Write on me

Chapter 15| Curiosity killed the cat...

“What are you doing here?”

I stared blankly at him for what felt like forever while the initial rage in his eyes disappeared and all that was there was pure surprise to see me standing outside of his bedroom door.

I would have felt the same way if I opened my door thinking it was my sister and found him. I probably wouldn’t have been as calm as he was though.

“Uhm, I heard that you were suspended so I went to the secretary to get your address so I could bring you the work you missed” I mumbled and adjusted the strap of my bag.

He sighed as if he was annoyed by my answer before he turned around and went into his room.

“Are you mad?” I questioned but didn’t move past the threshold, if vampires were real I was sure this was how they felt when waiting to be invited in.

“Come in and close the door, Meredith.” He simply said with his back turned towards me as he walked towards his desk.

“Are you mad?” I repeated as I set my bag down while deep down I knew I should have never came.

He hadn’t wanted me to know he was the principal’s son and just show up at his house unannounced..

It made sense why he lied about where he lived because him being related to the gang seemed more plausible than the squeaky-clean principal being his father. I wondered what the kids at school would do if they found out, it would most likely give them more ammunition to use against him. At least with the dangerous aura he gave off, they still held fear if he actually did something to let them back off.

“Not really. I just don’t get why you went through all of that effort for me.” He shrugged and sat down on the chair located at his desk and turned himself on it so he could look at me.

He was dressed unlike himself but then again, he was at home so of course he wouldn’t be in jeans or anything. He wore a basketball shorts with a wife beater and I realized how tattooed he truly was. His calves were filled as well as the vague pieces of his chest that were revealed due to the loose material.

The puzzle pieces just weren’t fitting when his parents just seemed to be the opposite of him and I didn’t see how they would allow him to not only get one but a million tattoos.

“It’s not polite to stare” The first hint of amusement was heard in his voice since I entered.

I looked at him as he ran his fingers over his lips and seemed to inspect me with his eyes, he truly didn’t understand why I was here.

“How did you get in?” His eyebrows furrowed as he awaited my answer.

“Uhm your mom let…” I glanced over my shoulder even though I had closed the door myself.

I had spent so much time with him but I couldn’t get rid of the nervous feeling filling me.

“That b***h isn’t my mother.” He snapped and his tone at my mistake explained her tone when she realized I was here for him.

He had assumed she was outside his door…

“Stepmother...” I corrected myself with a slight questioning tone even though I was sure I was right.

“Well I am happy to know he didn’t send you otherwise you would have known that she’s neither” His anger seemed to grow but not at me which I was thankful for because I didn’t want him to be mad at me.

“He?”

“My uncle or as you know him the principal ‘Mr. f**king Adderson’.” He spat his name like it was venom dripping from his mouth and I wondered why.

“He is your uncle? Not your dad…” I connected the dots out loud and he nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t know I…”

The puzzles were becoming more scattered but made more sense because he had probably come to live with them when he appeared in town.

“Of course you didn’t because I never wanted you to know but here you are” He gestured towards me.

“Do you want me to leave?” I briefly glanced around the room that didn’t really fit him, it was more proof that he had just been an add on to their suburban life.

There were the odd boyish objects but for the most part the room was plain, like a guest room would be.

“Why would I want you to leave?” He questioned.

I felt like screaming because I was walking on eggshells around everybody in this house that seemed to have a bad taste in their mouth for one another.

“I am very confused by what is happening right now, Dane. I honestly can’t tell whether you are mad or annoyed at me.” I ran a hand through my hair before hugging myself.

He sighed, “Neither. I just… I am annoyed and pissed off at them and you being here but not you being here, does that make sense?”

“Kind of.”

He chuckled a bit due to my unsure answer, “I just didn’t want anybody to know that I am related to the principal”

“I won’t tell anyone”

He had to have known that I didn’t have anyone to tell, not even Melissa because I knew even if she had the best intentions to keep it, it was something too interesting not to accidentally mention to her friends.

“I know but I didn’t want you to know either” He rest his head back in frustration and spun the chair around once.

“Why?” He wasn’t mad at all to see me.

I would say he was happy to see me but would never admit it so he hadn’t been avoiding me like my mind had led me to believe.

“Because of all the questions filling your head right now”

“I always have questions in my head, it doesn’t mean I’ll ask them”

“Aren’t you ever just that curious that you want to blurt them all out?” He smiled and pushed his feet onto the floor so he could pull his chair closer to me.

He stopped abruptly which caused him to bump into me and I fell onto his right leg which I am sure he intended because I tried to get off but he wrapped his one arm around me.

“Curiosity killed the cat” I rolled my eyes.

