Look into my eyes
It's where my demons hide...
---
Rhys could remember the minute he first met Nomi. That was something he could never forget; it was hard to forget something that tilted your world on its axis.
It wasn't some magical, picture perfect day like in the fairytales his mother used to read to his little sister - before she decided she liked drinking more than parenting. It was a shitty, cloudy day worsened by the fact that he was still in class and his high was wearing off. He needed another hit but even he wasn't stupid enough to light up in school. That was a sure fire way to wind up cuffed to a chair downtown, discussing an extension to his probation.
The first thing he noticed about Nomi was her smile. Nomi was the type of girl who smiled at everyone. Literally everyone. Rhys had seen her smile but never up close. It was radiant, angelic even - God he sounded like some lovesick idiot but it was true. She had a smile that begged to fix all your problems and up close, Rhys felt the true effects of such a smile. It was something akin to the sun gracing your skin after being hidden behind the clouds for so long.
And he hated it. He hated her. He hated that smile because it could never be his. She could never be his.
Knowing Nomi, she would call their meeting fate. She believed in that kind of fairytale bullshit. Rhys, on the other hand, would call it bad luck. Rhys would say whatever deity presided above had screwed her over. Big time. Guys like him shouldn't occupy the same room as her, let alone the same universe. Guys like him broke girls like Nomi, tore them to pieces just because they could. Nomi was like Icarus, flying too close to an unforgiving sun, and he would be the reason her life came crashing down.
---
Nomi Sinclair was his neighbor, in every sense of the word. She didn't just live next to him (her house was the newly painted, newly purchased two-story next door), no her locker was directly across the hall from his, and when she finally showed up at school, two weeks into the semester, she took the only open seat in the AP English class they shared: the seat right next to him.
Rhys wasn't used to sitting next to anyone, wasn't used to feeling another person's presence so close. In their tiny, backwater town, people whispered and they shared stories, and, as a result, no one wanted anything to do with Rhys. And that was fine by him.
But Nomi was different. No one wanted to look at him out of fear, let alone speak to him. But that's exactly what she did. Twenty-three minutes into the class, she opened her pretty little mouth and spoke.
"Hi," she whispered. Except it wasn't really a whisper, it was loud and easily overheard by everyone in their row, who all turned to gape at her. Rhys turned to look at her in surprise as well, although his features were perfectly schooled into a disinterested frown. He was sure she'd realize her mistake and quickly turn back to face the front in embarrassment. But her big, brown eyes were only focused on him.
The first thing Rhys noticed about Nomi was her smile. She was type of girl who smiled at everyone, even a monster like Rhys. She had a healing smile, one that begged to fix all your problems, one that could light up a night sky. She had the kind of smile that hid the brokenness in her eyes.
That is what ultimately drew Rhys in: that brokenness. He could see fragments of the bent, broken little girl hiding behind a moonlit smile. But where Nomi was bent, Rhys was mangled beyond recognition. She couldn't heal someone like him; her smile couldn't fix his problems. He would shatter her long before she could begin to untangle his issues.
Guys like him weren't supposed to occupy the same room as Nomi, let alone the same universe. They weren't supposed to find hope in her healing, let me fix you smile.
But he wanted to, even if it meant she would cut herself trying to pick up his shattered pieces.
---
Okay so I know this chapter is short but I promise the next one will be longer. Thanks to everyone who's reading. You have no idea how much I love you for checking out my story.
Xoxo babes
