Novel Square
23
Chapter Twenty-three
Mac’s pov
The image of Elena jumping against me flashed across my mind, and it didn’t leave.
Having her small frame pressed against me in the second had my mind running and setting my heart to beat at a thousand miles per second.
I hadn’t seen her genuinely smile since I had met her and having her do that just because of a simple game sent sparks through me.
And in that moment, I felt sparks vibrate through me. I was the kind of guy to have everything calculated and planned but there were these strange emotions within me that were completely foreign.
Then I made the most stupid move by kissing the tip of her ears. I didn’t even know what had compelled me to do that but I just found myself doing it and watching Elena blush like crazy made me smile too.
There was something about that bright smile she wore, those innocent but fierce eyes that watched me with a wave of silent underlying anger.
A sudden wave of something I didn’t even recognize flushed through me and I found myself wanting to keep that smile and those bright green eyes on me.
I had seen that she eyed the panda in the glass and I knew she wanted it even though she claimed that she didn’t.
She was like an open book, every emotion that flashed across her face could be ready and understood by me.
I loved how she didn’t mask her emotions or how she was genuine in everything she did.
She was so different from the other girls I had taken with me to the park. While they mostly fawned over taking pictures and looking pretty.
Elena was moved by everything she saw, from the games she claimed she didn’t like to the cotton candy we had gone to get as we waited in line for our turn. Her eyes watched in awe as the seller made the cotton candy in different colors and shapes.
“What color do you want and shape?” She turned to me with wide green eyes and my heart skipped a beat at the joy in those eyes, making them appear like yellow glows in them.
“Uhm..” I found myself lost in words and I coughed awkwardly trying to remember what she had asked me.
“I think I’ll go with a rose. A red and white rose,” She said. And I nodded absentmindedly as I noticed a guy at our right glancing at Elena.
I watched him as he tapped his friend and pointed at Elena who was clinging to the panda excitedly as she explained to me how she wanted her cotton candy.
I didn’t know what came over me and the sudden wave of jealousy that coursed through me as the guy checked her out biting his lower lips as though thinking of ways to get her. It angered me that he didn’t realize I was standing with her.
I narrowed my eyes at him when he started to head over to us and unconsciously, I placed my hand on Elena’s waist and pulled her close to me protectively.
Elena, who hadn’t noticed what was going on or that I had placed my hand on her waist, chatted excitedly at the fact that she wanted two cotton candies, one rosy one and another one like a sunflower.
I saw the guy stop in his tracks and he finally looked up at me, his eyes widened, probably recognizing me from the high school football game as he looked like a high school student too.
He glanced at Elena nervously as if thinking of still approaching her and then turned to me, I glared silently at him and he coughed, bowing a little and walking off with his friend who had his eyes widened at me as he pulled his friend away.
“So what would you pick?” She snapped me off my thoughts and I turned to her confused. I blinked rapidly as I tried to remember what she was talking about before those guys distracted me.
“You weren’t listening!” She exclaimed, slapping my shoulder and pulling herself away from me as she walked forward, filling the gap in the line.
I suddenly missed her talking to me and having my hand around her waist.
Shut the fuck up, stupid mind! I yelled internally before shaking my head at Elena who faced forward.This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.
“I was listening,” I argued back and she scoffed, turning to me.
“So what was I talking about?” She asked and ran my fingers through my hair that wasn’t any longer wet from the quick shower I had taken immediately after practice.
I had left school immediately after the coach dismissed us and I sped home, bathing and rushing down to Elena’s house.
I had sneaked into the teacher’s lounge where every student file was kept and I found Elena and got her number as well as her address.
“Gosh!” She exclaimed, facing forward once more.
Shit! I was zoning in on her conversations!
I snapped back to reality quickly. “Uhm, you were talking about picking a color and shape for the cotton candy,” I said silently praying that was what she had been talking about before I had been distracted by the guy who was checking her out.
“Seriously? I said that five minutes ago.” She said and I facepalmed myself.
This was hard, I didn’t have to listen to girls’ conversations before. When Tisha and I had been together, she barely asked me my opinion on anything and all she talked about was shopping and girls gossip. Who was dating who, who was crushing on who, and who had the most social media followers?
I zoned most of her talks and nodded only when she threw a question at me out of nowhere and when I had answered the opposite of what she wanted she told me to promise to have it quickie when she wanted.
Now that was the conversation I liked to hear and I never zoned out on talks about sex.
I realised how different Elena and Tisha were and I knew I never wanted to zone out on Elena. And even though she talked about history all night, I’ll listen.
“Oh, Sorry,” I muttered and Elena sighed.
“Whatever. Ugh, when would it be our turn?” She grumbled as she threw her head back tiredly.
I looked at the long line and knew it would take another ten minutes or more before it got to us. I grabbed her and headed to the front of the line.
“What are you doing? We can’t do that?” Elena exclaimed, looking at the others nervously.
I ignored her and found a really cute girl just two people away from the seller and I winked at her. The girl stepped back, smiling at me as I pushed Elena and me into the line.
“I can do whatever I want,” I said and she scoffed at me, but those green eyes were happy. And that was all that mattered.