History was definitely my least favorite subject. Especially with Mr. Wellson teaching it with his monotone voice and straight lined face and half closed eyes. In all honesty, he himself seemed to be bored out of the world of The Second World War.
He probably wasn't good friends with Hitler.
But then again, who was?
I sigh, sinking deeper into my seat to the point where I could fall to the marbled floor with one more simple movement. Mr. Wellson walks beside my desk, giving a sigh too before continuing to speak on and on. I let my eyes drift in the direction of the window a row from me, watching the grey sky in awe. The clouds were roaring outside, threatening a hard rain as a welcome for Autumn. To say the least, I am thrilled for the touch of a raindrop.
"Lindsay, I swear, if you don't put the phone in your bag I will keep you all after class for a fun history activity."
I snap my head the sound of that sentence, glaring daggers at Lindsay along with the rest of the class to put her phone away. Even Mr. Wellson was begging her with his eyes to put her phone away, despite his strict voice. "Lindsay, put that phone away. You'll get to view pictures of your crush after this class ends. Please." Mike says, his voice a hearable whisper. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, the blushing girl tucked her phone inside her bag quickly while keeping her head down.
The bell rings, and we all hurry to get out of class, and I could've sworn I saw Mr. Wellson doing a happy dance upon hearing the ringing melody.
Stalking out of class, a hand holds a tight grip on me, spinning me towards the person making the sudden move. As my eyes register the one looking at me pleadingly, I feel my fingers tighten into a fist in annoyance. "What do you want?" I say, moving my eyes to the students passing by. "I want to talk." he answers, his voice devoid of emotion. "Let go of my arm." I say, my voice low and demanding. Theo let go of my arm, apologizing for holding it so tightly.
"Look, I want to make things right between us."
"Aren't you a bit late? It's been almost a week since that happened."
"I just- I don't know how to do this. I've never been in a situation like this."
"Do you remember that promise you made me?"
He was silent at the sound of that as he walked beside me. I looked at him quietly, taking in how his hair hid his face, yet still didn't manage to hide the hard look in his eyes. "Yeah.." he said after a beat, giving me a hesitant glance. "Well, you broke it when you tried to determine how and with whom I'm going where. You can't decide things for me, Theo. I haven't even known you for three months. Let alone a year. And even if I have, you still won't have the chance to tell me what to do and what not to do. Especially if you're having an argument about it with another person like I don't even have my own opinion and my own voice. I appreciate you looking out for me, but I am not a baby and I don't need a babysitter, that's for sure."
He looked at me with shame dancing in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I really didn't mean it, and I wouldn't have done it if I had known you would be so upset about it. I'm sorry, Mabelle."
"It's fine. Now go. You have detention to attend to." I replied, giving him a slight shove in the direction of the room. A slow grin emerged onto his face, a glint entering his eyes. "Have you been stalking me, Lemonade Girl?" he asks, looking into my eyes daringly. "The whole school knows you sprayed a rose onto the window glass of a teacher, Porch. It's hard not to assume that you have detention." I said, rolling my eyes at him. "Did you just roll your eyes at me?" he asked, his movement stopping and eyebrows shooting up. I rolled my eyes again at him, earning a laugh and a whisper before he ran to detention.
"That was hot."
And I have never seen someone run to detention so eagerly up until this moment.
✾✾✾
"Are you coming tonight?"
I make way for a running girl down the hallway then return to walking normally beside Caspian. "I don't know where your house is, though." I reply, my eyebrows furrowing slightly. "That's no big deal," he said with a relaxed smile. "The place we're gathering at isn't my house, so I'll send you the address - or even better, pick you up at seven sharp?" he asks, giving me his full attention as he turns his head to me. Instead of him dodging people, people are dodging him so he finds it easier to maneuver through the halls - much unlike my own state. "Yeah, okay." I reply, shooting him a smile before almost crashing into a teacher's back. Caspian pulls me towards him with a laugh upon seeing my near accident, and he keeps his hands on my shoulders as we walk down the hallway.
