s k i n n y l o v e

1 9 t h - o c t o b e r

word count - 3525

d a n

What on Earth is that infernal screeching noise?

I rolled over in bed, cursing at having to stretch my arm out from under my warm, squishy duvet to turn my alarm off. I forgot it was Monday morning, and I have lessons. Brilliant. I closed my eyes, with my phone still in my hand, to let myself wake up before burning off my retinas with my light. After a few minutes I jumped up into a sitting position, worried that I fell back to sleep and missed class, checking my phone I grumbled and saw that it was only 8:11am. Stretching out I heard my back click and swung my legs out of bed, my feet landing on the cold floor. I reached under my bed and pulled out my earphones, plugging them into my phone and pressing shuffle on my favourite playlist. I slouched over to the other side of my room, listening to the music, which was waking me up slightly more, and rifled through my wardrobe to find something to wear. I pulled out a plain white t-shirt, dark grey cardigan and black skinny jeans, which I then slipped on.

After straightening my hair, trying to flatten the bits at the back, which were always stuck up after I woke up, I headed down stairs in search of some sort of breakfast, still listening to my music. My mum and dad had already left for work so I sang along out loud whilst making my porridge, which I ate quickly ignoring how it burnt my tongue. I rushed upstairs, quickly cleaned my teeth and grabbed my bag before heading out the front door into the rain.

Ugh, now my hair's going to go curly!

I almost ran to the bus stop but couldn't be bothered so I just trudged along, miserable whilst the rain slowly frizzed my hair and dripped down my face. On the bus I tried to partially dry my hair with my cardigan sleeve, but that was wet too, so I just gave up and listened to my music.

I managed to get into my first class a few minutes early so my favourite seat right at the back was thankfully free, not that anyone else wanted to sit by themselves by the breezy window apart from me anyway. I placed my notebook on my desk with a couple of pens lined up neatly next to it and waited for everyone else to come in, enjoying the silence. A few minutes later more students started to trickle in, some of them I didn't recognise as not everyone showed up to every class, one of the perks of the sessions being non-compulsory. I did recognise some, but I wasn't friendly with any of them. The seat next to me remained vacant as more and more students filed in. Then a student I only recognised by site, not by name, walked through the door, his black hair flopping over his face, rainwater dripping from his damp fringe down his pale skin. He headed for the back of the class with his head down until he reached the empty chair next to mine and slid into it. He didn't say anything or even look at me, which was probably a good thing as I was staring at him, confused as to why he sat next to me and slightly afraid of him. I recognised him from around the college, where he'd usually be smoking, drinking coffee and lounging about on the grass with his friends. He had black hair, which remained poker straight even in the rain, this I was jealous of. But he also had his ears pierced multiple times, a single lip ring, and sleeve tattoos, which poked out of his black t-shirt under his black faux leather jacket. His right hand was tapping a black ink biro on his un-opened textbook, I knew we wouldn't get on at all if he was planning on doing this for much longer, it was beginning to make my leg twitch.

The black haired boy was still staring straight ahead, not saying anything, so I decided to break the silence.

"I've not seen you in here much before." I say, trying to catch his eye. My arm accidently brushed against his and he pulled it away quickly, his pale blue eyes flickering over to my arm and then up to meet my gaze.