Song of the chapter - Happy by Pharrell Williams

He called me. Well, first he texted me. Then he called me. And we talked for hours.

After our amazing kiss in the front seat of his car, TJ took me home and kissed me again. It was on the front porch as he walked me to the door. The lights in the front of the house were off, and my parents weren't the lurking type, so I was relatively confident that no one was watching. He leaned in, that darn self-confidence of his allowing him to dare to try again, and planted one right on my lips.

If I thought the first kiss was good, this one knocked that one back a hundred times! He had one hand on my cheek and the other slowly came around my back. My arms instinctively found their way around his neck, as I stepped a bit closer to him. He angled his head to the side, and I did the same. His lips moved gently, still sweet and simple, nothing raunchy like those couples at the party.

But man, now I could understand why they were eating each other's faces off. Something about the way he held both my face and my back made me want to do the same thing too. However, a lack of self-confidence in the romance department will kill the mood pretty quick. Which it did, so I kept to the sweet and simple kiss that TJ was leading.

He pulled away after a few minutes, way too soon, to be clear, I could have kept going for much longer. His smile told me he could have too. It was late, and although my parents weren't lurkers, they did stick to curfew, so it was time for me to go in.

"Thanks for the ride." I said quietly.

"My pleasure." He said as he still held my hand loosely, his fingers linking between mine.

"Well..." I started, but suddenly I felt awkward, never having the front-porch-kiss-goodbye experience to know what to do in that situation.

"Yeah..." he said, which made me wonder if he had the same lack of know-how. "I'll text you tomorrow."

"Okay." I whispered.

Then, of course, he texted me like a man possessed all weekend. Best darn weekend of my life. The Friday curse had finally been broken.

***

Monday rolled around and it was back to school. I dreaded it for the most part, even knowing that TJ would be there and things were...moving along nicely. But who needs all that other crap that comes with high school.

So here was my plan: avoid everyone.

I really didn't need to be teased about TJ. And the radio silence from my ride or die crew all weekend was a pretty big hint that they had saved it all up for Monday. I could imagine them group chatting about all of the ridicule they would put poor, unsuspecting Mallory through at lunch.

The joke was on them because I wasn't so unsuspecting. In fact I was totally suspecting.

Mr. and Mrs. Sally would no doubt find me at some point, I couldn't avoid them forever. I mean, sure it sound reasonable to just stay away from my locker and therefore away from the two of them. Normal people could get away with that. But as everyone can tell by now, I wasn't normal. My luck wasn't that good. Not even close. And it had already been too long without some type of confrontation with Mia or her dog of a boyfriend. Or exboyfriend. Seriously, why would she take that two-timer back? The girl's got problems.

With no way to get out of it, I packed up my stuff and made it to school unscathed. I did notice that Seth seemed a little...off. His grunts were less grizzly bear and more wounded kitten that day. I wasn't in fear of my life at least.

All of my morning classes were fine, until the dreaded bell between second and third period. Remember my headaches from the dumb thing? It must be some sort of parallel universe warning system because I can't seem to make it to English Lit without some kind of dramatic experience. And that day was a kicker. No thank you ever again.

I followed Gina out of the classroom, like a completely normal person would. Just walking and minding my own business, when she turned around, stepped into my space and got in my face.

"Leave me the duck alone!" She growled under her breath. Only she didn't say "duck." I'm sure it's obvious what actually came out of her mouth.

I opened my mouth in shock, not actually knowing what to say, but she cut me off before I could get anything out.

"Stop acting like my guardian angel, you are no one!"

Sheesh. It was one thing to tell me to back off, it was something else to insult my existence.

"Get a life, Gina." I replied, proud of my backbone for once. Until she gasped and practically started bawling. No one had heard the venom she had spewed to me, so it looked like I just insulted her out of nowhere.

Perfect. I should have ditched, no one would have noticed anyway. No.one.

The stares I got were intense. Without another wicked response in my arsenal, because let's face it, that would have just been more trouble, I huffed a sigh and walked away. Gina hobbled off in the opposite direction. Something told me I had actually hurt her feelings, a feat I had assumed was impossible. It's not like me to be a terrible person. I needed to get a hold of myself. She was obviously going through something, I'd known that for a few weeks.

Next time I saw her I'd see what I could do to...smooth things over. If that was even possible.

My pace picked up on my way to class, actually skipping a little as I went. Which, by the way, was another thing completely unlike me. I was not a skipper, or a hummer, or a squeally, giggly girl. It must be the TJ effect, honestly that was the only explanation.

Just as I rounded the corner of the hallway, who did I run into? None other than the boy in question himself, TJ. He was leaning against a locker, arms crossed casually, with the cutest expression on his face. And he was looking right at me with said cute expression. It was somewhere between a smile and a smirk, but it said, without question, hey babe I've been waiting for you.

Somehow in this crazy universe set on my destruction, some kind of force saw something good in me to plant this guy in my path. Wow. My heart skipped right into my stomach, causing the sweetest little love bubbles to stir.

"Hi" I said shyly. Because come on, This was so out of the norm for me I wasn't sure what else to do.

But I shouldn't have worried, because TJ had things covered. Meaning my hand, which he covered with his own as he grabbed a hold of me and pulled me close. My eyebrows went up in surprise. And a little tiny bit in protest. I was absolutely not ready for any type of PDA in the school hallway.

The front porch of my house, however...

I pulled my thoughts back to the present, and away from the intense make out session of my memory. TJ's face was just inches from mine with that same smirky smile in place.

