caffeine and nicotine [#TheWattys2015]

one;

chapter one: quick feet

[fall out boys - centuries]

-

I brushed away the flyaway hair from my face and spritzed some hairspray on it to make it stay. Once it did, I hurried out of the apartment, nearly knocking down a vase of withered peonies. I poured myself a cup of coffee and took a few sips before pouring it out into the sink and watched the black liquid spread across the metal surface. I closed the door quietly, afraid to awaken my mother and her horrible husband. I hitched my messenger bag higher up my shoulders as my sneaker-clad feet hit the ground, marking my path to the lift.

Just as I was about to enter the lift, cigarette smoke stung my senses. I have a very high intolerance for cigarette smoke especially since my step-father is a chronic smoker and I hate him to the core. I turned around to scold the idiot but said idiot had already seen me.

I locked eyes with a pair of wintry-sky ones that made me blush and look away. I was not one for eye contact with strangers, especially someone that I wanted to scold but this was full-on embarrassment. My eyes looked anywhere except his eyes and all I could make out was his pink, lush lips as they pursed when he exhaled a white puff of poison. His slender fingers wrapped around that tiny stick of death while his black skinnies clung to his bent legs.

He gestured at me to sit next to him on the stairs but I stood rooted to the ground. I cleared my throat and broke the weird, uncomfortable cloud of strangeness.

"I'm sorry but do I know you?" I said as I gripped my bag strap.

He pursed his lips again and I looked at his eyes this time, seeing how his eyelashes framed his eyes. G.oddammit! Why do boys always get long lashes and some of us girls have to wear mascara just to get ours to look like theirs.

"You look pretty," He said, in a low voice.

I hitched my bag further up my shoulder, ready to ditch this b.itch who has nothing better to do than smoke along stairways and get on people's nerves. Just to get laid? Who does this guy think he is?

"Look if you're not-"

"I know, I know, I'll go smoke somewhere else but I really think you're beautiful,"

Stunned into silence, my mouth fell open slightly. I haven't heard that word being said to me in ages.

After I regained my composure, I rolled my eyes at him and proceeded to wait for the lift. He continued smoking and I watched him from the corner of my eye, how he moved so languidly- almost as if he was barely surviving on two hours of sleep, almost as if he was too tired to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders anymore.

When the lift doors opened and I stepped in, I tossed my hair over my shoulder and said, "I know I'm beautiful because I wake up and see it in the mirror every day,"

[a/n: wow the amount of sass in this girl lmao]

[a/n: please vote/comment if you liked it, it means a lot]