Page 15 of Only ever you-Ana & Byron
"You're warm," he mumbled, pulling the sleeping bag over their heads.
She was. He was warmer, all heat, solid muscle and tension. She lay stiffly, trying to ignore the way her skin seemed to hum with static where his arm pressed lightly against hers.
Then he went still.
"Would you date me, Ana?"
She turned her head slightly, breath catching. "What?"
His voice was quiet now, none of his usual bravado. "You're killin' me. You know I want you."
The tension hung between them like fog. Her heart beat like it was looking for a way out of her chest. And she knew, knew he meant it. This was not a joke or one of those throwaway lines over the years.
"Is this one of those situations where I am supposed to magically know this because you pull my hair and have recently been an awful grump to me?" grumbled Ana while snuggled close.
Wow, he was like a furnace.
"Ana..."
"Does this usually work on other girls? I thought you were shagging Cathy Liston."
"Ana..."
"No, how am I supposed to know you like me when you have been awful to me?"
"I am not shagging Cathy. I always wanted you. It's just...you are a bit scary, ya know. Had to work my courage up. Just be honest. Do ya like me? Yes, or na?"
He was being serious...
Ana whispered, "Yes"
And Byron, for once, didn't say anything clever.
Just smiled in the dark and hugged her close.
Chapter seven
Chapter 7
They made a pact not to tell anyone until they were both ready. They were both busy with university applications and Rugby matches.
Their friends thought they were just still the same, bickering, tutoring, eye-rolling and heckling at matches. But behind it all, Byron and Ana had been quietly drifting into their own little bubble, fiercely theirs.
They studied in the evenings, sometimes with books, sometimes not. They kissed until she forgot what she was annoyed about. She got used to the sensation of him sticking his tongue in her mouth. He stole chips off her plate. She kicked him under the table, grinning.
In public, they kept to their script. But in the quiet between, they were something different.
Cathy Liston had started watching her. There was a hard glint in her eyes.
***
One afternoon, as Ana was walking out of double-period Psychology, Cathy shoulder-checked her hard enough to jostle her books. It looked casual to anyone else-an 'oops ...it was an accident. Sorry'. But Ana caught that glance again, the curled smile, the little huff of smugness as Cathy walked off with her herd of lip-glossed girls. As if she knew a delicious secret and she wasn't about to tell.
She didn't say anything to Byron though. All this was beneath Ana. Let Cathy do what she likes.
That evening, he was already in her kitchen when she got home, arms crossed, eyeing the fridge like it had personally offended him.
"There is nothing in there", he said, without looking. "Got crisps?"