"I'll see you this evening," he says once we reach my class as he turns me around to face him. "I know it's pretty hard but try not to miss me." he says then, sending me a playful wink before sauntering back towards his own class. I stand in my place, unable to find a quick witty reply, with a smile on my face and a desire for the evening to come as soon as possible.
✾✾✾
I adjust the baby blue colored crew neck sweater I chose to wear for what feels like the millionth time, then smooth down the invisible wrinkles of my jeans and tap my foot on the floor, making the white sneakers sound a bit loudly in the quiet air of my room. I proceed to give my hair a little push upwards so that it looks fuller and thicker, pleased with its slight waves and glowing look.
I hear a car honk outside and I look at the time to make sure that it is Caspian who is outside. Sure enough, the clock reads seven in the evening and I feel an excited grin flourish onto my face. I grab the wrapped gift I got for him and the patterned beige scarf from their place on the bed and hurried down the stairs and into the living room to saw goodbye to my grandparents.
"Hey," I say once I slipped into the front passenger seat of Caspian's vehicle. "Sorry I made you wait." I say, flashing him an apologetic smile. "No worries. You weren't even the slightest bit late." he replies with a returned smile as he pulls out of the driveway of my house. The scenery before us looks absolutely marvelous with its darkening colors mixing in the sky and the streetlights turned on, cascading a warm yellowish color down onto the pavement of the sidewalks. "Lovely view, isn't it?" Caspian says as he looks straight ahead, his eyes never once leaving the road ahead. "And I've got the best addition to it." I say, searching the purse that I brought with me. "You do?" he asks with a lifted eyebrow as he gives me a quick questioning glance. I take out the wrapped gift I got for him with a satisfied grin, giving it to him when we stopped at a red traffic light. "Happy birthday, Glenny." I say with a smile. "Y-You didn't have to-"
"I wanted to."
I watch as a pleased smile tugs on his lips once he uncovers the small gift. "A CD?" he asks me, speeding down the street once again as he holds the shiny thing in his free hand. "Not just any CD." I reply, taking it from his hold and entering it into the radio space for it. "Ah, country songs." he says with a chuckle and a shake of his head. "Thanks, Mabelle." he says then, grinning so widely it could have slit his jaw apart. "You're very welcome." I reply with a grin of my own, listening closely to the soft beat of the song playing.
A few minutes later we arrive at a building and pull up in its parking lot. I get out of the car and focus my gaze on the towering building above me. It shines darkly in the midst of the colorful evening and each light that could be turned on was in fact off. It was silent and consuming in a way that you couldn't, no matter how hard you try, to fight off the attracting feeling of it. I felt a shudder run through my spine as my gaze lowered to the entrance. The building was obviously abandoned - or rather newly made and not yet in use.
The car's door beside me shut close, snatching me out of my trance of thoughts. Caspian stood next to me with his hands in his jeans pockets. He was looking at the building the same way I was, only in his eyes I could see memories dancing like flames of fire. His hair was blowing softly around the edges of his forehead and his nose had a pinch of redness to it due to the slight coldness. The white sweater he wore brightened the skin of his face, sharpening the edges of his cheekbones and the glint in his eyes too.
A roar of cars came bursting through the quite ambience then, making the both of us look their way. They were two; one who had boys in it and the other had girls. I recognized some of the faces from school with some of the girls being cheerleaders and a couple of guys on the school's team. The others were strangers to me, but when they came closer and gave Caspian hugs and pats on the back I realized I've seen some of them around school in the past years whenever we had vacations. I recalled seeing Caspian leaving with them after the last period and how they always came out of the car to greet each other.
"You guys, I'd like you to meet Mabelle Reed. Mabelle, my friends." Caspian said once they all finished their greetings and looked at me questioningly. A guy came forward first, sticking his hand out for me to shake. "Hey there, I'm Luke." he said with a warm smile. "Hi," I replied as I took his hand to shake. "Nice to meet you, Luke." He nodded and retreated back to his standing place and glanced at Caspian. "Shall we, birthday boy?" Luke said, grinning at his friend with eagerness. "Absolutely." Caspian replied, the same eagerness in his voice.
