Two Ghosts - Ruel Van Dijk (Completed)

Chapter 12 - Nose Stuck in a Book

"Coco can you please take Ruel's dinner up to him?" I overheard Kate asking Coco. I looked over in her direction from my seat on the couch to see she was busily typing something on her laptop.

"Just a second mum, I'm doing my assignment for Uni," she replied, not looking up from her laptop. Kate sighed, shaking her head.

"I can do it Mrs Van Dijk, I'm not doing anything important," I interrupted quickly. I wanted to be on the good side of this family, plus I kinda wanted to see Ruel again. I was becoming attached to him, and I always wanted to know more about him. All I really knew about this guy was that he read, made music and his heart was broken. So I would use any excuse to get to know him more, even if it meant I only learnt what book he was reading.

"Are you sure?" she looked at me with sympathy. God I hated lying to this woman. She was so kind.

"Yeah yeah it's no problem!" I smiled, taking the bag of food off the bench and heading up the stairs. As I wandered up the stairs carefully, I wondered what I would find of Ruel.

He'll probably have his nose stuck in a book.

I smiled to myself, knowing I was most likely right. I loved that he read books. I loved that that's how we connected. Through books. Through two people, sitting in the same room, yet in completely different worlds. Books were his escape, his escape from his feelings. But they were also his return, through connection with me.

I knocked gently on the door I knew was his, and opened it when I heard a raspy 'come in'. I saw just what I was expecting. Ruel, sitting on his bed, his hair hanging over his eyes, which I was starting to realise were actually a light shade of hazel, not green, with little specks of green seeming to drown in the touches of brown. What did surprise me was what he was reading. I smiled to see it was my copy of To Kill a Mockingbird.

I spent no longer admiring him, but dropped the bag on the floor next to his bed and turned to leave.

"Sunday," he called quietly, making me stop in my spot. I turned back around to see he was actually looking at me for once. His head was turned towards me, his eyes staring straight into mine, the way they always seemed to do. In a way that always seemed to make me me shiver. "Will you read with me?"

I stood there, confused by his words. He wanted me to read with him? No, he asked me to read with him. Maybe he did trust me after all.

"S-sure," I stumbled over my words, feeling jittery. I watched as he shuffled over, and invitation to sit next to him. I walked carefully over and sat lightly on the bed, trying not to shift the weight on the bed at all. I didn't want to scare him away with being to hard too fast, I knew I had to be slow and careful with him. I shuffled over, not getting too close to him, but close enough that I could see what he was reading. He was quite close to finishing the book, on the last chapter. I personally didn't like how the author finished the book. It always felt like there was meant to be more to the story, but there wasn't. Kind of like a lost relationship. It felt incomplete.

"Why do you like this book so much?" he asked, turning his head from the book to me, frightening me with how close his face was to mine. I could see details of his face I hadn't seen before. Like the slight rosy tint his cheeks had, the way his nose seemed to dance with light freckles, so light you might miss them, the way his eyelashes curved so nicely, and the way they fluttered gently when he blinked. And he smelled like...peppermint.

"I think the message is powerful. People need to learn from it. Even though it's old, the message the book sends is and always will be relevant," I confided, having answered this question before. "And I think reading a message like that in a book makes it easier to get across."

"I suppose you're right." he looked away, closing the book and putting it down on his bedside table. "Do you want to hear something I was working on?'

I stared at him blankly, in disbelief at what he had just asked me. He still had his usual blank, emotionless face on, oblivious to the amazement I was feeling. He wanted to play me a song, he had been working on.

Something I was working on.

Before Valory. Before drowning in books. Before getting rid of music. Before all this. Before me. And now he was playing it again. For me. He wanted to play me a song. It was an understatement to say I felt utterly blessed.

"I'd love to, if you want to," I smiled, trying not to be too pushy. I was such an overthinker, I overthought every single thing I ever said, and it was a bit of an issue.

"Stop being nice for once in your life," I heard him mutter as he reached over for a guitar. I ignored his comment, watching him brush his fingers over the strings of the guitar, causing a sound to come out. I watched a frown form on his face as he started to play with the tuning pegs before strumming through the strings once again.

And then, with the most elegance I had ever seen, he began to play a tune, one I hadn't heard before. His fingers seemed to dance over the strings in a complex pattern I didn't understand, but he made it look so easy and effortless. The sound was so crisp and clear; he played each note so gracefully and carefully. I refused to believe he hadn't picked up a guitar in 2 months.

Then, he sung. Nearly knocking me over with his voice, he sung. The rasp to his voice here was ever so clear and beautiful. He sounded so experienced, he definitely didn't sound 18. His voice hit every note as effortlessly as his fingers danced across the guitar strings. Rhythmically perfectly. Exquisitely. Emolliently. There were just no words to describe his voice. It was just so...Ruel. That's all I could think of.

And all I could think was how lucky I was that this miserably beautiful boy was sitting here, less than a metre in front of me, singing like an absolute fucking angel.

A/N
I did this instead of homework besties. Ima fail 😃. It's okay though, I love wattpad, and I'd fail for it any day 😌

- Grape <3

20/10/21

Quote of the day:

Your time is limited. Don't waste it living someone else's life.

-Steve Jobs

Word count: 1180