Paintings Of Him

Chapter 13 - Confessions

strangest_mel11 (enjoy and don't forget to spam with comments....may be a little cliffhanger at the end from your fave)

The next day, I had been ignoring all of Jordan's calls. I was terrified that he would be uncomfortable with Corbin staying with me alone and that he would have found out from our parents about me dropping out. Deep down I knew that he loved me no matter what and that he would support my decision, but I worried that he would care too much, constantly checking that I was okay. 

When we were little, I quit football after discovering how terrible I was at it, and despite his passion he dropped out too, worried that I wouldn't be okay without him. It took a lot of convincing to get him to enroll again and to remind him that it was okay for us to have different interests. 

 I didn't want him to do anything drastic to make sure that I am not alone. 

"Hey Clara?" Corbin asked suddenly when I was eating breakfast. 

I looked up with a mouthful of cereal to see him with a troubled look in his eyes, hesitation written across his features. "Yeah?"

"I've been ignoring Rhea's calls and texts" he admits quietly and my head snapped up with a small frown. "She's been messaging me all day wanting to meet up."

"What? Why?" I questioned. 

He looked away. "I-I'm sorry to bother you with all this...I know you are the last person that I should be speaking to about it but I can't talk to Jordan right now because he will ask what I am up to and I'm terrible at lying and-"

I smiled sympathetically. "It's okay. So why have you been ignoring her?"

He sighed, his shoulders moving up and down heavily. "I don't know...I'm just not sure on anything and I don't want to rush into something and then mess it all up. Does that make sense?"

I nodded and he hesitated before looking up at me with a strange look of desperation in his eyes. 

"Clara, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah" I swallowed nervously. 

"W-When did you start having feelings for me?" he choked out awkwardly. 

My head snapped up, my eyes widening. Nerves trickled into my stomach like a strange poison and I suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe, trying to scan his face to work out why he would ask such a question. 

"What...why-Corbin...you can't-" I stumbled over my words. 

"Please" his eyes were pleading, his voice soft. 

I swallowed thickly, my eyes avoiding his as I scanned the room nervously.  I could feel his intense gaze on me so I looked down at the ground, moving a piece of my blonde hair so that he couldn't see my face as clearly. 

"I-I guess it was when I first met you...soon afterwards. You started coming to my lessons and I helped you with homework..." I mumbled quietly as I stared out of the window, the flashbacks coming back to me instantly like it was still the day that it happened. 

As I walked into the classroom to talk to the teacher, I jumped slightly when I saw someone sitting in my chair. His icy blue eyes and cheeky grin were familiar, the dark strands of hair falling into his eyes as he scanned me happily. 

"Hi" he chuckled gently. "Clever Clara...Miss Mongol  says that I need some help with the homework in Chemistry. I thought that there was nobody better as you seemed to like how complicated it is. I'm Corbin...remember?"