Shine Bright Shirley

Chapter 21

Grace's POV:

"I've said it before and I'm going to say it again, I'm never drinking again!" Nora sighed as she laid her head down on the table.

"How did your mom react to your hangover?" Alison asked from beside me as she began to eat her lunch.

"Lets just say she wasn't happy." Nora mumbled with her head buried in her arms. "What else happened at the party? I honestly can't remember much apart from Vivian spilling her drink down Grace and then Matthew taking Grace somewhere." Nora asked lifting her head up from her arms to look over at us.

"Not much else happened and yeah I forgot to ask, where did he take you Grace?" Alison asks while looking over to me, eyes filled with curiosity.

At the mention of his name I find myself automatically looking over towards the table in the middle of the room to see him sitting in his usual seat beside Lucas and Logan along with some other guys on the football team, although I notice something different about the table today. Vivian and her minions are missing.

"Grace?" Alison's voice breaks me out of my trance.

"H-he just took me to the waterfall." I reply not wanting them to make a big deal out of it. "Nothing happened."

"The fact that you say nothing happened means something happened." Alison says while smirking at me. 

I sigh knowing theres no point hiding it. "We almost kissed." I say really quickly.

"Please say that a little slower." Alison said making me roll my eyes playfully at her.

"We almost kissed." I say while looking down at my hands.

Theres a moments silence and I don't need to look up to know that there is massive grins on Alison and Nora's faces.

"It's about god damn time." Nora says sending me a wink when I look towards her.

"What do you mean?" I ask her completely confused.

"Oh come on its so clear you guys like each other." Nora says, the grin on her face not leaving once.

"Wait you said almost kiss, so you guys didn't actually kiss?" Alison asks me before I get a chance to reply to Nora.

"No, as he was leaning in to kiss me I just freaked out and backed away." I sighed.

"But why? You like him don't you?" Nora asked gently with a small frown on her face.

"I do." I say while running my hands through my hair stressfully. "I-I just thought that I couldn't do that to the twins, he's their best friend." I say quietly.

"Hey if you like him don't let anyone stand in the way of that." Nora said while reaching over the table to give my arm a gentle squeeze.

Nora made it sound so simple, but that is easier said than done. I fell so guilty that I still haven't told Nora and Alison about me being a foster kid so it's understandable that they don't know the full reason why I rejected the kiss, hopefully I'll find a good time to tell them soon since it's not really something to bring up mid conversation.

"Are you staying after school for the football practice today?" Alison asks me.

"Yeh, I'm going to have to go to the photography room first though to download the pictures I took of the game at the weekend onto the computer to make space on the camera to start taking more." I reply earning a small smirk from Nora.