"Do you believe in ghosts?" I asked randomly as we drove down a long straight road. One of my arms draped loosely over the steering wheel and the other hung lazily, resting on the open window.
"Ghosts no, spirits maybe, fairies hell yeah."
I grinned. "I always thought fairies lived in the clouds when I was a kid."
He smiled. "I wish I was a little kid again, life was so simple then." He seemed to drift out if the conversation a little then, lost in his own thoughts.
Silence filled the small space as the dry landscape blurred by.
"You know you're a lot different than I first thought you'd be," I admitted.
I heard him shift in his seat. "Different, how?"
"Well I thought you'd be the typical bad boy type, don't care attitude, rude, self centred."
He mock gasped. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to judge a book by its cover sunshine?"
I shrugged. "I never did like that saying. Books with shitty covers tend to have shitty content."
"What about me?"
"What about you?"
"Would you read me?" He saw me raise an eyebrow. "Hypothetically speaking, if I was a book."
"Well considering you're not actually a book, and we're speaking hypothetically, maybe I'd read you. But a few pages are missing words."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
Damn you Justin Bieber, you just have to show up everywhere don't you?
"You're hard to read, that's all."
"I take it we're not speaking hypothetically anymore."
I shrugged, kind of dropping the conversation. "What about me? If I was a book, would you read me?"
He nodded, grinning. "Yeah, you would be one of those beautiful old books with the leather covers, gold cursive and detailing on the cover and crisp pages with that smell only old books have."
"Are you calling me old?" I joked.
"No, I'm calling you beautiful."
My face was the colour of lava as those words left his mouth.
I saw him smirking out of the corner of my eye as he saw my reaction to the compliment.
I actually think I have an allergic reaction to compliments. Why else would my face get red and feel hot enough to cook an egg on?
"You don't get compliments very often, do you?" He asked.
"What's there to compliment?" I mumbled.
"You really don't get it do you?"
"Get what exactly?"
He sighed. "When you look in the mirror, what do you see?"
Was this a trick question?
"Uh...I see me?"
"Right, because you're so used to just seeing your own reflection. But when I see you, I see every little detail. The way your eyes aren't just brown, but they have little flecks of gold. The way the left side of your mouth lifts more than the right side when you smile. The tiny freckles that are spread over the bridge of your nose and cheeks, and don't think I forgot about that dimple on your left cheek."
What was I supposed to say to that?
"Um...thanks?"
He chuckled. "You're welcome sunshine."
~*~*~*~*~
The rest of our trip was pretty uneventful aside from the dozens of texts I received from Caleb, which in the end Ryan was replying to because I was driving.
"Here," Ryan said, handing me my phone as I parked my jeep in the driveway. "He wants to know your opinion on egg noodles."
My eyebrows shot up. "Egg noodles?"
"Yeah, have fun with that," he teased as he grabbed his bag from the backseat, which was still lay where it was discarded on Friday.
We both jumped out of the car, I almost fell on my butt. Driving for eight hours straight tends to send your legs into hibernation mode and they take a while to wake up. Ryan on the other hand, seemed perfectly unaffected by the limited amount of foot space in my jeep, whistling as he walked past me to get to his house.
"Hey!" I shouted just as he was going to open the front door.
He stopped whistling, looking at me expectantly.
"Not many people would have agreed to come with me on such short notice to get to someone they don't even know, so...thank you I guess."
"I don't mind, spending time with you is my favourite pastime." He said it jokingly, sending me a wink, but I somehow hoped he meant it.
I sighed, as he closed the door.
Guess what Hazel? My brain spoke to me.
I rolled my eyes. What?
You've got history homework.
I pouted. "Dream killer," I mumbled aloud.
Dad was standing in the kitchen when I walked into the house.
I pinched my nose as I got closer.
"What is that smell?"
He turned around as he heard me. He was wearing a pink polka dot apron, and holding a giant kitchen utensil that I didn't know the name of.
"Wow, that's...something," I said, taking in his appearance.
He nodded. "I'm cooking poultry."
I peered through the oven door, staring at the uneven sized chunks of chicken sitting in about an inch of oil.
"I'm pretty sure that's how you set the oven on fire, not how you
cook chicken."
