My Odette

Chapter 6 - Lydia

I look at myself in the mirror, I am wearing a lavender colored shirt that has a knot at the bottom. My hair is pulled back into a long dutch braid down the middle of my back. I have black pants and black slip-ons. Looking myself over again I decide to put on a little mascara and pull two little strands of hair out of my braid. I let out a breath and turn to snatch my backpack off of the ground by the door that leads to my bedroom. I see Cole standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.
      I look at him taking the same defensive stance, "what." My tone, I know, is annoyed and probably has a hint of sass.
"Why did you ditch?" My breath halts. "It's not like you to ditch."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Cole and I have never had a great relationship other than when we were really young and didn't have opinions.
"Oh I'm sure you do." He rolls his eyes. "But you can thank me later because I deleted the voicemails off mom and dads phone when they called about the absences." My eyes widen slightly.
"Why would you do that?" He chuckles kind of evilly.
"So are you admitting to skipping a few classes?" I just roll my eyes. "I'll take that as a yes. I did it because I remember when I ditched in high school and mom got pissed." I raise an eyebrow, I remember the late nights when I heard them biting each other's heads off. "Plus I was kind of proud." The corners of my mouth lift a little.
"In that case thank you." I bow my head slightly in thanks. He turns to the mirror and starts messing with his hair.
"What were you doing anyway?"
"Umm, I was hanging out with a friend."
He looks at me accusingly, "no offense, but you and I both know that's not true for two reasons, one, you don't have friends-"hey!" I cut him off. He raises his hands above his head. "And two, you wouldn't do that for a friend. So, what were you really doing?" I bite my lip.
"I went out for ice cream" The best lies are partial truths.
"With who?"
"A friend." I try, but sadly he isn't convinced. He raises his eyebrows. "Fine. Ian." His eyes flicker with recognition.
"Like Ian Taylor?" I nod my head slightly. "Wow. Who would've guessed." I mock offense by putting my hand over my heart and leaning back slightly. "I just wouldn't expect you to go for such a guy." I raise an eyebrow.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well," he turns to face me. "As far as I know he's one of the most popular kids at your school and you aren't exactly in his friend group." I roll my eyes. I glance at my phone, 7:40.
"Well as fun as this has been... I have to go." I smile and start walking toward my door.
"Lydia." I pause at the concern in his voice. "Be careful. I can tell you like him. Just don't get hurt." I turn enough to look at him and nod.
**********
I slam my locker shut, for some reason I am upset. It might be the absence of Ian or plain old teenage hormones. I half walk half stomp to my first hour, I end up in the library. I want to be in first hour, not the library. I glare at the room. I let out a little growl and turn around and run into the hard door, I growl a little louder and try to push it open then realize, that in fact, I am supposed to pull the door not push. I yank it open and run right into a familiar scented body as I trip over my own feet and land on my butt. I glare daggers at him, his eyes are wide as he holds his hand out to help me up.
"Oh my gosh! Are you ok?" I slap his hand and go to stand up when I trip over my own feet again and end up back on my behind. This time he reaches down and grabs my arms and pulls me up before I can protest. As soon as I'm up I shake my arms loose, I turn and dart under his arm. Then of course I run into Jess and Leo who are as startled as Ian. I back up like a caged animal and run into Ian, again. I snap around and stare at him, then turn around quickly knowing the other two were still behind me. Realizing how close they are, I start backing up and of course bump into Ian. My breathing starts to speed up as I snap around and feel him put his hands on my shoulders. Breathing heavily I start to back up but he won't let me. My mind is whirring to find possible solutions when he pulls me into a hug. I slowly relax and my breathing slows. I inhale his heavenly sent.
"Breath." He mutters, my hands at my side.
He tightens the one sided hug for a second and I let out a breath that probably sounds like a groan. I feel him chuckle. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! He slowly releases me and lets his arms fall. I watch his eyes glance over me, his ears turn a little pink. He steps away from me haystally and I turn around turning pink.
"You done?" Jess chuckles as Leo raises an eyebrow suggestively. Ian just laughs. I glared at them for a split second before looking at the clock and my eyes went wide, I had missed the first bell and only had like two minutes to get to my first hour. I collect myself for a second then dash off to class.
