How I See You

Chapter 6 - Alyssa here.

Alyssa.

I enjoyed it today. I really did. Until I had to sit alone with Will in the sitting room while Katy and Niall where getting snacks for the movie. He just became really random.

“So,” he grinned, putting his hands back behind his head. I hadn’t really been talking that much.

I nodded, slowly, awkwardly.

I was still getting over the shock that he had actually been hanging out with me. He should have been hanging out with Avril Oriton and them, not with a geek like me.

After that it had just been awkward. I had sat at the end of the sofa, Katy beside me, Will after her, his arm draped around her shoulders in a friend-way. Then next to him was Niall.

The reason why I was really annoyed about the whole Will-kissing thing was not because I liked him. It was because I don’t agree with kissing in that way, me being an insecure geek. You should only kiss someone who you really like.

Listen to me.

Giving my opinion.

And I’ve never been kissed in my life by a boy.

So now I’m sat at the table with my family as we eat.

“So,” my dad says. “You made friends today, then, Alyssa?”
I nod.

My mum raises an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Who are they?”
I pause. “Just some people my age.”

“Just some people?”
I nod again.

“What were their names?” My mum asks.

I don’t really want to say in front of my dad that there were two boys. One of them a slight pervert. But what can I do? I’m awful at telling lies and he’s always the first to tell when I’m lying.

“Um,” I swallow. “Katy, Will and Niall.”
My dad doesn’t reply.

“Will?” My mum frowns. “Hmm. Oh. I like that name.”
Why does it have to be his name she likes?

She obviously doesn’t remember that I happened to have a best friend when I was younger called Will, who was even at that time a rule breaker.

“What did you do?” my dad enquires.

“We, um, watched a film, and talked, and played games.”

“Hmm.”

I go up to my room after dinner. For a few months now I’ve been drifting away from my parents, even though I don’t want to. They just seem to be in my face all the time, asking me about private things, or lecturing me.

I lie down on my bed, my sketch pad in my hand. I used to draw all the time. I drew my friends, family, and objects.

Suddenly, I’m opening the sketch pad to a new, crisp white page, and sketching. Curls in the hair, eyelashes. The perfect nose, grin, then the neck and shoulders. Stripes on the t-shirt.

After half an hour, I smile and look down at my work.

Will is grinning up at me, his hair unruly and his grin bewitching.

But the real thing is so much better.

The weekend ends quickly. Sunday I go out with Zara and Myra, and they try on all sorts of clothes, me just waiting outside while they take pictures and giggle annoyingly. I’m glad to finally get home. They seem to not want me anymore. I remember how I was the one who introduced Myra to the group, when she was new and alone. It was my doing. And yet they don’t want me anymore.