Just as Zach’s lips brushed against Allie’s the door of one of the apartments burst open and the two jumped apart when a shout interrupted them.
“Oi!” Lucas yelled, unaware he’d interrupted anything, “Come and play twister, Han says we can’t with just two!”
Zach clenched his fists; Lucas had interrupted them for twister? He was so dead! Allie’s previous confidence evaporated as she stood there blushing. Her nervousness returned and she flashed Zach an awkward smile.
“Come on, it’ll be fun,” she began walking over to Lucas.
Kissing you would have been fun, too. Zach thought, but he kept his mouth shut. Instead Zach caught up with Allie and grabbed onto her hand as they walked into the apartments Lucas shared with Hannah.
Hannah was sitting at the kitchen table, her laptop and camera were set out in front of her and connected to each other by a cable. She was clicking through a file of images, staring intently as they flashed across the screen. When the other’s entered, Hannah looked up and sighed.
“You couldn’t have said no?”
Lucas smiled triumphantly at her, “You can spin the spinny thing, and take photos, please?”
Hannah rolled her eyes at Lucas’ childish behaviour.
Allie stifled her giggle, when she had met Lucas he was very sure of himself; he had a teasing manner and seemed almost charming in his own way. Allie hadn’t expected this to be a side of him.
Hannah gave in to Lucas’ puppy dog eyes. Fifteen minutes later they were all laughing as Lucas was inapprotiatly wrapped around Allie and had his face inches from Zach’s.
“Hannah! Spin the damn thing! Lucas looks like he’s about to kiss me!” Zach laughed while trying to maintain his balance.
Hannah smirked and snapped pictures of their awkward positions; capturing the memory permanently and intentionally taking her sweet time doing so.
Finally, she spun, “Lucas, left hand on blue!” she smile raising her camera again, trying to get shots of Lucas struggling to untangle himself from Allie.
Zach pulled a face at Allie and she laughed, slipping as she did which knocked Lucas off balance so that the three all fell in a laughing heap. Hannah took some more shots; giggling behind her camera as they tried to untangle themselves.
“Again!” Lucas shouted when he was free of the mess of limbs.
“No!” Allie groaned, collapsing onto the couch.
“Don’t be a spoilsport!” Lucas cried, jumping on her, he proceeded to tickle her sides.
Allie gasped, squirming beneath Lucas’ hold, she laughed as she twisted beneath him, “Lucas! Guys help!”
Hannah just laughed, taking more photographs. Allie was struggling, unable to hold in her laughter as Lucas dug his fingers into her side. While she was trying to escape him, Allie tumbled from the couch onto the carpeted floor, but Lucas fell with her, not forfeiting.
“Let her go man,” Zach forced a laugh, trying to hide the jealousy he was feeling from his voice. He didn’t like Lucas’ closeness to Allie.
“Make me!” Lucas grinned at Zach with a wink.
Allie tried to sit up and push Lucas off, but he didn’t budge. He lay down across her stomach so they were an ‘X’ on the floor. Allie kept laughing and trying to push him off but he just grinned evilly at her.
“Zach?” she pleaded, finally giving up with her struggling.
With a sigh, Zach went over and pulled Lucas up off her, Allie jumped immediately to her feet and grinned at me. “My hero” she teased him, giving Zach an exaggerated kiss on the cheek.
Hannah laughed, “That was cute! I got that on camera!”
Allie laughed along with her and fell onto the couch beside her, “Show me!” she demanded like a little kid.
Hannah clicked the view button and handed over the camera. Zach watched Allie as she smiled widely at the snapshot.
“Awww! Zach! We’re adorable!” she gushed jumping up and hugging him again.
Zach felt a rush and he turned his head so it was buried in Allie’s hair, noticing Hannah was taking photos again. When he breathed in Zach relaxed a little; inhaling the smell of Allie’s shampoo. There was just something nice, comforting about breathing her in. Zach didn’t want to let Allie go. As if reading his thoughts, and like he was trying to punish Zach all night; Lucas tackled the apparent couple to the ground, tearing them apart.
~
At around eight o’clock, Allie said goodbye to her new friends and headed back to her own ‘home’. The past two days had been exhausting for her. Allie had seemed to click so well with these new personas; she was comfortable being physically close to them. Nate could get her to spill her thoughts faster than anyone she’d known, ever; it was like he was the butter making the words slippery and tumble out before Allie could stop them. She was yet to spend much time with Liam, but Allie could tell there wouldn’t be any issues with him. Lucas brought out the best in her immediately; bringing back the bubbly jumpy personality that’s been hiding away for months. Allie liked him, his sweet smile, his ability to laugh and crack stupid jokes, mostly she liked the way he appreciated the simple things. Hannah brought out Allie’s confidence, her determination; there was very little of it left within Allie’s heart, but Hannah seemed to magnetize it and pull it to the surface making Allie determined to prove herself. Zach; Allie couldn’t get him off her mind. The reactions her body had when he touched her, the way her heart would speed up when she saw him. It was intoxicating.
