Changing With Autumn

Chapter 19

Izzy and Erika were lost in conversation again and I took that as my opportunity to steal some more glances at the forbidden fruit, but much to my disappointment, when I looked up he was no longer standing there against the wall. The twinge of the feeling of loss was unexpected and I would be lying if I said that my mind didn’t instantly shoot back to Erika’s words of him taking a waitress out back. The thought alone made me sick to my stomach from both the sadness and anger at the mental image of him pressed against a girl in the alley. 

My mood instantly dipped and the high of the night had worn down. This instant obsession with him was weird and the territorial jealousy I felt over him was overwhelming. I didn’t want to leave just yet, in hopes that I would be able to see his face again, but on the other hand, I desperately wanted to leave in fear that I would see him with another girl. I was about to interrupt Erika and Izzy’s conversation to tell them I was ready to go when I felt the presence of someone walk up beside me, followed by a pointed cough to get out attention.

“Hello Izzy, Erika.”

The deep and mouth watering voice sent a shiver up my spine. The heat from his body standing so close to me was so inviting that I could vividly imagine laying curled up next to him. Hell, even if I was just listening to him talk I could do that forever. Oh my God, and that cologne! He smelled so yummy that I would have just shoved my face into his neck if it wasn’t for the fact that I would have looked like a total psychopath. Was it normal for your mouth to flood this badly just at the smell of someone? 

I knew it was him even before Erika and Izzy’s face dropped and they went rigid. The difference in their reaction to his unexpected intrusion and mine was so extreme that it was almost funny. The only common ground that the three of us girls had was that no one wanted to make eye contact with him. The stunned silence coming from us girls was ridiculous and it went on for a few moments before he finally decided to speak again.

“What, you didn’t miss me?” He asked with what sounded like a hint of a failed attempt at hiding the humor in his voice, but after a few moments passed and they still made no attempt at responding, he continued. “Well aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend at least? I mean it would be rude not to.”

Oh crap. Oh crap. I could feel the heat creeping up towards my face and I tried desperately to force it back down. Why did I have to be so light skinned that every time I blushed I went from ghost to sunburned instantly? I knew there was no hope in trying to hide the red on my face, so instead I tried to collect my composure and convince myself that it would just look like I had just gotten off the heat of the dance floor. Or if I was lucky, it was dark enough in the room that he wouldn’t see it. 

Thankfully, he was still standing slightly behind me so along with my failed attempt at decoloring my face, he also wasn’t able to see my eyes go wide at the mention of an introduction. Trying to take in deep, calming breaths, I looked up at Erika, hoping that she would think of something to save me from embarrassing myself. My tension must have snapped her back to reality because her once deer in headlights shock had abruptly turned into full on battle armor. 

“Logan, Willow. Willow, Logan.” She said tightly. “It’s been fun, great seeing you, but we were just leaving.” Erika made a grab for my hand, but was blocked by Logan’s as he held his out towards me.

“Willow. It’s nice to meet you.” He said

Hesitantly I turned to face him, knowing that in no way had I regained my composure, but praying I just didn’t look like a fool. 

“You too.” I said much quieter and much less confident than I had intended it to be.

I took his outstretched hand and gave it a small shake. His hand was so much bigger and it almost completely engulfed mine. I would definitely be lying if I said that I didn’t love the way our hands felt together. I reluctantly loosened my grip and just as I was about to let him go he turned my wrist and began to rub his thumb down the top of my hand and stopped at my fingertips. He began running his fingers across my nails.

“I like the polish.” He said as he continued his movements.

If I hadn’t been so distracted by his tantalizing and distracting asault on my hand I would have noticed the oddity of the statement, but the fact that the mouth breathing, drooling, creepy girl was in control right now had taken away my ability to focus on anything other than his hand on my hand. I was having a hard enough time trying to remember to breathe so there was no way I would have noticed the irony that the polish he was referring to was cracked and chipped nail polish from the last time I repainted them three weeks ago. 

It wasn’t until Izzy cleared her throat that I snapped back into the reality of the situation and pulled my hand back from his. I didn’t know it was possible, but my face had gone an even deeper shade of red and I was fully prepared to fall into a hole and die. At this point the “don’t make a fool of myself” ship had sailed and I had now fully emerged into the “let's go dig myself a grave” plan. 

“So you’ve met. Hi and Bye. Great chat. Now we are out this bitch.” Erika said as she began to pull me away.

“See you later ladies. Bye Willow.” Logan called after me as I was whisked past him.

I said a mumbled bye and I kept my head down low, desperately trying to let my hair hide my face. The further away from him I got, the more control of myself I was able to regain. I was able to get out of the cloud of teenage hormones and was starting to think clearly again. The problem with that was, the more I started to think, the harder the mental headbanging became. I had just made a complete ass out of myself. 

Stupid Willow. Stupid, stupid Willow. 

Talk about a great way to get a guy’s attention. If the plan was to make an impression, I’m sure I had made a hell of one. It definitely wasn’t the sexy one I should have been doing if I wanted to have a chance with him, but I guess he would never forget the mute girl that looked as red as a flashing stop light, just in case he needed to remind himself why he would want to stop talking to me. If embarrassment could kill, I’d be walking hand in hand with the Reaper right now rather than Erika. Ugh…. head bang, head bang, head bang.

Shyly I peeked back at him. I didn’t want to, and I fought everything in me to try not to, but I couldn’t stop myself. I had to get one last look at him before I left. Who knows if I would ever get to see his beautiful face again. Especially after how bad I had just made myself look. When I finally found him in the crowd I could see that he had been waiting for me to do exactly what I just did. I had just fallen into his trap and I could tell by the small smirk on his face and mischievous glint in his seductive, almost black eyes that he very much knew what he was doing to me. 

Touche Logan. I thought as I unsuccessfully tried to hide my smile from his view and I just barely caught his small wave before Erika pulled me out of the room and out of his sight. Touche.