Once Upon A Dragon Wish: Chapter 10

It had been two days since I’d last seen Blake, and I worried about him. I worried that my rejection had something to do with him backing off.

He still kept me busy in my dreams. I shouldn’t think too much about the reason he didn’t follow me. It might hurt now, but imagining how much it would hurt two months down the line made it hard to breathe.

Blake was a vision. I doubted that any other man coming into my future would make me forget about him.

It was for the best.

Yesterday’s shit-face humiliation made me want to stay at home, but my father did not know what had happened, and I wouldn’t tell him either. The red paint from the other day was hard enough to explain.

It terrified me he would leave, and I wasn’t ready yet to say goodbye to Blake. Even if I verbally had.

I got up and pulled on my jeans, a long sleeve shirt and my coat with my black fur boots to keep the extra cold out. I packed in an extra set of clothes if Chloë was going to prank me again.

Thirty minutes later, my father parked in the parking lot.

“Pick you up right after school.”

I smiled and nodded as I grabbed my giant tote bag and backpack, heading for the entrance.

Today was the worst of all the days. Every one had either a teddy bear draping over their arms or a box of chocolates and flowers in their hands.

There were more groups of boys serenading to girls. I wondered where the original group was. Maybe the day on Valentines was their day off.

My lips quirked upward. It would be stupid.

I reached my locker. There was nothing against it, no note, no string that led to a bucket of rocks hovering above me, either. I took a deep breath and opened it as I just wanted to crawl into a corner and bawl my eyes out at this horrible yucky ache lining my stomach.

“Oh, he told me he was actually busy forming the Prada of all pranks. That guy is pure evil.” Chloë’s voice came from a few lockers close to mine.

“He told you that?” another girl asked as the sound of a locker opening reached my ears.

“He’d been texting me until two o’clock this morning. I literally had to switch off my phone, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to function today. That’s why I look like a wilted flower.”

“Oh, stop it, you don’t. You know you are by far the most beautiful girl in this school.”

Chloë giggled. Was she speaking about Blake?

“I can’t wait to see what he is going to plan today. Hopefully, it will sink in.”

My stomach dropped.

“Oh, you are so lucky, Chloë. Blake is one of the hottest guys I’ve ever met.”

Everything in me splattered, and I felt like the biggest idiot on this earth. Tears pricked behind my eyes and I tapped away the tears as Chloë said, “Hey, back off, sugar cube.”

They both laugh.

“So that is the reason he is acting all gaga over her.”

My heart pounded.

“Prada,” she yelled and giggled. “You really think a guy like Blake is going to go for a geek. Please, she doesn’t even know how to dress properly.”

I closed my locker.

“Oh, shit, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Chloë said, and they both snorted, walking away.

I closed my eyes. I should’ve known.

“Hey, don’t for a second believe what comes out of that witch’s mouth.” A tall girl with dark brown hair and tanned complexion leaned against the locker next to mine.

“Excuse me?”

“Blake is crazy about you. From what I hear, he actually blocked her number,” she said. “I wish I knew what your secret is. I overheard them in the bathroom this morning, the shit they were going to pull off. It’s not the truth.” She smiled and walked away.

The warmth returned to my core, but it mixed with the yucky feeling again.

Where the hell was he?

The first period was English, and I tried to pay attention, forcing Blake and everything he’d told me a few days ago to the back of my mind. It was hard to get what Chloë and her friend said out of my mind, too.

The class got interrupted by three boys serenading to a girl. It was the only day of the year that the teachers allowed the interruptions. I was ready to kill myself with Duncan’s paper shooter.

When the bell rang, I looked for Blake, but he wasn’t in the hallways. I wondered if he was ever going to come back to school. Guys like him didn’t get rejected. It was usually the other way around.

I drifted to the second class, which was economics. A few girls in this class spoke about the angelic voice coming from the band room this morning. The song was so beautiful, and they couldn’t wait to see who serenaded it. They all melted at the way his voice made them feel.

When the bell rang, I looked for Blake again, but no luck. It carried on like that till lunch. Blake avoided me.

He actually pissed me off, taking my words so literally, but I knew if he didn’t, it would’ve broken me when the time came to leave again. I didn’t need to be more pissed at my father than I already was.

I still endured the occasional shit-face comment as we transferred from class to class. The tears were close by. I had prayed so hard not to have Chasmore High over again, and something told me it was going to be worse this time.

I walked into the cafeteria, hoping that I would see Blake, and my eye caught Chloë staring at me and then bursting into laughter at something her friend said.

I couldn’t believe that she made up what she said this morning. She was pathetic. Thank heaven for the girl that overheard them.

More shit-face comments came from her table and I ignored it as most of the girls laughed. The jocks looked at each other and chuckled. I really wished that Blake was here, but I would’ve seen him already if he was at school today. He was not the type you just glanced over.

