Falling for Ocean Blue [BxB] ✔️

Chapter Twenty six

He corners me on my way out of the school gates.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

He's only an inch closer to heaven, but his stature is angelic, lauding over me. He has a tight grip on my forearm. Impossibly close to my face, I can smell sugar on his breath and feel his heart beating out of his chest.

"You didn't tell her, right?" Fray is ashen under the west-bound sun. He is still in his football kit, the smell of his sweat mixing in with his aftershave. I have him memorised.

"Max!" He snaps.

The message I sent was a sharper than I had planned. I filed down some of the words when I saw her picture. It was a soured love confession. Perhaps he saw it as a threat. I simply alluded to his affair. Aubrey was an afterthought.

"You threatened to out me. Do you know how sick that is?" He whispers furiously.

I cringe. He sees it. I think perhaps his next words are kinder than he intends.

"You should've just told me about the swimming pool." Fray's grip loosens but the tip of his nose is close enough to brush mine.

"Instead of making me panic over a stupid message. I was looking everywhere for you."

My chest tightens. Regret is a familiar tear in my lungs.

"I'm sorry." My apology is barely a notch above silence, but he catches it.

"He called me a bespeckled nerd." I grumble as an afterthought.

Fray's face slowly lights up. He throws his head back, Adam's apple bobbing, as he laughs like a kid. The upturn of his lips etches lines where his cheeks are.

I'm content just watching them. In the cool shadow of the bike shed, we steal moments and live on time, borrowed and bartered.

"What? You've never been humbled before?" He asks me, half-jokingly but I sense a loaded gun in his inclination.

A moment beats between us like a dying heart.

"I have a trophy case at the Music Academy, paid for by the parents of the losers. I've been humbled before."

The silence is like the deep breath before the plunge. He opens his mouth to say something. I can't listen.

His soft lips are teasing as they turn down and an inch apart. I shouldn't. Fray waits for my reply. He leans into my shoulder, head cocked to the side. From this angle, I can see his imperfections. A small scratch below his chin, a touch redder than his flushed cheeks. A smatter of picked scars at his temples. A constellation of freckles dusting the bridge of his nose. Autumn is tired, and soon will retire for winter. The tan brown of the stars is fading into a golden sunset. I notice how blushed the tips of his ears have become. Perhaps the closeness is affecting him too.

I watch his expression falter suddenly, the blue spokes in his eyes lose their brilliance.

"Is that why you tried to get out of the Music Initiative? Because you found out I was your partner."

I shake my head.

"I had no idea you were on a scholarship."

He inspects my expression.

"It was before my mom married West Anderson. They met at a PTA meeting last year. My mom is not one to miss out on opportunity..." He grimaces at the memory.

I chuckle, "Mine, too."

It is now that I notice how far the sun is setting. I check my phone and realise the game has started. Kitty texted me four times, each message angrier than the last.