Page 21 of Protector

A few minutes of quiet time to myself, a girl who goes to our school but is in King and Dax’s year, a year below me, plonks her butt right in the seat next to me.

“Why are you out here all by yourself?” she slurs, and I can’t help but judge whether she’s actually putting it on and acting drunker than she is, like everyone here is doing.

“Just thinking.” About Bonnie, I don’t add.

The truth is, all I can think about is Bonnie at the moment.

I listen to King and Dax talk about girls, watching them kiss them, getting a little too carried away in the corner of a room, and I can’t help but frown and picture me doing that, but with Bonnie.

But my mind berates me for it.

She’s only fourteen. I’m two years older than her. It wouldn’t be right, or fair.

I know Bonnie has a crush on me, but she’s also never met any other guy before, so I’d be exploiting her feelings by acting on them because she doesn’t know any different.

Also, King is my best friend, so could I do that to him? Be with his sister and still keep the friendship we all have. I can’t see why not, but I also don’t want to put anyone in that position either.

“I like your tattoos,” the girl next to me says, and I almost forgot she was there. “I think it’s so cool you have tattoos and you’re not eighteen yet.”

I nod, unsure what to say. Again, my thoughts just flick to Bonnie because all my tattoos so far are about her.

“I like you,” she slurs again, and I look at her, her eyes watching over me dazedly. She’s leaning forwards, and even though a part of me screams not to, I also think why not? Maybe I should kiss someone else. Maybe it will help get these thoughts of Bonnie out of my head.

So with a little trepidation, I lean in and put my lips against hers.

She grabs me around the back of the neck, forcing herself into me a little more and pressing her lips further onto mine.

And whilst I hear hollering in the background from random partygoers and know I should feel grateful that a good-looking girl wants to kiss me, I can’t help but feel wrong. These aren’t the lips I want to kiss.

And pulling back, stumbling off the bench to put distance between us, I mumble a ‘thanks’ and walk back to the house, wiping the moisture off my lips.

I don’t want to kiss or be with anyone else, only Bonnie.

And one day, I’m going to kiss her, and it’s going to feel like more than anything I ever expected.

And it did. The memory of kissing that girl is wiped clean when Bonnie presses her lips into mine. I knew this was what was meant to happen.

This.

Us.

I pull back, after a kiss that probably lasted no longer than ten seconds, but felt like a lifetime, and study her reaction.

Her cheeks are a deep pink, her whole face is basically red, and her hands have suddenly left my arms and are now crawling around her waist to hide herself.

She stumbles back, her mouth opening and closing, and I open my mouth to say something. But what, I don't know. Maybe how amazing that felt. Or how it feels like a lifetime I’ve waited for that to happen.

But before I can get the words out, she runs away.

She dashes past me, back the way I came, until she’s running across the grass up towards the mansion.

I stare after her until she’s no longer in sight, and then look around my surroundings, dumbfounded.

I’m not upset or offended that she ran. I know that had to mean a great deal for her.

And all she’s ever dreamt about is living the life of a fairy tale. Kissing a boy was never really in the cards for her.

Until me.

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