Chapter 24: What The Hell Are You Doing In My Room?

"Well, well, well what do we have here?" Jess says, smirking at me, her eyebrows raised.

I audibly gulp, my eyes wide as I look at her. "Jess...um...hi. What are you doing here?" I stammer, completely taken aback by shock and fear. Usually, I'm a decent liar but I've been caught so off guard.

"I could ask you the same question," she coyly replies.

"Um...well I was going for my weekend run," I tell her, trying to avoid the elephant in the room.

"Alright and..."

"And what?" I ask, playing dumb.

"You weren't doing anything else?" Jess prompts.

"Sorry, I think I've lost you," I say apologetically.

"Urgh. Aurora Jasmine Kelly," she starts firmly, crossing her arms. I wince at the use of my full name, ready for an onslaught of authority. "Cut the bullshit. If you don't want to go into detail about this then that's fine but I don't appreciate you acting dumb."

I sigh. "I'm sorry Jess," I say, instantly feeling bad. I mean, Jess told me about Emma without much hesitation, knowing I wouldn't tell anyone, yet she doesn't even push me to do the same. I shouldn't have trouble entrusting this to her, I've no idea why I do in the first place. Jess has never slipped a secret in her life, not even when being highly intoxicated.

I hear Wyatt clear his throat beside me, clearly feeling uncomfortable. Immediately, I snap into action. "Where are my manners? Jess this is Wyatt, Wyatt this is Jess," I say motioning with my hands to each of them.

Jess gives Wyatt a smile which he returns with a smirk. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" Wyatt asks.

Jess shrugs. "Maybe you've seen me at a party? People tell me I get a little out of hand," she laughs with a shrug. "Now, how do you two know each other?" She asks with a grin.

I'm about to reply but Wyatt beats me too it. "We met at party actually," he chuckles. This little one was a bit drunk and I helped her out. One thing lead to another and now here we are," he concludes.

I mull over his words for a few moments. I guess he didn't want Jess to know about the tutoring, maybe he's a bit embarrassed by it.

Wait. Pause. The bitch called me 'little', how dare he. "Excuse me Mr Giant but I'm not that small," I say to him crossing my arms and puffing out my chest, a frown on my face.

"You kind of are, green eyes, I'm only staying the truth."

I huff at him.

"Don't pout at me," he says. "I never said it was a bad thing that you're small. I'm pretty sure I've already told you that I find it cute," he concludes with a tap of my nose.  I feel my cheeks flushing a deep shade of red at his reply.

Jess taps my shoulder to get my attention and I send her an apologetic smile to which she only smirks at, cheeky bugger.

"Anyway," she starts, changing the topic. "Was that the party at Jordan's a couple weeks ago where you got so drunk you couldn't come into school the next day?" Jess asks me.

I feel a wave of guilt washed over me at her mentioning a previous lie I've told but I nod at her all the same.

The three of us converse in conversation for a few minutes before Jess excuses herself, saying she needs to go meet with Emma.

Once she's walked away, Wyatt turns to me. "Who's Emma?"

"Her girlfriend? I'm not sure, it's complicated."

He nods. "Right. Anyway, green eyes, I believe you owe me a tutoring session," he says with a grin.

I groan. "Must you always interrupt my weekend runs with your tutoring," I complain.

He shrugs at me. "I guess this is just the way it's supposed to be" he tells me before leading me in the direction of his house.

I've no idea what he means by that but I shrug it off and follow him, all hopes of my run now left behind.

~*~*~

Four hours of tutoring later I bellyflop onto Wyatt's bed in exhaustion, letting out a groan an I do.

He's getting slightly better but we're currently on year 9 work so we've still got a long way to go.

I feel the bed sink beside me and a hand start to nudge at me. "Green eyes, get up, the day won't wait for you."

"I don't care, let me sleep," I grumble back.

"Fine," Wyatt sighs. "At least lie down properly with the sheets covering you."

I ignore him as the darkness gets closer, sleep welcoming me.

"You're impossible, green eyes," Wyatt complains, scooping me into his arms.

I thrash about, pounding my fists on his back. "Hey, put me back on the bed! I want to sleep!" I whine.

Wyatt lets out a low chuckle. "You don't punch very hard and relax, I'm just making sure you won't get a twisted back when you sleep."

"That's because I'm half asleep," I retort as a yawn escapes me.

