Chapter Two

“Well,” Trent started, glancing around the room at everyone. Silence had settled around us and Trent took the fall since he was the eldest. I raised my eyebrow and looked at James. “You’re starting school so we thought we could give you a ride.”

School. “Great,” I mumbled, sighing. I had forgotten all about school. “I need to shower; I went to the gym early this morning.” I backed away and headed for the stairs. “Give me ten minutes!” I hesitated by the doo r and looked at them. “No chance we can skip today?”

“No way. Phoebe expects us to take you and my ear already hurts,” Robbie said, rubbing the side of his head and pouting.

“Fine,” I huffed as I walked up the stairs.

“We’ll wait outside for you,” Kurtis called after me.

After I shut the door behind me, I sighed and leaned against it. Why did I have to go to school? I wanted to stay home and just spend the day relaxing… or plotting how to get out of staying with the Johnsons. I could survive on my own, I thought as I opened my closet. I pulled out a navy dress and eyed it for a moment before taking it into the bathroom. Once I took the quickest shower of my life, I got my dress and tights on before tugging my converse onto my feet. I rimmed my eyes with black eyeliner, enhancing my blue eyes. After a sweep of lip-gloss, I was out the door and heading for the stairs.

I came to a halt when I noticed a figure at the bottom of the steps. The hunched shoulders were very familiar, and my mind jumped to the conclusion it was James waiting for me. I tiptoed down before jumping forward and covering his eyes. “Guess who,” I whispered, grinning.

His body stiffened before he slowly turned, my hands dropping to my sides when I noticed the silver lip ring. Not James, abort, abort! I backed away and felt my foot catch on the step, sending me tumbling backwards. Tony faced me and smirked.

“I think you assumed I was a different twin, Mitchie,” he told me, chuckling. I narrowed my eyes, he never calls me Mitchie; always an annoying nickname that he thought of at that moment.

“What, no nickname?” I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest. He shook his head and smiled – a proper smile, not a half smirk he always greets me with. “Is this you being nice for once?” I asked as I bent down to tie my shoelace properly.

He shrugged one shoulder, looking the picture of ease. “Suppose so. I don’t want to be mean to you anymore.”

“Why’s that?” I asked, focusing on my shoe. “Got some other chick to do that to now?”

His laughter echoed around us as he sat down next to me. “Why does that sound like you’re jealous, Mitch?”

Laughing once, I looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Why would I be jealous of the chick that has your attention?”

“Because she has my attention.” He smirked and looked straight ahead, giving me plenty of time to look at him from the corner of my eye. What was going on with him?

“Do you want me to be jealous?” I asked curiously. Okay, I had to admit, even when he annoyed me and was mean to me, I was glad he was paying attention to me. At least he acknowledged me then. I had a major crush on him before we moved to England but it wasn’t going anywhere so I didn’t bother with him. It didn’t matter that he was beyond handsome and always held my attention; he had too many girls lining up for him.

He looked at me, his eyes searching mine. I held his gaze and we stayed like that for what seemed like forever before he finally went to open his mouth to say something but the front door opening made his mouth snap shut again.

“Come on, we better get going,” he said as he stood up and held out his hand. “I think you better pull your dress down,” he added when his eyes drifted down to the exposed upper thigh. I blushed furiously as I tugged it down and scowled at him when he laughed.

“Why are you being nice to me Tony?” I asked him as I straightened myself out with one hand, the other grasped in his.

“I suppose it’s just…” He stopped when we noticed James at the bottom of the stairs, looking at us. Tony hadn’t let go of my hand, if anything, it seemed to tighten.

“We’ve been waiting ages, what have you two been doing?” James asked, eyeing our hands.

I looked down at our hands and frowned; why hadn’t I let go?

“Sorry, you know what it’s like when a girl gets dressed, then she tripped up the stairs,” he said, smirking. Looks like the smile was only a brief appearance.

James eyes widened before he laughed. “You tripped up the stairs, Mitch?”

Nodding once, I walked down the final steps and tugged on Tony’s arms until he was following. I looked around and made sure I had everything before looking at James, who was glancing at his brother.

“I’ll wait outside. Come on, Tony, be quick, Mitch. At least we can use you as an excuse for being late.” James walked out the door, leaving Tony and I on our own again.

I looked at our hands before meeting his eyes. He was smiling again. Without meaning to, I smiled back, his smile was cute and his lip ring made him look ten times hotter.

