Thanks to @CameiliaJ for the cute little banner to the side! I am loving all the fan works. I’ve added a little something for all you One Direction fans (and a little something for normal fans as well, wink) because only a matter of time until my concert, eeee (insert squeal).

Chapter Twenty-Eight

A soft tune is playing on the radio when I wake up.

    “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

        I rub at my eyes and sit up straight. Lee is driving with the windows down, one elbow resting on the edge. The clock reads 8:03AM.  I must’ve fallen asleep after the diner. Good food and not enough sleep does that to you. We’re in Brent’s car that we stole and we are cruising through on the highway.

        “How long have I been asleep?” I ask, fixing my tangled hair that’s caused thanks to the wind. “Jeez, I don’t even remember dozing off.”

        Lee looks over and shoots me a smile. “About one minute after we got into the car, actually. I guess you really don’t like waking up early.”

        I cross my arms and glare. “Wow, genius of you to think that.”

        “All right, princess, don’t get your panties into a twist while you’re on your throne,” Lee says, smirking. “We just need to stop by for some gas.” He nudges his chin to the gas meter which is slowly leaning down to the E sign. “Do we have any money for gas?”

        Sitting up straighter, I reach into my pocket for the wad of bills that my brother had left for a good cause—obviously for this day when Lee and I needed it. “Yep,” I say, “we have around eighty dollars left.”

        Lee nods, a secret smile tinging his lips. He doesn’t say anything but just takes a left turn and then a right. We arrive at a shabby gas station in the middle of dense trees. The whole place looks rusty and as if a small breath might send the whole station crumbling down. Lee takes a turn into it anyway and I try not to be suspicious of this empty, overly dirty gas station.

        “Be right back,” he announces, getting out of the car and going to get the pump of gas. I sit there for about a minute before feeling the urge to get out too and stretch. Being in a car for some time had cramped my legs.

        The one good thing about the place is the air. Maybe it’s because of the various amounts of trees or the fact that there aren’t really any cars or buildings around, but it felt good to just breathe for once. Sometimes in a small town like Brownwood, all you feel is suffocation. The closeness of everyone, the secrets that spill effortlessly, the limited amount of people you could meet. There’s never someone different. It’s the same personality but different bodies for almost everyone there. Also, same fights and drama and problems. It wasn’t just boring, it was exhausting.

        “Hey,” a voice says. I turn immediately because it’s not Lee’s voice. There’s a boy with curly hair and a plaid shirt with the sleeves cut off. Nice muscles, I think.

        “Hey,” I reply. I don’t know why he’s talking to me.

        “I’m Marcel,” he says, grinning. I think he has a British accent. Not on the low down like Lee’s but like he just moved to America yesterday or something.

        “Cool,” I say, “I’m Ivory. Nice to meet you.”

        “Hi Ivory,” Marcel says, smiling with two deep dimples etched into his cheeks. “I just wanted to offer you some window cleaning? We’re having a discount today and today only. And if you don’t want that, we have some roses on sale. A rose for the beautiful lady?”    

        “I’m sorry, no thanks,” I reply, blushing a little. It’s strange for some random guy to call me beautiful. My whole love life has been Peter up till now...and now Lee.

        Marcel pulls out a rose anyway. “Here,” he says, handing it to me. “Free of charge.”

        “Free of charge?” I carefully take it. “Really?”

        He smiles, “Yes.” Marcel takes my hand and gives it a kiss. “Unless you’d like to offer your lovely number to go on a date?”

        “Oh, sorry, I—”

        My hand is ripped away from Marcel’s and I look over and see Lee with a pokerface but I can tell he’s angry by the way his jaw is clenched so hard. Lee looks over to me for a split second before focusing his death glare onto Marcel.

        Marcel acts like nothing happened. “What about a rose for your brother?”

        And now I pray for this Marcel because Lee grips my hand hard. Lee sets his eyes on Marcel and walks a little closer to him. “I’m not her brother,” he says in a calm voice. “She’s my fiance so please refrain from laying your hands on her, sir.” Fiance, what?

        Marcel never stops smiling. “Of course, of course.”

