After his parents' sudden death, Chester Covington leaves everything behind and moves in with his aunt.
But nobody knows what is going on behind the facadé of a traumatized boy who has watched his parents die that he puts up ever single day of his...
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The rain that is pattering down onto earth is the only noise in the room, which is embraced by an awkward silence.
Riku and I are sitting in his kitchen, around the small dining table that stands in one corner of the room. Pizza is sitting in the center of the table, and our plates are each filled with a few pieces of it. Riku had offered to order some earlier and I didn't want to be suspicious, so I agreed.
It's not like I can't eat a few slices of pizza, it's just that the guilt consumes me with every bite I take. Eating always made me feel insecure and uncomfortable, especially in front of strangers, and on top of that, it made me feel like I was adding to the list of things that make me a mistake.
With every bite I take of whatever I'm eating, I always feel like my body is morphing into something even uglier than I already am.
I push the feeling down and continue nibbling on the piece of pizza in my hand, all the while watching Riku with curious eyes. His gaze is fixed on the window, behind which the water is pouring down like a year's worth of water.
The small light that is hung up right above the dining table illuminates his face like the sun did earlier this day. It creates an image of a guy that is much more gentle and relaxed than the person he really is. Or maybe I just don't know him enough to judge what kind of person he might be. After all, I only know what I can see, and that consisted of not a lot other than fights and glares so far.
But somehow there is something inside of me that urges me to dig deeper, to find out more about him.
Just in that moment, his eyes suddenly find mine, a smirk crossing his lips.
"Are you checking me out?" he inquires, raising one of his eyebrows.
My cheeks heat up at his words and my gaze instantly snaps into another direction, embarrassed that he caught me staring. Out of habit, I absentmindedly begin assaulting my lip again.
However, the moment I feel his fingers on my chin, forcing me to lock eyes with him again, I stop. His dark orbs stare back at me intensely, the smirk gone. It's like I don't even notice what is going on around me anymore the moment my eyes find his, it's like he captures my full attention and I'm unable to escape it.
My heart is pounding in my ears as we continue just gazing into one another's eyes.
Eventually, he breaks the silence, "Don't stop." And for a split second, I can see an emotion dancing around in those brown orbs of his. It's affection - an emotion that I hadn't even dreamt of ever seeing in his eyes. For some reason, it fills the space around my heart with warmth that surges through my whole body. "I like it when you do it."