We walk into the building, our footsteps and Caspian's friends' laughter and cheers the only sounds echoing in the large, marbled and empty halls. I notice that they have brought drinks and food with them in plastic bags which wrestled in their hands and made the slightest of sounds unless someone smacked the other with the plastic back he held. Caspian strolled beside me, us being the last two in the group, whistling softly to himself. "It's quite eerie in here. What is this place?" I say, inclining my head in his direction with a raised eyebrow. "It's a company - well, the building for an upcoming company. Why; do you feel uncomfortable?" he asks me. "Not specifically uncomfortable. More like breaking into a place we're not supposed to be at." I answer as I let my eyes roam the area around me.
The ceiling lights go on and off, and the floors are dirty and dusty. I see splatters of white paint on the floor beside the walls, which were not all painted. There was a desk made of black marble to the left, in a place which seemed to be ready and completed. The colors from the evening sky outside fell into the halls and hallways through the wall length glass windows, giving shades of darkening blue and purple to the dimly lit place.
"We're not supposed to be here, all right, but it's my dad's future company so I guess he'll let us off the hook. That is, if we get caught, which I don't think is possible since there are obviously no bodyguards I here and not much to steal anyways unless you were so interested in white paint."
I nod my head understandingly as we ascend a set of stairs. We reach a door that opens to the rooftop and the rest of the group have already spilled out onto the roof, laughing and shouting and telling each other to start their work. I watched them as they took out faerie lights and hung them from one pole to the other as a bunch of others worked on spreading the blankets they got and throwing the pillows across them. I went ahead to work on placing the food they got onto the blankets as well, careful not to spill anything onto the soft fabrics. Soon enough, we've had the setting all done with a faint sound of music coming from the portable music speaker Luke had brought with him.
"Now," Sarah began while looking at us with a gleam in her eyes. "The lights." she said, flicking on the faerie lights that hung above our sitting bodies. The shone in white and blue and purple and pink upon us, giving the feeling of getting lost in space in serenity. I smiled at the scene, hearing the chatter of the rest of the group unfold beside me. "You like it?" Caspian asks me in a hushed voice, leaning close to my ear so I can hear him. I feel my breath hitch in my throat at the proximity of our bodies as hotness seeped into my cheeks. I thanked the lord for the lights above us hiding my red-tinted face and only nodded my head at Caspian's question, not daring a look his way. I felt him grin beside me as eased into his previous sitting position leaning onto a wall behind him
"So Mabelle," said Nate suddenly as he gave me a warm smile. "I've heard you are Cassy's project partner?" he asks, flicking his gaze to Caspian for a mere second before his eyes glanced back at me. "Yeah." I reply, returning the smile with a nod of my head. "How'd you find our man so far?" he asked, chuckling when Caspian shot him a glare. "I bet you're annoyed by him - we all are, truly." said Lea, giggling slightly as Caspian gave out a groan. "Nah, he's alright." I say with a laugh. "You just wait and see, Mabelle. Maybe you'll change your mind a while from now." she replied, giving me a wink and a smirk. "My god, Lea. Mabelle, I beg you not to listen to her." Caspian said, looking at me with mock pleading eyes. I laughed and shook my head along with the others until James came up with the perfect idea for the night.
"I want pizza."
✾✾✾
"Thanks for the ride, Cassy."
"Oh my god, will you ever stop using that nickname?"
I laughed in the front seat of the car.
"Not at all."
"Jee, thanks."
I chuckled along with Caspian at that, staring at the lights of my house ahead of us. "So I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" I say, preparing myself to get out of car. "Sure," he replies with a glow in his eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow, and thanks for the night and the gift you got me." he says with a tap on the radio. "You're welcome, Caspian." I say as I get out of the car. I wave goodbye to him and start heading up the set of stairs to the front door. But then I hear him call my name and the sound of a car door shutting, so I turn around with my hand still on the door knob of my house and look at him quizzically. "Everything alright? I didn't forget anything in the car, did I?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows at him once he stood in front of me. He reached his hand behind his neck and scratched at it a bit, looking at the floor hesitantly. "N-no, you didn't." he says, shaking his head slightly.
"Then what is it?"
"Will you go out with me?"