"What?" I finally asked.

"You." He answered.

"Oh" I said breathlessly. He had literally taken my breath away.

"Let's go to class." He commanded, then turned to walk in the door with my hand still firmly in his grip. It was like a public declaration of our...relationship? If that's what this was. We were being baptized as a couple as he pulled me along side him, walking through the threshold of English Lit. All eyes followed us as we stepped through.

Including Luke's.

Only days before, Luke had grilled me about my connection to TJ, seeming angry about it. He had calmed down since that first day, considerably. But now, as we walked to our seats hand in hand, Luke's gaze was glued to our linked fingers with a laser-like focus. And then his eyes narrowed. Then they lifted and met mine. My heart stopped.

Crud! He looked pissed, totally angry. Why in the heck would TJ holding my hand make him mad? It wouldn't, that was the right answer. Luke had a girlfriend. He had friend-zoned me from day one. My hand-holding should not have caused that look on his face. It must be something else, that had to be the answer.

TJ and I took our seats, with me sandwiched between them once again. He unlinked our fingers, and the missing warmth was immediately noticeable. Sheesh! I was a cliche high school romance all of the sudden.

"So, how was your weekend?" Luke asked.

Before I could answer, TJ spoke up, "Awesome." and gave me a little side wink. My heart melted a little.

"Great." Luke said, obviously not meaning it.

"How was yours?" I turned and asked him. He sighed and pulled out his phone. I thought he was ignoring me and avoiding the question. Totally rude. Then he turned the phone towards me and showed me his lock screen. It was a Steelers logo.

"Oh, yeah. Football, that's, um, cool." Honestly I didn't know a thing about football, or why Luke was showing me his lock screen. Weird if you asked me.

"Notice something different?" He asked cryptically.

"Not really. Am I supposed to? Did they change their logo or something? Not that I would even know."

"Not the Steelers. The lock screen. I changed it."

I was pretty confused. TJ wasn't involved in the conversation, he was getting his notes out and preparing for class. So responsible, and I should have been doing the same. I just shrugged my shoulders at Luke and reached down to my backpack to pull out my notebook.

"We broke up." Luke blurted. I shot my head up, looking at him. He seemed really upset. Maybe that was the source of his earlier anger fit.

"Oh no! What happened?"

"I don't know. Stuff. She's kind of...jealous I guess."

Jealous of what? I didn't want to ask and upset him more, so I just raised my eyebrows in silent question, letting Luke decide what else to tell me.

"Anyway. It's over." He sighed again.

"Are you okay?" I asked carefully. I had no break up experience but I was sure it wasn't any fun.

"I guess so." Luke replied. Then his eyes darted over to TJ. He narrowed his gaze, almost a look of disgust. Then he looked back at me, nodding his head towards TJ and flipping his hands up. It was a silent question, what's going on with you two?

The answer was I had no idea. TJ hadn't asked me to be his girlfriend, although I kind of felt like I was. Especially after walking into class with his hand in mine. Instead of overthinking, which I had already done, I just smiled and shrugged.

Luke looked away and nodded his head. Then he turned his attention to his notes. Class started, leaving whatever else was on his mind a mystery.

Lunch was as predicted, a disaster.

"Girl! You got you some after that party!" Robin teased. I grimaced at her volume. Everyone must have heard her. But I wasn't about to let her pull me under with her comments.

"I'm surprised you even remember anything. You were pretty toasted. That table-top dancing you did was lit."

Robin's eyes practically popped out of her head. "I did not!" She yelled back. The look on her face told me she wasn't exactly sure. This was going to be too easy.

"I guess we'll have to check everyone's IG stories to find out. I bet it made someone's feed." I smirked. Looked like I had turned the tables on her.

"Same goes for you, sweetie. That lip lock was pretty heated. It might be up on my story right now."

Dang it! Played by the player! I should have known not to mess with her.

"Whatever, Robin. At least I didn't have a raging hangover all weekend."

"Mal has a boyfriend, Mal has a boyfriend..." Stacey sang like a kindergarten kid. Great. How long was I going to have to listen to that?

"He's not my boyfriend." I grimaced. Or was he? Nothing was official so I wasn't going to refer to him that way. Yet.

"Didn't he text you all weekend? And hold your hand earlier, for everyone to see? I must have seen ten snapchats of that by fourth period!" Stacey told me.

Um...what?!

My face must have given away my shock, because the look on Robin's face was too smug to ignore.

"Welcome to high school romance, Mal."

Yeah. Some welcome. I wasn't sure I was ready to deal with the drama. Was TJ worth all of the crap I was going to have to put up with?

My phone buzzed. I checked it and saw a text from the boy himself.

Hey, have a good lunch with your girls. Meet me in the lot later and I'll give you a ride home.

He even spelled everything out! I felt myself smile at his message, knowing I would get a new round of teasing for it. Suddenly, it didn't matter.

I can't wait.

Yeah, he was worth it.

^^^^^

I know it's been forever. Honestly this story has been one of the hardest for me to write. My theory is that I never came up with a playlist, and I don't have a cast. (New note 1/18/18 - working on the playlist and an update!!)

So, what songs do you think would fit this story? What about a cast, who do you picture as Mallory or TJ? Maybe if I put that in place, the story will flow a little easier.

If this one was good, or decent, and if you're not too mad it took so long, would you tap the star⭐️ for me??

Anyway, I can't promise another update soon, but I will do my best. I eek out a few words here and there until the chapter feels finished... it takes a while.

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