Allie’s phone chimed in her pocket, and she pulled it out to see she had received a new multimedia message. It was an image from Hannah; one of the pictures that had been taken that afternoon. Allie saw herself holding onto Zach, Zach hiding his face in her hair. Allie squeaked a little, the picture was cute. She saved it to her phone memory and set it as Zach’s caller ID. Discarding her phone on her cover’s she tossed her shirt and pants into the laundry basket before heading into her bathroom in her underwear. It had been a busy day; she was in need of a relaxing shower.
When Allie returned to her bedroom and was freshly settled in shorts and a singlet; ready for bed, she picked her phone back up and plugged it into it’s charger. When the screen lit up she was greeted with the notification informing her that she had two new messages.
Zach
I am going to see mum tomorrow morning, but do you want to do something in the afternoon? (: x
Nate!
He loved it so much! Thank you! You’re the best!!! xx
Allie didn’t bother replying to Nate’s message, she was just staring at the one from Zach. He was still coming back for more. Allie couldn’t fathom how it was that she had caught his attention; but she was not complaining, not at all.
What did you have in mind? (:
She tapped her reply, quickly debating whether or not to put a winky face instead of a smiley before hitting send.
She opened Nate’s message, but didn’t reply. Allie figured he would be busy with Liam, so she could talk to him in the morning rather than steal any of his attention away.
Zach
Anything, I’ll call you when Tayla releases me, okay? x
Alright! I’m going to sleep now... Goodnight xx
Allie smiled, put her phone down and let herself drift off to sleep.
~
Allie woke up early the next morning, 7:00AM. She just lay in bed, staring at the bare ceiling above her head. Without realising it, Allie’s mind strayed to Zach. His perfect skin, his deep but golden brown eyes, the way he styled his hair... his hands on her waist yesterday as he pulled her closer. Allie was incredibly aware of how close they had been to kissing, until Lucas had to come running out and interrupted. Admittedly, Allie was a little relieved that he had. What if when she had kissed Zach, he didn’t like it? The thought made her stomach drop. What if Zach realised there was nothing special about Allie at all? There’d been a fraction of a second where their lips had brushed over each others, but it barely counted. Allie had definitely felt it though, the electric shock that shot through her limbs, causing her heart to stop. Just at the tiniest touch; it had sent everything inside of her into overdrive. Allie rolled over onto her stomach, burying her face in her pillows, she groaned loudly. All Allie wanted to do was skip all the nonsense, she wished Zach could just know her inside out, wished he could know everything she had been through without her ever actually having to talk about it, because then maybe she could close her eyes and take the damn leap of faith. Allie couldn’t do that yet, there was just too much that Zach didn’t know.
One thing Allie had always wanted in a relationship was for it to develop out of a friendship. She wanted to know Zach, to understand the meaning behind the things he did, and love him for those things. Allie wanted him to want the same things. Right then, she was just infatuated with him, and Allie knew she couldn’t let that be the basis of anything. As much as part of her was screaming to just jump in the deep end, Allie couldn’t.
Pushing herself out of bed Allie stretched out and heard her back crack in several places. It loosened her up. She must have slept in a funny position the previous night. Making her way from the bedroom Allie spotted her father sitting at their little kitchen table, papers and books spread out around him. Busy immersing himself in his work again. Surprise, surprise. It was all he did. He was so busy trying to fix everyone else’s broken lives and teaching them to sort through their issues, he’d forgotten about his own. He’d forgotten about Allie. Well, not entirely, but he hardly looked at her. He never spoke to her properly. Allie wanted it to change, she missed him. She missed the father she once laughed with, the man who taught her to be open, to believe in herself a little more than she did. Allie missed the father who was honest, who encouraged her, who believed in her. She missed her dad, the dad who she loved, and who loved her. The man before her was a stranger.
“Dad?” Allie asked, she couldn’t recall talking to him in the past week.
Allie’s father didn’t acknowledge her, but she knew he was listening, because at the sound of her voice he tensed a little. Allie wondered if he did it out of guilt. She knew it couldn’t have bypassed him what he was doing to her.
