WICKED { #Wattys2016 }

Chapter Twelve: Monday

When Cordelia got to school Monday morning, she saw her friends around the old cement benches that face each other across the brick the brick path by the west-side door.

"I cannot believe I missed it!" Hailey pouted as Cordelia reached the group and sat down on a bench next to Kyle.

"Missed what?" Cordelia asked curiously.

Everyones heads snapped around to look at her curiously.

"What?" Cordelia frowned.

"Cal's party. The circle." Hailey answered with a dramatic sigh.

Jordan threw his arm around her and whispered something unintelligible into her ear. Even if she couldn't hear what they said to each other, Cordelia guessed by the looks on their faces that after all, they weren't too sorry about missing it.

"It was amazing." Tiana gushed, her girlfriend's head resting quite comfortably in the crook of her neck.

"I wish I'd been able to stay." Vanessa said softly, playing with Tiana's fingers.

"What did you guys even do?" Kyle asked with the slightest hint resentment in his tone.

"We just held hands, got into a circle, went around the fire, and talked about things we wanted to get rid of." Kendra answered.

Cordelia couldn't help but notice the fact that she was perched on the arm of the bench, next to Ethan.

"It was amazing." Cordelia added.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kyle make a face, but elected to ignore him.

Mike whistled, "So you guys didn't worship Satan? Didn't sacrifice a virgin? Or are you guys going to sacrifice Cordie later on." He smirked.

Heat climbed Cordelia's cheeks, and she slapped Mike across the head, just roughly enough to get him to shut up.

She wasn't exactly ashamed of being a virgin, but she didn't exactly love talking about her non existant sex life.

Thankfully, Ethan completely ignored Mike's jab at Cordelia. "No. It was really chill. Cal seems really cool." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"And hot." Hailey added, then shrugged when Jordan gave her a funny look. "What? He is." Hailey mumbled.

They continued chatting about Cal and the party when Cordelia sensed someone walking up to her. She didn't hear footsteps or anything, she just felt it.

Sure enough, two seconds after that feeling, Cal's warm body was right behind her. "What do I have behind my back?" He whispered into her ear.

Something about his voice seemed to reach inside of her and scramble her thoughts. Or perhaps it was how his breath whispered against her jaw line, the soft, sweet tickle right below her ear that made it impossible to think.

But Cordelia didn't need to think. To make an educated guess. She knew.

"An apple. Green and red." She answered, it was as if she had seen it in his hand.

Cordelia could practically feel his smile, and imagined his expressive gold-coloured eyes crinkling around the edges.

He brough his hand from around his back, and he handed her a greenish red apple with a leaf still attached to it's stem.