His Saving Grace

Chapter Seventeen

Why, oh why, does my life have to be so full of drama?

I bit nervously at my lip. Something seemed to click in my mind when Garrett had said Ashley was his ex. "She was the one in the photograph, wasn't she..." I asked softly. He nodded slowly.

"You don't have to tell me, seriously," I said. 

He snorted. "You wanted to know so badly before." 

"You can tell me some other time, I swear," I said, placing a hand on top of his. "I don't think it's a good time."

"But when is a good time?" he asked, sighing, squeezing my hand. 

"When you're over it, and you're not sad anymore," I reasoned. "It's only going to hurt more. Trust me, I know."

Garrett laughed sadly. I hated it when he did that. He sounded so hurt and pained and basically I couldn't stand it. I gave him a sideways glance. It was hard to see his face since we were lying next to each other and all I could see was the tip of his nose. His breath started hitching like he was about to break down.

"If you cry I'm going to wrench your tear glands out," I said, making my voice as stern and authoritative as possible. I had a way with morbid insults and threats.

He clucked his tongue. "Let me see you do that, then," Garrett teased. I nudged him hard in the side, though he was able to shield himself.

"Slowpoke," Garrett snorted, poking my side. This caused a massive tickle fight, and by massive I mean huge, chaotic tickle fight, that sent both of us rolling off the hurricane-stricken like bed and onto the carpeted floor. And, what do you know, I landed on top of Garrett. To make things even more awkward, our lips were centimeters apart, so I could feel his warm breath on my face, making the hairs on my arms stand.

Garrett stared into my eyes and I stared into his, lost in the blue pools of color that seemed to go on forever. He smiled at me with his set of white teeth, though they were a little crooked, it still looked perfect. "You have pretty eyes, Katie."

"You too," I said, mentally slapping myself. What the fuck was I doing?

"Now get off of me before I poke them out one by one," Garrett said, hitting my tickle spot. I yelped like a stupid girl, rolling off of Garrett. He helped me up and pulled me into a very stiff hug. He was so stiff and stone-like in my arms that it was like hugging a Garrett statue.

"Let me guess," I said. "You haven't hugged anyone in a long time, have you?"

He nodded into my hair, relaxing a little bit. "That's better," I said, trying to feign the happiness that made me feel like I was soaring. 

"I trust you," Garrett said, pulling me nearer to him. "And I don't normally do that."

Guess who had a stupid smile plastered on her face for the next few days?

~~

Lunch break had just started and I was walking down the halls with a strawberry doughnut in my hand a milk carton in the other when I noticed a rather large group of people crowding in the area of the school's project bulletin board. People usually wouldn't give a shit about whatever was posted there, but that day something seemed interesting and important enough to gather a crowd that many.

I got on my tippy toes, trying to look at whatever was posted on the school bulletin board, but alas, there were too many people and the words were barely visible from afar.

Curse my near sightedness.

"Katie!" I heard a familiar, high pitched voice call my name. Oh god, she was back. "Katie! Come here!"