Welcome to New Haven (27 page)

Alex took Dev’s seat next to her and she took a breath.
 
She could smell him.
 
His clean soapy smell that made her think of bubbles and showers and washing him…
 

“That guy, Will, was an ass.”
 

“Huh?” Holly had been in a fog and his voice had broken through.
 
It was a good job too.
 
Holly had been vocalising her fantasies lately.
 
She’d moaned at her toast, said ‘wow’ when she’d been looking at her phone and Emily had almost heard her saying ‘he’s so gorgeous’. Luckily Holly had mumbled and Em hadn’t understood what she’d said.
 

“What he said to you.”

“Oh…Yeah”
 
she agreed.

“I think you scared him a little” Alex leaned closer when he said it and Holly stopped breathing.

“Good” she managed to say, barely loud enough for Alex to hear.
 
Alex just smiled at her and Holly wanted the ground to swallow her up before she made a fool of herself, which she was sure was going to happen any minute.

Alex glanced back at Ben and Dev, and they both gave him a smile.
 
He felt as though his insides were doing tumbles, his heart was beating so fast and he had to swallow a huge lump in his throat.
 
He was glad to be sitting down, as he could feel his body having an unquestionable reaction to Holly’s presence. Not that it had relaxed much since she’d arrived at the school, but the closer he got, the more ‘uplifting’ the reaction.

He was sitting to her right and it dawned on him that he would need to move.
 

“I think we need to switch seats.”
 
He said, and Holly looked to him in surprise.
 

“Www Why?” she asked, shakily.
 

“I’m left handed.” He said.
 

Holly understood what he meant.
 
Their arms would be in each other’s way when they wrote.
 
There wouldn’t be any complaints from him to have Holly’s arm knock into his, but
she
might.
 

“Oh.” She said as they both stood to change seats.
 

Alex took a step back so Holly could pass in front of him.
 
She sidestepped, with her back to him, her hair brushing across his chest as she did.
 
He could smell the coconut shampoo, and he had to stop himself from leaning forward and breathing her in.
 
His pants tightened when she crossed him.

Football, hockey, baseball…
he thought in a pitiful attempt to calm the fire that was traveling south. He inhaled and pulled the seat out for her.
 

“Thanks”
 
she said as she sat in Dev’s place.
 

“What’s going on?” asked Mr. Benson.
 

“Switching seats, writing problem.” Explained Alex as the teacher knew he was left handed.

“Now class…” Mr Benson continued. “…I’m going to hand out a potted daffodil to each student.
 
We are going to learn about the segments of the flower, and then we will try pollination."

“Yeah!” one guy shouted and some of the others laughed.
 

Holly rolled her eyes and Alex smiled. Holly noticed him looking at her and he saw that she blushed…again.
 
He heard her mumbling something…it sounded like…’stay calm, deep breaths’.
 

“What?”
 

“Huh?” She said as she turned to him in shock.
 

“You said something about staying calm.”
 

“I did?”

He guessed that she hadn’t meant to say it out loud and was embarrassed that she had.
 

“Don’t let them bother you. They’re idiots.”
 

“Who?”
 

What was going on? It was as if she hadn’t been talking about the guys at all.
 

“The guys who laughed.” He reminded her; looking a little confused as he did.
 

Holly frowned a little, and then her face relaxed before she nodded.
 

“Calm down and behave!” Mr Benson shouted.
 
“If you want to act like children, I’ll treat you like children.”
 

The class fell silent, and the teacher started to pass around two small pots, each containing a miniature daffodil, to each station.
 
The guys had yellow, and the girls had white.
 

“Now…” He continued “…Each flower has both male
and
female reproductive parts.
 
The stigma, which is female, and the anthers which are male.
 
The anthers are the ones encrusted with pollen…”
 

Alex understood now why Holly had referred to Will’s balls being ‘anthers’.
 
As Mr. Benson went on about the different parts of the flower, Holly brought hers closer to smell it.
 

“Do you like these?” Alex whispered.
 

Holly quickly looked to him and nodded.
 
He saw a small frown appear and a sad look in her eyes.

Maybe the flowers signify something to her?

“Holly?” He whispered even quieter than before. “Are you ok?” He mouthed, no sound coming from his lips.
 

She smiled weakly and nodded again. The teacher carried on the lesson, but Alex was too interested in watching Holly.
 
He wondered what was going on in her mind and what had made her sad all of a sudden.
 

Enlarged pictures of flower parts appeared on the board at the front and Mr. Benson pointed to them as he spoke.
 

“What we aim to do is cross pollinate the flowers.
 
I want each student to brush their partner’s flower…” that got him a few snickers from the class “…and then brush the pollen over the stigma on their own flower.”

More laughs.

“Good grief.” He groaned. “After a few months, the plants’ ovary should be full of seeds.
 
When the flowers die, we’ll open up the ovary, when they’re ready and see who was successful.”
 

Alex picked up his brush and looked at his flower. He looked towards what Holly was doing. She wasn’t using a brush. Instead, she was rubbing her pen, lid end first, on her sleeve.
 
He watched to see what she would do as this wasn’t what the teacher had told them they should be doing.
 

Holly gently brought the pen to the flower and brushed the lid across the anthers.
 

“What are you doing that for?” He asked intrigued.
 

Holly looked surprised at what she had done, like she had somehow gone to autopilot.
 

“Erm…I find this easier.” She said.
 

Holly seemed comfortable with this so he tried to focus on what she was doing and not her beautiful hair falling down her back, her lips parting and then pursing in concentration.
 
