Jayden & Astrid [On Hold]

CHAPTER TWELVE - SHE LOOKED LIKE A POWDERED DOUGHNUT

The smell hit him before the hug did-an intoxicating mixture of vanilla and lavender with undertones of coconut oil and other scents he couldn't identified but loved all the same. "Nice to have you back Astrid." He admitted once she released him from the hug.

She pouted. She had been hoping to surprise him. "How did you know it was me? You're not wearing your glasses."

As she spoke, he noticed that her breath smelt like processed sugar and she had pink stains on her teeth. Cotton candy. She had cotton candy for breakfast. But he couldn't exactly judge her dietary habits-half-eaten jar of peanut butter at the bottom of his backpack was a testament to his dietary habits.

"That's because I'm far sighted, not blind. Everything close up is blurry but everything far away is clear."

"Well if I was blurry, how did you know it was me? Ohh how many fingers am I holding up?" She asked excitedly, waving her hand vigorously in front of his face.

"Stop waving them." Jayden ordered reaching out to grab her by the wrist. He squinted at the upheld fingers. "Three fingers. Like I said, things that are closer are just generally blurry. So when I don't have my glasses on, I recognize objects and people by comparing them to what I have in my memory. You have your distinct features and I'm quite familiar with what you look like."

Quite familiar was a bit of an understatement. Jayden was more than quite familiar with what Astrid looked like. He was more than quite familiar with her perpetually mischievous but equally mesmerizing eyes. He was more than quite familiar with the faint scar on her forehead that she had gotten years ago from running into a coffee table at full speed. It wasn't visible at the moment on account of the layer of makeup on her face but he knew it was there. He was even more than quite familiar with the way she walked; something that resembled skipping and catwalking rolled into one. On their own, these characteristics were probably not enough to identify her but all together, they made it easy for him to spot her when his glasses were off.

"It's like if you decide to watch The Little Mermaid for the thousandth time but the wifi's bad so the video quality is terrible. But you'd still be able to tell who's who." He explained.

Astrid nodded thoughtfully before picking up the gathers of her skirt and skip-catwalking down the hall.

"Did anything interesting happen at home while I was gone?"

Momentarily surprised that she had referred to his house as 'home' and not 'his place' Jayden said nothing for a while. When he realized that she was waiting for an answer, he opened his mouth to rant about his mum but changed his mind and moved to more positive topics. "Mo's parents are coming over today."

"That's pretty cool." She admitted stepping into their Studio Art class. "What are they like?"

The first time Jayden had been to Studio Art class, he had been trailing behind Astrid who had been completely unaware that he was a couple of feet behind her. She had been in her own world with music blasting so loudly from her headphones he could tell that it was Beyoncè's Spirit. Jayden had gotten a lot of brief curious glances.

The reason was simple: There were two types of guys in art class: Jocks in it for the easy grade and soft boys who were evidently artistic. Most of the students looked at Jayden with the assumption that he was the first kind especially as he didn't look like a soft art boy.

Astrid's reaction to finding him in that class was different. Struggling to keep her face serious, she had turned to him and pointed at the sign that read F Art Station above her. "Fart." She declared before bursting into laughter.

This time, as they entered the classroom, all eyes were on Astrid. It could have been one of two reasons.

One was her outfit. Anyone that followed her on Instagram would have seen that she had posted a picture in that ensemble with the outfit credit going to an account named @by_indigo, in the early hours of the morning. No one that had seen the picture had expected her to wear it to school. She looked like a twice divorced ocean goddess.