        “Good.” Lee holds my hand gently and tugs me along to the convenient store in the corner. He doesn’t say anything to me but I know once we’re back in the car I will get an earful from him. In the store, he only says, “Stay here.” Then he walks to the back of the store to probably look for some food for our trip.

        Of course, I don’t listen.

        I see flowers outside the convenient store and they all look in full bloom because of the perfect May weather. I go outside and see that they’re selling twenty bucks for a bouquet of flowers of any choice and I’m really tempted to buy them because they’re amazingly pretty but I know we need the money for good reason.

        “I can still offer you that flower free of charge.”

        I jump a little, startled. Beside the flowers and behind the wall of the convenient store is Marcel, using a wrench to fix a part of a motorbike. He gets up and wipes his forehead with the back of his hand and it causes some black substance to get on his forehead. I notice his fancy bandana at the moment and how he has an impeccable sense of style.

        “Sorry about him,” I tell Marcel as I inch closer to him and the bike.

        He grins a lopsided grin and it’s like seeing the sun rise after a long and cold winter. Marcel is really cute and wow. Then a thought comes to mind and suddenly I’m trying to remember the last time I saw his face because it’s so familiar.

        “No worries,” he says. “I get angry boyfriends and fiances all the time.”

        I smirk. “So you have a lot of girls up your alley?”

        Marcel smirks back. “Would you like to join?”

        His smirk is uncanny and it’s starting to bug me where he’s from. Where have I seen this boy before? Maybe I’ve never met him and my mind is playing tricks. But his dimples tell another story.

        “Have we met before? I feel like I know you.”

        “Was that a pick-up line?” Marcel asks, twirling the wrench in his hands.

        I press a hand to my chin and stare at him real hard. I look from his long legs up. He’s pretty tall and has better legs than I do. His eyes are a nice shade of green, like the green in trees after blooming. He has tattoos running up and down his left arm and I squint to see that they are various things—a rose, a ship, Things I Can’t, etc.

        I know that I’ve seen him before and my heart lurches every time I try to remember.

        “Hey,” he says softly. Marcel walks over to me and takes my left wrist. He brings me over back to where the flowers are and outstretches his hand. “Pick any flowers. I will give them to you, free of charge.”

        I look at the bright dashes of colors from every flower. “I shouldn’t, really.”

        Marcel looks at me. “Please do. I don’t mind. And my boss inside probably won’t mind I gave some pretty flowers to a pretty girl.”

        I laugh. “Quit flirting with me. Didn’t you hear Lee?”

        “Lee?” Marcel says, raising his eyebrows. “What a name for such a…passionate man.” He presses his lips together to stop laughing.

        “Hey!” I say, but I laugh as I say it. “That’s my man you’re talking about!”

        “Okay okay,” he says, raising his hands in surrender. He smiles and shows me both his dimples. “But take some flowers or I will continue to harass your fiance.”

        I giggle as I reach for some baby’s breath. They’ve always enchanted me with their simplicity and beauty. “These are all I want,” I say to Marcel and he grabs some cellophane and wraps it up for me. He even adds a pretty pink bow.

        “So, where are you two headed?” Marcel asks, handing me the bouquet of flowers. He starts to walk back to his bike.

        “Uh, I don’t know actually,” I say. Where are we headed? Lee never said and I will have to ask him once he’s done in the store. “We kind of just drove off and had a impulsive date thing. It’s crazy, really.”

        Marcel starts wrenching some screws and tightening them before he finishes and sets his tools aside. He enters his key into the ignition and revs his motorbike that creates a growling noise. He smiles at it before taking his key out. “That’s sweet of you and Lee,” he says. “You two in love?”

        I look at him and suddenly it kind of hits me. Nobody’s really asked me directly to my face if I was actually in love with Lee Richardson. And now that Marcel has, I don’t know how to let the words out of my mouth. I glance down at my flowers and smile. “I do,” I say, “I do love him and I’m in love with him.”

        “Deeply?”

        “Deeply.”

        “And what about him? Is that old chap in love with you?”

        “I hope so,” I say, nervously laughing. “That’d be awkward if he wasn’t.”