“I wouldn’t kill you” He whispered as he moved his face closer and rest his forehead against mine. “You might kill me though”

“Wh..” He smashed his lips into mine and entangled his fingers into my locks as he pulled me closer.

I wasn’t sure what took over me but I pushed my body against him which turned out not to be a good idea as I had surprised him and ended up in us rolling due to the chair and toppling over. Luckily for me he had broken my fall and probably knocked his wind out as he groaned while I giggled as we laid on the floor.

I quickly rolled off of him but rest my head on his stretched out arm as I stared up at the ceiling.

“Seriously?” I cringed as what I saw was a huge poster of a very exposed woman on a motorcycle staring seductively down at me.

He chuckled, “It’s more to mess with my so-called Aunt than actual pleasure for me, Meredith”

“I just don’t want to know. I am scarred... I mean…”

“You can say the word.” His laughter had stopped and I could feel his eyes on me.

“I know but…”

He cut me off before I could continue, “You should always ask the questions you want to Meredith because those questions bothering you is your gut trying to detect s**t. Maybe if you had the answers to all of those questions dancing around in your head you would stay away from me.”

“Then I don’t want to hear them” I blurted out and wanted to take the words back but I meant them.

“Meredith.”

“I don’t need to know things that you’ll say to push me away.” I sat up and stared down at him, “I have pushed people away my whole life cause every time I thought I had found a friend they were just making fun of me behind my back or trying to get close to my sister. So, one day I just decided it was best to ignore everyone and it was so easy to do because I just didn’t connect with anyone and didn’t feel the need to and then you come into my library and sit in my chair”

“I don’t think you can stake claim on the school’s property” He teased to lighten the mood.

“I am trying to have a rare dramatic moment over here!” I narrowed my eyes even though a smile had snuck its way past my lips.

“Oh please continue” He lifted himself onto his elbows with a small smirk which made his arms bulge even more.

I forced myself to look away so I could capture which train my thoughts were currently on.

“I have pushed enough people away and I assumed you were just a drive by and then you kept coming back even when I was mean to you. I still don’t understand why but maybe that’s another question that shouldn’t be truthfully answered.” I shook my head as I feared whatever answer he would give as to why he just hadn’t tried to fit in with the popular crowd as hard as he had tried to get my attention wouldn’t be what I wanted to hear.

“So you would be content being friends with someone you barely know?”

I turned to him and found that he wasn’t staring at me anymore but ahead instead. “I do know you though.”

“Yeah but I have done some bad things and I don’t regret them because its what needed to be done at the time. It doesn’t erase the fact that I did them and still have to do s**t because, as I said before, I have debts that need to be paid.”

“Just because you did some bad things doesn’t make you bad for me or make you a bad person so don’t let that define you”

While I wasn’t aware of what things he had done or why he needed to do them, I could sense that even though he didn’t necessarily regret them he was ashamed. I knew he was troubled, that was something I would agree with many in the town about but he wasn’t bad or dangerous.

“I don’t think I have a choice in that matter when the whole town has already defined me” It was like he had read my thoughts and while he always acted like he could care less, the weight of that much judgement could bring anyone down.

“Not the whole town. My family sees some good in you” I pat his knee just because but his eyes fell on my hand and I removed it as I wasn’t sure why I had done something so weird.

“Your family knows you’re good so they believe there must be something good in me that has attracted you into my life” He reasoned and I sighed as his reason was correct because it was exactly what they told me but I didn’t want to acknowledge it so instead I decided the subject needed to be changed.

“Why do you have so many tattoos?” That was a question that couldn’t have any bad answers, right?

By the look on his face I knew I was wrong though and it seemed nothing I would say would lighten the somber mood I had walked into.

He sat up and pushed his hair back. “Tattoos can be addicting would be the easy answer that I have told you before, the fact that I like them would be one of the real answers.”

“What’s the main answer?” I questioned as I had heard both answers in the past when I had vaguely questioned his tattoos.

“What do you think the answer is, Meredith?” His tone was neutral as he stared at me with a genuine curiosity for what I would come up with.

My eyes scanned the tattoos I could see as I tried to figure it out but only came up with one possible reason, “You have more scars…”

He didn’t say anything but just held a small smile before he stood to his feet, “So where’s the work I missed?”

“Oh, I don’t actually have your work” I shrugged as I stood up as I hadn’t really thought to get his things because I had assumed he wouldn’t want it.

“The purpose of this visit was pure pleasure, no business then, Miss Blake?” He smirked.

“I was worried.” I confessed softly because while we had gotten close and spoke, we didn’t speak about heavy things or our feelings unless someone annoyed us. Admitting to him that I actually cared enough to be concerned took a lot because it felt like I was exposing myself.

