Wagging (scene 22)

The police never found anybody in our back yard, but told us to call them should the hooded figure appear again. My instinct was to message Tara, but what could she do or say? She wasn't the person I needed her to be for me in that moment. She wasn't completely herself. She'd probably forgotten the comforting ways she used to soothe me whenever I ran off track.

Me and Mum slept in her bed that night. I didn't sleep much. And you could tell. It was the first thing Dean said to me when he saw me at school the next day.

'Wow, you look like shit. I didn't keep you out that late did I?'

'No, you didn't, someone else kept me up; there was a man in our back yard staring through my window last night.' Dean's features rearranged into concern.

'What the hell. What a creep. Are you alright? Did he try and break in?' Dean's hands are on my shoulders gently massaging the front of them with his thumbs. I felt him looking way deeper inside me than I was used to. There was that sudden urge to kiss him again, and I knew then it was only a matter of time before I did, or he did again.

'My mum called the cops, but they must have scared him off.'

'I bet you really feel like the quiz we have in Biology then.'

'Oh god, is that today!' He nods.

'Wanna wag?' The bell goes. I look around at the other students scurrying to class, some happy, some stressed. This should be me...caring about my education, caring about what happens next with my life. But somehow none of it seemed to matter right then. All that mattered was us in the hallway, and forgetting.

'Let's do it.' I slam my locker shut and chase after Dean, out of the school doors and out of the school gates, not regretting a thing.

#Dean #Waggingschool #Crushing