        Marcel laughs along with me before putting the tools he had been using inside a box and setting it to the side. “Listen…I have to go now.”

        “You do?” I ask. “Don’t you work here though?”

        “About that…,” Marcel says, looking at the ground and scratching the back of his head. “I don’t actually work here and my name isn’t even Marcel.”

        “What?”

        Marcel suddenly goes behind some bushes and picks up a black guitar case. He puts the strap on so it hangs loosely on his back. There’s also another backpack and he puts only one strap through his shoulder because the guitar case is already enclosing the space. He walks back over and hops onto his motorcycle, flipping one long leg over the bike.

        “I’m a rockstar,” he tells me. “I’m sorry for lying but I didn’t want you to know who I am and you’re a sweet girl so I don’t think you’ll be a problem. But I’m just traveling a lot right now and my bike broke down and this dude—” he points a finger into the direction of the convenient store, “—said I could use some of his tools. I don’t work here, sorry.”

        “Wait, what?” I say. I look down at the bouquet. “So you stole these flowers?”

        He smirks. “You could say that.” As he reaches for the handles on the bike, he revs up his motorcycle and smoke comes out from behind it. “It was nice chatting with you, Ivory. Call me soon.”

        “Call you?” I say.

                He nudges his chin up to my hands and indicates the flowers. “I left it on the plastic cellophane thingy,” he explains. “Call me when I get famous.”

        And true to his words, there is a number scribbled on in rushed handwriting in sharpie on the transparent cellophane. It makes me smile because this guy is such a smooth goofball.

        “And my name,” he says, “it’s Harry. Bye, love.” He starts driving and starts cruising out of the gas station. “See you later!”

        I grin at him and wave my hand in the air like an idiot. “See you!” And I say it even though our paths might never even pass again but it was good to talk to someone crazy as Harry. He’s already speeding down the road by the time Lee steps out, holding brown paper bags full of groceries and other materials.

        Lee sets his eyes on the boy driving away and then back to me. “What’d I miss?”

        I start walking to the car and then let myself in the passenger seat. “Nothing.”

        Lee opens the back seat and sets the bags there before opening the door to the driver’s seat and hopping in. “What’re those?”

        “Flowers,” I answer.

        He gives me a glare. “Obviously. Where’d you get them?” Lee starts up the car and soon we cruise out of the gas station ourselves and into the empty road.

        “Harry.”

        “Harry?” Lee looks over to me as he drives—again, another driving hazard. His driving is reckless as it is. “Who’s Harry?”

        “The guy from before.”

        “Oh.” Lee extends a hand, turning back his eyes to the road ahead. “Can I see those flowers for a second?”

        “Sure,” I say, smiling. I never pinned Lee as a flower type of guy.

          I give him the bouquet of flowers gently in his hands and he holds them and looks at them for a while. He notices the number written on the cellophane and examines it for a second. Lee suddenly chucks the bouquet out the window.

            “Lee!” I yell. I look over my shoulder to the flowers that are now discarded on the side of the road, laying there. “Lee, what the hell?”

            “Yes, love?” Lee looks over to me and tilts his head in this cute way and gives me a slow and easy grin. He blinks a couple times to act all innocent.

            “Lee!” I say again, as angry and exasperated as the first time but maybe a little wavered because of Lee’s puppy dog eyes. “You can’t just throw out flowers out a window and then leave them in the middle of the road!”

            “But….” He sticks his bottom lip out as he stares at me.

            “Stop doing that!” I turn my head away and look at the front window. “Harry actually thought I was pretty and gave me any flowers I wanted free of charge!” Well, he stole them but it’s the thought that counts, right?

            “I think you’re gorgeous,” Lee says, looking offended. “And Harry’s a slime ball. Continuously flirting with you as I was right there, even after telling him that you were clearly with someone. And he even left his stupid phone number. He’s an idiot.”

            “You’re an idiot!” I say. “At least he didn’t give me dead flowers.”

            The car skids to a stop and my face almost connects with the dashboard since I had forgotten to put my seatbelt on as we raced out of the gas station. I pull back immediately and see we’ve stopped right in the middle of the road.

