10.
823 Words
Chapter 10: Mother
Zane POV
The library closed to everyone else an hour ago but the librarian let us stay because she knew my last name. Zara and I sat at the back table with only the one lamp on. Her notebook lay open between us but neither of us had touched a problem in twenty minutes. My leg pressed against hers under the table again. This time I did not pretend it was an accident. Her thigh felt warm and solid and every time she shifted it rubbed higher. My hand rested on her knee. My thumb moved in small circles on the inside of her skirt. She had not pushed me off once.
“You are not even trying tonight,” she said. Her voice came out a little rough.
I looked at her. The light made her eyes darker. “Math is not what I am thinking about.”
Her breath hitched when my hand slid higher. I felt the edge of her panties under my fingers. She wore plain cotton but the heat coming off her made it feel like silk. I pressed my palm flat against her and rubbed slow. She bit her lip and her hips moved once against my hand before she caught herself.
“Zane.”
“Tell me to stop and I will.”
She did not tell me to stop. Instead she leaned forward and caught the front of my shirt. Her mouth met mine hard. No hesitation. I tasted the gum she had been chewing earlier and the salt from the fries we split at lunch. My tongue pushed past her lips and she opened for me. The kiss turned messy fast. Her hand slid into my hair and pulled like she needed me closer. I groaned into her mouth and pushed two fingers under the edge of her panties. She was soaked. I stroked her once and she gasped against my lips.
We broke apart breathing hard. Her forehead rested against mine. “This is stupid,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” I kept my fingers moving. Slow circles right where she needed it. Her hips rocked into my hand and her eyes fluttered half closed. I watched her face the whole time. The way her mouth fell open. The flush that spread down her neck and disappeared under her shirt. I wanted to see more. I wanted to push her skirt up and taste her right here on the table. But something else pushed at me harder. The thing I had never told anyone except Priya.
I kept touching her but my voice came out quieter. “My mom died when I was nine.”
Zara stilled. Her hand stayed in my hair but she did not move away. She just looked at me and waited.
“She got sick fast. Cancer. Dad told everyone it was quick and peaceful. It was not. She was in pain every day and he kept working late so he did not have to watch. I sat with her at night. She would hold my hand and tell me stories about when she was a kid. Then one morning she did not wake up. I found her. Cold. I tried to wake her anyway.”
I kept my fingers on her but I stopped moving them. She stayed wet and warm against me. Her breathing stayed steady. No fake sorry. No wide eyes. She just listened like it mattered.
“I never told anyone the real part,” I said. “Not the guys. Not Celeste. Not even Priya knows I was the one who found her. Dad made the story cleaner. Said she passed in her sleep and we should be grateful. I hated him for that. Still do sometimes.”
Zara’s thumb brushed my jaw. Soft. Real. “That is a lot to carry alone.”
The words cracked something open in my chest. For one second the wall I kept between me and everyone else felt thin. She saw it. She did not try to fix it or make it smaller. She just sat there with my hand between her legs and let me say it.
Then her phone buzzed on the table. The screen lit up. Marcus.
She reached for it but I grabbed it first. The message filled the screen.
Marcus: My place after practice tomorrow? My parents are gone. We can finish what we started in the hall today.
Rage hit me fast and hot. I read it twice. My fingers tightened on the phone until the case creaked. Zara’s hand was still in my hair but the moment between us snapped shut like a door.
I held the phone up so she could see the text. “You going to answer him?”
“Zane—”
“Delete that s**t right now, or I’ll make sure Leo Park never steps foot in this school again.”
- Writer
