Behind the Walls. NOVEL By Claire Darcy.

33. Smoke In The Air.

ACE.

I stared at Frankie in amused horror as she meticulously wove a string of spaghetti into Tyler's hair. How he hadn't noticed yet was far beyond my understanding.

"Frankie, that's enough now-" Josh began. Frankie looked at him so sharply that he didn't finish. I stifled a laugh.

Dinner had gone by almost uneventfully- until Frankie got bored of eating her spaghetti and thought it would be funny to put it in her twin brother's hair. He and Frankie sat opposite Sebastian and I, whilst Josh sat on the end of the table. I caught a glimpse of Rowan across the cafeteria. He was lent against the wall, head tilted back and eyes closed. He was always closing his eyes, like it hurt to look at things.

"I noticed you looking at Rowan a fair bit..." Sebastian whispered.

I rolled my eyes and replied, "Only in disgust."

Sebastian grinned wickedly and trailed his fingers just above my knee, under the table where nobody else could see. "Hey," he breathed, "No need to get defensive... I know you look at me even more."

I shook my head and fiddled with my napkin, glancing at the others. They were oblivious to our conversation.

"As if," I hissed. Sebastian bit his lip. His hand was now rubbing circles mid-thigh. My heart sped up as he leaned closer to whisper to me again.

"Please, Ace. I've spotted you checking me out. It's okay, I won't tell anybody."

I could feel his breath against my neck, his features handsome and daring out of the corner of my eye. He was so close that if I turned my head, we'd be touching.

"You're awfully close, Sebastian," I breathed, barely able to make a sound.

"Come on," he replied, "I know you like it."

I shivered as his fingers slipped further up, between my legs. I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came out, just one shaky breath.

"You want to get out of here?" Sebastian whispered, looking me up and down.

My heart pounding, I looked up at the room. My eyes were met by two dark brown ones, and reality hit me like a bucket of icy water. I pushed Sebastian's hand away and shook my head.

"No, I... I'm fine here. I'm just... I'm fine," I stammered, pulling away from him. Sebastian sighed and lent back, shrugging.

"Whatever," he said, "Suites me."

I shook my head at him one last time and stood up. "Tyler," I asked, "Come with me to the food tables?"

Tyler jumped up with his empty plate and joined me.

"You might want to get that spaghetti out of your hair, too," I said as we left the group.

"Ew, what?" he exclaimed, flicking the food out of his hair.

At dinner times, there were the usual lines to collect food, but there were also tables in one corner with some extra things; microwaveable foods, salad, some fruit, a kettle and drinks, a toaster and, of course, a microwave.

As we passed by, I stole a glance to Rowan. He was looking at me, an eyebrow raised as if he were judging my every action. I ignored him and tapped Tyler.

"It was Frankie who did it - if you couldn't have guessed," I said, glancing back to the table where Frankie and Sebastian had gotten into a heated debate, "Are you two always like this?"

Tyler laughed as we came to the food tables, "Actually, this is kind of different. Usually, we're super close- best friends. Always agreeing on everything, and even when we fight together we're completely synchronised- like one person. But ever since- ah, lately, things have been tense. I take it the spaghetti in my hair was an attempt at humour, probably to make up for all the arguments we've gotten into recently."