Through His Eyes

Through His Eyes [17]

{{Dedicated to @inquisitiive because she leaves the sweetest comments and writes the cutest stories}}

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

It had been a little over a week since the Equinox dance when Floyd called Rhea up.

The past week had been the best. Rhea had fallen into some kind of routine with the way she got crappy coffee from the vending machine during the break after first period every day, the way she always sat with Wade, Willa and Floyd during lunch and the way Floyd gave her a ride home after school after each day. That routine, that sense of familiarity made Rhea feel ten times better than any grand gesture or dramatic incident could.

"Hey," he said. "Do you have any plans for tonight?"

"Let me check," Rhea said. After pausing for a couple of seconds she teasingly added, "Nah, my schedule seems pretty clear."

"Wanna come over? My parents are out of town and they took Lissa with them."

This time, she paused to actually think about his question. A moment later, she'd made up her mind.

"Yeah, what time?"

***

Rhea snuggled further into Floyd's side and rested her head against his chest. They were sprawled on the couch in his living room, watching an action flick that Rhea only halfheartedly followed. She was a little bit preoccupied with enjoying the quiet moment she got to have with Floyd.

After she'd hung up the phone, she'd gotten dressed in a baby blue jumper, a pair of jeans and a jacket. She'd never been to Floyd's house before, so she'd insisted he came and picked her up from in front of the ice cream shop. From there on, the way was actually pretty straightforward, and it had taken a ten minutes' walk before they made it to the front door.

Unlike Rhea, who lived in a house of their own, Floyd lived in an apartment building. The building itself was pretty nice with brick walls and a set of stairs leading up to the front door. It almost looked like one of those nice apartment buildings in New York that you'd see in romantic comedies.

Inside the house was equally nice. Three walls of the living room were painted a cream color and the other one was covered with a rich burgundy wallpaper. The furniture looked like they'd been picked straight out of an interior design magazine, while still managing to look homey with the occasional photo frames and the blanket draped across the sofa like some had just been lying there.

"You settled in pretty nicely, haven't you?" Rhea had said once she'd taken the room in.

"My mom's pretty into interior design," Floyd had answered, shrugging his shoulders.

A couple minutes later, she was picking out a movie for them to watch while Floyd went to the kitchen to microwave a bag of popcorn to go along with it. When she'd seen Tom Cruise's face next to Cameron Diaz's on a fun looking action movie poster, she couldn't resist it.

That's how thirty minutes later she found herself giggling at the usual action flick humor while Floyd's arm was draped across her shoulders. The blanket she'd seen when they'd first arrived was now thrown over both of their legs and the almost empty bowl of popcorn rested on Floyd's thighs. He occasionally played with the ends of her hair that reached her shoulder blades. Little did he know she almost instantly fell asleep when her hair was being played with.

She stirred awake after what felt like no more twenty minutes to see the end credits of the movie. More like an hour, then. She realized that the blanket was solely around her now, covering her body up to her shoulders.