**********
School, why in the world did they call it school. It should be called the national association for torturing teens or something. And their slogan should be the place to send innocent teens to have their brains and hearts messed with. Like why make a football captain and cheer captain? Was their plan to create havoc?
I unlock my locker and pull out my lunch. I slam the poor locker shut, hard. Sadly it reveals someone who doesn't deserve my wrath, well not too much of it. I glare at them. She holds her hands up defensively.
"If this is umm," I roll my eyes. "You know what? I'm just going to come back later." She points behind herself and goes to leave.
"Bree." She freezes. "Spill." Her body rotates so she's facing me.
"Well, umm." I raise my eyebrows. "Thank you for standing up to Riley, if you still want to be friends..." she quiets. My glare turns slightly confused. Friends? I could have a friend, or I could continue to sit by myself and be depressed.
"Ok," we start walking to the lunch room. "Sit with me." She nods slightly and walks into the cafeteria. "Bree." She turns around. "I'll be outside, you'll know where." She gives me a confused look as I turn and head out. I turn the corner and plop down on the bench. I open my lunchbox thinking about the day I came over here to hide from Riley and her goons. I let out a breath and pull out my sandwich, I hear some footsteps and go still for a second.
"So, do you normally eat here?" I laugh.
"If I did, last week would never have happened." She looks down embarrassed.
"I'm really sorry about that." I shrug.
"Why do you want to be friends with me anyway?" I stare at her till she looks up.
"I realized how rude Riley is and thought about what you said about me being smart enough not to hang out with a jerk like her." I nod and take another bite of my peanut butter and nutella sandwich. Chocolate, creamy butter. Yum.
"Oh." I chuckle.
"So, um." she looks down at her food. "Do you want to hang out today?" I almost choke.
I get out a raspy "What?"
"Do you want to hang out after school?" my eyes widen, so I didn't hear her wrong. No dance. A little homework. Why? Why? Why couldn't I have a ton of homework today.
"Sure. What do you want to do?" I say hesitantly while raising an eyebrow.
"You can come to my house if that's good with you" she smiles. "Then we can watch a movie and have popcorn!" I chuckle at her enthusiasm.
"Just send me your address and I'll let you know for sure after school." we finish eating and throw away our garbage. Well this will be interesting.
**********
I knock on the door. I watch the doorknob turn as the person behind it opens the blue door. Bree smiles as I step in, the walls are a light gray with beautiful pictures of nature and her family, well I think it's her family. Threw the entry there is a sitting room to the right and stairs to the left.
      "Thank you for agreeing to this. "She looks back and smiles faintly. "I didn't think you would talk to me after what I did." I nod.
      "Thanks for having me over." I smile.
As we walk farther into the house I see a big kitchen to my left with big white cupboards around the edge and a blue island. To my right is a family room with a mantle, fireplace and bookshelves. Everything has its place, or at least it looks that way. She leads me through the kitchen and to a back door where it opens onto a huge deck that overlooks her big yard. We turn right and make our way down the spiral staircase to a little cement pad. She leads me to another door where we enter back into the house. We head down a hall and enter the first room.
It has light pink walls with white accessories like a white desk or shelves. She plops down on her bed and sighs. I pull out the black chair from the desk and turn it around so a leg is on either side.
"So," I mutter awkwardly. "Is there a reason for going outside? Not that I mind." I say in a rush.
"Oh, no. I just like to take the outdoor way to get fresh air while it's still warm." She laughs
"Makes sense." I smile. "What do you want to do?" She shrugs her shoulders.
"We could talk," she twists her lips to the side. "We could go get food, umm" her face brightens. "We should go to the little arcade and bowling area!" She smiles.
"Let's do both." Her eyebrows come together. "Eat and the arcade." She nods.
"Yes!" She stands and I follow her lead. "Eat first or second?"
"Well." I say thinking out loud. "If we go eat now we will leave hungry. So... lets bowl first." She grins as we head upstairs.
"Brilliant." She snatches her keys off their hook and we head out to her car. "Pure brilliance." I laugh.
We pull the doors open and sit down in the dark leather seat. The car is small and only fits five people, it's a gray color with black seats. She drives down the road as we conversate a bit. She turns into a decently sized parking lot and we head into the building, entering the side with the bowling alleys. Most of them were empty but there were a few with families and an older couple.
