Just One More Chapter

Chapter 10

We all meet at Alex's house sharply at 9 in the morning and when I say sharply which means being punctual, it doesn't include Rune. It never includes Rune. But somehow he still manages to come fifteen minutes later than the time decided. And did I mention that Alex's house is a whole big mansion? Like everything is rich, his room, his living room, his parking lot, his garage, his car we're borrowing.
Cal is talking to Alex about something. Alex, a blond head with very elegant gestures and a kind smile but something about him seems off. I don't think anyone else notices it and it might just be me. I feel that about everyone in the start.

Then, they both walk towards us and Alex introduces himself and so do we. All of us take our seats in the car. Cal is the one driving us so he sits in the front and of course, Rune sits beside him. I sit in the left of the back seat, Joe in the right and Elle in the middle. Before starting the engine, Cal opens the car window and says, "Thanks again, mate."

Alex chuckles, "This is nothing for what you've done for me." He leans into the window and looks at all of us, "You know, during a game, Cal almost saved me from a really bad injury. I owe it to you, man." And then, he waves us off.

I open the window beside me and let the cool breeze and the light sunlight brush against my face. My mind feels calm even though my heart is still nervous about today. I have to spend almost a day with these people. More like, I have to tolerate them.

I turn my head slowly and see what everyone is upto. Rune is trying to start the music system of the car and Cal is instructing him. I have to accept that they both actually fit together. Rune never shuts up and Cal never wants him to. He listens to him carefully and always talks with his eyes. He doesn't give short replies, when he wants to say something, it would be something meaningful and long. So, whenever Rune is telling him a story, he would always react with his eyes. He'll furrow his eyes when he's asked a question Rune already knows the answer to, he'll squint his eyes and smile when Rune teases him, he'll frown when he agrees with Rune on something. Rune, on the other hand, loves to speak and express himself. Sometimes it gets a little annoying but I like that about him. He'll stay silent when he knows he needs to.

I look around beside me and see Elle's face almost under her backpack, searching for something. Joe is on Elle's right, leaning her head against the window with her headphones on. She always looks so peaceful.

Elle looks even more beautiful today in her yellow summer dress. A little amount of sunlight is pouring in the car from the window, making her skin glow like gold. She takes a good two minutes to find what she was looking for and exhaling, she leans against the seat. She finds me looking at her, brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear, she smiles at me. I have always thought the best thing about anyone would be their smile but when you're starting to just see someone's smile in everything, is when you realise they're beginning to mean something more to you.

Elle has many kind of smiles, different for every situation. I wonder if everyone has that but I only noticed hers. Her tired smile, when she tilts her head a little, closed her eyes and her lips curves a little. Her excited smile, when her eyebrows raise and her eyes widen and her smile reaches to her eyes. Her shy smile, I've only seen it once and I want to believe it was for only my eyes, the picture of her with this smile is imprinted in my mind. It was somewhere before we all started hanging out too much, Rune and Cal were trying on cheesy pickup lines on each other trying to make Elle laugh. When they both left, she turned to me and asked, "Do you know any lines like these?"

Her head was leaning onto her hand which were resting on the table, she looked so beautiful. "I don't believe I do."

"Oh."

"I mean.. if I did tell you something it would be really true and not this cheesy."

She straightened up and smiled even wider, "Well, I would still love to hear it."