Borrowed Time

Dinner party from hell.

Chapter Three

Holden

I rubbed my hands together desperately attempting to generate any kind of heat to stop the aching feeling that had wormed its way into my bones from the cold. Rolling my eyes, I lifted my hand to the doorbell one more time in attempts to gain the attention of someone inside, but as my hand hovered over the button the door swung open to reveal the pale skinned, auburn haired girl that had flooded my mind all day.

Ainsley Hawkins.

There she stood with hair messily spread across her shoulders, an extremely oversized navy-blue hoodie drowning her body. My eyes trailed down further to see her pale legs completely bare paired with pastel blue fluffy socks. Not the time for the thoughts rattling through my head.

"What" she spat; her arms folded in front of her chest. For the first time since birth words had escaped me, instead of doing the normal thing I stammered and stuttered as her eyebrows furrowed causing a line to form across her forehead. It was at that moment I realised how tired she truly looked, the bags under her eyes were a dark purple, the whites of her eyes were tinted a red shade and her bright blue eyes looked dull. "If you're just going to stutter then I'd politely ask you to leave" she snapped again, rolling her eyes.

"I found this on in the hallway" I finally plucked up the courage to speak, I wasn't one to get intimated easy but there was something about the way she carried herself that scared the living shit out of me. I pulled my backpack of my shoulder, rummaged through until I found the bound black notebook.

"Where the fuck did you get this" the book was snatched out of my hands before I could even fully get it out of my bag. I looked back up to see Ainsley gripping onto it as if her life depended on it with a look of burning anger in her eyes.

"You must've dropped it when we bumped into each ot-"

"You bumped into me, you didn't read it did you?" she questioned, the tone in her voice changing from anger to fear. Her usual defensive expression was replaced by a look that I couldn't quite put my finger on, sadness, guilt, panic? She searched my eyes for a few moments desperately trying to find a hint to whether I read through it or not which only made me wish I did. What else could've possibly be in there that could cause someone such distress?

"Well?" she shook, rubbing her hand against her arm, by this point I had completely forgotten we were standing outside in the icy cold winds. I couldn't even imagine how she felt with her lack of clothing. But my brain was filling with all the ways I could warm her up.

"No" my mouth moved before I could even comprehend an answer, not the time again. She closed her eyes, letting out a thankful sigh before averting her gaze back to meet mine.

"I'm Hol"

"Holden Carter, I know who you are" she interrupted walking back into the house to place the book on a table in the foyer. She turned back around looking at me in utter confusion, once again rolling her eyes, something I've noticed she tends to do a lot. "Are you just going to stand there and freeze because either way I really don't give a shit". Ouch I thought to myself, I know she didn't exactly know me, but it felt pretty shitty to see how much she didn't care to hide her dislike for me.

"You live here?" I broke the awkward silence, stepping into over the threshold into a large, lavishly decorated foyer area, it's centre piece a swirling set of stairs I can only describe as something you see in a castle.

"No I'm swatting" her voice was filled with sarcasm finished with her signature eye roll. God this was going to be harder than I thought. Call me creepy or stupid, but after the sentence I read there was no chance I was letting this happen. I was going to show Ainsley Hawkins that life was worth living even if it was the last thing I did.