Open mind for a different View

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

It wasn’t until two days later when Amelia managed to get Eric to speak to her. It was Friday and school was ending, the halls were filled with teenagers getting ready to go home. The days before she tried to visit but his mom explained his wasn’t home and when she asked Lena if he was alright she had no answers. During school he also managed to masterly avoid her since they shared no classes and he left for lunch. But that ended now. She didn’t care who he was with or about giving him any more space. She had done nothing wrong; she had been honest when she said they were friends. She went from being sorry about his feeling to getting angry. If they were true friends he wouldn’t be running away from her.

Eric stood at his locker talking with Andy and two other boys she didn’t know. “Eric we need to talk.” He said nothing and she felt her temper starting to boil over. “I guess I was wrong. I thought we were friends.”

“You were a charity case. I spent time with you because I felt sorry for you.” Eric said right there in the middle of the school hallway where his friends stood beside him and other kids eavesdropped.

The emotion welled up to her eyes but she learned a long time ago how not to let it show but the anger was another story. She couldn’t walk away and let him have the last word. Mel pushed him with all her might, he stumbled back. “I’m nobody’s fucking charity case.” Her eyes were hard as she met his once pretty hazel ones. She walked away and drowned out all the people and words behind her.

She walked out the school and kept walking. If she went home her mom would know something was wrong and ask questions until Mel came up with an answer satisfactory enough. She wanted to see Anthony and followed that impulse but she second guessed everything he said too. Did he see her as some charity case he needed to befriend? Or as a challenge to fill his boredom? She needed to find out.

Almost an hour later after walking and taking two buses she arrived to his apartment. Her anger was still very front and center, she actually felt worse as Eric’s words echoed throughout her mind with no off switch in sight.

Anthony opened the door at her second knock. “Amelia.” His smile fell. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She stepped inside and dropped her bag on the floor. She second guessed her whole plan because now it was hard to face him, to think that everything had been one big lie.

Anthony came up behind her and ran his hands down her arms then slowly turned her to face him. “Talk to me, you know you can tell me anything.”

Mel pulled away from his touch and paced forward. “I want you to be honest with me, I can take it. What’s going on here? Are we friends, are we more, are we just passing time?”

“Where is all this coming from?”

She leaned back against the dresser and stared down at her sneakers. “Eric told me I was a charity case he felt sorry for and that we weren’t really friends….in front of the whole school.”

“He what?” Anthony yelled, rushing to stand by her. “My brother can be a stupid idiot but don’t blame me for that. I don’t see a charity case when I look at you and I don’t see a friend either.” He grabbed her hand when she looked at him with fury lacing her green eyes. “Hear me out. For me a friend is someone you share a class with or hang out with and that’s it. A friend isn’t someone you think about almost all day; a friend isn’t someone that makes you feel like you’re special.”

She laid her hands over his chest and right or wrong she believed him. “If you feel all of that, why won’t you kiss me?”

“You think I don’t want to? I don’t kiss you Amelia because I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop.” He confessed, unconsciously moving closer.

She looked into his eyes and didn’t look away. “You make me feel special too.”

Anthony’s hand moved up her arm, over her neck and buried it’s self along her hair. He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. “You’re killing me.” He whispered as his other arm wrapped around her waist and lifted her on top of the dresser. Eye to eye and emotions running high there was no more room to fight it.

Mel’s heart raced wildly, her hands gripped the front of his white tank top as Anthony closed the space between them and finally after all this time he kissed her.  She had never been kissed like this before and she was starting to understand why people did it all the time. She had never felt so…alive and sexual.

She moved closer as his tongue moved inside her mouth, his teeth grazing her bottom lip. She followed his lead and kissed him back the same way he kissed her. She wanted to make him feel alive and like a wiggling fool that didn’t know up from down anymore.

“I’m sorry.” Anthony pulled back. “We should really, really stop.” He said the words but it didn’t sound like he meant them.

His eyes were dark, dilated with desire, his mouth full and swollen from her kiss. Mel had never seen someone more beautiful. She didn’t want them to stop but she understood why he did and agreed weeks ago to follow that train of thought; they’d wait.  “Ok.” She said softly, her eyes drifted to her hands still on his chest and she again noticed the dark swirls of black ink around his arm and shoulder, just slightly going up his neck before disappearing under his shirt. “I want to see your whole tattoo.”

Anthony smiled and it was laced with nothing pure. “That wouldn’t be a good idea either because I’d have to take off my shirt and then you wouldn’t be able to control yourself.”

Mel scoffed and boldly met his eyes again. “I’m not the one having control issues.” She didn’t want him to move, she didn’t want to stop touching him but she could stop, the same couldn’t be said for him.

“Either way I’m staying dressed.” He chuckled and took her hands from his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist then he held her close with his own arms around her frame. “I don’t want you worrying about what Eric said again.”

Mel had her head rested on his shoulder and listened to the beats of his heart. She could get over Eric being a jerk and learn to move on but if anything ever happened and she lost Anthony….she didn’t want to think about it.

Being there in his arms felt damn near perfect. Nothing hurt her, nothing else mattered.

She kissed her lips to his neck; her tongue darted out and licked up the line of his neck to his jaw line as the desire to taste him flooded her system. His body stiffened but stepped closer between her legs as she sat on top of the dresser.  She kissed and suckled at the smooth skin where his neck and jaw met.

“Amelia….” His hand on her back moved down to her hip and squeezed.

Now she understood what he meant by not being able to stop. “Sorry.”

Anthony stumbled back. “We should do something else.”