He sighed, turning off the oven. "You and I both know I can't cook, but we can't be eating pizza for every meal."
I raised an eyebrow. "Chinese?"
"You know me so well."
~*~*~*~*~
"Do you think we should tell her that her shirt is majorly clashing with her pants?" Tara whispered as a girl wearing neon pink pants and a red shirt walked past our table.
"It's a statement I'll give her that."
"It's a train wreck."
"Leave her alone, she's happy."
"She won't be happy when the fashion police show up and arrest her for destruction of property," Tara warned.
"What property?"
"My eyeballs!" She exclaimed, opening her eyes as wide as they would go.
I rolled my eyes. "You're so dramatic."
She waved a hand. "Please, I'm just trying to save that girl from her fashion nightmare."
"Not what I would class as a fashion nightmare."
"What would you class as a fashion nightmare my dear friend Hazel?"
"Being hit over the head with a high heel."
She sniffed, inspecting her nails. "I could arrange that."
"Wow, you're a true friend," I said sarcastically.
"What'd I miss?" Ryan asked as he plonked his tray down on the table, next to me.
"Oh nothing really, Tara was just offering to hit me over the head with a high heel."
"That's not what I said," She detested. "I said I could arrange it, which means I would pay someone else to do it."
"Oh right because that makes it so much better," I said with an eye roll.
Tara huffed. "You're very sassy today."
I snorted, noticing Ryan's tray for the first time.
"What is that?"
He poked the slimy brown stuff on his tray. "To be honest, I'm not really sure."
"Dude, if I didn't know any better I'd say it was shi-" Lee was cut off by Tara.
"Some of us are eating here," she said, waving her bowl of fries around for emphasis.
"You're not seriously going to eat that are you?" I asked, looking up at him.
"Well..."
"Here," I said, producing a green apple from my bag.
"You sure?"
"It's just an apple," I said as he took it from my hand.
He shrugged, sending me a dazzling smile. He threw the apple in the air, caught it, then bit into it.
I grabbed a handful of fries from Tara, shoving them I'm my mouth before she could complain.
"What, so you give your food away then steal mine?" She frowned.
I nodded.
"Doesn't seem like a very good deal to me."
"Sharing is caring."
"What if I don't care?"
"Then I'll take your food anyway."
"Thought so."
Tara stared blankly at the table before her facial expression completely changed.
"I'm so excited for prom!" She squealed. "It's going to be so much fun. We'll have our hair and makeup and nails done. Then we'll get to dance, it's going to be amazing," she gushed.
I couldn't think of anything worse.
"You look real enthused about that sunshine," Ryan whispered.
"How'd you guess?" I replied sarcastically.
"Don't worry, it'll be fun."
"How do you know?"
"Because you're going with me of course."
I rolled my eyes. "I don't even get prom, what's the point?"
"You get to dress up, dance, whisper about how ugly girls' dresses are behind their backs. What's not to like?" Tara said.
"Uh, everything except for the insulting people par-" the end of my sentence was cut off by the bell ringing loudly, signalling the end of lunch.
I groaned loudly. Why does my life revolve around that obnoxious sound. I swear if I was a school principal we would be listening to Panic! At The Disco after every class.
"What class do you have?" Ryan asked, offering me a hand to get out of my seat.
"Art," I replied.
"Would you look at that, so do I!"
I gave him a blank stare. "We're in the same class."
"I know, I was just checking to see if you were paying attention."
"Sure," I said, a smile playing on my lips.
He casually threw an arm around my shoulders, steering me out of the cafeteria, shooting his apple core into a bin on the way past. The hallway was rather congested as people unwillingly trudged to their classes, but we made our way through with ease.
"It's like you're Noah and they're the Red Sea," I remarked.
"That's actually Moses who parted the Red Sea," he smirked.
I pouted, crossing my arms across my chest. "I was close."
"Sure sunshine."
I frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Noah was the guy who built the boat," he chuckled.
"Oh," I said in realisation. "The guy with the animal fetish."
He threw his head back and laughed. "Yeah, something like that."
We arrived at our art class and took a seat at an empty table.
You'll never guess who turned up next.
"Hi Hazel."
I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
"Hi Annie," I said with a sickly sweet smile, watching as she flirtatiously batted her eyes in a seizure like manner. Of course she was trying to seduce Ryan, not me, that would be weird.
