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"Caleb! Oh shoot, I-I'm so sorry," Nathan's voice trembling slightly, his eyes scanning me if I was injured. "Are you ok?"

Nathan extends his hand out to me. His lanky fingers uncurl. My mouth quivered, unsure of what to say. Putting my feeble arm onto his warm, rugged, wide palms, I got on my feet. I stayed silent, my expression blank.

"Caleb", Catherine spoke, but her voice sounded distant. She called me again, making sure I heard her clearly, "Hey Caleb, your ears are red. What's going on with you? Was it the spicy breakfast?"

That pricked up my senses. My eyes dart away from Nathan's gaze, checking on my ear. "N-no, I'm fine, I'm ok, it's cool. Thanks," I looked at Catherine, and Nathan's shocked face.

Catherine returned to the group ahead of us, leaving me and Nathan behind.

My dumb head was still processing wht had happened. First, we both fell and I just had some serious body contact with Nathan. His firm, muscular chest pressed against me. I didn't expect something like that, all I could think of at that moment was Nathan, naked.

Second, Nathan was on top of me. Even if his whole body wasn't touching mine in that position. It felt like it was serious. He even grabbed my back with his arm to soften the landing. His hand felt steaming hot.

No, no, this can't really be like those cheesy scenes Amari keeps showing me. I mean, really, does this really happen? Were any of the scenes as crazy as this? Am I exaggerating the whole scenario?

My brain is melting from trying to process such an unexplainable coincidence between me and Nathan. I just want to scream, but I can't scream it in front of him because he is literally standing right in front of my face.

"Hey, Caleb, you doing good? W-we should g-get going," he pulls back his loose hair, his efforts futile as they fall right back where they were earlier. Mutters to himself about not enough hair gel. Nathan still looks anxious, his face reddening for causing such an accident. He holds his arm behind his head, "I didn't mean for you...or us to fall. I just wanted to give you a surprise hug since it's your birthday. So, happy birthday...yay...".

"Hey, Nathan, what you did was nice. As in the hug, even though it didn't turn out as what you had planned," I replied, hiding my laugh while trying not to turn even more red in front of him.

He nodded and quickly headed back towards the larger group, Amari now with the group. I quickly apologised on behalf of both of us and we tried not to look at each other or think back about the incident too much.

Our attention was quickly diverted when we heard Casper gasping loudly as he looked at his watch, "The bus is almost here! We only have two minutes to reach the station!"

We sprinted to the bus stop, Nathan leading the way, Catherine, me, Amari and Stehpanie following close behind but Casper and Cassandra were struggling to keep up.

All of us kept running, our backpacks swaying furiously from side to side, making it harder to keep our balance. Streaks of sweat were trailing to the back of our heads. The bus stop sign was in view, and the bus was fast approaching us.

The doors opened. We hopped into the bus, beeping our cards in a rhythmic and succinct pattern. We all sighed in unison.

"Casper… don't scare us...like that...next time..." Cassandra said in between her breath. Everyone had enough strength to muster a giggle

After catching our breath, Amari asked, "So, uh… what was the holdup back on the street? I almost got worried you guys went on ahead without me."

I quickly spat out, "I left my add-maths textbook on the table, so I had to run back and grab it."

My response was a little louder than expected. My younger siblings looked at me, wide-eyed. Heads in the bus turned in response to my answer. The memory was still clear in my mind. The moment solidly engraved in my mind, and when I run my hand along my right arm, it gives me goosebumps. I do everything I can not to look at Nathan despite leaning against the same pole as he is.

The rest of the bus journey was agonising. The tension was strangling me. My body was constantly feeling uncomfortable thinking about what happened earlier. I shifted my weight, trying to shake off the strong energy but to no avail. This definitely wasn't the time to communicate.

My three siblings gave me a highly confused look, raising an eyebrow. They are absolutely certain of what they saw earlier and are fully aware of the lie I made to Amari.. My ears started to turn red, followed by my fingertips and then finally, my neck.

"Um, Caleb, your ears are turning awfully red again, is everything ok?"Nathan's voice sounding shaky as earlier. My eyes widened in shock. Why now, out of every time do you have to display the most undesirable trait of yours, making a total fool out of myself.

I try to quickly deny what he just saw, stammering, "Wh-what do you mean my ears are r-reddening, I don't think so," I touch my ears in disbelief.

It felt warm, like the same heat coming from Nathan's hand when he cupped me by the back. Cassandra watching the whole thing unfold, is now doing her best to cover up her laughter from my terrible attempt at lying and worse still, in front of Nathan.

Amari's eyes were darting between me, Catherine, Cassandra and Nathan, connecting the dots and making a soft gasp. Casper and Stephanie were dying to know, begging for Amari to explain her theory to them.

She opened her mouth, leaning forward as the announcement went off. It was our stop. Everyone turned around to face the exits, pacing ourselves out the door and thanking the driver.