Kissing Pact With The Bad Boy

Chapter 5 - Ionic Bond

What should I pay you to make you look at me the way I look at you? -

Chapter 5 - Ionic Bond

(Skylar)

Holden didn't reply, instead he just gave her a deep, probing look that made Sky feel like he was somehow seeing inside her soul with his x-ray eyes. She composed her face, willing herself not to shiver under his gaze.

Everything around them was silent and peaceful and the school was strangely quiet at that time. Sky looked at him and he stared back. She refused to look away from his electric eyes.

"Or?" She asked again, when her patience finally snapped—she was not a patient woman, she had never been— and he poked her in her forehead with his pointer finger, a ghost of a smile spreading across his lips.

"Curiosity, freckles, killed the cat. Do you want to die?" He said in a lazy drawl that made Sky's skin tingle. She refused to let him get to her. She wouldn't.

"Whatever, jerk. You are the one who started it. If you are not brave enough to finish your sentences, don't start them." She scoffed with a testy look thrown in his direction. He shrugged at her and motioned her to walk with him. Why should she? She glared at him and crossed her arms as she looked up at him defiantly, but he ignored her, as he often did.

For years, this had been his game. This hot and cold. This push and pull. Sky didn't understand the game or the rules. Only he understood his rules. It was very hard to follow his rules, which were full of chaotic sub-clauses, and then he changed them, whenever he pleased. Sky had to play along, maybe because she wasn't ready to say goodbye to him, not fully, even though he had been nothing but a thorn in her ass. She sometimes wished she could forfeit, but... she was weak.

"Oh, I am brave enough, freckles. I am not sure you are brave enough to hear what I have to say. I am doing you a favor. I am saving you from myself." He gave her a crooked smile that was made of a billion broken stars. She could see her reflections in them.

"Yeah? Why didn't anyone send me a memo about your altruism, Holden?" She poked her tongue out at him and for a moment his eyes were glued to her lips. His gaze darkened. She felt a big ball of nervousness at the base of her throat and she gulped.

"Don't do that, freckles." He said in a soft whisper. His eyes flicked to her lips before he shook his head as if he was dispelling the thoughts of her lips away from his head. She knew she wasn't imagining these looks. But why?

Didn't he hate me?

People who hate you wouldn't look at you like they want to eat you in a single bite! Ms. Freak so helpfully offered.

"Wh-what?" She whispered, even as she stared back at his red lips and he closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Nothing." He walked away.

***

When the school was over, Sky felt like she had just climbed the highest mountain or something. When she reached Holden's car, Melissa and Hunter were already there. They went together in silence.

Sky was too tired to even talk. Holden kept looking at her, his eyes a little bit concerned, but she didn't say anything. When she reached home, she finished her homework, cleaned and ate something her dad had made for her with a sigh. She wished she could forget this day... she hated it.

She fell in the bed, cursing Hunter and Melissa and Holden. Of course, Holden. He was the crux of all her problems.

Before she could blink it was next day, and she was againt stuffed in the car with Hunter and Melissa. Melissa gave her a smirk as she snuggled closer to Hunter and Sky's heart broke again...

When they reached class, Melissa left, dragging a hesitating Hunter behind her. He kept looking at her and she wished she wouldn't feel so bad everytime he looked at her...

"Stop looking at him." Holden said with a frown in her direction.

"I don't have to listen to you, and you don't have a damn right to tell me what to do or not to do." She snapped at him and he shrugged.

"I am doing this for you."

"Yeah, right. The demon is so worried about his conquests..."

He shrugged. "So what is your first class, freckles?" He asked as he took a step closer to her and she leaned against his car as she looked up at him with a frown. She didn't know why he was always invading her personal space and why her heart was always running a thousand miles per minute when he was closer to her.

Because he is more decadent than the triple chocolate cake with chocolate ganache topping. Death by chocolate, eh! Death by Holden, yes ma'am. The pestering voice in her head said. Sky often had this urge to grab the thing by its throat and wring...

Ms. Freak... Shut up! Sky ordered the freaky thing with a frown.

I can't. I am you.