The smirk that left his face let me know that he realized it as well but he had just let his guard down with me which he tended to do for brief moments when we were together. I liked when he did it on his terms as opposed to me questioning him because then it felt like he trusted me or felt safe enough to confide in me.

I couldn’t be his protector but I could be the one person that listened and allowed him to be more than what he appeared to the world as.

He inhaled deeply before he sighed heavily, “You don’t have to worry about me, Meredith”

“You disappeared.” I had been bombarded by people asking me where my bodyguard was and taunting me when my sister wasn’t around but I wouldn’t tell either of them that.

I didn’t think Dane was dangerous but I was sure he could handle himself in a fight and while I didn’t want to flatter myself to say there would have been one, I was sure something bad would happen.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have my phone and he took the keys to my bike. But don’t worry, he made sure to bring all the work I missed so its good you didn’t”

“How long are you still going to be home for?” I folded my arms as I remained standing because I doubted he would want me on his bed.

“Till next week” I heard him and the thought of not seeing him at my locker or in my first period for the rest of the week didn’t sit well with me.

“Oh”

“You sound disappointed” He said it as an acknowledgement but also sounded like a question he was searching for the answer to.

“Well, you sort of made yourself a constant in my life and now you won’t be” I stared at him and he didn’t seem freaked out by what I said even though it took a lot of courage on my part to say it.

“You could come here every day after school” He glanced around his room as he made his way over to me after having created some distance before.

“I have work and on the days I don’t have work I have soccer practice” I wasn’t sure if me saying them were as excuses or just because I was genuinely booked all week.

“Meredith Blake ditched one of those two important things for me today?” He wiggled his eyebrows in a boyish way which was funny because it just didn’t fit his exterior.

I giggled and tried not to show how he always tended to surprise me because I didn’t want him to not do it. “She did.”

“I suppose I should make the trip down here worthwhile then, shouldn’t I?” He stood in front of me and in an instant the school boy was gone as his voice lowered.

I didn’t say anything because I knew him, some parts of him and how he would act. This was what my sister would call the predator act, he spotted his prey and fixed her in place with his gaze and lowered voice.

I always fell hook, line and sinker for it and while I felt annoyed and ashamed for doing so before, I liked the game now.

So all I did was stare at his eyes as his fell to my lips and just like that we were kissing again.

His arm wrapped around me to lift me off my feet and I was proven wrong because he didn’t mind me on his bed. It should have felt weird, I should have felt uncomfortable, but I didn’t at all. I was in a boy’s room with the door closed, kissing him as half of his body rested on top of mine and it felt normal.

Who had I become?

“F**k. I missed that...” He breath into my neck as he had broken the kiss.

“What?”

He shook his head and kissed me again while I held onto his arm even though I wanted to run them up his shoulder and hold his neck. He respected my boundaries so I would respect his until he said otherwise.

I felt his hand lift my leg over his back and my eyes briefly opened due to the surprise before I closed them again and leaned into him.

Dane had a way of being dominant yet making me feel safe whenever we were together, and I wasn’t sure how he did it.

I heard banging on the door that was thankfully locked and felt his lips slowly leave mine. I saw his jaw clenching as he muttered something to himself before he reluctantly moved off me.

“I told you to keep this door open…” I heard a voice followed by more knocking.

I felt the anxiousness fill my body as the euphoria left it due to the stern tone my dad hardly ever used while Dane seemed unaffected by it.

He sighed and put his music off while I stood up to grab my bag just as he unlocked the door and his uncle, our principal, came storming in but froze as he saw me.

“Meredith, what are you doing here?” He glanced between Dane and I while I wished for once I hadn’t stood out because of how good of a student I was.

I had never been caught with a boy before especially when I definitely wasn’t supposed to be with him and I was sure it was obvious what we were doing. Or was it obvious we were doing more than we were actually doing and he assumed that we were doing things that I couldn’t even think about.

“I…”

“She came to check if I needed any help with my work since I was suspended and missed the lessons but am still expected to complete it” The annoyance wasn’t hidden in his voice as he picked the fallen chair up and set it back at his desk.

“Don’t start right now. Meredith, thank you for your concern but I think you would be wise not to waste your knowledge on someone that will just allow it to rot” His voice was harsh but it wasn’t directed at me as there appeared to be a stare down between the two.

Dane’s jaw clenched as anger and something else consumed him for the man standing in front of him and it felt like I was intruding on something I knew nothing about because I didn’t.

There was something more than just annoyance with the authority and I wondered where his parents were and why he had come to this town.

“I should go” I whispered and waited for Dane to tell me to stay or just say something to acknowledge that he knew I was still there, but his eyes remained fixed on Mr. Adderson.

“Goodbye, Meredith.” Dane finally whispered before he turned away and I quickly made my way past his uncle.