Belle | #1

23| Onsra

2 3

O n s r a 

(n.) the bittersweet feeling that love won't last.

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They call us dreamers, but we are the ones that don't sleep.

– Unknown

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Ella had her eyebrows quirked. "You do...skincare?"

All the boys nodded their heads in the middle of Reece's living room, and Ella tried really hard to contain her smile. This was new, she'd admit, because she's hardly ever met boys who knew what moisturiser was, let alone serums and sunscreen.

"Jules' father helped us out," Reece said, and maybe Ella should've noticed from his sunlit complexion that it was more than just genetics. "He gave each of us a personalised regimen to help with our own individual problems."

Ella doubts she's ever heard a guy say anything more attractive. "Well, let's hear it then," she said casually, but her heart was leaping in her chest, "or are you lot insecure about it?"

Reece scoffed. "Please. Nothing insecure in being self-aware of problem areas to address." Now, Ella was trying really hard not to smile. "I get really bad acne-scars," he admitted casually, and Ella wanted to give him one huge grandma kiss in the middle of his forehead, "so I typically use Vitamin C serums with Alpha Arbutin, and Retinol at night." Nothing in the world could've stopped Ella's jaw from dropping. "With sunscreen, of course." Reece added, with a smug smile.

Ella was stunned to silence, and she could even hear Calliope let out a small laugh. "Oh my god," she breathed, "real men do exist." Reece let out a laugh at that, shrugging.

"Julian has sensitive skin," Reece added, and when Ella glanced at Julian, he couldn't even look at her, "so he has the non-comedogenic and gentle routine from all of us."

Ella smiled, and she smiled big. "I really – there are just no words." Ella was going to tell Calliope to put a ring on Alexander in the closest possible time when they get home. "You all have wonderful skin," she said, and she watched as Julian smiled that signature half smile of his. "Your father did a wonderful job, Julian."

Julian shrugged, but his neck was all red. Reece was still grinning. "It's very interesting to see that you know so much about skin, Ella."

Ella raised her eyebrows. She didn't exactly want to tell them that she has a ten-step nightly skincare routine that were the best forty-five minutes of her day, so she settled with, "Glad to see that you're the same, Reece."

His grin didn't falter. "I love a woman with a routine."

Ella's grin cracked at that. "Don't get ahead of yourself Reece – starving artists aren't my type."

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Belle couldn't focus on the homework sprawled in front of her.

Not when she could feel the point of Adam's shoulder right next to hers, and not when his fingers were casually resting on top of her hand. He did it so effortlessly, as though touching her was second instinct. All the letters and numbers on Belle's worksheet looked as though they were jumbled together, and she could barely read. Maybe that's just another one of the side effects of being this close to Adam.

"The answer was what again?"

Adam's breath was making her skin tingle, and she had no idea how she was able to calculate Physics when he occasionally leaned his chin on her shoulder. She didn't know what a functioning brain was anymore – all she knew was that it definitely wasn't hers. She glanced at him, and she could feel her heartbeat in her ears. "7 kilometers per hour," she breathed out, quickly looking at her worksheet settled on her lap. She knew if she looked anymore, she'd tell him to forget homework – which was her idea in the first place.