❝she was the girl, who bit the horizon, who peeled the stars from the sky and put them on her tongue, the girl who was hungry for the universe, who craved magic and saw the broken boy for who he truly was- a broken boy.❞
Beca...
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Chapter 27
The Tide's Changing
Ellis
My finger was still singing from the spark of electricity that fizzed when I touched his bottom lip, which was rough and chapped, due to the lack of proper moisturising. My brain was failing to function, still etched on memorising the inches between our lips. To think we were that close to kissing made me felt flushed with serotonin.
Our nose was almost close to nudging against each other, our mouths ready to fall into each other, already soft and open when a small voice, the Voice Of Reason, screamed at me: What the hell are you doing?!
I tore myself apart from him, wishing I've stayed longer but I was afraid what would've happened, afraid that my grip of control was slipping. Now that he wasn't touching me, my toes were back onto pointing downwards on the pool mosaic aquamarine tiles, I was perfectly back to being in control.
He seemed hazy, disoriented as he stepped back, mumbling an almost silent, "S'okay," because it was as though if I hadn't pulled away, something would've happened. I wasn't sure what would've happened except I knew that it would've ruined our friendship, complicate our relationship by crossing the proverbial line of being 'hypothetical friends'.
It was funny how easily it could all change. It was amazing how easy it was for something to start off from how Jem and I were hating each other, a road I was well-acquainted with and wind up somewhere utterly different, like visiting China together. A kiss. A touch. A word. An acceptance letter. A plane ride. A false step. A few months of community service and it supplanted me here. To think if I hadn't slapped him, the idea of kissing Jem Leighton wouldn't have filled me with a fluttery jolt in my gut, instead of the taste of vomit spilling in.It was scary how everything just changed. Change scared me. It made me felt weird like all these possibilities existed at the same time. It was like every moment could've gone differently and had multiple layers superimposed with the pathways of how it would all unravel.
Then out of nowhere, I abruptly felt something cold and icy impaling onto the back of my neck. Like tears but colder and from the sky. Water droplets. The neon blue glow of the pool sputtered out, leaving it into an inky navy blue- nearly black.The air wasn't still and chilly cold anymore and the smell of ozone was burning within the atmosphere. It was drizzling but the grey clouds forming over the satellite spires of our hotel told us it was going to go from mildly tolerable to an all-out war of pouring rain with thunder and lightning in about ten seconds.
"Crap," remarked Jem, hurriedly waddling over to edge, "It's about to pour. Our stuff!" He jabbed a finger at our dry towels and my dry kimono cover-up. I half-walked, half-doggy paddled over to the railings, hauled myself up from the pool, drenched as water dripped down from my bathing suit. Jem skillfully tossed me a towel and I didn't manage to catch it, watching it skitter ungracefully on the pool's tiles as I shivered over to the towel. I wrapped it around my chest and together, Jem and I bolted for the shelter.
