sparks fly [toni shalifoe, the wilds]

they show their truth one single time

It had been a few days since Toni had spoken to Grace, and she couldn't help but feel like Toni was doing it on purpose. Was she purposely trying to make herself more appealing? Did she really like Grace? She blushed at the thought.

See, Grace hadn't had the most loving upbringing. Sure, she had money, I mean she had a lot of money. But what she didn't have was parents that wanted to spend time together. She'd gone through more nannies than she could count, and she had a whole team of butlers, gardeners, chefs and maids to talk to but that was different because they were paid to be there.

A core memory of hers was actually when she was thirteen and she was at a country club just outside the city for a family get together. She wasn't thinking about her family that day though, no, she was thinking about somebody else.

Suddenly a familiar face peeked around her locker, pulling the door back. Grace jumped slightly in shock, both of the surprise and who was staring at her.

"Don't you think it's time we talked?"

"What would we talk about? I told you, I'm not," Grace leaned in closer for a moment, "Interested in you."

"Don't say it like it's a bad thing," Toni grinned back, Grace's words bouncing off her like she was a shield. Her confidence just couldn't be knocked by her, she was too determined. "Besides, I don't really buy it. Like, at all."

Toni began rustling around in Grace's locker, purposely trying to be annoying. Plus, she'd have to touch her to make her move and fuck knows that was enough for Toni at this point. It was going to be a long, cold winter without sex.

Grace admired Toni for a minute. This exact moment reminded her so much of that time when she was thirteen, she could practically smell the chlorine. How euphoric and exposing and fearless and forbidden it felt to look at girls in that way.

"Okay," Grace whispered, her hands shaking as she went to touch Toni for her to face her. Toni didn't move at first, her shoulders almost burning with lust. "I'm going to tell you something that I haven't told anyone."

Toni raised an eyebrow, now cornered against the locker. Arguably, Grace was the dominant one here and Toni was in a vulnerable position. Whatever it takes, Toni concluded to herself.

"That seems to be a theme here, you trusting me with your dirty little secrets," Toni giggled, folding her arms and biting her lips at Grace, whose face fell at Toni's lack of understanding. "Grace, you can trust me. You can trust me with anything."

Grace let out half a smile, "Okay," and tentatively took Toni's arm and led her to the common room in the basement of the building. She knew it would be close to empty right now, as most students were doing a religious workshop in the chapel. Grace was supposed to go, but it wasn't like her parents were around to discipline her. She hadn't seen either of them in a few days, maybe a week.

The common room was huge, with itchy blue sofas dotted around the circular room and bookshelves lining the outer perimeter. There was a reading nook, a pool table and a kitchen that was rarely used as Fatin Jadmani had once burned herself, quickly scaring everyone off.

As Grace had predicted, there was only two boys in the corner of the room playing pool. With a gulp, Grace led the American to a sofa in the opposite corner of the room. Toni was so thankful that Grace was just taking a chance with her, and Toni knew it would be a matter of days until she caved.

"I'm gonna say this once, because if I say it again then I'll be, like, ashamed and I'll overthink the consequences of it." Grace mumbled, her head hanging slightly. Toni nodded, knowing all too well what kind of story she was about to be told. Like I said, she's written the book on straight girls.

"Four years ago, I was at a country club just outside of the city. It was for some lame family gathering, I don't really remember. Anyway, I decided to go swimming with my cousin in the pool..."

"Victoria!!! Victoria, stop splashing me!" Grace squealed, trying to shield herself from Tabitha's lousy attacks.

It was 2016, the grass was green, the weather was hot and the pool was cold. In Grace's eyes, it was the best day ever. Maybe afterwards she would be allowed to get ice cream with her cousins and her brother, and then maybe then she could go home with them instead and maybe they could have a sleepover. Basically, she had the whole day mapped out.

"I'm going to get a drink off my Mum, be right back." Tabitha called out to her, climbing nimbly out of the pool ladder. Grace gave her a thumbs up, and then suddenly got a brainwave in an instant. She was going to jump in the deep end, just like her brother.

She climbed out the pool and walked out and round to the deep end. This was going to be so cool, her parents would definitely be impressed when she pulled this off. She stretched her arms up above her head, bent her knees really hard and tried to remember how her older brother did it when she watched him.

However, when she tried to jump off the ledge, she realised she hadn't prepared the jump properly and she went tumbling into the water. Crap.

"Help! Help me!" She blubbered, choking on the water whilst trying to stay afloat. Her swimming skills weren't great, she could barely swim 5 metres on her own. Her life literally flashed before her eyes as she felt herself sinking, drowning, dying-

Suddenly she was lifted by a pair of strong, tanned arms, swiftly out the water to the side of the pool. The person's hot arms jostled the life back into her, only this time Grace felt more alive than she ever did.

"Are you okay? Can you open your eyes for me, sweetheart?" A feminine voice soothed out, parting the hair out of Grace's face as she lay on her back on the hot pool's edge. Grace felt like she was in paradise, her handsome hero had come to save her.

Wait. It was... a girl? Grace opened her eyes quickly, to find herself inches away from a tall, tanned blonde life guard with beautiful brown eyes. The blonde's hot, panting breath tickled Grace's face as she, just for a moment, imagined that she never had to move from this spot and the blonde would always be her knight in shining armour.

"Oh, thank God! Dan, Danny, come here! I saved her, babe! Do you have her parents? Are you her Mum and Dad?" The blonde jerked her head away from Grace and got up from the ground next to her. Suddenly, Grace's family begun to crowd around the pool. Her Dad ranted to her Mum, her cousins prodded her, her Aunt started feeling her forehead, and her Uncle kept asking her questions.

And the way she felt towards that blonde would be Grace's little secret forever, because her parents would always interfere with her life. Literally, after Grace got up from the poolside, her Mum had already found a fifteen year old rich boy from another table to escort her to the bathroom. Girls just weren't in the cards.

"I had no idea you had to go through that," Toni sympathised absentmindedly, not that Grace realised. She just felt exposed and it was fucking weird.

Girls weren't in the cards, until now.

Grace remained quiet, not sure how they were supposed to progress with the conversation, or maybe... them?

"Seeing as you like keeping things a secret so much, we're going to go out on a secret date tomorrow." Toni stated, smirking as she got up from the sofa in the common room, just as Grace's friends started to stroll in, chatting.

"Date?!" Grace whispered, not daring to speak any louder in case her friends heard. But before she got a chance to chase Toni and ask her what she meant by a date, she'd disappeared into the crowd of sixth formers.

A date? With Toni? There was no way she'd let it go on this far. But she'd be lying if she said she wasn't allured and totally fascinated by the dark horse that was Toni Shalifoe.