"Personal space, Holden. Have you heard about it?" She said with a click of her tongue and he gave her an electric look that skipped along her nerves. These feelings were often exciting and confusing at the same time. She didn't know why her body reacted to him when her brain refused to even like him...

"Oh, I do, but somehow I can't ever resist invading yours, freckles. It is like you are sending these invitations to my body with your soft green eyes." He gave her a self-satisfied smirk as she flushed a deep shade of red. He trailed a finger down her cheeks before he pulled back. "It is so fun watching you squirm, like a little earthworm trying to get out of the sharp claws of a hungry cat."

Wacko jerk!

"You are insane, Holden. Insane. Mad. You don't belong in the outside world. You make me want to pluck all my hair out of my damn head." She said as she grabbed her head with her hands.

"Oh, freckles, you will look cute even without your hair, but it will be such a shame to lose all these silky soft hair." He said as he flicked her side bangs with a c0cky smirk and she bared her teeth at him and he took a step back from her, raising his hands in surrender.

"What class, freckles? Or are you only resisting so that you can spend more time with me?" He said as he leaned back from her with a secret smile.

That did it!

"AP Chemistry, you devil." She spat the word out. She knew he wasn't going to go away just because she was refusing to answer him. Holden was as stubborn as her and he was a nuisance.

"AP. Aptly Pretentious. Do you take any ordinary classes like a normal person?" Holden asked with an impertinent smirk. "Don't answer that, Miss. Overambitious."

"You could've taken all the AP classes too, but you are too lazy." Sky snapped, but strangely her words were missing the real heat. Something had changed. She didn't know what had changed, but something did. She pulled her camera bag closer as she looked at him. Maybe it was the sad look she had seen just a few seconds ago, or maybe it was the way he acted around her... but something did change.

"Are you my mother?" He said with a roll of his eyes.

"I shiver at the thought of that! I would never want a son like you, you impudent jerk." Sky said with a shudder.

"What! I am an amazing son. Or at least my mother thinks so," Holden said with a bitter smile.

His shoulders went stiff and his palms were fisted on his sides as he pulled the strap of his backpack with a scowl. The goading smile was gone and now he looked like a ticking time bomb ready to explode. His jaw clenched. His gray eyes had lost their usual devilish glint and for a second he looked so glum Sky wanted to hug him.

But why in the hell would she want to console the devil?

Sky knew Holden and his father didn't get along, not at all. Hunter was his father's son. Hunter was the golden boy. Holden, not so much. Holden lived to break the rules and Mr. Reed was not very fond of rule-breakers. Sky had often listened to Mr. Reed complaining about how Holden should be more like his brother. And it had even made Sky angry. Sky, who couldn't take Holden and his arrogance!

No wonder Holden was bristling, just the thought of his father.

"Amazing is the kind of adjective nobody is going to use next to your name, Holden 'the jerk' Reed. Get that inside that thick skull of yours." Sky said, wanting to soften the tension in his rigid shoulders. It seemed like it was working, because he chuckled a little and shook his head at her, his eyes full of appreciation, as if he understood what she was trying to do. "This is me, bye, jerkface."

"Bye, freckles, oh and freckles," he called to her and she stopped. He grabbed the strap of her backpack and leaned closer to her.

"The photo you took of me yesterday, you should only use it for your personal needs, okay? When nights are hot and sultry... and when you want to touch yourself..." He whispered close to her ear, his voice hoarse and breathy and Sky bit her lips and took a quick step back from him. He turned and left.

For a second, she kept staring at him, blinking and then it dawned on her that he was walking away and she was acting like a halfwitted fool.

"Holden, you irritating, smug son of Satan. You miscreant with a monkey brain. I will kill you and then I will bury you in elephant poop and you will- you-" she screamed and stomped as he gave her a two-finger wave without looking at her and then he disappeared into the crowd of guys and girls milling around.

Some girls and guys standing around stared at her and shrugged and looked away as if it was nothing new. It wasn't. It was all a familiar sight to them, by now, Sky screaming and Holden smirking and doing everything and anything to make her pop a blood vessel or two. Their rivalry was a thing of a legend around the school.

Sky stormed inside swearing at the gray-eyed devil from the bottom of the burning hell. What an audacious, arrogant jerk!

