Welcome to New Haven (35 page)

“What’s going on?” asked Dev during A.Bio. “You’re acting strange.
 
Kind of like when you first started.”
 

Holly blew out a nervous breath.
 

“It’s worse.” She said as she swallowed the lump in her throat.
 

“How so?”
 

“Remember the other day?” asked Holly.
 

“It’s burned into my mind.” Said Dev with a grimace.
 

“Well, remember when I was pulled up by Alex?” She whispered so quietly she practically mouthed the words.
 

“Of course. What about it?”

Holly took a deep breath.
 

“A half-naked Alex.” She said, blushing like mad.
 
Dev had to stop herself from laughing.
 

“Not funny Dev!” Holly almost growled.
 

“I was wrapped around his naked torso.
 
I can’t look at him without seeing him, or feeling him like that.”
 

Holly felt embarrassed that sexy thoughts of her friends’ brother were making her crazy, and said friend was the only one she could tell!
 
Dev had her hand over her mouth, stifling her giggle as Holly glared at her.
 

“I don’t think I can face him yet.” She said. “Not without losing my mind and probably drooling all over the place.”
 

“That’s my brother! Ew!” Said Dev, still laughing.
 

Holly knew she didn’t mean it because she’d encouraged Holly to talk about it before.
 

“I’m sorry.
 
I don’t know what to do.
 
You’re the only one I can talk to now.”
 
Holly said, her voice pained.
 

“You can talk to Riss and Kayla too.” Dev said with a glint in her eye.
 
“They’re not blind Hol.
 
They can see you have feelings for him.”

Holly groaned at the thought of everybody knowing.
 

Obviously she wasn’t as good an actress as she’d thought.
 
Dev looked as though she wanted to say something else, but stopped herself.
 

“Oh God!” Holly said as she rubbed her forehead.
 
It was a good job the teacher had the class discussing their subject between them; otherwise they would have been busted.
 

Holly saw Dev was about to look behind her.
 

“Don’t look!” Holly said quickly.
 
“He’ll know we’re talking about him!”
   

“Wow, you really are a wreck, aren’t you?” Dev asked as she shook her head.

“Dev, you have no idea.”

When the lesson was over, Holly and Dev made a quick exit.
 

“See you later. If not, I’ll text.” She said as she put her things into her locker.
 

“Ok Honey, I’ve got you covered.” Dev said with a wink.
 

“Oh, give this to Alex.” Holly took the clean T-shirt from her locker.
   

“Um…Ok.”

Alex caught up with Dev, just as Holly disappeared around the corner.
 

“What the hell’s going on?” He asked, confused. “Why Were you both running out of class?”
 

“No, we were just leaving…quickly.” Dev replied.
 

“Yea, like there was a fire!” He said in annoyance.

Alex had felt that he was finally getting somewhere with Holly.
 
She had let her guard down, and some of her nervousness had seemed to ease up, until Ryan stupidly threw her in the pool.
 
But, even then, she’d spoken to him even as she’d had her legs wrapped around him.

Her legs...
 

Alex shook his head to clear it.
 
It wasn’t the time to go off into dreamland.
 

“Holly’s a little…embarrassed…about Saturday.” Dev replied.

Alex could tell that Dev was hiding something.
 

“She shouldn’t be. At all. It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”
 

“Mmph!” Dev made an angry sound as she shook her knees.
 

“What’s the matter? You look like you’re having a tantrum.” Alex said with a light scowl but also a smirk.
 

Dev having a tantrum was funny to watch but he was still confused as to why Holly was embarrassed about her phobia.

Dev blew out an exasperated breath.
 

“I can’t say too much but…the freaking out part isn’t what she’s embarrassed about.” Dev had said it quietly incase anybody could overhear.
 

“Then
What
?” He was still confused.

If it isn’t her phobia, then what is it?
 

“Hey, Dev, where’d Holly go?” Riss asked as she walked to them with Kayla and Ben.
 

“Dude, why’d you take off?” Ben asked.
 

“Holly has a free period after lunch, so she went home.
 
I think she’s still a little embarrassed from Saturday.” Dev said to Riss.
 

“I wanted to catch up to Dev to see why Holly took off.” Alex said to Ben.
 

“What took so long?” Kyle asked, as the all met up with him and Ryan at the table.
 

“Holly took off.” Said Kayla.
 

“Why?” asked Ryan.
 

“She’s embarrassed.” Said Dev. “Just give her today, at least. I’m sure she’ll be fine tomorrow.”
 

“Oh, Ok.” Said Kyle as he nodded whilst tucking into his lunch.
 

Ryan looked a little sad that he’d caused it.
 

“Don’t worry Ry.
 
It’s not as bad as you think.” Said Dev, rubbing his arm.
 

“How?” He asked. With a shrug of his shoulders.

Dev chewed her lip as she was thinking. Alex knew that look.
 
She was definitely hiding something.
 

“Mmm… It’s not so much as to what you did…” She said carefully “…But I’ve been trusted, by Holly, to let you guys know she’s absolutely fine and not to worry.”

They carried on with their lunch when Alex met Ben’s eyes.
 
He knew questions were to follow, and he would probably corner him in the gym. It was their free period too, and Alex was grateful to be working off some of his frustrations.

“Ok, what’s up with you?” Ben asked as soon as they got to the quiet corner of the gym.
 

Alex shook his head but then blew out a breath.
 

“Holly left before I could talk to her and Dev said that Holly was avoiding me because she was embarrassed but not because she freaked out…” He ranted, waving his hands for emphasis. “…And also, she gave my shirt to Dev, to give to me.” He quietened a little as he said this because he knew he sounded like a child with a tantrum.
 