“So, I start school on Monday... But I don’t have any books or anything... And we’re running out of food...”
Her father didn’t look up, but he reached out and tapped his wallet. It was sticking out from underneath one of his proposals for a new program. “Blue. £150.”
Anytime Allie needed something, money wise, that was what he did. He told her the colour of the card and her limit.
“Credit?” she asked, and he simply nodded.
With a disheartened sigh Allie took the card from his wallet and went back to her room. After digging her own purse out of a handbag and putting the card in she fell onto her bed again. It should not have been like that. Allie should have been back home, her mother should have been there, her brother should still have been there, and so should her sister. They should have been a family.
~
“Oi! Anderson!” Allie shouted, closing her front door behind herself.
Zach spun around in response to his surname, a smile spreading across his face at the sound of Allie’s voice.
“Where are you off to, love?” he asked as he retraced his way back to her.
Allie fought back the blush at his words, accompanied by her swooning over his accent, “Shopping,” she wiggled her purse in his face.
“Well you have perfect timing, I’m just headed over to mum’s shop. You need a lift?” Zach swung his arm around Allie’s shoulders turning her towards the parking spaces where his car was waiting, “What are you shopping for?”
“Food and school supplies,” Allie made a disgusted face at her second agenda item.
"Oh yeah, Monday,” Zach opened Allie’s door for her before jogging around to the drivers side and sliding in behind the wheel.
“Shut up,” Allie muttered, “This is my last year, and if I was back in Australia I’d already be halfway through it!”
“It’ll fly by,” Zach smiled over at her.
Allie just rolled her eyes at him. “Easy for you to say! It’s done and dusted for you! Now you get to finally move on with your life and do what you want!”
“Jealous?” Zach grinned
“Incredibly.”
“Don’t be, it’s scary. You can’t blame everyone else if you stuff up.”
“You’ll be alright, you’ve got a good support network,” Allie shot him a smile, relaxing back into her seat a little.
Zach shrugged a little, not really wanting to go into too much detail about how he was secretly terrified for his life to really begin.
When Zach stopped the car, they climbed out onto the street, a few stores down from Zach’s destination.
“I’m going that way,” Allie nodded her head over her shoulder in the opposite direction.
Zach pouted at her, it made Allie’s heart beat a little faster, with a little smile, she tapped his nose, told him not to miss her too much, then turned to walk away.
“I’ll see you later?” Zach called out as she walked away.
“It’s a date,” Allie laughed back watching the smile spread over his features immediately.
~
Allie climbed out of the cab that she had taken home. Her arms weighed down with bags. She made her way over to her apartment, in no hurry to find herself trapped within the confines of her walls. She let her mind remain elsewhere, on the bright smile she couldn’t seem to stop seeing, to the light touches that wouldn’t fade from her memory. Zach was intoxicating.
Allie found that her father wasn’t home anymore, she supposed that he just went back to the office, even though it was a Saturday. There seemed to be more for him there than there was in their ‘home’. Admittedly, it hurt Allie to know that. She put away the shopping and dumped her new school supplies on her bed. Allie quickly made the decision that there was no point in sitting around the house for hours doing nothing, besides, she wanted to take advantage of the fact that it wasn’t raining. Her hand itched, and Allie knew why. Getting down on her her stomach, Allie stretched out under her bed, feeling around for what she needed. Fknally her blind hands located the shoebox she was looking for. Tugging it out she took out the packet of chalk that had been untouched since Allie came to London. Straightening up, she pushed the chalk into her oversized hoodie pockets and grabbed her iPod before going out for a walk.
The wind whipped her face as she shoved her hands in her pockets and watched her feet move in front of each other. Allie didn’t know exactly where she was going, but she paid enough attention to be able to find her way back. She still didn’t know the area very well, and the last thing she wanted was to get lost. There was a park across the road, it was small, and empty for a Saturday, so Allie made her way over. Gravel crunched beneath her feet and she looked around for the perfect place. There was a foot path circling the playground; so Allie headed over to a section that was sheltered by the shade of tree and sat herself on the grass by the edge of the path. Leaning back slightly, Allie removed her earphones and she looked up through the canopy of leaves that was now above her head. She briefly admired the green, blue and white pattern she was greeted with, allowing herself to relax in her new surroundings. She felt her muscles relax, and all the stress drain out of her body. Inhaling a final, cleansing breath, Allie righted herself and pulled the chalk from her pocket.
