Kissing Pact With The Bad Boy

Chapter 4 - Memories and Moments

You are made of million broken planets and you form your own galaxy.

~

Chapter 4 - Memories and Moments

(Skylar)

Sky cheered inside as Holden looked away from her. Oh, how she loved the sweet, sweet taste of victory. She silently whooped inside her head as Holden shook his head at her before looking at his book, muttering brat under his breath.

Mr. Gillian asked them to open their books and he started teaching about the Central Nervous System and the anatomy of the human brain. Sky was lost, instantly. She was fascinated with learning new things and it always sparked her interest. The human brain intrigued her. A small organ, working so in tandem with every other organ, ordering, controlling, commanding, it was fascinating.

"Oligodendrocytes." Mr. Gillian started, as he wrote it on the board in a weird scrawl. One must need to build a special decoder to read it. It was that ugly.

Sky was so deeply engrossed in what Mr. Gillian was saying.

Sky heard Holden muttering something. She sneaked a look at him from her side eyes and was stuck at how handsome he looked from the side. From the front. From everywhere. God must have really spent an awful lot of time making this creature from hell. It was so unfair, you know, that some were blessed bountifully while others were forced to be mediocre in looks department. But thankfully, Sky wasn't mediocre in the brains department.

Sky wondered what he was scribbling so seriously in his notebook. She tried to take a peak, but he caught her staring and he gave her a wink. She blushed, cursed her own curiosity that always got her in trouble as she looked away from the irritating guy.

"They are a type of neuroglia whose main functions are to provide support and insulation to the axons. Oligodendrocytes do this by creating a myelin sheath. The fatty substance form electrical insulation around the axons and increase the rate of electrical impulses. A single oligodendrocyte can extend its processes to 50 axons, wrapping approximately 1 μm..." As Mr. Gillian talked on, Sky carefully took notes of everything he said. She was a good student, she always had been. She loved school. It gave her a way to ask questions, to satiate some of her curiosity.

"Wow, you give a new meaning to the word obsessive." Holden whispered next to her.

"Shut up, Holden."

"Freckles, why are you always telling me to shut up?" He asked in a frustrated tone.

"Why are you still talking with me, Holden? Why are we still talking with each other? You hate me, so why not just leave me alone?" She hissed under her breath. She was angry with Hunter, angry with Holden, angry with the world for being such an asshole to her, always.

He sighed softly. He didn't answer. She turned and looked at him and he was staring at his notebook.

"I can't." He whispered, finally.

"What the hell do you mean you can't?" Sky asked, totally bewildered by the look in his face. He looked like he was in pain... but, he was the one who decided he didn't want to be friends with her. She wasn't the one who pushed him out of her life. So why was he looking at her like, like this.

What is wrong with you, Holden? What's wrong with me?

"I can't, freckles. I just can't." He whispered and before she could ask what he meant, the bell rang and he sprung from his desk and stalked out, leaving Sky, once again staring at his back.

Why is he always walking away from me, leaving me staring at his back?

Why do I still... still feel this hurt and betrayal?

***

Sky walked out of the class with a pleased-looking Amber. Amber looked at Sky and gave her a teasing smile as she poked Sky playfully on the sides and Sky rolled her eyes. She instantly knew what was coming.

Oh, here we go!

"Looked like you and Holden were talking a lot." She teased. "Actually talking!"

"Not talking, Amby. Fighting. We are always fighting. Nothing else." Sky said with a frown as she opened her class schedule and smiled when she realized it was Art with Ms. Warner. Sky loved art, especially photography. She almost always carried her Nikon D5600 24.2MP DSLR Camera, whenever she went outside. You never know when you get that perfect click or that perfect picture. The moment where the right light and emotion meet. The moment where your heart explodes into a million tiny pieces of happy rainbow and your fingers itch to capture it.

Sky opened her locker and grabbed the big bag with her camera. For just a moment her smile fell. The camera reminded her of its owner, who wasn't here anymore. She touched the name written on the side of the bag with a sad smile and then shook her head. He wouldn't want her to be sad, or feel guilty, she knew, but whenever she thought of him, she couldn't help but miss him, miss the life they had once had, feel the same pant of guilt. Their life was perfect and then-

Sky sighed and looked at Amber who still had that giddy smile on her face. Amber looked delirious and her smile was so wide and infectious that it made Sky smile, too.

