The Toxic Ex

My Lips are So Swollen

The next morning, I felt like the nervousness from yesterday didn’t leave my system. I walked down the hallway towards my class, and I didn’t know whether I was looking forward to or scared of running into Chace. Thankfully, he was nowhere to be found. Instead, I ran into Brix with a stupid smirk on his face. He closed his locker door and crossed his arms at me as he made a teasing face.

“What?”

“You got anything to tell me?”, he asked with a stupid look. I scoffed at him. “Like what, dumbass?”

He walked beside me since our classes were in the same direction. “Like…I don’t know, how’d it go with Chace yesterday?”

I raised a brow at him. “What do you mean how’d it go? How was it supposed to go? He gave me my stuff, offered to take me home, and he dropped me off. What about it?”

“What, is that all?”, he asked in disbelief. “At least he took you home, right?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Why are you acting so weird about it?” He just shrugged in reply. I stopped and turned to face him.

“Besides, why didn’t you just keep my planner and hand it to me yourself?” He only laughed at my question. He seemed like he was about to answer, but he didn’t.

Lunch time came. I hope I don’t run into him.

I just finished my meal, and I needed to use the restroom. Our classrooms were so close. There was a high possibility of bumping into him in the hallway. I made my way towards the end of the hallway, and so far he wasn’t in sight. I felt relieved and walked calmly. I turned a corner, and suddenly, there he was in front of me, talking with Brix. He was two feet away from me and when I stopped, he faced forward and saw me. He stopped in his tracks just before crashing into me. In the corner of my eye, I saw Brix smirk teasingly.

In an effort to not be rude, I tried to overcome my embarrassment. “Oh, Chace. Thanks for the ride yesterday.”

He glanced at Brix who was eavesdropping before he replied. “No problem,” he said with a dry smile, “I have to hurry back to my classroom. I’ll see you guys around.” He disappeared into the hallway and left Brix and me there.

“Look at him being all shy,” Brix said.

“Shy?”

“He’s obviously interested in you,” he exclaimed. Chace? Interested in me? When he barely even looks at me?

“What are you talking about? We’re friends,” I said to dismiss him.

“Friends? Literally every time we invite him to hang out, he always asks if you’ll be there. He even makes an effort to not make it obvious when he asks,” he laughs, “It’s amusing.”

He does?

“He doesn’t even talk to me when we hang out together,” I argue.

“He couldn’t,” he laughs again, “But every time anybody says a joke, he’ll always look at you to see if you’re laughing. And I was going to keep the planner and give it to you myself, but he grabbed it from me and asked for your number.”

I just stared at Brix. I didn’t know whether to believe him or not. “And don’t tell him I told you this,” he added, “but he really went out of his way to steal his mom’s car even though he hadn’t gotten his license yet just to drive you home.”

I didn’t know how to process what Brix told me. I felt butterflies inside my stomach, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. In the days that followed, Chace’s behavior was inconsistent. When people were around, he didn’t show much other than his usual playful self. But when it was just Chace and I, he opened up more, showed his cute, shy, and vulnerable side he didn’t want to show other people.

Honestly, I was starting to get my hopes up.

I decided to ghost them for a day. I didn’t go to the bleachers to meet them, I stayed in the classroom the whole day, and I didn’t reply to their messages when they were looking for me. I wanted to see…what Chace would do.

I kept myself busy the whole day that I accidentally fell asleep. When I woke up, I looked out through the window and saw that the sun was setting. I checked my phone, and there were messages from Brix, Amy, and Cheska, asking why I wasn’t at the bleachers when class ended. Chace had my number, but there were no messages from him.

It was getting late, so I hastily gathered my things so I can go home. Suddenly, someone knocked on the classroom door. I turned towards the sound. “Chace,” I said in shock. “What are you doing here?”

“They sent me to look for you,” he said as he walked towards me. It was only the two of us in this empty and dim room, lit only by the fading sunlight.

“Oh,” I turned my eyes back to my things, “I just…fell asleep.” He was getting closer and it made me nervous.

“Actually, no,” he added, “They didn’t send me. I just wanted to look for you.”

I turned to look at him. Suddenly, I felt so uncomfortable, so nervous and self-conscious. The anticipation of his every word and step made me so on edge. “Why?”

“Just because.”

“Don’t do it ‘just because’. I don’t want it when you put it like that,” I countered without looking at him. Suddenly, he was right in front of me and it was hard to move. I felt like I might shake or drop my things.

“Don’t you know?”

“Know what?” I looked up at him. He’s so close. We were actually facing each other properly for the first time. The pause felt like forever. Finally, without taking his eyes off of mine, he said, “I like you.”

We both went silent as we stared into each other’s eyes. “You do?”

“I do,” he said so sternly.

“Prove it,” I said.

“How do you suggest I prove an abstract emotion?”

“I don’t know. I just want you to prove it to me,” I said as I broke eye contact and tried to distract myself. I felt like I was drowning. When he suddenly went quiet, I wondered what was wrong. “Chace?”

The way he looked at me almost made me dizzy. He gazed into my eyes so intently, I felt like I was cornered into a wall. He suddenly closed the distance between us and held me by my waist. I felt electricity run down my body at his touch. He held me closer to him tightly, and his face was so close to mine. I’m getting more disoriented every passing second. He whispered, “This will show you how much I like you. And I’ll make sure you feel it, too.”

Just like that, our lips met. Our lips were moving in sync, gently and slowly. My head was spinning as our lips interlocked. I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to kiss him forever. The longer we did it, the less gentle and slow the kiss became. We paused and pulled away. We stared into each other’s eyes, and I saw that his eyes had darkened, as if he was drunk on something.

And suddenly, he attacked my lips again. Our lips were moving fast and roughly, and I let out soft and unintended moans. “Oh, god,” he muttered under his breath when he heard the sounds I was making and proceeded to devour my lips again. He kissed me harder every passing second, and we were holding each other’s head and pulling each other closer. My moans get rougher as the kiss became harder. I wanted him to devour me. And so he did, for a couple of minutes that felt like forever. We pulled away both out of breath. He smiled and a gave me a smack. I blushed realizing what we had just done in my very own classroom. I brought my fingers to my lips. “My lips are so swollen,” I accidentally said out loud. I looked at him and he was staring at me with a soft smile and said, “You’re literally the cutest thing.”