Can't Let You Go

Chapter 4

Thomas eyed us suspiciously and then looked at Anton who nodded his head. "Alright then." He dropped the box into my basket and walked away.

Apologizing for Thomas's rude behavior, Anton led us to the cash register at the front of the store.

"That's just his job," I soothed. I didn't want Anton to feel bad.

Anton scanned all the items including the powder he'd retrieved from the back room and the heavy duty concealer that Emily had. I paid and we exited the store calmly. When we were several stores away Zayan grasped my arm and let his knees buckle.

"Christ, Honey! What was that? Who is this?"

"Zayan, meet Emily. Emily, Zayan." I pulled the concealer out of the bag and handed it to Emily, then held the bag out to Zayan. "Your supplies," I said to him as he took it from me.

"You didn't have to do that," Emily said testily.

"You could say 'thank you,'" Zayan snapped at her as he petted my arm. "Thank you for the goodies."

"I'll pay you back next week," she said and started to walk off.

"Emily, wait," I called after her. She stopped and turned towards me. "You really don't need to pay me back. I buy all kinds of stuff there for Zayan. I don't mind buying something else for another friend."

"Friend?" Zayan questioned as he peered at her more closely. "I don't recognize you from school. How do you know her?"

I put my arm over Emily's shoulder, "Emily here is something of a renegade. First I saved her from the mob then I saved her from the clutches of a rent-a-cop. And each time she's turned on me like a firecracker. You've just got to wait her out a bit and she'll loosen up." I shook her when I said that and she cracked a smile. "See?"

"Fine, thank you," she said reluctantly.

Zayan made that face he makes when he disapproves of something, but is holding his tongue. He closed his eyes before speaking. "My mother gave me a whole ten dollars this morning. Ice cream is on me."

The rest of the day went happily and Emily joined us several more times over the next couple of weeks. Summer had been coming to a close when I finally got a message from Ashton that he was home. We agreed to meet and I let Zayan and Emily put makeup on me.

"Hi!" I called out and ran up to him when I saw him on the sidewalk.

"Hey." He looked at his shoes. I'd sort of forgotten how quiet he was. I toned down my enthusiasm so I wouldn't overwhelm him.

It was a little awkward for us since we hadn't spoken since we kissed weeks before, but after a bit we chatted like we always did. When we got to the intersection that took us our different ways, we stopped and looked at each other. Neither quite sure what to do. I acted on impulse again and kissed him. Only this time it wasn't a little peck like the first time I kissed him. He put his hands on my hips as he kissed me back and for a moment the only sound I could hear was his breathing.

We met two more times before school started. We didn't have a lot of time for either of those meetings. Rather, he didn't have a lot of time. His parents kept him busy. He wasn't shy with me anymore and took the lead turning into an eager kisser. I think the pressure of the time constraint added a sense of urgency for him. There were no complaints from me, though. I liked how out of breath I made him.

The start of the semester meant we saw each other frequently and spent a lot of time together, but he was very cautious of PDA, public displays of affection, at school. It was against the rules for a start, but the bigger problem was that his parents couldn't discover he was dating. I'm not quite sure what my parents would do to me since it was against their rules as well, but his would have pulled him from Hightower. We were careful and never even held hands at school. On the commute to and from school, we didn't touch when we were with the drivers for either of our families. If we took public transport, he carefully looked through the passengers to see if there were any other Hightower uniforms present.