"You know what they say about the thin line between love and hate," Amber said with a wistful look and Sky shook her head. Amber was just hopeless. "Love and hate."

"The heart winking in your eyes, Amby," Sky frowned. “You are so obvious and it is disgusting. I would rather kiss a lifeless Zombie as its brain oozes out than kiss him." Sky wrinkled her nose. There was no way in hell she was going to kiss that smug, supercilious jerk. No damn way, right?

Oh, right! Ms. Freak scoffed.

Amber looked freaked out as she looked at Sky, her eyes wide and worried. "Ew. I worry about you, Sky dearest! I do... Now, I will be having nightmares of you kissing a zombie Holden." Amber shook her head. She looked properly horrified.

Sky slapped her at the back of her head softly with her book. "My God, Amby, you are so stringently loyal to your stupid fantasy. I say I would rather kiss a zombie and you say zombie Holden?" Sky sighed at her best friend. Sky didn't know where Amber got the idea, but since the first day, Amber had been rooting for Sky and Holden. She even had a disgusting ship name for them. Sky had told Amber that it would only happen in Amber's dream, and in Sky's nightmare, but Amber... Amber was stubborn about seeing it through that Sky just let her. It was hard to fight with her about it.

"You don't see it, Sky, the se.xual tension pinging between you two. I see it. I feel it. I am electrocuted by it." Amber shuddered and scratched her arms. "You see, I even have goosebumps when I think about it."

Sky furrowed her brows as she glared at Amber. This was completely unrealistic, unimaginable. There was no way in hell-

Is it really that unimaginable? You have once kissed him. Ms. Freaky was very helpful in offering up upsetting ideas at the most unfortunate times. Sky wished she wasn't walking around with her enemy on the inside. Her own conscience was against her!

Kiss was an overstatement. They had fell down together and their lips had met in a freaky accident. A bump of lips would be the right expression.

It was an accident and you are a traitor. Sky thought with a bitter frown.

And then he had called her boring after a few week and that was the end of everything.

"What se.xual tension? We both want to kill each other, Amber. KILL. Not kiss each other. Get that inside that thick skull of yours." Sky sighed as she glared at her friend. Yes, having girl best friend was amazing, except for times like these, when they were on your ass about imaginary se.xual tension between you and a certain sexy devil.

"There is this subtle energy between you two, Sky. A spark. And he is always looking at you when you are not and sometimes you do that, too. I don't know why you are so adamant about refusing that."

"He hates me." Sky said with a sigh. "I hate him."

"From where I was sitting, it didn't look like that to me, Sky, not at all. He doesn't hate you," Amber said. "And you and I both know you don't hate him."

"Stop dreaming."

"Good bye, bestie... And my dreams are not impossible. You will understand it one day."

***

Sky clutched her camera in her hand and walked towards Art. Art was her favorite class and Ms. Warner was the best teacher anyone could ask for.

After half an hour of teaching, Ms. Warner allowed them to do what they wanted. Some took out their sketchbooks. Some took out the canvas and oil paints. Sky grabbed her camera and Ms. Warner smiled at her.

"If you want to, you can get out of the classroom. Go wherever inspiration takes you, huh?" Ms. Warner was all about creative freedom and experiencing art. Sky liked it.

"Thank you, Ms. Warner." Sky said gratefully as she grabbed her backpack, and walked outside the classroom with her camera in her hand. She walked along the long corridor. There were some students milling here and there, talking, laughing, some even kissing.

She walked outside and leisurely strolled around the front lawn, her eyes scanning the surrounding for her perfect moment.

'Little Sky, photography is all about your feelings. Nothing, no one else matters. Only you and your lens matter.' She could almost hear Ben closer to her.

'I wish you are here, Ben. I wish you are still here with me. I miss you so much. I am so sorry.'

'I am always here, little Sky. When you look through the lens, I am in your eyes. When you develop the pictures, I am in the darkness.'

Comforted, Sky surveyed around her. The grass lawn looked so thirsty in the sun. There was an old lawn mower sitting sadly on the side, its handle bar broken. The tall oak looked lonely without students talking under it or birds perching over it. The panther statue looked majestic in the sunlight. But none of them were her perfect pictures. Not today. None of it inspired her.

