Dysphoria

Chapter One

Moving to a new town always sucks ass. By the time all the boxes and bags were brought in and unpacked I was starving. My mother had done the bare minimum to help before she went upstairs to go to bed. I knew she wouldn't care about getting groceries. My stomach was growling, it had been hours since I last ate and there was nothing in the fridge yet.

With no other option I hopped into the car and began looking for a convenience store or a gas station near by. After about 10 minutes you see a small store with a sign on top 'Milk - East Highland Certified Dairy.' Sketchy but it will have to do.

Parking up. I make my way into the dingy store, looking for something to eat and possibly a snack for the morning.

Picking up some cereal bars and a bottle of ginger ale you make your way to the counter where a kid, probably 10 or 12 years of age is staring at me,

Jesus, is that a fucking face tattoo? This kid looked like he'd spent time in a penitentiary.

"What you looking for?" He asked, ignoring the food items you obviously placed on the counter. Puzzled for a second your thoughts are interrupted by a soft spoken deep voice.

"Chill homie. She's not buyin." The kid rolls his eyes and walks into the back, clearly losing all interest in ringing up the snacks.

My eyes focus on the guy in front of me. He's a couple of inches taller than me with short brown hair and a closely trimmed ginger beard. But his real stand out feature was his eyes, big, blue eyes that looked like they had seen the whole world and back. Not to mention he had eyelashes any girl would kill for. His freckles were pretty fucking cute too though I have to admit. He was wearing a simple white tee, two gold chains and a baggy jeans from what I could see. He scanned the stuff and glanced at me a couple of times in between.

"That'll be $5.89." He looked into my eyes and then wet his lips.

Realizing he caught me staring at him and not really reacting I swallow quickly. "Shit. Sorry give me a sec."

I stick my hand into my bag to rummage out a bank card out and stick it into the card reader.

"You definitely not from round here soundin like that." He smirked.

"Ha, no I'm not from here." I can't help but smile, he was just so chill.

"Where you from?" He said putting the things into a plastic bag.

"Am, I just moved here from New Jersey." I reach across the counter to take the bag and my card back.

"Girl I know a Jersey accent when I hear it and that ain't it." He said laughing a little.

"You're right. I'm from Ireland. But we moved here from New Jersey." I try to smile at him, feeling a little embarrassed and weird about giving my whole back story to the first guy I met in town.

"Ireland? For real?" His eyebrows raise up.

"Yep. Born and bred."

I know I should just get back in my car and go home but something about this guy is just pulling me in and making me just want to hang out here.

"My grandma's peoples is from there. O'Neill." He said with a soft smile.

"No way! That's cool. You can't get much more Irish than O'Neill. With your blue eyes and freckles you'd fit right in at home."

He cleared his throat a little awkwardly.

Fuck did I make him self conscious? I didn't mean to.

Before I could say anything else he reached his hand across the counter. "Fezco. But you can call me Fez."

Feeling relieved I reached out to take his hand and shake it, it's a little rough but warm and makes my tummy flutter.

"I'm Nia. I'm glad to have made one friend in this town."

His eyes sparkle a little before letting your hand go. "Oh you my friend now huh?"

Licking my lips for a second, I look down  before looking back up at him, "Yeah that's right."

Fuck it why not flirt with him, he's fine.

"Since we friends, how about you come to a party tomorrow night? End of summer shit. It should be cool. You might might some people."

Even though it's probably going to be a bit awkward and weird since I didn't know this guy at all but fuck it something told me to go, besides I had nothing to lose and nothing better to do.

"Sure. Text me the time and address." I pull my phone out of my back pocket and open the contacts handing it to him to add his number. For a second he looked surprised before a small smile crept across his face, typing in the digits. I heard the door bell ding behind me but didn't look back.

His smile dropped to a straight face as he looked over my shoulder at who ever came in.

"Aight. Get on home now Nia." He said keeping his eyes on the person behind me.

"Goodnight Fez." I gave him a smile, and he nodded at me. His shoulders looked a little stiffer than before.

I grabbed the plastic bag and turned to walk away only to get shouldered by this guy who was standing an inch or two behind me, and literally build like a fridge. No joke, he was easily a head and shoulders taller than me, brown hair, brown eyes, athletic build. But he was scowling.

"Watch it." He said gritting his teeth.

"You were the one standing right up my ass for no reason, dickhead. You watch it." I snap looking him right back.

His eyes darkened as I stormed past him to leave the store and get back to the car. What a fucking prick.

I didn't realize there were two pairs of eyes watching me pull away, one pair brown. One pair blue.