Heart-On: Turf Wars #2 Bella Jewel (books for 10th graders .txt) 📖

Adan.

I’m scared, shit scared. The sound alone is enough to send someone over the edge. It sounds like we’re in the middle of a damned tornado and we’re about to get sucked right up. My trembling doesn’t ease, and even though I try to close my eyes and relax a little, I can’t. I sit up, heart racing, feeling frantic that a tree is going to fall on us, or worse, the tent will just rip apart and we’ll be stuck in the rain.

“Hey,” Adan says, sitting up next to me. “It’s all good. Sounds worse than it is.”

“I hate storms,” I say, my voice shaky. “I’m so scared.”

“Come on.”

To my surprise, he puts an arm around me and lies down. I don’t know in this second what Lorelei is doing, I’m not even certain I care. All I know is Adan has me wrapped in his arms, and I feel a whole lot better because of it. I’m still shitting my pants, but at least it’s a little less intense now. I roll toward his chest, trying to drown out the noise and calm my racing heart.

I feel Adan’s warm breath on my face, and I didn’t realize I was so close.

I go to pull back but his grip tightens, and he won’t let me move.

I suck in a breath, heart racing, body trembling. I don’t know what is happening right now.

I don’t know until he kisses me.

His lips find mine in the dark, and I want to melt into them upon first contact. His mouth is warm, his semi-beard scratchy, and his tongue soft and strong. I respond, god, how can I not. This is all I’ve wanted for the last week. This is what I’ve been wanting for longer than I’ve known it. I kiss him back with a ferocity that will show him everything I can’t say.

The kiss gets intense, and I don’t think about the fact that we’re not alone in this tent. I also know nobody can hear us over the thunder and rain. So, I let it go on. It goes on and on, until my lips ache and my entire body is so wound up I could explode. We don’t touch each other, our hands don’t roam, he just kisses me until I’ve forgotten how to breathe.

It’s only when something distracts him that he releases me.

Fully releases me.

He rolls, and I know he’s talking to Lorelei now.

It hurts.

God, does it hurt.

What the hell was that for?

Sure, I know he’s probably just seeing if she’s okay.

But he just had his mouth on mine.

He was just kissing me in a way no man has kissed me before.

He hasn’t rolled back.

Is he kissing her now, too?

God dammit.

In this second, I wish the storm would just carry us away.

So I didn’t have to lie in this tent for a second longer.

Not a fucking second.

18

We don’t die in the storm, nor does it rip up our tents or cause any damage to the boat. As Adan said, it sounded a lot worse than it was. I mean, there were times I was certain it was going to rip the tent apart and we’d all be laying in the wind and rain, but that didn’t happen. It was gnarly, though. I can’t say I’ve experienced a storm up close and personal like that before, and I’m certain I don’t want to experience it again.

By morning, the sun is back out and we’re back to the way things were the day before. Only one more night to go, things can’t get much worse than they already have, right? After all, Adan and shared a kiss that he seems to have forgotten about and then I had to lay in the tent all night, right next to him, wondering if he was holding her hand?

Then he woke up this morning and he and Lorelei went for a walk.

My anger, my rage, and my hurt consumed me and I couldn’t be around the camp for a second longer. Not only because he is acting like I’m not even here, but because he has the balls to walk around with her as if nothing has happened. I’m certain she wouldn’t be happy about the fact that he kissed me, but of course, he’s not going to tell her, is he? Why would he when he’s got the best of both worlds?

I’m an idiot.

I pack a few things in a backpack and go for a walk to explore the cliffs. I need to get away and think, and that seems like a good place to do it. At least up there I can be on my own, and god knows I need to be. The kiss swirls around in my head, over and over, consuming me. I don’t understand why Adan does anything that he does, all I know is he is messing with me and I’m damned tired of it.

It doesn’t take me long to reach the base of them, and then I start climbing. I climb up, slipping a few times, but I manage to get to the top and oh, the view from up here is incredible. It was worth the two hours it took me to get up here. I sit on the edge and eat my lunch, watching the beautiful horizon from afar, wondering if I’ll see any sea life up here?

I enjoy my time for a few hours and then decide I had better head back before anyone wonders where I’ve gone. I go to climb down and for a moment, I’m confused. I’m sure this is the way I came up, but when I look down now, all I see is water surrounding the cliff. What the hell? I walk around to the other side of the large rock I’m on and look down, water there, too. I’m fully surrounded by water. In the time I was climbing and eating my lunch up here, the tide had come in.

I had no idea it would