She didn’t focus too hard. Allie just let her artistic instinct take over. It wasn’t until halfway through her chalk drawing on the pavement that she realised what exactly she was drawing. She paused as her hands began to shake and dropped the chalk. Abruptly getting to her feet, Allie brushed her hands on her pants and walked over her picture to the swingset on the playground. Abandoning the image of the tree house in Troys backyard that they used to spend hour after hour in.
“Why did you stop?” Someone asked from behind Allie, making her pause in her tracks and spin back around.
A tall boy was leaning against the tree that had been sheltering her, he was smiling at Allie with a little sparkle in his eyes, and a whole lot of curiosity. Allie frowned at him, she hadn’t realised anyone had been there. How had she not heard him coming? The guy was cute, messy brown hair fell over his green eyes, his crossed arms were flexed slightly, he definitely wasn’t weak. Allie realised she was staring, quickly blinking she shook her head and tried to return his smile. With a smirk, he straightened up and sauntered over to the swing set that Allie had been headed to. Allie’s curiosity got the better of her and she sat in the empty swing beside him. She had to tilt her head a little to look up at his face, he was a lot taller than her.
“You got a name?” he asked, watching Allie watch him.
“Do you?” Allie shoot back.
Honestly, Allie wasn’t sure how to talk to him. She wasn’t used to being approached by strangers for no reason. People generally let her be. So who was this stranger who wanted to speak to her now? Even when Zach and Nate had come across her in the rain it made more sense for them to wonder about her, after all her behaviour at the time hadn’t exactly screamed normal.
“Rob,” his smile grew wider, “Your turn.”
“Allie,”
“Where are you from, Allie?” Rob asked, noticing the strange twinge to her voice.
Allie eyed him suspiciously, there was something about his tone and expression that made her wonder what his game was.
“Australia...” She slowly replied.
“Really? Wicked! Your accent it’s awesome!”
Allie actually hated the fact that she was in England with an Australian accent. She had always found Australian accents so rough, but English ones, British accents were just amazing, they sounded so beautiful.
“I sound like a man,” Allie rolled her eyes; surprising herself by cracking a joke.
Rob raised his eyebrows before breaking into laughter, he doubled over holding his stomach.
“Oh, wow,” he breathed out as his laughter subsided. “That’s great!” he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.
Allie just sat there stupidly, she had been kidding, but usually her awkward sense of humour wasn’t something people found appealing, at least not that appealing. Rob obviously wasn’t an awkward person.
“Artist, pretty face and a comedian? What else have ya got up ya sleeve?” Rob was still chuckling lightly as he asked Allie his question.
“A whole lot of curiosity about the boy who likes my first impressions.”
“Why’s that? Don’t you like mine?” Rob frowned at her; but his eyes still shined. Allie realised he was teasing her.
“You’re a little too confident for my liking,” Allie raised an eyebrow at him and let a smile play on her lips, not sure of her own tone.
“Oh, so you’re one of those controlling types, gotta have the upper hand?”
Allie was shocked, why was he so quick to jump to that conclusion? That wasn’t at all what she was like. Allie lied to herself big time. She would love to always be the one with the upper hand, it’s why she was so scared to get attached to people, to let people see the real her. Fear that they would gain some kind of power over her. Being the one with the upper hand meant you didn’t get hurt, and that’s the way Allie liked it.
“Why so quick to judge?” Allie snapped.
“Why so quick to deny?” he shot back. Damn, he was good. He picked up on the little things.
“I wasn’t!”
“You did it again!”
“No I didn’t!”
“Ahhh, so that’s why you like to have the upper hand? A defence mechanism!”
What? How was he doing that? Was Allie speaking out loud? She waited to see if she’d spoken, but Allie mustn’t have been because Rob didn’t acknowledge it.
“I’m not defensive.” Allie grumbled, frowning at the annoying yet intriguing stranger. What was his deal?
“You are a little bit,” he smiled at her.
Who even does that? Just walks up to people and starts reading them like a book. That was kind of creepy.
“So? Why the interest?” Allie questioned him
“See! There! Defensive again,” Rob looked smug, it was irritating to Allie.
“Fine! I’m defensive! Happy? But you didn’t answer my question.”
“You have talent,”
“And that’s reason enough to come up and start trying to read me like a book?”
“Well, why not?” He looked at Allie expectantly, waiting for an answer.
Allie didn’t have one for him, not a good one anyway. He raised a brilliant point. Why not? Just because Allie wasn’t one to be so forward, didn’t mean people couldn’t have their own confidence. When Allie didn’t give Rob his awaited reply, his smug attitude returned.
