Afterglow

frost

before:

Lachlan's amber eyes refused to leave mine, his anger bubbling to the surface as my friends teased him back.  He thought he could get away with bullying us, but he had another thing coming to him if he thought we would simply sit back and take it. 

The chirping crickets died out slowly in the fading sunlight, everything becoming cloaked in jaded dusk, the high trees casting shadows across his gorgeous features- not like I'd ever let him know how I truly felt about how he looked. 

"Lachlan, why don't you go home and lock yourself in your room and put a sock on the doorknob and do whatever it is you do in your alone time? I'm sure that would be much more entertaining than you sitting here bothering us."

His friends all joined in with mine, the laughter stemming from them cooling off the anger that I felt towards the boy in front of me.  

It had only been a few weeks since Holden had been caught with Sloane, and while I was still licking my wounds, Lachlan had decided that he was no longer my friend and took Holden's side, like he didn't know that I was the one who had been cheated on, not the other way around.

"You know, Kat, you sound a whole lot better with your mouth closed." 

I didn't hide the rage that rumbled through me as he called me 'Kat', knowing that I preferred Kate or even Katrina before someone called me Kat.  It made me feel small, childish. Weak. 

Plus, it reminded me of the times that we'd shared as children, running on the playground chasing each other with willful bliss of each other's presence.  We hadn't been the best of friends, but we were certainly close.  

This sudden turn of behavior was something I had never expected, but never was I going to lie down and take it. 

"Oh honey, there's no need for insults here.  Your face is one all on its own."

I gathered my things to leave and didn't miss the irritation across his features, glad that I was able to shake up his insults at least once. 

He left his group and followed after me, alone, and I knew where this was headed. 

"Lachlan, I'm really tired of you today, okay?  We can do this tomorrow."

"No, we can't."

I stopped dead in my tracks and took in how tall he had gotten over the past year.  At fifteen, he was scrawny and shorter, but over the summer after his sixteenth birthday he had sprouted up to at least half a foot taller than me.

The sun's last flicker shone directly into his eyes and god if the way those gorgeous amber brown irises didn't do something to my fluttering chest, but then the memories of his behavior towards me took ahold of my consciousness and I distanced myself from him, taking in his black suit jacket and Bayfield Academy emblemed uniform that clung to his body perfectly.  

It was much easier to stare at something, anything, other than those eyes that would rip the secret of how I secretly used to feel about him right out of me, 'used to' being the key words.  

"What do you want from me, Lachlan?"

His scent invaded my personal space as he edged closer, all consuming and taking over every piece of control that I used to think I had over myself, the pine and mint mixing with his expensive cologne that probably cost more than tuition at Bayfield which his family consequently owned.

His voice dropped low so that I was the only one in the general vicinity that could hear his words, and the deep timbre that exuded from him elicited sharp chills across my exposed arms, the summer evening slipping away to form a cool wash over the school grounds.