"Were you just yelling at Holden? What is he doing here? His next class is at the other end of the building." Hunter looked at her with a frown. Why was he frowning? She was the one who should be frowning.

She hoped she could avoid talking with him, at least for a few days, but of course, he was in most of the AP classes, too. He was overambitious, too, unlike his brother.

"I am not your brother's keeper. So Sherlock, are you done with your enquiry? Can I go in now?" Sky said in a waspish tone and he flinched a little.

"Sky," he whispered. "Can we talk?" He asked as he gave her a deep look. She quickly avoided those eyes. They had the power to suck her in.

"I don't want to talk, Hunt." She said and his face fell in an instant. His eyebrows knotted together at the centre and she knew he was both sad and angry. She knew his tell. She knew every one of his tell. Her heart wanted to go to him, but her brain refused.

"So are you going to avoid me for the rest of your life?" He looked at her with anger in his soft blue eyes. Sky took in a deep breath. He looked like he wanted to punch something.

"Nah. Until I feel like I can look at your lying, double-crossing face..." She said as she gave him a shark-like smile. Just because he looked at her with those softly pleading eyes that made her feel like she was swimming in the warm water didn't mean she had to forgive him. She wasn't ready yet.

"Come on, Sky. I am sorry, okay. I know I was an ass, I know I hurt you, but..." He looked at her, his eyes full of shame and guilt.

Sky's heart was slowly, slowly thawing. How could she be angry with him when he looked at her like that? Did he even know what he was doing to her?

He sighed and cleared his throat. He pushed her fingers inside the soft brown hair. "I- it happened, and I should have told you, but I knew you would be angry and I didn't want you to be angry when I was not there to talk with you about it. That is why I didn't tell you." He shifted from one leg to the other as his eyes looked everywhere but at her.

"You know, you have had another option. You could not have gotten together with her. Then I wouldn't have been angry, and you wouldn't have the need to lie." She said as she took a step away from him.

She didn't feel rational or logical right now. She wanted to break his stupidly handsome jaw. She wanted to do something that would hurt him, even though the pain wouldn't be quite the same as what she was feeling right now. "Just- I am not ready. I know it is your life and you could be with whoever you want, but that doesn't mean it is not hurtful, Hunter." She said. "Million nights of complaining to you and Aadhi about her and you still- like Holden said, you are also just another guy!" Sky said as she felt the pressure in her chest skyrocket. She felt like someone was squeezing her heart!

"Sky. Please. I just-" But even he couldn't explain himself. He stopped with a defeated look.

She looked at him for a second and then walked away. She took the desk far away from Hunter. If she talked with him and looked at his baby blue eyes, she would simply give in. But she wasn't ready to give in, just not yet. She wasn't ready to forgive and move on, like she always did.

Her Chemistry teacher, Mrs. Hanover, came in and the bustling students almost went quiet. She was a very strict woman and her lips were always pressed together in a deep frown. Her eyes were always in a slit as she looked around for someone to do something she didn't like. She didn't like anything. She also gave detentions like they were candies, so nobody wanted to get on her bad side.

Sky opened her notebook and willed herself not to look at the boy sitting a few desks before her, as Mrs. Hanover taught about ionic and covalent bonds and how two atoms bonded together with the help of electrons. "In an ionic bond, one atom essentially donates an electron to stabilize the second atom. Atoms that form an ionic bond have different electronegativity values from each other. A polar bond is formed by the attraction between oppositely-charged ions." Mrs. Hanover continued in her monotonous voice, and Sky realized how it almost sounded like her relationship with Hunter.

It was interesting...

Sometimes she did feel like Hunter and she was bonded by an Ionic bond. Essentially, Sky often had to give up something to stabilize their relationship. Almost always a piece of her heart.

Sky sighed. She still couldn't wrap up her mind about how he and Melissa were dating and kissing. Just before the vacation, he hated Melissa and now, he couldn't keep his hands off her! How could something change this fast?

When the class was over, Sky grabbed her bag and walked out as fast as she could. She heard Hunter calling her, but she didn't stop. She couldn't stop.

Sorry Hunter. Not this time!

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Fathy Light's Bookish Angels.

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