Her eyes cast down with her eyelashes fluttering when she blinked…

Stop!

He had to be careful, or he could find himself touching her.
 
His right hand had already moved closer to her and he pulled it back before he stroked her arm.
 
Holly cleared her throat before she spoke.
 

“Here, pass me your daff.”

Alex slid his pot across the table and Holly gently guided the pollen covered pen lid across the stigma, which she held still by placing a finger to the side of it.
 
She rotated the lid over the stigma.
 

“Coooool” Alex said in awe as she passed back his daff.
 
“You’ve obviously done this before”
 

“A few times” she replied and he saw her lips twitch a little.

More
than a few times, he was guessing.
 

“I’ll do that too.
 
Why did you rub the pen on your sleeve?”
 

“It creates static and it picks up the pollen easier.”
 

“Oh…Like this?” He asked as he rubbed his pen on the sleeve of his T-shirt.
 

“Yeah.” She said as she watched the pen go up and down the sleeve covering his bicep.

Holly bit her lip before turning away and swallowing.
 
Biting her lip got him a painful jolt in his pants, and he wanted to just…just…kiss her.
 
The way her eyes had looked at him, his arm, he thought he saw something else in her eyes but she looked away before he could tell what that was.
 

“What now?” He asked, his voice a little hoarse.

“Place a finger next to the stigma, to keep it still, and then rotate the pen lid over it to transfer the pollen.”
 

Alex did as Holly instructed and wondered why he hadn’t noticed before, that she wasn’t stuttering her words.

She must really be into this stuff
.

Mr. Benson saw what Holly had done, and he walked over to them.
 

“I’ve never seen it done that way before.” He said quietly.
 
“What made you do it like that?”
 

Holly seemed to become nervous at the teachers’ question and Alex wanted to put his arm around her and pull her close to him.
 

“Erm…it’s more effective like that.”
 

“Really? How do you know?” Mr. Benson didn’t sound as though he was being condescending, he sounded genuinely interested in Holly’s methods.
 

“Um…my…Dad showed me.
 
He was a landscape gardener.”

Was
 

Dev had told Alex that Holly’s Mum had remarried and that Holly’s biological father had passed away years before.
That’s
why she was sad. The flowers were a reminder of him.
 

“Really?” Mr. Benson continued. “I bet you picked up a lot of things that would help in this class.”
 

“Yes sir.” She said barely audible.
 

Holly’s head lowered, and he could see her lower lip begin to quiver and she bit her lip into her mouth.
 

“Sir” Alex said to get Mr. Benson’s attention as he could see he was about to say something else.
 

He stopped and looked at Alex who shook his head slowly, warning him not to probe further.
 
Mr. Benson looked back to Holly and seemed to only just notice her change in mood.
 

“Well…uh…I’ll bear that in mind.” He said as he walked back to the front of the class as Holly sat looking down at her hands in her lap.
 

“Hey.” He whispered gently and he put his hand on her left shoulder.
 
He felt a jot up his arm, straight into his chest at the same time Holly gasped and her eyes snapped to his hand, then his eyes.
 

“Has everybody finished?” The teacher asked, breaking the haze and Alex dropped his hand, feeling the loss immediately.
 

The guy who had propositioned Holly earlier, spoke up.
 

“I can’t get the pollen off the brush.
 
It’s stuck in the bristles.”

Alex looked to Holly and smiled.
 
Holly blushed as she smiled back, even just a little.

“Well there’s another method…Holly, could you show him?”
 
Holly looked surprised, Alex was too, because this was the guy that had been an ass and Mr. Benson had seen him.

“What?
 
Erm…I guess so.”
 
She said as she stood.
 
She went over to the desk, taking her pen.

Holly rubbed the pen on her sleeve and showed Will how to pollinate, with the first flower.
 
Holly rubbed the pen lid across the stigma.“Oh Holly, baby that feels so good!” Will said in a husk
y voice
. Then he laughed.
 

“What the fuck?!” shouted Alex and he jumped out of his seat and stormed towards Will.
 

“Alex…no!” Dev shouted.
 

“Who do you think you are, cock ‘ed?”

Alex stopped suddenly when he heard Holly’s angry voice.
 

“Speak to me like that again and you’ll be fuckin’ sorry.” She said through gritted teeth.
 

“Will I now? And what will you do?” Will asked, as he laughed.
 

“She won’t have to do anything” Alex said as he walked up behind Holly.
 
“
I
will though”
 
he glared at Will.
 

“Hey, Alex, man I was just kidding dude.”
 
Will said with his hands up.
 

“Don’t speak to Holly like that again.
 
In fact…don’t speak to her at all!”
 

“Shit, sorry!” Said Will.
 
His face white as a sheet.
 

“Break it up!” shouted Mr. Benson.
 

“Back to your seats!”
 

“Come on Holly” Alex said as he gently tugged her elbow to bring her back to their station.
 

Holly was still glaring at Will as she started to turn around.
 
They sat back down as Mr. Benson spoke.
 

“Well, now that the excitement is over, let’s get back to work.”

“Thanks. You didn’t have to do that.” She said.
 

“If I didn’t, he might have said something else to you I would have punched him for.” He replied as he raised his eyebrows.
 
“I wouldn’t let you get suspended over that asshole.”
 

Holly’s mouth dropped open as she listened to Alex’s voice.
 
So smooth, so deep, so…sexy… She sucked in her bottom lip as she dropped her eyes to his mouth.