I walked to my regular table at the back and sat down, taking out my lunch and my book and reading while I ate.

I could feel eyes on me, but I didn’t dare to look up from my book.

The chair scraped next to me and one jock, who was dating one of Chloë’s friends and hung around Blake, plopped down in the chair.

My heart stammered and my eyes flickered to Chloë’s table. She had a huge smile sprawled on her lips.

Oh, fuck. What the hell did they want?

He smiled at me as I looked at him.

The chair on my other side screeched, and another big guy with short black cropped hair plopped into that chair. They were boxing me in.

What the hell is going on?

Chloë’s comment from this morning jumped into my thoughts. What if that girl were wrong? What if they were texting each other? Why would a guy like Blake even be interested in me? It was so much easier to believe Chloë than the girl who told me it was a lie.

“Hey, Elena.” The tanned guy with dark cropped hair said. He was really handsome, but not in Blake’s category handsome.

He knew my name too, and my heart pounded faster.

“Hey.” My eyebrow raised at the blond that grinned. “Why are you sitting here?” I tried hard not to let my voice give my fear away. I glanced at his hands. He had nothing in them.

“It’s a free country, the last time I checked.”

“Yeah, but why here, at this specific table with me?” I made it clearer. I basically just wanted to know what he wanted so that they could leave because they made me uncomfortable.

He shrugged as he stared at me with hooded eyes.

My eyes skidded over to a jock that stood up from the cheerleader’s table. “One, two, three.”

All the jocks sitting at different tables stood up, including the two sitting at mine.

What the hell is this?

They tapped a rhythmic beat on tables.

I only saw the speakers inside the cafeteria when a guitar sound echoed through the cafeteria. An angelic voice sang one of Dad’s favorite bands, Be with You from Mr. Big. They changed the words slightly.

The jocks clapped to the rhythm, dancing slowly in steps on one spot. Everyone that owned a phone held it up to record whatever was busy happening.

I froze as Blake walked into the cafeteria with the guitar in his hand and four guys that had been serenading to girls the entire week behind him.

He looked straight at me as he sang the words of this song.

Oh, crap!

My heart pounded as heat rolled off me in waves.

He’s not doing this.

The four choir boys sang and Blake took the lead singer’s lines, singing his heart out. It gave me goosebumps, and I sucked in my lips not to show him how I really felt inside.

He replaced the little boys with little girls that talked too much.

I flinched, only imagining how much that one hurt.

My stomach saumersaulted. Why me?

I swallowed hard, trying to push the tears away. Dad was going to skin him alive if he found out about this.

Blake made singing look effortless.

Everyone’s eyes flickered between Blake singing and me staring at him.

They all probably wondered why the hell was this guy throwing everything he owned and why was I being so difficult.

My arms and legs trembled as the song carried on.

He didn’t come close to the table and stood in the middle of the cafeteria, strumming the guitar beautifully, while one of the choir boys shook a tambourine, and the jocks clapped the steady beat to this song at tables around the cafeteria.

My flaring cheeks and dose of goosebumps made me remember the other day when he mentioned he was in a band. I thought little about it, but this was a record signing level. A few guys knocked on tables the same time Blake knocked on his guitar.

His voice cut into my soul and melted my heart. It was as if I heard it before, like someone wrote it in my heart. He was seriously great at strumming the guitar.

The blond next to me touched my arm slightly, pulling me up.

What was he doing?

He led me toward Blake, and my heart felt as if it was going to bounce right out of my chest as he took me closer to him.

I stopped right in front of him and just looked at him, trying not to look impressed, but I was. My arms folded around my chest.

His lips curved into a smile as he sang, and the jocks moved into a circle around us, still clapping to the beat.

The entire cafeteria was clapping now. It gave me goosebumps.

My lips curved into a smile, probably showing my dimples, and I hated that my body failed me so badly, especially in this situation.

Blake’s voice carried that strain, and another dose of goosebumps sprawled over my skin. I’d never been this humiliated in such a beautiful way.

The song finally ended, and my heart pounded behind my ribs.

Everyone cheered as Blake just smiled at me, and I raised my eyebrows at him.

I took a steady breath. “You are crazy, you know that?”

“Crazy about you, come on? We’ll deal in two months when it comes,” he said, using a softer tone.

“Blake Leaf!” the drama club teacher said.

“Oh, shit!” Blake rushed out of the cafeteria with his guitar. Everyone hollered their laughter. I grinned like an idiot, remembering what he said about joining this year’s school play.

“Where did he go?” the teacher asked, as she just missed him disappearing through a throng of people.

She looked at me. “It was the new student, right?”

“I don’t know, Ms. Taylor,” I said and walked back to my table, but not before I saw the murderous glare Chloë threw my way.

I smiled. I couldn’t help it.

The bell rang as I grabbed my half eaten lunch and pushed it in my bag. I was on cloud nine. A part of me wished he grabbed my arm and ran away with him, as I hadn’t given him my answer yet.