Like Dev had earlier.

Dev had given him the shirt after lunch and he’d secretly smelled it before putting it into his bag.
 
It smelled like detergent and not like Holly at all.
Well, a little but not the coconut and sweet scent that she smelled like.
 

“Okaaayyy.” Said Ben, his eyes widened at Alex’s outburst. “Think.
 
If it’s not because of her freak out, then why would she be embarrassed?”
 

“I don’t know!” Said Alex, frustrated.
 

Ben chewed on his fingernail as he thought.
 

“Oh. My. God.” He said as if realizing something.
 

“What?” asked Alex with avid interest.
 

“I totally get it.”

“And…?” Alex was getting impatient with Ben.
 

“Remember how I said how she looks at you?”
 
said Ben with a huge grin?
 

“Yeah?”
 

“Well, she did the same thing on Saturday and…” Ben lowered his voice.
 
“…You…with less clothing…”
 

“So?” asked Alex.
 
Seriously, he didn’t get it.
 
Why did Ben have to be so cryptic when he just wanted a simple explanation?
 

“If she looks at you like that and
then
she has her arms and legs wrapped around you…” Ben said, dragging out his sentence as if Alex would catch on.
 

“She’s embarrassed because I had no shirt on?”

“Dude?!” Ben said in a ‘
what the fuck?’
 
kind of way.
 
“You are seriously
the
dumbest smart person I know.”
 
Ben said before he carried on. “You got her all hot! I bet
that’s
why she’s avoiding you.
 
Probably picturing you in your swim shorts coming to her rescue.” He said, batting his eyes and clasping his hands together against his chest.
 

Alex’s eyes widened in surprise.
 

“You really think so?”
 

“Alex, man, you are so clueless.
 
You’re like one of
the
most chased down guys at this school, and yet you don’t see how you affect this
one
girl?”
 
Ben shook his head in disbelief.
 

“Well she doesn’t act like the other girls.
 
I can tell then, but Holly’s different.
 
I don’t know what she thinks of me.”

“That’s a good thing. You don’t want a girl that gropes you and drapes over you in public.”
 

“Mmhmm.” Said Alex, in thought.

Holly could do that in private, or anywhere, whenever…
 

“Dude? Again?” asked Ben with a smirk and a cocked eyebrow.
 

“What?”
 

“Holly haze.
 
That’s what I’ll call it. Holly haze.” Said Ben.
 

“Shut up” Alex pouted.
 

“No man.
 
That’s some serious Holly haze you have going on.”
 
Ben laughed and they carried in their playful banter until Alex decided to throw something Ben’s way.
 

“Oh and don’t think I didn’t notice the thing between you and my sister yesterday.”
 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Said Ben, his face straightening.
 

“Yeah, whatever.” Said Alex.
 
“Now, I understand why it’s easier seeing what’s going on from the outside.”
 

“She’s your sister, Alex, and my friend too…sometimes.”
 
Ben said as his eyebrows pinched together.
 

“Uh huh.” Alex replied.
 
Ben just grunted as they started their training.

Alex went to his room, when he got home, to carry on with his picture that he’d been working on.
 
Just a few details to perfect and then it’d be finished.
 

He started thinking about when they were sitting at the pool, where he’d choked listening to Holly sing in Spanish, he’d almost straight out told her that he liked her.
 

‘
You could give a guy a heart attack’
he’d said about the words she’d sung.
 

‘Kiss your mouth’.

Alex had been thinking of doing exactly that when Holly had said it, completely catching him off guard. Then smiled to himself thinking about the conversation with Ben.

Is it true that I make Holly hot?
 

Alex grinned at his thoughts.

I’m going to test that theory out real soon.

 
Alex had never been a flirtatious person, but he knew how girls came on to him. Slight brush of the arm, bat of the eyes, flicking their hair back. Ok, so he could do the first but the others… well that would be weird.

Fuck it.
 
I’m getting so much closer to her this week.
 
I’ll
definitely
know how she feels.

If he could somehow get her alone that would be better.
 
He just had to figure out how without her realizing what he was doing.
 
Alex felt guilty because he didn’t like that being done to him.
 

But, if she likes me, wouldn’t she be ok? If she wanted to get me alone, I would
soooo
be ok with it. But, isn’t that what the girls at school had thought when trying to get me alone?

Stacey didn’t care that he didn’t like her, she would try anyway, but the other girls had asked him to talk in private and he hadn’t wanted to go anywhere with them, seeing the look in their eyes had made him feel uncomfortable.

He decided against that tactic.
 
He didn’t want Holly to feel uncomfortable and cornered. He knew she was still nervous, more so now, according to Ben.

I’ll have to be careful.

Alex closed his drawing pad when there was a knock on his door.
 

“Hey Dev” He said as he opened the door.
 

“Hey Alex.
 
Whatya doooooin?” She asked playfully as she walked in and sat on his bed.
 

“Just drawing” He said.
 
“Oh Dev?”
 

“Yeah?” She said with a bright smile.
 

“Did Holly mention to you why, exactly, she was embarrassed? Or can’t you say?” He knew a ‘girl code’ of some sort was sworn between them.
 
Dev had even told him she couldn’t say anything.
 

“Uh…yeah” Dev said as she looked uncomfortable, the bright smile gone. “Look…” she began to say when Alex cut her off.
 

“Did it have anything to do with my lack of shirt and her legs wrapped around me?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

Dev gasped.

“What…? Who…?”