And then she saw him.

He was sitting on the bleachers, his head lifted up, his eyes closed. He looked sad, sitting there. The smirk was missing.

Why does he look so, so sad? Why does his smile feel so broken?

Her heart twisted. She didn't know why she cared whether he was sad or happy. There was nothing between them now, except rivalry, right? Why did she want to run to him and make him laugh with those gray eyes?

The sun was hitting him in a way that made him look mysterious and marvelous. The way he looked, the way his head was slightly bent on the side, the way his lips were pressed in a moody contemplation... she sighed.

He looked vulnerable.

A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you, the less you know. She remembered the words of Diane Arbus and she

wondered if she could ever, ever learn his secrets.

She knew she would regret taking his picture if he saw her. But she couldn't help it. Some pictures must be taken. She would forever regret it if she didn't take this picture.

She raised her camera, adjusted her lens, found the perfect angle, the perfect light, and she instinctively knew it would be black and white. There was a kind of old world charm in black and white, and the way he looked, it shouldn't be blinded by colors. He looked so gray and so she would make him gray. She stared at him through her lens, his face came into focus, and she blurred everything that was not needed and then she clicked the picture and then again.

His eyes snapped open. For a moment, he looked like he didn't understand what was going on and then his lips pulled up in a mischievous smile. His eyes glinted. She took another picture. Click. Click. He blinked. Click. He shook his head at her as he stood up. Click.

She didn't know why she wasn't stopping, but she couldn't. This was too perfect a moment to miss. Art was art. No matter who the subject was. And this moment, it was art. He was art, even though he was a irritating creature most of the time. At that moment, he was so full of soul and heart!

"Freckles..." he said as he came closer to her. She looked up at him and shrugged at him.

"Go on. Let's hear it." She said with a frown. She knew what was coming. He was going to tease her about how she needed his picture for doing the dirty or he was going to mock her about being a stalker. Whatever. She didn't care.

"Show it to me. I want to see." Holden said, instead. Sky didn't expect that. She expected him to taunt, to goad, but not this soft curiosity. It was as if he somehow understood how she felt at this exact moment. It was as if he could instinctually feel her sadness, too. Could he? No, no he couldn't. How could he? Just because he was not being an ass for just once in his life didn't mean he gave a damn about her. He had already proved it once and it would be stupid to get distracted by him or his stupidly sexy eyes that seemed to be reading her soul.

"No." She said.

"Why are you so stubborn, freckles?" He grunted as he ran his long fingers through his already windswept hair, messing it further.

But it suited him just as well. It fitted with his attitude and his smile.

"Why are you so evil, Holden?" She retorted and he smiled. It was indulgent and soft. He sighed and turned around from her.

"Wait." Sky shouted and he stopped halfway through and looked at her with his brows raised. "Stand right there." She said to him and lifted his camera. "Now, I want you to close your eyes and lift your head, just slightly towards the sky."

"Are you paying me for this, freckles?" He asked.

"Holden, don't open your pie hole. Do as I say." She ordered.

"Yes, ma'am." He saluted and he did just as she asked.

Click. Click. Click.

God. He is so handsome.

"This is perfect. You are-" She stopped halfway when she realized what she had almost blurted out. No way in hell was she going to call him perfect to his face. He wouldn't let her live that one down. Oh, no. "Now, shoo."

"I am not a damn pigeon." He looked offended. Oh, of course, he was. Poor baby! Not.

"No. You are not a pigeon. You are a crow," she said and he grunted something under his breath. "What are you still doing here? I said shoo. Shoo, crow." Sky gave him a smirk.

"I am not your damn-" he started and Sky cut him off.

"Cluck. Cluck. Cluck. I heard it. Now go."

"You are a frustrating specimen, freckles. Sometimes I don't know whether to kill you or -" Holden bit his lower lip and stopped halfway.

Sky's heart felt like she had just run a thousand miles. Her throat went dry as she looked up at his lips.

Sky silently cursed Amber for putting those ridiculous thoughts in her head.

"Or?" Sky stared at him with a frown.

He didn't answer. But his eyes- God, his eyes... they spoke a million things she was so afraid to hear!

___