Borrowed Time

Cracks in appearance

Chapter Five

Holden's POV

It had been a week. A whole fucking week of Hawkins completely avoiding me. Finally, after 7 days I managed to catch up with her and agree a time to meet up to 'work on my question'. The essay really meant shit to me, my grade average was near perfect and there was no chance of coach benching me. The one major stress in my life right now? The fact that I now only had around 173 days left to keep my promise to Hawkins, not that she knew it existed. That's if the entry was wrote the day I even found it.

Ainsley had finally agreed, after a week of my persistent nagging to let me come over after practice. I wasn't exactly on track for my plan, noting the fact that Ainsley had spoken exactly 24 words to me in the past week. The majority starting with 'fuck' and ending with 'off'. If I wasn't so sure this was how she treated everyone, I might consider feeling hurt at her blatant dislike towards me.

"H you in?" Bash's deep voice boomed from across the locker room dragging me out of my thoughts surrounding a fiery red head. "For what?", the locker room suddenly went dead silent. The only noise came from the whirring air condition above. I shoved my black tee over my head and turned to find every guy on the team watching me like a hawk.

"Few of us are heading to Bash's, just chill after coach ripped us apart". I looked towards Logan; his eyebrows slightly furrowed in confusion. I had a feeling Logan and Bash had picked up on my change in attitude.

"Oh nah" I shrugged, turning back to pack up my bag. "I've got shit to do".

"And what exactly does this shit involve?" Bash enquired; his face was smug.

"Promised my dad I'd help out, he's gotta pick Luce up later". Did I fuck owe these bunch an explanation, if they so desperately needed to know where I was 24/7 maybe they should invest in some sort of phone tracker. With one last shrug back, I headed out the locker room and towards the parking lot.

****

"Let's get this over with". Ainsley slammed the door shut behind me and headed upstairs without so much as a blink in my direction. "Careful Hawkins, keep with that warming greeting I might just think you like me" I smirked, just knowing her eyes were rolling in front of me. A silence stretched out between us, so I took a moment to adjust to my surroundings. It was way fancier than any house I'd come across. A giant crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling illuminating the bright white painted foyer. The staircase, finished with a jet-black railing, curved around to reach a small oval shaped landing area which later stretched out to a giant corridor. Ainsley led us towards the furthest door to the left before stopping dead and turning to face me.

"If you touch anything I'll chop off your hands and feed them to Loki". Before I could even muster up a reply, she opened the door and headed in. Her room was much simpler than the rest of the house. No fancy fourposter bed, no crystal chandelier or any decorations for that matter. It was simply painted pale blue room. It wasn't till I stepped in further I noticed the library sized bookshelf covering the whole back wall. I headed over, scanning the books. "You like reading?"

"No, they're just there to look at, what the fuck do you think" she retorted, shaking her head. I stepped around to face her, holding up my two hands in defence. This was going to be a lot more difficult than I realised. But just as I felt ready to give up, I looked back towards the books and an idea sparked in my head. "My Dad runs the bookshop downtown, maybe I could take you sometime?". Her head shot up from her desk and she stared blankly at me. Considering she wasn't glaring at me; I'd say I had a 20% success rate. "Your dad brought it?" her head tilted slightly.