CONSUME

[13] jealousy

***

"So, I'm assuming you go to Woodsbrook High?" Dylan asked me.

"Yeah," I pursed my lips and looked down at the view from this Ferris Wheel, the sun beginning to set and the sky tinted a beautiful shade of orange and pink. I sighed, feeling incredibly content in this moment with the warm weather, yet feeling a bit melancholy too. Probably over the fact that school would be ending, and my high school experience was coming to a close.

I'm never going to be at the Summer Carnival at Kilby Park with all of these people together, ever again.

I almost forgot Dylan was next to me, but the silence that followed my words was so loud it reminded me of his existence.

"Uh- right. Sorry, I meant to ask you too. Where do you go to school? I haven't seen you at Woodsbrook," I stuttered, feeling a bit of embarrassment and guilt for not seeming as interested in the conversation as he obviously was.

Somehow I ended up sitting on this Ferris Wheel with him, and not Noah. She ended up sitting with Aidan-- which I mean, good for her. Erica is sitting with Austin; I'm sitting with Dylan. And Axel is sitting with Jada.

But anyways, I didn't mind Dylan. He's cute and kind of boyish, sort of unlike Axel in a lot of ways. Physical appearance-wise, Dylan is definitely shorter than Axel by a few inches, and he was rather skinny and lanky. He was still bigger and taller than me, though. Dylan gave off a dorky sort of vibe; but it was an attracting, appealing kind of dorky. I couldn't deny that he was definitely pleasing to look at. But put him next to Axel though? And well-- I don't know if there's even any room for comparison.

Axel's brown, silky locks of hair which were always messy somehow, as if he'd never styled them a day in his life, always still looked unbelievably the right amount of neat, and was the perfect length for me to run my fingers through it. His hair was wavy, and it fell long and bushy onto his forehead, covering his defined dark eyebrows, but it was still short enough in the back to where his ears were visible and sat exactly at the beginning of his sharp jawline that I loved seeing clench and retract when he was angry.

And when I look down at his lips-- which are permanently burned into my memory never to be forgotten, I get so tempted to just stare at them for hours, the way his mouth moved being so satisfying; and I loved that his teeth were so perfect. I swear he could be in a toothpaste commercial, easily.

His cheeks that were covered in dispersed freckles which reminded me of chocolate sprinkles, and his nose that was straight, slender, and defined, slightly upturned only at the tip. It sat evenly between his eyes. His icy, blue, cold, ocean eyes, which were so incredibly easy to get lost in, the vibrant color making me wish I could swim in it. And the way his eyelids were wrapped perfectly around them, the long and thick brown eyelashes that fell, giving him just the right amount of prettiness to almost counteract his otherwise masculine appearance.

And obviously not to mention my favorite-- Eucalyptus and mint.

"And because of that, I ended up here," Dylan spoke, and for some reason I completely couldn't remember what in the hell we were talking about. I'd hoped he didn't notice my complete and total lack of attention on his words. I looked at him sitting across from me as intently as possible.

"Oh, cool," I smiled, flashing my own straight teeth at him. Thank god for braces, really.

The Ferris wheel came to a halt, the cart Dylan and I were sitting in shaking a bit at the stop. We were stopped right at the top, and I looked past Dylan's shoulder to see Axel in the cart in front of us. He was sitting next to Jada, rather than across from her, and I watched the way she talked to him. It was inaudible what she was saying, but their body language told me enough, seeing the way her knee was touching his, and his shoulder was touching hers, and she was laughing as she talked, and he seemed to actually be listening.