"I can see that," he laughs, putting me down on the bed again, the covers now on top of me.

"How about this, green eyes, once you're all rested up, show me how you really punch," he suggest but I only just about hear him as sleep begins to take over.

Without thinking much about my answer, I mumble "sure, night Wyatt."

"Night, green eyes, sweet dreams," are the last words I hear before drifting into a deep sleep.

~*~*~

I feel something grabbing onto my hand but I swat it away, turning my head into the comfy pillow. "Go away, Hugo, let me sleep," I mumble into the pillow.

The hand doesn't listen. "Hugo, leave me alone, just five more minutes," I whine, my voice slightly louder as I start to wake up.

The hand disappears and I sigh in relief, snuggling into the pillow.

Suddenly, something starts tickling my neck. "No!" I screech, immediately getting up to get away from my brother. "Hugo, you little shit, you asked for it," I say, launching myself at the figure, only now opening my eyes to the harsh artificial light.

I'm on top of him, tickling his stomach but he's not reacting like Hugo normally does. Usually, Hugo would be squirming, trying to push me off, instead he just lies there not trying to move me.

"Hugo?" I question trying to get a closer look at my brother, my eyes now adjusted to the light. It's a this moment that I realise it's not Hugo I'm on top of, it's Wyatt.

I feel the blood rush to my cheeks. "Shit, Wyatt. What the hell are you doing in my room?" I ask.

He gives me an incredulous look. "Seriously? Look around, green eyes, you're in my room."

That's when the day's events hit me and I remember why I'm here. "Shit," I curse. "Jess knows I know you," I say, panic rising in my voice.

"So?"

"So?! I don't want anyone to know, you know I hate attention," I tell him.

"Yes I know that but don't you trust her? I thought you two were good friends, I always see you hanging around together at school along with that blonde girl–what's here name?"

"That would be Ava and I guess you're right, I do trust Jess."

"Then you've nothing to worry about," he assures me. "But, green eyes, why don't you want anyone to know we're friends? I get the attention thing but that would die down after a while plus most people know who you are anyway."

I sigh, getting off of him and away from our compromising position and sit next to him. "True but when the whole James thing broke out people would constantly ask questions and gossip about me and it seemed like everyone was looking at me wherever I went, waiting for something to happen, and I hated it. I hated it so much," I tell him.

Wyatt puts his arm around me to bring me into a side hug. "But they got over it, that's my point. You need to be able to deal with people. You told me you wanted to be careless and fearless. So the best way is to not care what they say and not be afraid of what might happen."

He's right. If I want to prove to myself that I can do this and show James just how wrong he was I need to do this. The problem is that the mere thought terrifies me.

"Can you at least give me a bit of time before we jump into making any crazy decisions?" I ask him.

"Sure, green eyes, we can wait but let's not wait too long because we've still got a lot to do before I've met my end of the deal."

I nod at him. I know I don't need long just a bit of time to clear my head and ready myself.

"Right, now that that's sorted, get up," Wyatt says, sliding off of the bed.

I give him a puzzled look.

"Right before you went to sleep you agreed to show me how you punch," he tells me. "It's time you learned how to fight, green eyes," he concludes with a smirk.

Fuck.

I really shouldn't be making decisions whilst half asleep.

"Hell no, I wasn't thinking when I told you that."

"Too bad, you agreed now let's go, the gym is only two doors down."

I shake my head at him. "Wyatt there's no way I'm going to doing this."

"You do realise I'm not asking you to become a macho boxer right? I know this is going to take time but if you have the patience to deal with my shitty maths then I have the patience to deal with your shitty fighting."

Shitty fighting, huh? I guess he's in for a slight surprise.

"Come on, green eyes, live a little, don't be so boring."

Boring.

I sigh but nod as I too get off the bed, following Wyatt out of his room, luckily I'm already in somewhat athletic attire.

I can't believe I'm doing this. I'll show you James, I'm not boring, not at all.

~*~*~

So my exams are over (except my orals which I've not prepared in the slightest 😬😅) so I should be going back to weekly updates again. Thanks for waiting and having patience with me :)

On a completely different note Shawn Mendes released his new album — arghhh, I'm not okay — recently and I love it so much. I think my favourite might be 'particular taste' but it's so hard to choose because there's so many good ones.

Anyway, I hope you like the chapter. Until next time, byeeeeee.