This Girl

Chapter 21: I'm Cookie Monster Eating Pizza

"And, Patricia, do you miss school?" I tease.

"There's only one thing I miss," he says and looks at me.

"Me?" I joke.

"Yup," he turns back around. I laugh. 

"No, seriously though, what is it?" I ask, sitting right beside him on the couch. 

"You said it," he says. 

"Me?" I laugh again.

"Yeah," he grins.

"Ok then," I say and smile. 

"How's our music assignment going?" he asks.

"Oh, we're actually supposed to start today," I say.

"What do you wanna do?"

"A song maybe? Can you play any instruments?" I ask. 

"Yeah, guitar," he says. 

"Me too. And piano."

"So... you wanna do a song, right?" 

"Yeah, do you want to?" 

"Sure. Do we have to write it ourselves?" 

"I think so," I say. 

"Lets just do the music for now," he says and pulls out his phone, he turns it on and I see a picture I recognize. 

"Hey!" I say and pull the phone over to me. "This is the photo I took with Liam."

"Yeah," he scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. 

"That's cute," I say and hand it back to him. "Is your lock screen Amanda?" 

"No," he says and quickly signs in. He logs on into the internet before I can see his background. 

"What is it?" I ask, he doesn't look up. "C'mon!"

His cheeks tinge slightly pink but he changes the subject. "I know this app that can help us with the music."

"Yeah... But we can do that after we look at your home screen!" I say, raising my eyebrows.

"Anyway, and so we just come up with the rhythm-" he begins. 

"It can't be that embarrassing!" 

"And then we add the sol fa-" he continues.

"Is it a picture of a weird girl from a vogue magazine in a bikini or something?" I ask.

"What? No!" he yells.

"It is!" I say and grab his phone. "Oh."

My jaw drops when I see the photo on his home screen. Its the one posted on Instagram. Not the one where he's kissing me. The one of him making me giggle. I look up at him. He rubs the back of his neck, ignoring me, eyes downcast. He looks so embarrassed, my heart melts as though his cheeks are so red they've burnt it.

"Naw," I say and take my phone out of my pocket from where it was when I walked upstairs with my tea and click on the camera button. I shuffle over to him and hook my arm around his shoulders. I smile and take a photo. "There we go. Now we can both have embarrassing home screens."

I add it as my background and turn the phone off. 

"Cute, dude," he mocks me. I roll my eyes.

"So..... this music assignment you wanna get onto?" I give him his phone back. 

"Yup," he says and logs back onto his phone. We work on it until the pizza arrives. 

"Thanks," Alex takes the boxes and takes me outside to the garden tables and chairs. We sit down and he opens the pizzas. I take a piece and start eating it.