Dedicated to bluest-bird
Song for chapter twelve: Pocket Full of Dreams by Hedley
|Skyler|
I walked out of the school at the end of the day, scanning the parking lot for Aden. I had no clue what his car looked like so I hoped he was already out. The wind blew wildly, tousling my hair, and I wrapped my arms around my sweater.
"You're so lucky, I can't even imagine being invited to Aden's house," Josie said beside me as we made our way down the cement steps in front of the school.
"It's for homework, I doubt it'll be any fun," I told her, rolling my eyes at Mr. Carter's stupidity.
"Oh yeah... totally. No fun at all," she drawled, wriggling her eyebrows. "See you tomorrow! You better tell me all about it," she called out to me as she ambled away to her own car.
I shook my head with a smile and scanned the lot. Thankfully, I spotted him near the front of the parking lot, close to the school. As I approached them, I realized that Aden wasn't alone.
He was standing with his friend, who's name I was pretty sure was Ryan, and... with another girl. She was laughing hard enough that it echoed throughout the parking lot, a hand touching Aden's shoulder as she spoke and giggled. His back was turned to me so I had no clue if he enjoyed the attention or not. Ryan sported a rather bored expression on his face.
I stopped walking immediately at that sight, not wanting to interrupt, and my stomach dropped at her hand that was on his shoulder. A large part of me wanted to saunter right up to them and shove it in the girls face, but the more rational side of me told me to just mind my own business.
I had no right to even feel this way since Aden and I weren't anything. I didn't even know why I felt that way.
Ryan made eye contact with me and his eyes lit up and he gave Aden a hard nudge. Aden turned around as a smile broke out onto his face.
"Hey Skyler, you ready?" Aden asked, turning his back to the girl next to him. I felt a small sense of pride at that. The blonde girl behind him spun her head in my direction, eyes slightly narrowed with an eyebrow raised. She gave Aden one last look and rolled her eyes, stalking away from him.
I nodded in response to Aden.
"Oh, right this is Ryan," Aden motioned towards the guy standing next to him.
"So this is Skyler huh," Ryan stepped forward, shoving Aden out of the way with a palm to his face. Aden grunted, taking a few steps back to balance himself. "I've heard so much about you." Ryan smirked.
"Oh you have?" I giggled.
"Oh my god, so much. He's obsessed with you, like Mariah Carey obsessed," Ryan leaned in and whispered into my ear.
"Get out of here Ryan," Aden called out to him, there were two red dots on his cheeks.
Ryan guffawed, "Alright fine, I gotta get home anyways. Have fun, but not too much fun." Ryan winked and eyed the two of us as he walked off. I kept my gaze at the ground, suddenly super interested in the cracks of the cement as I felt my cheeks heat up.
"Come on, lets get going," Aden said. I was surprised to see his cheeks tinted red. I nodded and hopped into the passenger seat in his car — an attractive one at that, a black Ford Escape. He turned up the radio and backed out of the parking lot as I clicked on my seatbelt.
We sat in a comfortable silence for a while, accompanied by the radio. Ten minutes into the ride, the radio began playing Pocket Full of Dreams by Hedley and I grinned in excitement. It was a song I hadn't heard in a really long time, and at one point I was obsessed with it.
Aden began mumbling the lyrics under his breath and my head snapped into his direction.
"You also listen to Hedley?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
He nodded, eyes trained on the road, "Yeah, used to anyways."
"Do you listen to rap?" I asked and Aden shook his head.
"Gosh no."
I sat back in my seat, satisfied and glad he didn't listen to rap. Rap music was not really my thing, to me, it just felt like a bunch of shouting and a lot less singing. Aden smiled at me from the driver's seat at my satisfaction.
A few moments later he pulled into an underground parking lot to park his car. We both got out, entering the elevator a few meters away from his parking spot. He twirled the key loop around his fingers.
"If you live so close to school, why even drive?" I asked him as the doors shut behind us.
This elevator had better not crash.
"Because most of the time I wake up too late to walk," he smiled sheepishly as he pressed the button to his floor.
"Hah, figures." I muttered under my breath, shooting him a toothy grin.
"Excuse me?" Aden's voice went up a pitch as he approached me. I leaned back against the wall of the elevator as he leaned in towards me, my cheeks heating up with our proximity.
"I didn't say anything," I feigned an innocent look, my eyes widening slightly as I stood up taller. It was futile though, Aden was still towering over me.
Aden opened his mouth to say something when the elevator doors opened.
He gave me one last look, a sly smile on his lips, "I'll get you back for that."
"Oh, I'm sure you will," I drawled overconfidently as I followed him down the hall to his apartment. He opened the door for me and I stepped inside.
It was a cozy apartment, with a cabin like feel. Everything was beige or brown, and many accessories and some of the walls were wood. The living room was on one side and the kitchen on the other side. The kitchen was typical, with a stove and a countertop behind it. There was a hallway that led to an array of bedrooms and the bathroom.
