Distracted By You: Book 1 in The Exeter Running Girls Series, стр. 29
“Closeted.”
“Exactly!” He looked back at me, jumping on the word. “I’m also not a salesman.”
“That’s why you’re doing engineering?”
“I prefer figuring out how stuff works to putting on a performance for some poor customer.”
I squeezed his hand again, not knowing what to say. He raised our joined hands and passed them over my head until they rested on my other shoulder – he pulled me into his side, just holding me there.
My usual excitement at being near him had morphed into something much warmer as he held me close. I was scared to breathe; nervous he’d pull away.
We sat there for many minutes in silence, just feeling close to each other. I could hear his heartbeat from my head against his shoulder. Slowly his fingers loosened from my hand and he began to run them through my hair. I didn’t analyse it. I didn’t want to. This was probably just part of the distraction he needed me for.
After all, he only saw me as a friend. That thought sent my stomach into a dark pit.
“Tye, I’m so sorry.” I whispered softly. There was nothing I could say to make it better. Only his dad could fix this.
“Thank you,” he pulled me tighter to his side, burying his fingers in my hair as I rested on his shoulder. “But I don’t want you to feel sorry for me.”
“What do you want?” I tilted my head up to his, enjoying the feeling of his fingers in my hair and trying desperately to expel that dark pit.
“Distraction. Escape.” His eyes settled on mine. More than anything did I want to kiss him – distract him in a new way, but that’s not what he needed me for. He needed a friend right now and the temptation of him was only pulling me closer. A beat longer and I would kiss him, I’d ruin our friendship by asking for something he couldn’t give.
“Well, we’re in a good place for it!” I suddenly jumped away from him, up off the bench. He looked startled on the seat, his arm still up and bereft, wondering where I’d gone. I pulled on the arm, moving along quickly and trying not to draw any attention to what had just happened. “Up!”
“Where are we going?” He still looked confused.
“To be distracted.”
There was one of those tacky amusement parks just off the promenade. I dragged him through the doorway, even though he complained, and wasted no time in exchanging a pound coin for a bunch of two penny pieces.
“I haven’t been in a place like this for years,” Tye laughed as he looked around at the spotted manky carpet and aging machines. “God it looks old. It reminds me of beach holidays in England when I was four.”
“That is its charm,” I handed him the money in a plastic cup. “Old, falling down, nostalgia from a time past. Your challenge is to lose all this change on the coin machines.”
“My kind of challenge.”
A few hours later, we had spent all of our coppers on the coin slots. Tye got change for another pound which we then spent on the air hockey table. He was quite annoyed I managed to beat him in most of the air hockey games, it seemed we were nearly as equally matched as in pool. This time I was not so gracious in defeat and happily paraded my win in front of him. After a walk on the beach where I made a show of attempting to push him in the sea, and he retaliated by very nearly pushing me in, saving me at the last second with a grab to my wrist, we retreated back to our bench on the promenade with fish and chips.
“Thanks,” Tye said as we tried to throw our various bundles of balled up newspaper into the bin without standing up.
“For what?”
“For making me smile,” he snatched the paper from my hand.
“Anytime.”
He smiled again and threw the paper at the bin – it landed perfectly.
Chapter 10
Tye agreed to see his dad on Sunday and I was expecting a call from my mum, so we planned to meet up to play pool with Sam, Savannah, and Luke that evening. Sadly, the call with my mum did not leave me in a mood for going out.
“I could still come up for dinner on Friday, sweetheart? It would just be nice to get away from all the stress this Easter, you know?”
“Of course, mum. It’s fine, honestly.” My churning stomach said it wasn’t fine, but in my head it really was. My mum’s best friend had offered to take her away on holiday to Lanzarote for the Easter break, meaning I couldn’t go home and spend it with my mother.
“How about dinner on Friday, then?”
“I’d like that,” my hand was trembling as I drew a new ladybird onto my knuckles. Of course I understood how good this was for my mum. She needed to escape like Tye needed it the day before. It didn’t make the idea of not spending Easter with her any easier.
“Good. You could away go to your dad’s for Easter weekend?” She was clearly trying to stay upbeat, but her voice down the phone cracked with strain, betraying the fact her heart wasn’t really in this charitable gesture for my dad.
“No, I’m not sure I want that.”
More like, hell no! As if I would want to watch my dad and his new girlfriend play at being a happy family. I’d much rather spend Easter alone in halls.
The ladybug was doing a little jig – I drew little musical notes around him to add