Exquisite ~ Book One

Eleven~

"I have a..." I stammer, my mind heavy yet light, nothing right in my body as all of it contradicts one another. From left to right, dark to light, nothing settled within me as Andrew was slowly lowering his face down on me, his lips, his breath so close. I stopped breathing and I realized this at the sign of how out of breath I was when I went to tell him about Dennis, remind him of Dennis.

"I know, but Anna..." He smirks and pulls back, raises one eyebrow and laughs. "I lied to you."

"Then why are you smiling!" I say rather loudly. He only laughs harder and I frown, my insides twisting as I do so. Everything seemed to drop in disappointment, of him lying to me, of him not kissing me. "My middle name isn't Lee, it's Ryan."

My face drops. There was something up with him, something he was secluding himself with and it rattled my head. I knew I wouldn't know so I stood instead and exited through the door, heading out the way we came in and taking my seat in the car.

Alone, is where I cry.

-

"Anna?" Andrew says as he later enters the car. I bow my head and wipe at my eyes, inhaling deeply once before going forth and looking to him. In one hand he held my drink in a to-go cup, in the other my journal. I reached for them and held them both to me as I then looked back out the window.

The sky was grey. As grey as I felt as I was mere pure and not yet dark, everything within me contradicting one another. Left to right, light to dark, forward and backwards. There was so much within me that was left a race, myself unable to compose the truth.

"Are you really going to ignore me?" He asks. I knew that he too was trying to keep a composure, his best features fading and slipping away from him as he continued to speak. "It's not like it was a big deal, Ann." I shiver at the growing of his voice and sigh slightly, putting my drink in its holder and my journal down on my lap as I turn to face him, one deep breath holding me over throughout the way.

"I get that you felt it necessary to toy with my feelings, it just would have managed me some if you would have acknowledged that they were, in fact, there." I give him a weak smile before turning to face the front window of the vehicle.

"Anna, I'm sorry okay." I can sense his frown, the tension of his muscles. "It's just, aren't you with this Dennis person?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, Andrew secluding something from me.

"I know he asked you to wed with him, and I know you'll say yes." He blurts out abruptly. I feel as if I were tossed a back a few spaces because for the short silence that overtook us, I had to bow my head and force myself to only tear up at most.

"How can you say that?" I say harshly, each word spoken as if it was taking a separate hit to my own severed heart.

"It's obvious that you're head over heels with the wrong guy." He says, my mouth left gaping open once more.

"Oh, and you're so nonchalant?" I laugh now, not at all I've said, but over how this has all come to play out between the two of us. "Is there somewhere we can go?" I ask, breaking breath by breath.

-

I slip from my shoes, the bare of my toes sliding through the waters surface as it trickles through and past. It tickles me, stirring a bit of laughter from my tongue. It was sweet, cool and refreshing as I spun in tiny circles. I dipped the tips of my fingers below the surface, cupping water in the small of my palm, tossing it up only to catch it with my covered skin.

"Anna?" Andrew calls out before sending a wave of water my way. I squeal as the cool seeps into my clothing. He wades closer to me and soon is standing before me, blocking my hands in case I were to try and get him. "Can I be honest with you?" My heart freezes, skips a beat, and speeds up to its own liking.

"Yes?" I say cautiously.

"I do like you and I can promise you that my intentions are fair, what I must say is my fairest apologies." He drops down onto one knee, his jeans soaking up with water further as he takes one of my hands in his. "I didn't mean to expect so much from you or to assume so much about you. I don't mean to be as protective over you as I am, but there is this feeling within me that depends to be heard and so you're here to hear it." He pauses and his eyes gleam up into mine. "Annabella, Anna, Bella, Ann... you're this beautiful-"

"STOP!" I squeal and smile. He jumps, slowly standing only to pull up at his jeans. I cup my ears and make my way through another circle, my head whipping back as it's weighted with the wetness it has endured.

"Anna, I advise you hear this." Andrew says scarcely. I raise my chin to him and slip forward. He catches me as my face warms so suddenly, helping me up as his heat envelopes me. I hasp slightly, my eyes feeling as if they were wider than usual, legs heavier. I feel as if I was relying so much on his strength though to afraid to push away. "Anna, I think I love you..."

I open my mouth to intervene but it did me no good, his lips folding over the small of mine, stealing their virginity and the only breath I imagined me ever having left.