I nodded, grabbing his hand away from my face and interlocking it with mine.

We entered the school’s crowded hallway. James held my hand tightly and led us towards the rest of the Kings. Peter, Tom and Roy, plus a few other players from the Baseball team were hanging out a row of lockers away from English. Peter was the first to spot us as we weaved through small huddles of people. He began clapping and the rest of the boys followed after eyeing us.

“Well, well, well, look who finally got back together.” He grinned as we halted in front of the entire group.

Tom stepped forward, high fiving James. “Congrats bro, glad things worked out for you.”

James gave him a smug smile and pumped out his chest. “Don’t ever doubt ‘the master’ in anything.”

“Yeah boy!” Tom hollered.

My eyes rolled….who was a master?

Of what?

I chuckled and decided to intervene. “The only thing he’s a master of is being honest. Listen up guys, learn from James, he bared his soul to me last night, he cried a little too. My heart broke into a million pieces. It was so beautiful, my little fluffy bunny boy.” I cooed a smirk-less, shell shocked James.

James coughed, eyeing his boys and shaking his head. “Yeah, my girl likes to joke…just so you guys should know.” He eyed me like ‘What are you doing, are you trying to make me look like a pussy!’

I burst out laughing as each guy broke through the shock haze of my little speech. Soon they were each sporting huge grins, joining me in laughing at a flabbergasted, yet very amused James. He was
the man
to them, but he was ‘Tiger’ to me.

Maybe I should tell them that too? You know, embarrass him a little as a little taste of payback for all the crap he put me through earlier.

“Don’t worry, my little sweetie_” I began to coo James but was interrupted by a high pitched squeal.

“Hey boys, looking good this morning.” Donna exclaimed, stepping in front of me with Stacey, a blonde haired Barbie wannabe right beside her, completely ignoring my presence. “What are you guys up to this morning? Class doesn’t start for like fifteen minutes, let’s go chill outside. James, you have to help me with English, I’m so going to fail if you don’t.”

Okay…what? My brows furrowed. What the hell did she think she was doing? And why was she asking James to help her with English? He was doing okay, but not enough to give advice on how to do better, and even if he did….that wasn’t going to happen.

“Um excuse me?” I said to her back, crossing my arms over my chest.

Donna turned around, pumping her own chest out in the low cut, tight, blue sundress she wore to school today. She raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips in disgust at the sight of me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. What do you want,
Annabelle?
”

This was it….my moment……James’ moment…our moment to come out to everyone…officially as a couple.

I smiled. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

She raised her eyebrow again and gave me a patronizing glare. “Then who were you speaking to sweetie? One of your imaginary friends?” She giggled at Stacey, who joined her with her own brand of dimwitted giggles.

“No, my boyfriend.” I looked past her shoulder at James who was leaning against a locker. He eyed Peter, who had the biggest grin on his face. Maybe he thought there was going to be catfight. “You ready to go to class James?”

This was it….

James pushed off the locker and high fived Tom, Roy and Peter, and then sidestepped around Stacey and Donna to join my side, smiling shyly. “Yeah baby, I’m ready.” Donna’s jaw dropped as James’ hand interlocked with mine. “So you guys later.” He nodded at his friends…and Donna, pulling me away into the crowded hallway.

A few feet away from the shocked duo, James chuckled, shaking his head. “Happy, Fireball?”

“It’s about damn time Tiger…it’s about damn time.” I smirked, enjoying the moment of walking with my man, hand in hand to English…for the first time.

*~*~*

The bell signaling lunch rang. I left class and headed to my locker. James texted me earlier about an emergency meeting the Baseball team was having during the beginning of lunch, Coach’s orders. So he’d be twenty minutes late for lunch.

I didn’t mind, in fact it was actually perfect timing, I needed to find Jenna and have a face to face talk. I left my school bag in my locker, leaving my phone inside it. I grabbed some money from my wallet for lunch and shut my locker. I wanted no distractions, even if it was James texting me or whoever. I needed uninterrupted time with Jenna so we could hash things out and get back to being best friends.