She plastered on her own fake smile, directing her attention towards me. "I just wanted to say that your makeup looks really great today and I love your shoes." With that she was gone.
I looked at Ryan. "Did she just...hit on me?"
"I don't know what she was trying to do, but it was creepy as fuck."
I moved my hand to my face, swiping it across my cheek. My hand returned free of any fakeness. I peered down at my shoes; all black converses that had started to turn a dark shade of green.
"She said my makeup looked great...I'm not wearing makeup," I said uneasily.
He frowned, shifting his eyes to where Annie was once again seated. "Something weird is going on in her brain."
I shrugged off the weird encounter, opening my sketchbook and continuing the most recent piece I had started. I could feel Ryan's eyes on my hand as it glided over the page with ease, the lead in my pencil exploring the sharp edges and soft lines it had already created. Part way through the lesson I noticed footsteps that sounded like they were coming my way. I gently placed my pencil down, without looking up.
"Look Annie, I don't know what..." The words died on my lips as I looked up to find Alex standing there.
"Alex?"
He smiled, awkwardly waving. "Hey, can I, uh, talk to you?"
"Sure," I said, waiting expectantly.
"Alone," he specified, glancing at Ryan.
I shrugged. "Okay."
Ryan glared at Alex, who gulped as he led me to a quiet corner of the room.
He stood there for a while, as if mentally debating whether or not to say what he wanted to tell me.
"I did it!" He blurted.
I made a face. "Did what?"
"It was me, I did it," he repeated.
"Yeah I got that the first time. What did you do?"
"I took it."
I rolled my eyes. "Took what? spit it out!"
"I took that book you left here a while ago."
My mouth dropped open in disbelief, then curled into a look of disgust. "You took my sketchbook?"
"It wasn't on purpose," he protested.
"How do you accidentally steal something?" I asked. I was getting a little bit angry at that point.
"I took it because I was going to give it back to you the next day-"
"But you didn't."
"I couldn't give it back because Erika saw me with it at my house."
"Why the hell was Erika at your house?" I almost yelled, trying to understand why he wouldn't just spit out what he wanted to say.
"She dates my brother."
Oh this just gets better and better.
"Does he happen to be the one that she cheated on Ryan with in his own house?" I asked.
He gulped, playing with his fingers and looking at them like they had suddenly become baby pandas.
"Oh wow, that's real classy," I said, suspecting I was right when my question was met with silence.
"It wasn't me-" he started to protest.
"No, but we wouldn't be having this conversation if you couldn't have just minded your own business."
"Look, I wanted to give it back to you but she wouldn't let me."
"What, did she chop off your arms so you were physically unable to hand it back to me?"
"No, she threatened me."
I rolled my eyes. "And you don't think she's threatened me before?"
"Yeah but look where that got you. It got your face plastered all over those posters." His eyes widened as he realised what he said and be tried to backtrack. "I mean..uh-"
I narrowed my eyes. "That was you?"
"Yeah but-"
"But what?!" I said, throwing my hands in the air. "It makes sense that it was you actually. That time you were sneaking around my locker and the fact that you don't eat lunch with us anymore. You seem like the backstabbing type," I said, glaring at him.
"Look, I didn't want to do it, she made me."
"Where have I heard that before. You know Ryan's not going to like this."
He grabbed my arm painfully. "No, you can't tell him."
I shook my arm out of his grip. "I can tell whoever the hell I want to tell."
"Please Hazel," he pleaded. "If you tell him it won't just affect me."
I flipped him the bird, and stalked back to my seat.
"What was that all about?" Ryan asked. He looked concerned.
"Oh, um, Alex just...asked me out."
His eyebrows shot up. "And?"
"I said no, he's not my type."
Backstabbing isn't my type.
~*~*~*~*~
So, what did you think of that chapter? I know a few of you suspected it was Alex so a round of applause for you guys.
I actually thought this book was going to be super short, but I keep adding stuff in and making more work for myself. Nice one Ashley.
Oh, and I thought you might like to know that Covered In Ink was number fifty something in teen fiction a couple of days ago. That probably doesn't sound very impressive to some of you
but to me it's mind blowing.
Keep voting, commenting and following :)
Until next time.