He set down his keys and his wallet onto the table. "We can get started right away to get it over with."
I nodded in agreement and we sat down around the small dinner table in the kitchen.
I took out my chemistry notes and the textbook, tossing it haphazardly onto the table. "This is seriously a dumb project. Like we're literally reiterating the whole unit on a piece of poster paper," I plopped down onto the chair, complaining as I began writing the main points into the paper.
"Well, it's supposed to help us study, according to Mr. Carter anyway," Aden said, doing the same.
"I'd rather actually be studying," I rolled my eyes and Aden chuckled. "How did you do on our last quiz?"
"A hundred," he responded nonchalantly, scribbling something down onto the poster paper. If there was anything I'd learned having chemistry with Aden was that he, actually was really smart. He actually knew what he was doing during our labs which was more than what I could say for myself.
"Wow," I breathed, scowling at my own grade that I'd received.
"Well, it's not good enough if I need to get into something important for university," he sighed, focusing his gaze on the paper in front of us. Not good enough?! What was better than a hundred percent?
I was good at tests and quizzes, but labs were a mess.
How could someone be smart, attractive and athletic. It hardly seemed fair.
The time flew by, and we finally finished with the poster and wrote down everything important from our lessons, it was nearing six in the evening.
I sat back on my seat, yawning, "I should probably get home now." I bundled all my pens together, shoving them back into my backpack along with my textbook.
Aden looked at the clock hanging on the wall across from us, "It's getting late, just stay for dinner."
"Wouldn't your dad be back soon?" I asked him, not wanting to intrude.
"No, he won't be home tonight," Aden shrugged casually, as if it happened all the time.
"Oh, alright then," I agreed. I watched as Aden stood up from his seat and opened the refrigerator behind him.
"Okay, so my dad and I haven't gone grocery shopping in a while," he turned back to smile at me sheepishly. "We've got eggs so I'll make the best gourmet meal I can with that. You're not allergic or anything right?"
I shook my head, my lips twitching up.
"Oh and we have marmalade, so I can make us sandwiches," Aden grinned cheekily as my nose crinkled.
"Marmalade? You like marmalade?" I couldn't help but smirk at that.
"Yes, it's the best kind of jam out there," his voice raised an octave as he said it like it were the most obvious thing ever, an eyebrow raised at me.
"I'm good with just eggs," I giggled.
He shrugged, "Alright, more for me."
Aden took out the carton of eggs and a pan as he began cooking. He cracked each egg carefully, and I was surprised to see that he managed to keep all the egg shells out of the pan.
There was something about Aden cooking something they made my heart race, even if he was just completing the simple task of cracking eggs. Maybe it was the way his biceps moved as he worked, or how a few rebellious tendrils of his dark hair fell over onto his forehead but he paid them no mind. I unintentionally found myself staring at his backside while he worked and I immediately looked away, adverting my gaze onto the kitchen table. My cheeks heated up, hotter than the pan that was on the stove.
Stop being such a pervert. I snapped at myself.
"Take a picture, it lasts longer," Aden mocked, spinning around.
I opened my mouth and shut it again, not knowing how to react at being caught red handed. That idiot said what I said on the elevator.
"I wasn't looking at you, I was looking at the food," I said, standing up and walking towards him. Aden shot me a sarcastic smile, "need any help?"
"Are you insinuating that I can't cook eggs?" Aden raised an amused eyebrow at me.
"Well I wasn't, but now that you mention it, yes I guess I am," I challenged, sitting on the counter behind the stove. Aden got out two plates and poured an equal amount of scrambled eggs into both, setting them aside before he approached me.
"Isn't that a bit... sexist?" he came closer towards me until his face was just a few inches from mine and I found myself leaning closer to him as well.
"No, I'm saying I didn't think you could cook, not the whole male population," I grinned.
He was so close to me now I could feel his breath on my cheek as I admired the green speckles in his dark brown eyes. His expression softened as he brought a hand up to my cheek, rubbing his thumb on the light bruise on my cheek from the soccer ball that still hadn't faded completely, like he did in the elevator.
My breath hitched and my eyes widened slightly when he leaned in closer, until his lips were just centimetres from mine. Closer and closer until they grazed mine lightly, sending a wave of tingles up my spine.
Holy shit is this gonna happen? My brain thought wildly. If it was, I wouldn't stop him.
This wouldn't be my first kiss anyways, I'd kissed a couple guys before except none of them were serious. They were mostly just dares at sleepovers or quick pecks from whatever middle school relationship I had that lasted a week.
This, I knew would be different though. I'd never been so flustered around someone before, and all he had to do was touch me with his shoulder, or smile at me. I didn't know what was so different about Aden, but every part of me was attracted to him.
Like the North Pole of a magnet to the south.
I waited for a kiss that never came because the next thing I knew, something cold, wet and sticky landed on the top of my head, dripping down my face into my shirt.
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~SweetnessInTheSalt