“I’m only gonna live once. Why hide myself in the shadows when I see a pretty girl like you sitting alone? If I don’t put myself out there then how exactly is that doing me any favours?” Allie could tell it was a rhetorical question.
“What, you’re immune to the fear of rejection?” She joked, Rob laughed, the little twinkle returning to his eye.
“Nobody’s immune to that!” he pushed his feet from the ground and began to use the swing as an actual swing rather than just sitting there and swaying. “But there’s six billion people in the world, if a few don’t like me, so what? Plenty more will.”
“Keep telling yourself that!” Allie giggled, slowly becoming her playful self. His confidence was starting to rub off on her.
“That hurt, Allie.” He exaggerated a pout, and Allie only laughed harder.
“Sorry princess,” she winked, “So if you’re so good at making friends, why are you all alone?”
“I’m not,” He pointed out with a smile.
“But you were” the conversation flowed easily, Allie didn’t need to think about the words that came flowing from her mouth.
“Everyone needs some alone time,”
“Oh, well, don’t let me interrupt!”
“That’s okay, I’ll forgive you,” he winked at Allie from up in the air.
Allie couldn’t deny that she was intrigued. She had never known anyone to talk so easily so quickly to someone they didn’t know. Maybe she had just never met the right people. She smiled a little to herself, Rob was interesting, and maybe it wasn’t going to be a bad thing that she had met him.
They spent an hour talking about useless crap, but at the same time it wasn’t useless at all. Allie was getting to know someone knew, from scratch. They weren’t forcibly asking questions, conversation just flowed, as if they were both following the same train of thought, it never felt like a change of topic was forced, it just seemed to fit with what they were both thinking and how they processed the information they were hearing. Allie felt like she had known him for months already after just an hour. The two probably would have kept talking, if Allie’s phone hadn’t chimed from inside her pocket interrupting Rob’s words.
“I’ve never really been a cat person” Rob was saying as her phone went off.
Pulling it out Allie read the message from Zach.
Zach(:
Will you be free in about 20 mins? x
“Someone special?” Rob asked, observing the smile that appeared on Allie’s lips at the sight of the message.
“Kind of...”
“Boyfriend? Or...”
Allie hesitated, Zach wasn’t really anything, technically they were just friends, and she knew she wasn’t ready for more than that, even if she would have liked it.
“Or.” Allie told him.
“Girlfriend?”
Allie almost choked on her own laughter as she shook her head, “Just a guy I met... He’s... I dunno...”
“On your mind all the time?”
“Yeah...”
Rob smiled at her, he liked Allie, she seemed like a cool chick; definitely someone he could get along with. He didn’t feel at all disappointed hearing that there was someone in her life.
“What, and you’re not on his?” he questioned.
“I dunno...We just haven’t known each other too long... Anyway, I have to go.” Allie smiled, standing up from her seat on the swing.
“Maybe I’ll see you later?” he asked with a genuine smile that Allie couldn’t help return along with a nod, “Here, let me give you my number,” Rob offered.
Allie willingly handed over her phone and he tapped it in. With a promise to text him, Allie then made her way back ‘home’, popping her earphones back in and smiling to herself as she walked.
Maybe things weren’t going to be so bad, at least not forever.
~
Allie was too busy looking at her feet she didn’t see Hannah almost collide with her as she got back to the apartments..
“Oi, watch it new girl!” Hannah laughed as Allie jumped out of the way of the girl on the skateboard.
“Shit,” Allie cursed, holding a hand over her heart which was now beating a little too rapidly for all the wrong reasons.
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have hit ya. Whatchya doin’?”
Hannah stood on her skateboard, moving it back and forth slightly so she looked like she was swaying as she spoke to Allie.
“Going to see Zach,” Allie hated herself for blushing.
Hannah wiggled her eyebrows at Allie, not missing the colour in her cheeks. “Oooooh,” she teased.
Allie mumbled something that sounded a little like ‘shut up’ but Hannah ignored it.
“Well I won’t keep you from lover boy,” she teased.
Allie groaned and gave Hannah a glare, but Hannah just laughed and waved, skating away off down the street.
Allie was on Zach’s doorstep when her phone went off, she sat down, knowing that Zach was still at least ten minutes away.
Rob
It was nice meeting you today, do you think we could hang out next week? (:
How did you get my number, I didn’t text you yet! Haha (: But sure I’d love to! (: Allie sent back.
Rob
Oh, right, I sent myself a message when I saved my number to your phone, sorry! Haha...
That’s alright, next week sounds great anyway (: she smiled to herself.
Rob
Okay, awesome! I can’t wait ;)
And honestly, neither could Allie.