I knew ignoring him would not be possible anymore. It was already impossible before that song, but now it was a fact.

I prayed he would stay true to dealing with this in two months from now.

I couldn’t get recess and that song out of my head.

One girl that spoke earlier about the angelic voice they heard this morning coming from the band room was Blake rehearsing the song with the four backup boys.

For the love of blueberries, I was head over ass in love with Blake. No one has ever done anything like that for me.

In class, the lecturer still babbled about the importance the Greeks played in our English Language today. Three of the girls sitting nearby stared at me with curves at the end of their lips. A few guys kept looking back in my direction, too. It was not because of yesterday’s shit-face comment from Chloë anymore. They all knew now that I held the affection of the hottest and smoothest guy at Falmouth High.

I couldn’t stop grinning. My palms were still sweating every time I thought about Blake’s voice, that song, and how damn hot he was. Why the hell me? He could have anyone.

The corner of my eye caught a figure downstairs on the school grounds. We were two stories up, and I looked out the window next to me. My pulse immediately elevated when I saw Blake.

This guy was going to get caught the way he drew attention to himself, waving his arms and jumping up and down.

I glanced out the window again, and he pointed at the front entrance of the school.

Crap.

I wanted to go. I never was a rebel, but I would become one for him. He deserved it this one time.

I lifted my hand, and the teacher looked at me. “Yes, Elena.”

“May I be excused to go to the bathroom?”

“Yes, go.”

The teacher gave me a raised eyebrow look when he saw my bag.

“Sorry, that time of the month,” I whispered as I reached Mr. Foster and he closed his eyes and shook his head, nodding to go.

I ran and went down the stairs, the soles of my shoes squeaked on the linoleum floor each step I took.

My dad was going to kill me if he discovered any of this, especially skipping class because of a guy, but right at this moment, the only thing that was going crazy was the butterflies in my stomach.

The door swung open from the outside and I thought my heart stopped, but then Blake peeked from behind the door and I could breathe again.

He didn’t say a word, closed the door and we walked fast to the forest again.

When we were out of sight. “Seriously, humiliate me more, won’t you?”

He chuckled.

“Where were you yesterday?”

“Why, you missed me?”

“Haha.” I sounded sarcastic again as we reached the same boulder and spot of the other day and the strap from my bag slid down my shoulder, plopping on the ground.

“So what reason did you give the teacher?” He sat down on the same boulder by the base of the giant tree.

“The oldest one in the book with the female race.”

Blake threw back his head and laughed.

“So embarrassing, to be honest. I’m going to get detention when he realizes I had skipped class.”

“No, you won’t. A lot of students skip class, Elena. Are you always so worried about what other people think?”

“No, yes,” I said.

“That shit weighs like a ton.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not you that gets the sadistic side of your stalker, Blake. You didn’t see the glares she gave me when you ran out like that. I fear what awaits me tomorrow.”

“Chloë is a drama queen. She won’t. You have my word. Sandy told me what she did this morning.”

“Sandy?”

“The volleyball captain of the girl’s team.”

The angel. I smiled. “Yeah, tell her I say thanks.”

He squinted. “Don’t tell me you believed it?”

“A small part did.”

“Why?”

“I will not repeat it. I sound like an idiot when I do?”

He laughed.

“You didn’t answer my question. Where were you yesterday?”

“I needed a day off.”

“And your dad just gave it to you?”

“Yeah. He’d been my age once, he knows the pressure we have, especially with our hearts.” He lifted his bum and took out his packet of cigarettes again, lighting one.

My fingers brushed through my hair. “I told you the truth. I tried to make it easier not just on you, but me too, because my father will move on. He will not stay here.”

“You said that already.” He took a drag from his cigarette, and the sleeve of his jacket lifted over his wrist, showcasing one of his bracelets.

I froze as I saw my leather bracelet among them. I jumped off the boulder and crouched down next to him. He stiffened slightly as I grabbed his hand, took the cigarette, and threw it in the woods to inspect his wrists.

I waved away the smoke that escaped his lips.

“You okay?” he asked.

I pushed the other bracelets away, and it was the same bracelet, identical to the one I kept in my tin box. “Where did you get this?”

He looked at his bracelet. “I had it forever.”

“You are not answering my question, where?”

He looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. “Why?”

I chuckled. “You are going to think I’m crazy, but I have the same bracelet, like forever, at home.”

“Bullshit,” he replied.

“I swear, I’m not lying, I’ll show you tomorrow.”

“Where did you get it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. It was something I always had. Where did you get yours?”

“My dad bought it for me when I was little,” Blake rambled.

“Yes, but where?” I grinned. I couldn’t believe we had matching bracelets.

“I don’t know. I’d have to ask him.”

“Yeah, you do that.”

His hand curled around my neck and before I could discover what he was doing, warm, soft lips crushed on mine.