Lovestruck (EDITING)

26: Not Hungry

"They were out of pepperoni," I lie when my mom asks me about the food I was supposed to bring home.

She frowns at me, clearly not happy with my response.

"I wanted pepperoni, okay?" I stick to my story, pulling my jacket off and leaning against the kitchen counter, avoiding eye contact with my mother. "Can we just order in from another pizza place?" I pull my phone out and search through my contacts for Dominos, although I've lost my appetite.

My mom eyes me suspiciously before giving up and nodding.

"Get garlic bread," she tells me and tries to contain her smile.

"Uh-uh," I say, holding the phone to my ear as it rings.

I let my mom have most of the pizza and only take a few pieces up to my room along with a slice of garlic bread and a diet coke. I read Wuthering Heights while I eat, managing to get through another five pages, before I get up and walk into my small bathroom.

I look into the mirror at myself and I'm not even surprised when I see the large red mark just above my collar bone that Landon so kindly gifted to me. The firmness of his kisses, the way he sucked on my skin, the way he seemed annoyed when I stopped him, it all gets to me. Something tells me this is more than a scandalous little teenage hickey. I run my fingers over the discolored skin and I know he was leaving his mark on me. I think of the sound the man made when Landon's fist connected with his cheekbone and I cringe. I've never had anyone fight for me like that, and I can't say I enjoyed it.

I pull the hair tie from my braid and run my fingers through my thick waves before pulling my shirt over my head and turning on the hot water. It's been a long day, and all I want is to fall into bed and forget about everyone. I step out of my shorts and under the pulsing hot water of the shower, letting the shampoo and soap wash away all the crap going on in the apparently newly interesting life of Skye Miller.

I lay in bed, too exhausted to let the thoughts back into my head, eventually drift off to the sound of my creaky ceiling fan spinning too fast.

***

My alarm buzzes and I'm tempted to break it in half. Anything to make it stop that awful noise I've come to hate.

My eyes flutter open and I squint at the bright morning sun shining through my window. I curse myself for leaving the blinds oven as I roll over and press my feet into the warm carpet, rubbing the sleep from my tired eyes. I drag myself into my bathroom and stare at my wavy mess of dark hair and my glassy brown eyes, slightly reddened from my rubbing at them, before grabbing my frayed turquoise toothbrush and scrubbing the morning breath from my teeth and gums.

I walk over to my dresser and pull on a pair of green exercise shorts, staring down at my shirt options. I pull a baggy, sheer white t-shirt over my head and stare at myself in the mirror. My eyes immediately find the darkened red patch of skin above my collar bone and I roll my eyes at the sight of myself in the scoop-neck tee. Try explaining that to Dani, I think to myself, before pulling the shirt off and reaching for a high-neckline, black tank top. I look up at myself, running a hand through my hair before sighing loudly and pulling it back into a high ponytail.

Downstairs, my mother is sipping black coffee and pretending to read a newspaper, which I know can't be recent considering the pile up of papers on our front lawn.

"You're up early," Mom squints at me without her glasses.

"I have rehearsals," I remind her, reaching for the coffee pot and filling a mug with the steaming liquid.

"Are you hungry?" Mom stands from her seat and moves towards the kitchen as I shake my head. "I can make you something, if you like?"

"I'm not hungry," I smile to assure her and sip my coffee, ignoring the sting of the hot liquid as it burns my tongue.

"You must be hungry, Skye," she insists. "You barely ate anything last night."

"Why are you pushing this? I wasn't hungry then, and I'm not hungry now." I frown and take another mouthful of coffee.

"Just remember what the doctor told you," she says quietly and I pour my coffee into the sink, turning around to walk away from her. "Sweetie, I'm just trying to help you!" she calls out to me as I walk back up the stairs and into my bedroom.

I walk straight back into the bathroom and sigh loudly, looking up at myself in the mirror before deciding I definitely need some makeup today.

My everyday under-eye circles and my less-everyday upper-neck love bite are almost completely camouflaged with thick concealer before I go in and sweep some light brown eyeshadow across my eyelids, darkening the shadow in the crease, and coat my lashes with mascara. I create a wing along my upper lash line with black liquid eyeliner, deciding that, considering the night I had last night, I'm ready for an edgier look. Once I'm happy with my eye makeup, I smooth chap stick onto my lips and look up into the mirror, content with what I see.

I jump slightly when my phone vibrates loudly against the bathroom counter and I glare down at it, frowning. My frown changes to a look of horror when I read the text that appears on the screen.

Landon's name, surrounded by heart emoticons, catches my attention and my cheeks redden. I know he must have put this in here, and I don't know how I feel about that. The text reads:

*I'm outside. You ready?*

I blink hard, thinking I might have read the message wrong, but of course I didn't. I shake my head, completely confused and unsure of how to feel about this, but feel myself already walking down the stairs before I can think anything through.

I almost still think he might be joking as I open the front door and expect to see an empty drive-way, but, of course, Landon's charcoal-colored Jeep is pulled up to the curb.

What the hell is happening to me?

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Hi guys! Thanks so much for reading! Sorry I haven't written in a while, I got a few comments asking me to update which felt kind of good and bad at the same time but I finally wrote a bit more. I don't really pre-write things so it's hard to keep the updates regular when I'm busy which I am at the moment. Turns out, senior year is actually quite a lot of work; who knew? Anyway, sorry this chapter is kind of short, but I've got some free time coming up that I can probably get some writing done so expect lots more from me!

I also wanted to say a huge huge huge thank you for 1000 reads! Like, what the hell? I can't believe anyone even reads my story at all; I honestly didn't expect anything like this when I joined, so thank you so much! It makes me feel so good and motivates me to write when I see that people are reading my story, especially when you guys leave comments and votes, that's nice too (hint hint, nudge nudge).

Thanks again guys, you're the best!

fancyauthor xoxo