Falling

Chapter 5: The "Tour"

This chapter is dedicated to the-booknook, who's a kitty who loves KitKats. And whom's favorite character is Olivia Pattillo. THANKS FOR MAKING MY COVER!

If you are coming back for the second part of this chapter, look for the bolded sentence.

You know what day I'm writing about.

I am writing this at 12:00 in the morning on the roof with a pillow imposter in my bed and nothing but the moonlight to see by. I'm starting to think Austin's onto me. He almost caught me writing yesterday. Why I'm hiding from him you might ask? Because he's a mama's boy and would totally turn me in. Well maybe. If I explain it's about you, he might not tell. But I'm not sure. He has his own way of coping that is strange and unlike anything I've ever seen, and trust me, I've seen a lot of heartache through my years, and through yours too.

Now that I think about it, he might be doing something similar to what I'm doing, but with pictures instead of words. He has always loved to paint and was ecstatic when he found out Axel did too. Did I tell you? Well, he mentioned it on the tour, so let me just cross that bridge when I get there.

"Right! The tour," he answered, his eyes sparkling with a new found excitement. "We can start over here, with the kitchen." We all followed Axel as he lead us to the place where food was located, which of course was all us teens could think about as he kept talking about the color scheme of the walls or something like that.

"...and it just bothers me you know?" Axel questioned, turning back after he finally brought us to the door where we presumed the kitchen was behind. Hunter, Olive, and I all snapped to attention, quickly nodding and muttering an "Of course" while shooting each other looks to see if anyone knew what he was talking about. We were too busy thinking of other things. 

Olive was probably wondering who made the carpet, and how soon she could take off her shoes (they were high heels, and she loves the feeling of plush carpet between her toes). 

Hunter was probably looking at the trophy wall, wondering what sports Axel played and if he would finally have someone to "throw the pigskin around" with (Austin played lacrosse exclusively), or something as equally stereotypically boyish. 

I was wondering what his father looked like because in all the pictures I had seen, he hadn't shown up in any of them. 

When we realized none of us had been listening, we all got quiet, sure that we would soon be caught. But then,

"Oh totally," said Austin, "If I had a dollar for every time I had seen this horrendous clash of colors in one room I would be rich. Most people really don't notice how awful bright pink looks on walls. That's why I don't consider painters artists because they give people what they want, not what they need." 

"Right!? Finally! Someone who understands art," replied Axel. 

The two immediately started a conversation about colors and which ones looked better where, and how terrible the taste of mainstreamers are. As three of those "mainstreamers," Hunter, Olive, and I silently stared at the two, amazed by how quickly they ignored us. Well, Hunter and I silently stared. Olivia on the other hand...

"AHEM!" She shouted, clearly mad about the exchange happening between the two of them. "If I wanted to be called out for being mainstream I would have just gone to school. Or the mall. OR ANYWHERE ELSE!"

"Oh Olivia," Austin said, the only one not affected by her outburst, "We all know that at those places, you would have been called a white girl. Axel and I were just trying to shake it up a bit. Right, Axel?"