Keeping Secrets (Book I)✔️

Chapter Eleven

Florence:

I stood there in shock, why was he even here?

"What do you want Eric?" I asked, trying to hold back any emotion in my voice but I knew I had failed. Tears began to prick my eyes as I took in his appearance. I hadn't really looked at him in weeks. There was something different about him, he appeared tired and worn out but why? He began walking closer to me now but I took a step back until I hit my front door.

"I miss you." He finally spoke. It looked like it took him a lot to say it but I was trying to figure out whether he was being genuine or not. I went to speak but closed my mouth again. I had so much and so little to say it him, I just didn't know how to begin. To tell him I didn't miss him would be a complete lie, I couldn't stop thinking about him and everything that has happened with the two of us in the past few months. But it was a tricky situation, what we had between us.

Just because I missed him didn't mean I would just fall to his feet because the feeling was mutual. I missed talking to him, I missed hanging out with him, I even missed just seeing him for a second when we passed by each other on the corridors because I had to force myself to stop looking. His words hurt more than I ever thought they would and when that happened, I just knew I wasn't doing the right thing but I didn't care anymore.

"I-"

"And I'm sorry about what I said a while ago."

"But-"

"And I know that you might not want to talk to me again because what I said was horrible Flo. It was just plain mean and I didn't even know what I was doing. It's okay if you never talk to me ever again, well actually it wouldn't' be because I don't want that- "he was rambling on and all I could do was listen intently at what he was saying, or at least, trying to say. "Look, I just, I- I don't know Flo." He sounded frustrated now, combing his hands through his golden blonde hair. "I just really fucking miss you and what I said? Well it's not true, you mean something to me. You aren't like anyone else and that's what I like about you. I care about you Flo, more than you can ever think."

He finally looked at me after taking a breath he had been holding while he was talking. He had apologetic eyes but I just didn't know what to say. What was I supposed to say? I had never been in this situation before, we never had fights. We just stared at each other for a moment but he was getting closer to me now.

"I-I missed you too." I finally said as a tear rolled down my cheek. No need to cry Flo, get a hold of yourself, I thought. He moved in front of me and cupped my cheek, whipping the tear with his thumbs.

"Don't cry, please. I didn't mean to make you cry. I'm sorry." Our faces were centimeters apart, our eyes were locked on each other and he had both his hands on either side of my face. He kissed me gently at first, I didn't even think about pulling away. I missed his lips. He deepened the kiss and one of my hands flew up to tangle between his hair while the other unlocked the door.

We both walked in, me walking backwards to the living room. He stopped for a second to catch his breath and kicked the door closed before following me to the sofa. We were both on the couch now; he pulled his shirt over his head, exposing his toned chest. His hands reached behind my back and pulled me closer as he traced kisses down my neck. His lips met mine again, this time more urgently as he unbuttoned my shirt and took it off.

I didn't stop and think about what I was doing, or how I told myself before that I should stay away from him. The thought wouldn't have stopped me at this point anyway. I wanted him now; it was too late to stop.

After that night I saw a lot of Eric, but things were still mostly the same. We never talked when people were around and only stole the occasional glance at each other, like right now in the cafeteria. I smiled at him and he grinned widely back at me. Kevin and Emma were chatting beside me, what else do they do? I thought. Charlotte hadn't turned up for any classes today which was unusual for her.

"Hey, where's Charlotte?" Kevin asked as if reading my thoughts.

"Not sure," I shrugged my shoulders, "She usually tells one of us where she is when she doesn't come to school. Do you know where she is?" I looked at Emma now.

"I don't know either, maybe she's sick." She frowned at me. The weather had gotten warmer now. and that meant Emma would become more colorful if it was even possible. She was wearing a bright yellow sundress with big circle shades on her head holding her pastel purple hair back.

"How's her and lover boy getting on anyway? We haven't heard much about him in a while." Kevin popped a fry into his mouth and looked at me.

"They're doing good actually, I think so anyway." Charlotte and Evan had been dating now for the past few weeks and we could all really tell how much she liked him, he liked her too. They always went out on dates and texted each other whenever they weren't in each others company, it was kind of cute actually. Evan was really sweet to her, I knew this because of the stories she told me about him.

"Well good for her, she deserves someone who's actually nice to, unlike that asshole she dated a while ago."

'That asshole's name was James, but we never spoke about him when Charlotte was around, we never spoke a lot about him when she wasn't around either actually. But James was, just like we had said, a complete asshole to Charlotte; he never treated her well and had little respect for her. Charlotte just didn't realize any of this for a long while after they started dating. She eventually broke off the relationship when he got too much for her to handle. We were just glad she finally listened to us all, but things were going good for her and Evan and we were all so happy for her now.

"Yeah, I know right." I said and picked up my burger to take a bite out of it. We continued our conversation about where Charlotte might be, starting to make a game out of it.

"Maybe she's out saving the world."

"Maybe she's out fighting off bear's with her bare hands."

"Or mountain climbing, she'd love that." Kevin snorted sarcastically. He knew she wasn't much of an outdoors person. At that moment I looked over at Eric's table and seen Evan sitting at the other end, I got an idea.

"Hey, you know what? We could ask Eric, I'm sure he would have some idea."

"Good idea but I'm not asking, you can." Emma demanded.

"We need to go soon anyway, you two promised me you would come help me with my project in the library. Don't pull out on me now bitches." She squinted her eyes in mock disgust. Kevin rolled his eyes.

"I don't want to help you with your dumb project Emma, I'm not the one who left it last minute girl." "Kevin." I warned him. "We promised."

"Okay, okay. Let's go." He grabbed his bag and stood up.

"Go. Go. Go." Emma grabbed my hand as the three of us made our way to the door of the cafeteria and stopped at Eric's table.

"Hey Evan." I spoke up and he looked at me and smiled.

"Yeah, what's up?" he asked in a friendly tone.

"Have you been talking to Charlotte? She didn't turn up to school today."

"Oh yeah, I think she's just sick or something."

"Oh, alright. Thanks anyway Evan."

"Hey Florence." I heard Mick, who was sitting beside Eric call from down the other end of the table. I looked at him in surprise for a second; he was grinning like an idiot and waving at me. I looked between both him and Eric,who was giving him a seething look.

"How's it going?"

"Hello. Em, I'm fine thanks." I waved at him in bewilderment and smiled politely before adding, "Anyway, I have to go. See you." and walked off with Emma, skipping and dragging both me and Kevin out of the cafeteria. Was Mick drunk or something? I was quite puzzled as to why Mick even acknowledged my existence for once. What was his game? I grinned to myself, remembering Eric's face as we got to the library. He could get so jealous sometimes, I rolled my eyes and laughed before beginning to help Emma with her project. I'm just glad that we worked things out between us because I didn't realize until now how much better it was with him in my life.