            “Lee, again, what the hell?” I cuss. I point to the window. “We can’t just stop in the middle of the road! And quit trying to kill me.”

            He is still looking out the front window, eyes on the yellow streak running through the middle of the road that we have conveniently stopped on. Lee turns his eyes to me and he smirks in this evil way and I know I am gone for. He takes his hand off the steering wheel and unlocks his seatbelt.

            “Take that back right now, Miss Ivory,” Lee says, a glint in his eyes.

            “N-o,” I spell out, backing up till I’m pressed against my door, “Mr. Richardson.”

        He presses a hand to my seat and then uses it to come closer. His other hand touches the head of my seat and he starts crawling over to where I am. “Take that back now or you’ll regret it.”

        “Eat. A. Cactus,” I spit out, challenging him.

        “You’ve asked for it now, babe!” Lee says suddenly, grinning ear to ear. I don’t know what he’s going to do but I do know I am scared because Lee Richardson does not mess around. So when he lunges to my seat, I am not surprised and a shiver runs through me. His hands come to my stomach and starts tickling me.

        I’ve always hated tickling and that’s mainly because I am very ticklish.

        I start gasping and laughing and then gasping again because when I get tickled, it is like a bomb of laughter and I can’t breathe because I am too busy trying to pry Lee’s hands off of me but I can’t stop letting out wheezes. My laugh must be real attractive right now as I am the exact replica of an old geezer.

        “Take it back, Ivory,” Lee teases as his fingers wiggle around every nook and cranny of my stomach and torso. I try to speak but my laughter overrides my speech.

        “Nnn—ohh,” I manage as I follow his hands and try to take them off but he’s too fast. He’s an expert at this.

        “I might give you dead flowers but I love you,” Lee says.

        “Thaah mah-de n—o seh—nse,” I wheeze out as I am the equivalent to a volcanic eruption of giggles and laughs. It’s almost painful as my stomach starts burning and my lungs start hurting.

        And soon my heart starts hurting.

        I love you too, is what I don’t say. But I don’t want to hear him say he loves me and I don’t want him to say anything because right now we are neither in love or out of love. We are a seesaw that is stuck in the middle, both sides held in the air. It is not good and it is not bad. But we can’t speak of our love for each other because tomorrow, I’ll wake up and Lee will go be Lee Richardson of Richardson Hotels & Other. and I will go back to being average small-town girl with a unconscious mother in the hospital. I have so many things wrong with my life right now; Madam Jin’s outburst, my mother, Mark telling me he likes me, Brent who secretly tries to be comic relief when he’s hurting about my mother as much as I am, my father, school, and then I have Lee. He is the one person in my life I have a choice of hurting and being hurt by. I can accept his feelings but what good will it do? We live in separate worlds and we’ll have to return to them soon. I don’t want to hurt him and I don’t want to get hurt.

        All I have is a now and a today and I will breathe every second of it in.

        “Take it back! Tell me I am better than some strange man you’ve met at that gas station,” Lee continues, oblivious to my deepening thoughts. I pull myself out of my worrying head and try to pay attention to what’s happening. “Hey, you stopped laughing. Have you given up?”

        I stare at him. I stare at Lee with his stupid messed up blond hair and stupid crystal blue eyes and that smile. That smile that could pull me out of my misery even if each one of my limbs were being torn. The way his teeth are perfect and his dimples are perfect and he is perfect. Lee’s perfect.

        If time could stop once in my life, I would use all my power on it now.

        Lee looks down at me, waiting for an answer. A tear rolls down my eye and Lee doesn’t acknowledge much of it because I have been crying for the last five minutes over his tickling. But this tear is because I’m happy and sad and angry all at once that I was born as the wrong person for him. I want to be with him and every cell in my body screams it. I want him.

        He presses his forehead down to mine and smiles. “Is that a yes?”

        No, no, no, I scream in my head. I don’t give up. I don't want to give up on you. Ever.

        “Yes,” I say instead and use my arm to bring his face down closer to mine until I am kissing him. And he kisses me back, his hands that were resting on my stomach now holding it. I kiss him with hunger and love and everything right. He senses it because it takes him a while to respond before he gives me as much as I give him.

