The Next Door Neighbour

Chapter 8//A Blank Canvas

Shailene's POV

     HALLOWEEN WAS JUST AROUND THE CORNER — if the corner was four long blocks away and each block took you exactly a week to walk. Okay, so halloween was four weeks away, but that just meant Shailene had plenty of time to begin planning her outfit, the route she, Holland, and Summer would take trick-or-treating, and what they would do after the aforementioned trick-or-treating. And yes, they probably were a little old to be going door-to-door asking for candy alongside everyone else doing it under twelve; but hey, sixteen-year-olds still need their candy.

     Shailene probably should've been embarrassed, but she wasn't (though Holland totally was). While essentially everyone else their age was going to costume parties or staying home watching movies, she was getting candy.

     What's the problem? Shailene thought. I don't see a problem.

     Of course, there was always one person she could rely on to find a problem, a flaw, an error in everything she did. Someone she could depend on to rain irritation and sarcasm on her parade, until the floats were soggy and the parade watchers started calling her insufferable.

     This person was Brayden.

     "Trick-or-treating?" he asked as they took their seats in the science lab. Mr Brown was running late (what's new?) so they had a few minutes to talk before they had to start doing actual science (ew). Shailene had been curious as to what his plans for halloween were. If Ryan Hunter's party proved anything, it was that Brayden clearly wasn't the party type, and neither was Christian. She figured they were the stay-in-and-watch-movies type. Or maybe halloween just made Brayden bitter because he'd been forced to go with his sister so many times before. Whatever the case, Shailene's internal halloween parade had been flooded and destroyed from the torrents of rain her sarcastic neighbour was pouring down on her.

     "You still do that?" he repeated for the fifth time.

     Shailene wasn't one for getting embarrassed. She was confident in pretty much everything she did. But with the way Brayden was staring at her, like he'd known she was childish before but not quite so childlike, well, she hoped there was still time for her to turn this around and regain at least some of her dignity. She needed to turn the tables a complete 180°. She needed to make herself seem better.

     "You don't?" she said, praying that her expression said wow, you're so uncool, as opposed to wow, I'm so uncool.

     His nose wrinkled. "Uh, no. Not since, like, sixth grade."

     Yikes, she thought, that means he's disliked halloween — or at least trick-or-treating — for like, four years. That's a lot of resentment to chip away just to make myself look better. Good luck.

     And boy, would she need it. Brayden was almost as steadfast as she was. Almost as stubborn. There was probably no way she'd be able to change his opinion on halloween. But as usual, she felt the need to try. Just like she felt the need to try and make him dislike her less, which actually seemed to be working, judging by how much time they'd spent together over the last few weeks. If she could turn his opinion of her around, she could turn his opinion of halloween around too. Right?

     "Stop it," Brayden said, breaking her from her thoughts.

     "Stop wha—"

     "Stop planning how you're going to get me to like halloween," he told her, eyebrows narrowed. "Stop trying to get me to like things in general."

     Alright, he hadn't broken her from her thoughts, he'd read them. Concern and dissatisfaction bloomed in her chest. Since when had her expressions become so easy to read? Since Brayden had come along, apparently.