Wait. Did I just say I thought Tony was hot? I mentally shook my head as Tony stood next to me.

“You look like you’re thinking hard, babe,” he said, looking at me from the corner of his eye. Babe? Did he really just call me babe?

“I have to get something from the kitchen, tell them I’ll be one second.” I went to walk away but he pulled on my hand until I was in front of him. “Tony, we’ll be even more late if you don’t let me go.”

The height difference between us meant I had to tilt my head back to look up at him. My breath caught in my throat when I caught sight of his soft smile and bright green eyes. His arm snaked around my waist and he used the hand that was holding mine to stroke my cheek softly. I stared at him, my breath coming out in a rush. What was he going to do?

Slowly, he moved his head towards mine and I got the hint. I tiptoed and let our lips touch, softly, before he pulled away, shock colouring his features. My eyes widened and my face mirrored his – I had met him halfway so we could kiss.

Oh, well. You wanted to kiss him and you enjoyed it! A voice in the back of my mind whispered before snickering.

Offering him a smile, I felt relief spread through me when he smiled back. He ducked his head and captured my lips again before picking me up, wrapping my legs around his waist. He stepped back and held me against the wall. I hesitated when he flicked his tongue along my bottom lip before allowing him to kiss me deeply. His hand trailed across my arm and the other cupped my butt, supporting me (and mostly likely trying to cope a feel). I ran my fingers through his hair while my other hand edged to his t-shirt, then shifted underneath. I could feel his muscles from the years of him working out and smiled against his lips.

There was a voice, breaking us out of our trance. A voice that had only been here a few minutes before. Tony heard James too and put me down.

“Welcome home, Mitchie, missed you,” he whispered into my ear before going out the door.

Running into the front room, I thought over what just happened. We kissed. Tony and I actually kissed, mere minutes after I thought over how I gave him up because nothing could happen! I picked up my bag and spun around for a moment, unsure of what to do. Did we have to act as if nothing had happened?

“Mitchie!” I jumped and jogged out the house. “What took you so long?” James asked, flinging his arm around my shoulder and steering me towards the car.

Doubt crawled through me, I didn’t think James would accept ‘Oh, sorry. I was just making out with your brother.’ So I went with, “Sorry, I couldn’t find my purse,” I lied, avoiding his eyes. If I looked at him, would he notice anything?

“Okay, well hurry up now. We’ve been waiting ages. We are going in my car, you’re stuck in the back with Tony; I hope you don’t mind. Kurtis called shot gun.”

With a nod, I followed him to his car and climbed into the back. I avoided everyone’s gaze and looked out the window but I gasped quietly when I felt Tony’s hand land on mine. He wasn’t even looking at me; his eyes were focused outside the moving car. I smiled like the idiot I was and James noticed.

“What are you smiling at, Mitchie?” he asked as he looked at me through the rear view mirror.

“Yeah, Mitchie. What are you smiling at?” Tony asked, watching me with a smirk. I went to move my hand away but his grip tightened, sending little electric shocks through my arm and body.

“Oh, I just thought of something that happened a while back, that’s all,” I said, looking at Tony slyly.

The rest of the drive was silent, except for the radio playing softly. When we pulled into the school parking lot, Tony was still holding my hand. James was turning in his seat, making me tug my hand out from under Tony’s with speed that could compete with a Cheetah.

“Okay, so you can sit with me or Tony today at lunch, if you want. We’ll take you to the office now so you can get your stuff, then I suppose we can drop you off at your first lesson,” James said, smiling and getting out of the car, Kurtis following behind shortly.

The hurt expression on Tony’s face made my heart ache. James chucked the keys into Tony’s lap, breaking the look from his face. James mouthed through the door to lock the car once we were both out, he would meet us at the front after he had been to his locker. Tony nodded and we watched James run inside the building.

Once both the Johnsons were out of sighed, I unbuckled my seat belt and slid over to Tony. I grinned when he jumped in surprise, not realising I had moved from my spot. He turned and his body shot back in surprise when my lips crashed to his. I felt him smile and kiss me back.

After a few seconds, I knew I was in his good books again so I leaned back and looked at him. He tried to kiss me again but I pressed my finger to his lip and grinned. I pecked his mouth quickly before jumping out of the car and heading for the building, leaving him watching me from behind.

~

I hope you enjoyed the second chapter!