Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this story. I am so sorry y'all. I hope this chapter is worth it.
Chapter Eight
Tossing the small ball up in the air, John didn't even pretend to be listening to whatever it was that Bobby was saying. He stared up at the ceiling as he lay on his back, the ball moving in and out of his vision as he threw and caught it.
"Huh?" He said, realizing that Bobby had asked him a question.
"You're not even listening to me, are you?" His friend asked.
"No, not really dude." John shook his head, "What were you saying?"
"Rogue asked me to ask you if you liked Kylie. She seems to think that there's something going on between you two."
"What?" John cried, sitting up and looking at Bobby as if he had grown another head. "Dude, there is nothing happenin' between Kylie and me." He shook his head, "Your girl has got some imagination if she thinks Kylie and I are a thing."
Bobby smirked at him and shook his head.
"I'm starting to think, based on your reaction, that Rogue's not that far off." Bobby chuckled.
"Whatever dude," John scoffed, "you're wrong, you and Rogue both. There's nothing going on." He lay back down and stared up at the ceiling. "And if there were something going on," he said, quickly sitting back up again, "I certainly wouldn't tell you so that you could go and tell your girlfriend. 'Cause then Rogue is just gonna go and blab it all to her friends and then by tomorrow morning everybody will know."
"Everybody will know what?" Bobby asked, "I thought you said there was nothing going on." John glared at his friend's teasing.
"Shut up." He growled, laying back down.
The next morning dawned bright and clear. Kylie stumbled out of bed, brushed her hair, got dressed, and brushed her teeth quickly before heading for the stairs to go down for breakfast. She'd overslept and had probably already missed breakfast, but there was no harm in just checking.
As she made her way towards the stairs, another figure joined her in the hall.
"Hey John," she said, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable around him. What Rogue had said the night before had really gotten under her skin. Kylie knew how she felt about John, and there were no romantic feelings there whatsoever. Right?
"Hey." He replied, seeming almost as uncomfortable as her. They stood there, staring at each other for awhile.
"You know what," Kylie said suddenly, "I forgot I left my bag in my room. I'll catch ya later." She hurried back to her room, completely forgetting the hunger that had begun to gnaw at her stomach. All she wanted was to put space between herself and John.
Entering the room, she leaned against the door. Her heart was pounding and her head was spinning. What was happening to her? She had to be sick, yea, that's what it was. She was coming down with something. Putting a hand to her forehead, Kylie checked her temperature. Nope, no fever.
With a groan she pushed away from the door and grabbed her messenger's bag off her desk chair. She waited a few minutes until she was sure that John had gone downstairs before emerging from the room.
Next time she saw Rogue, the girl was dead meat.
John saw Kylie slip into the classroom just as Storm called for everyone's attention. She was avoiding him, he could sense it. Had Rogue cornered her like Bobbie had him? John sent a pointed look towards Bobbie. The other boy looked at Kyle, then John and simply shrugged. He too could see that Kylie was avoiding Pyro.
It had started out simply that morning. She had rushed back to her room under the excuse of leaving her backpack behind. Then, she had come in late to all her classes. John didn't know what was up with her, but he was determined to find out.
Tearing a piece of paper from his notebook, he scribbled out a quick note and passed it to Jubilee, who passed it to Kitty, then to Kylie. She took the note, read it, and glanced at John. He met her eye steadily. She quickly turned her attention back to Storm, leaving his note unanswered.
Unprovoked anger surged through him. John slouched down in his seat, fuming. What was her problem? He wanted to look back at her, but kept his eyes glued to the front of the room. The lid of his ever present lighter flipped open, then closed as John toyed with it with a trembling hand. The flame flickered larger each time the lid was opened, responding to its master's anger.
Storm dismissed the class. John stood and gathered his books. Making his way towards the door, he saw that Kylie had already run out of the room.
Meet me on the roof tonight. We need to talk.
Kylie re-read the note, her eyes flickering over the chicken scratch that was John's handwriting. She crumpled the note in her hand and threw it into the wastebasket beside her desk. School was over with and she was busy studying for a test in her room.
The white paper glared up at her from its resting place. Kylie sighed, trying to ignore the message on the paper. But no matter how much she tried to ignore it, the words kept traveling in front of her eyes, like the ticker tape that ran along the bottom of the screen during the news. Shaking her head, Kylie tried to focus on studying.
We need to talk.
What did John possibly have to say to her? Rogue had scared Kylie with what she had said the night before. There couldn't be anything other than friendship between Kylie and John. There just couldn't be. Kylie didn't want anything more. At least that's what she kept telling herself.