        The tears don’t stop even as I close my eyes.

        I don’t want to ever let him go.

        Lee shifts his body so he pulls me on top of him as he sits where I had been. My legs are around his hips and we are kissing in a passionate way and on a level I never knew we could go to before. One of his hands reaches my messy tangled hair and the other plays with the hem of my plaid shirt. And I hold him like he is worth a billion dollars and I don’t want him to break and he is worth so much more.

        His cold hand is suddenly under my shirt and this is the first time we have reached such territory but I don’t want him to stop. A shiver tingles through my whole body as his hand skims my stomach and then transfers to my back. I feel a surge of electricity and power.

        “Lee,” I whisper against his lips and he pulls away, sucking in a breath as I say his name. His lips dance across my jaw and then my neck and I feel like exploding into a million pieces. His hands slip into my back and unclasps my bra. Sounds I didn’t know I could produce slip out of my mouth. My hands are on his shirt and unbuttoning. Fast. I don’t think I’ve ever unbuttoned my shirts this fast. But I do and he keeps kissing my neck and it’s driving me insane.

        I get stuck on a button as I am midway through ripping his shirt off and Lee pulls away from my neck and smirks as his hands work like magic, fixing the problem. I take this opportunity to kiss him again. Surprised, he takes a moment before kissing me back like he can’t believe this is me. Like if I’m Ivory and if I really am violently showering kisses on him.  

        For a second, I break away and kiss his firm jaw. His jaw is so sharp and defined it could probably cut a watermelon and I’ve wanted to put my mouth on this jaw the minute I laid my eyes on Lee. He starts making noises and gasping and I can’t even comprehend in my head that this is me doing that. Lee, who is always composed and perfectly calm, is breaking apart.

        And I am loving every moment of it.

        I move from his jaw to his neck to his collarbone. And then lower and lower as his chest appears from under his shirt. I move aside the matching plaid shirt and kiss the middle of his chest and Lee grips my hips, trying to stop me. I don’t.

        Lee has unhinged me and I am so unstable and I am ready to do the same.

        “Ivory,” he breathes, his head tilting back to the seat. “Please. Stop. This is too brutal.” His hands on my hips hold me tighter and I smirk, feeling like I’ve won.

        “What?” I say innocently, backing up. “What a funny change of events. Give up?”

        “Yes! Yes, I, I give—” My lips are on his neck. “Oh, fuck.”

        Making Lee swear never will cease to surprise and entertain me so I keep going and then I—

        HONK!

        The next few seconds are a blur as I scramble to get up and hit the ceiling of the car and Lee is struggling for the first time in his life as he tries to get up and hop over back to the driver’s seat and his fingers shake as he attempts buttoning his shirt again. Lee trips and his elbow hits the steering wheel and I fall over his legs that are in front of me and we are a complete mess.

        Someone in a blue car drives by next to us and gives us a what-the-hell look.

        Lee pulls his leg over and I take a seat and fix my hair as I nervously smile at the old man staring at us. Lee’s shirt is buttoned all wrong and my bra is still undone and I would not be surprised if the man calls the cops on us. I hope the man doesn’t find anything suspicious. Lee stupidly waves and offers a nervous smile.

        The guy scoffs and drives away as he leaves us alone in Brent’s car.

        And then it dawns on me that Lee and I have just made out in an unorganized and passionately raw manner in my brother’s car and if he knew, I’d never see the sun again in my life and Lee would never see, period.

        Lee turns to me and I turn to him. We look ridiculous.

        “So...nice weather, huh?” I say.

 \\\\

holy shit it's 1am and my heart is still pounding from writing that scene.

hello, everyone! sorry i haven't updated in 23 days. i had gotten a little stuck but then once i forced myself to sit down and put away distractions, the words flew out of me because i love this story, i do. and i am so grateful for a website like wattpad, and fans like you, and this is amazing. i can't believe or even comprehend where i am today. THANK YOU.

if you want to message me, i now have a twitter: @indiecigars (duh, lol)

xoxo always ♥

oh and check out my new story "Only Tonight" about a boy and a girl stuck on a ferris wheel together during a blackout (cough self promotion)