Bree leads me to the counter where a boy our age is standing. He smiles flirtatiously in Bree's direction, I roll my eyes.
"Can we get a lane?" Bree asks.
"Ya." He glances at his computer. "Lane three and four are open, have your pick! What size of shoes?" He smiles. We answer and finish setting up the game as he hands us our shoes. We walk over to the bowling alley and grab our bowling balls and sit down on the hard benches to put on our shoes.
"Have you ever bowled before?" Bree asks.
"Does the wii count?" I laugh.
"Probably not."
**********
I roll the ball. Miss. I groan. "Why can't I hit the pins for the life of me." I glance at her. She's laughing. I have currently hit two pins. And we are on round four.
"Well you are not doing it right." A teasing voice that is not Bree's, responds. I snap around and my heart stops for a second.
"Oh. Hi. Ian." My voice is a higher pitch than normal. "What brings you here today." He tries to stop a smile from making its way onto his face. I glance over his shoulder and see Leo, Jess and the one and only... Carter.
"Oh we just wanted to bowl... so we came here. To the bowling place." I blush slightly as he wraps up his little explanation.
"Well duh." I try to hold onto my pride.
"You asked." He holds up his hands. He turns over to their lane and accepts the ball Carter passed him. Ian smiles at something Carter said and turns around stepping up to the line and rolls the ball. I groan as he gets a strike. He turns to me and smirks.
"You gonna go?" I turn to Bree, rolling my eyes.
"Ya." I walk forward and go to roll the ball and miss the pins, again. I go to sit at our table but am stopped by Ian.
"Your approach was wrong."
"Who said there was an," I hold up my finger and do air quotes. "Approach?"
"Me."
"You're not a very credible source" His eyes hardened just slightly as his friends laughed.
"Do you want my help or not?" His tone was kinda harsh, harsher than I had ever heard it. Then again I had only heard it for a little bit.
Thinking quickly about my answer I respond, "sure." I try to keep my tone light. We walk away from the lane and into an open area.
"Ok so first..." I follow his instructions until we are to the point of rolling the ball. He hands me my ball and tells me what to do. He steps in front of me to catch the ball. "Ok, now." I do as he told me to but he still shakes his head. "Your arm isn't swinging right." I glare. He has no right to tell me what to do even though I did agree for him to help me.
"Then what?" My jaw tightens. "What am I doing wrong." The muscles in his neck tighten.
"You're doing this." He swings his arm as though he's rolling the ball. "Instead of this." He swings it again.
"You just did the same thing twice." He lets out a sigh. Wow, this boy has got some sass.
"Fine. Get into position to roll the ball." I do as told. He adjusts his body so his arm is in line with mine, he's leaning over me. I can feel him over me, he is only able to do this because of his height. He rests one hand on my shoulder and the other on my wrist. His head is somehow next to mine, I glance over at him and see him watching me.
"You know. That's kind of creepy." A piece of my hair falls out of my braid and into my face. I blush slightly at his closeness.
"You know. That's kind of cute." I blush harder. I look down at the ball then back at him.
"You know." My voice is embarrassingly breathy. "This balls getting kind of heavy." He chuckles.
"Ok, swing forward like this." He uses his arm to move mine. "And let go right here." He looks down at me, a smile on his lips. I swear this guy is bipolar.
"Thanks."
"No problem." He smirks and stands up. "Your turn." I stand up with the ball in hand and hastily step back as I realize our potential audience. I turn around and see Leo and Bree chatting away, Jess is nowhere to be found. I then looked at the scoreboard, my turn, just as he said. I don't know why I hadn't believed him, I guess I just don't trust him yet, even with something as simple as that. I slowly walk over to the lane, very aware of Ian staring at my back. I do the approach he taught me and roll the ball.
The blue ball rolls down the center of the lane, it gets closer and closer until it starts to curve to the right, my eyes widen. I hear the sound of pins hitting each other, five pins! I squeal, I can hear Ian laughing behind me.
"Who knew." I turn to Bree. "That you had it in you." She laughed.
I turn to Ian and thank him, "thanks" smiling I joking. "It wasn't a strike but, I guess it's a good start." He rolls his eyes.