Gradually the sun slipped below the horizon and the moon and stars took over the jet black sky. Kylie looked out her window. John would probably be on the roof by now. Should she go up and meet him, set him straight about not being anything more than friends? She was so confused. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore.
John didn't even know what he was doing up there. He knew Kylie wasn't going to come, he just knew it, but yet something had drawn him up here. Some unseen force had driven him to the roof just to see if she maybe did come.
Fiddling with the lighter that he held, John flipped it open and closed, transfixed by the flame that sprung out at him before it was quickly diminished beneath the lid. He felt like that flame. Just as he was beginning to have some kind of hope, it was crushed, smothered by reality. He had denied it to Bobbie, but he couldn't deny it to himself. John was falling for Kylie. He didn't love her, far from it really, but he was intrigued by her, fascinated by everything she did and said. He craved to be near her to talk to her.
Time passed slowly for John. He lay back on the roof and watched the stars dancing overhead. It seemed like forever, though it'd only been thirty minutes, before he heard footsteps behind him.
"I knew you couldn't stay away from me." He smirked, not bothering to turn to see who was there. He knew who it was without even looking.
"Oh really?" He glanced next to him as Kylie sat beside him. She rolled her eyes when she caught him looking and stuck out her tongue.
The urge to kiss her, to have that tongue wrestling with his own, overtook John and it was all he could do to keep from reaching out and crushing his lips against hers.
"Yeah." He replied, looking away from her quickly.
"And how'd you know that?" He could feel her beside him, and he could feel his reaction to her close proximity. John was grateful for the darkness, and hoped that Kylie didn't have some kind of night vision lest she see his response to her.
He shrugged.
"Just did." God he was getting uncomfortable. No girl had ever turned him on this much, and they hadn't even done anything.
He remembered his anger earlier that day. He didn't know where it had come from and why it had struck. All he remembered was that he couldn't bare thinking that Kylie didn't want to talk to him.
Fiddling with the lighter nervously, John tried to block the feel of Kylie's leg against his from his mind. It was doing him no good to keep thinking of her right next to him. His mind continually traveled to other possibilities, other things that they could be doing besides talking.
Damn it, John, get a hold of yourself. He scolded himself, hoping that if he beat himself up enough that his mind would move on to something else.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Kylie's words were hesitant, as if she didn't really want to know.
"Oh," John was brought back to reality. He looked at her, wishing that it wasn't so dark outside. He wanted to see her face clearly, not the small fragment of glowing skin that the quarter moon allowed him.
"I was just wondering if Rogue had talked to you about anything lately?" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Well, Rogue and I are roommates and we are friends, so we kind of talk a lot." She was being just as vague as John, and he knew that she knew what he was talking about.
"What's their problem anyway?" He asked, looking at her, trying to gauge her expression in the dark. "I mean there's nothing going on between us…is there?"
"No, absolutely not." She replied quickly, too quickly, and shook her head.
"Exactly," John said, "so why do Bobbie and Rogue think that we're interested in each other?"
"I have no clue?" Kylie laughed nervously, and played with the tip of her ponytail.
John felt the overwhelming urge to run his hands through her hair; to have her hair running through his fingers as he kissed her deeply. Mentally, he shook his head.
"Kylie," he said quietly, savoring the taste of her name on his tongue.
"Yeah?" The silence stretched between them. Why had he spoken? John had no clue why he'd even said her name.
"John?" She was nervous, he could hear it in the slight tremble in her voice.
"Yeah?" Silence once more. Both knew what they wanted to ask, but neither knew how to say it. John looked at her, searching her eyes. His hope was beginning to dwindle with the prolonged silence. It was all he could do to bear it.
"I…" She spoke softly, but he could hear her plainly in the quiet night. Hope began to spark once more within him. "I should go. I have a test tomorrow and I need to do well on it." She said quickly and stood, dashing that one small bit of hope that refused to go out.
"Oh, okay." But she didn't hear the disappointment in his voice, 'cause she was already gone.
Well, I hope that chapter was worth the wait. I can't believe how long it's been since I last updated. I will try my best to get the next chapter out sooner than this one. Please review and tell me what you thought.
TheAlmightyMasterT-Chan: Have no fear, John and Kylie are going to be taking thier time in getting together. I wouldn't want to rush my story by setting them up as a couple right away.
morough: Thank you so much. I'm glad that you think Kylie is a believeable character. A lot of times when I write orginal characters it's hard to make them seem real and not Mary-Sueish or something. So it makes me happy that you think Kylie is real.
gringa088, melodie568, horsecrazy, ..., and Neassa: Thank you all so much for taking the time to review this story. It really means a lot to me.