Everything Happens At 2:04 AM

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Human Race Depended On Your Procreation.

"I bought the puzzle," He informed me, putting his chain in his mouth as his face emitted snarky attitude, "I know what it looks like."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, putting my hands on his cheeks so he couldn't turn his head. "Without looking at the box tell me the image on it."

Caleb smirked. "It's a house with trees surrounding it."

Close.

It was a bunch of birds flying over what I assumed to be a sea.

I made a buzzer sound, taking my hands off his face before taking a seat next to him. "You failed."

"Just do the damn puzzle."

We did the puzzle for about a half an hour without speaking to one another. In the most silence one can obtain in the middle of the night with soft music playing in the background, the song changed as I glanced up at Caleb. His hair was hovering on his forehead and he put his hands through it to push it back all sexy like, but I didn't comment on it. To make matters worse, he had his chain still in his mouth.

Caleb caught me looking, a smirk on his face. He tapped my foot with his own under the table as he tucked the chain under his shirt. "Like what you see?"

I pursed my lips, leaning back. "You like what you see?"

Caleb gave me the once over and I resisted the urge to cover my face at the fact that he was staring at me so openly. I would never have minded that, but I could feel myself heat up with the movement of his eyes. I watched him shrug nonchalantly, continuing his search in the box. "Not bad."

"Not bad?" I exclaimed and he laughed.

"I'm only joking," He tapped my foot with his own again, letting it stay there. "You know you're beautiful, Octavia. I'm not blind."

It should be illegal to have compliments come out of your mouth Romero Henderson, I wanted to say. Really affects a person.

It was almost intimidating to me and I found myself intrigued by that, shooting him a wink. "You're not so bad yourself, Romero."

"Not bad?" He mocked.

I laughed, putting my leg over his own. I reached forward, my hand touching where his chain was peeking out. Caleb kept his eyes on my face as I brought the silver chain out, letting it rest against the fabric of his shirt. "Where'd you get this?"

"Sam." He said, mentioning his best friend. "It was for my eighteenth birthday. Originally the piece was attached to a bracelet, but I liked necklaces more." Caleb's fingers replaced mine as he scooted closer to me to show me a pendant, I had never noticed dangling from the chain. A piece of metal shaped into a curly-haired boy winked back at me in the light, his hand stretched out in what I assumed to be a lock for the other half.

"I'm guessing he has the other one."

Caleb's eyes glanced down at the pendant held between my index finger and thumb before looking back in my eyes. "You guessed correctly."

"Your friendship must have an insane tight bond." I couldn't help but murmur.

"I told you. We've been through hell and back together." Caleb said in a soft voice, his tongue running along his bottom lip.

I nodded in understanding, my hand still playing with his chain. Sam lived in Nottingham, England. Caleb's family was split with wherever his brother was, where his mother's side of the family was back in El Salvador and where his Tia Maria, I presumed, lived back home. But what was he doing here? In Italy?

He said that he moved here straight after high school to a whole new continent by himself. I couldn't think of anything other than education purposes then him coming here but Caleb didn't attend any post-secondary, he had stuck to his writing.