Pointe Shoes

Chapter four

That night I couldn't sleep. How could I? I'd never slept this close to a boy before, and although I had no history of snoring, I defiantly didn't want to risk it. My mind drifted to what I knew about Max.

He lives with his mom, dad, 3 sisters and 3 brothers, on a ranch in Montana. They raise horses and give riding lessons. At least,he does. That's his job. He loves Harry Potter too. His best friend's name is George. He eats ice cream all the time. He has dyslexia. He prefers vanilla to chocolate. When he was 7, he fell off a ladder he wasn't supposed to climb and that's why he has a tiny scar right above his eyebrow. He talks to his horses more than people, which was hard for me to believe, considering he talks a ton. He's a terrible singer, which I found out when he tried to sing along to Taylor Swift, whom he loved more than any guy I'd ever met. He had been born with a rare blood disease, and wasn't supposed to make it to a week old. He had had 4 girlfriends in his entire life, his first one being in his freshman year, lasting 3 weeks.

His eyes were like a Fall morning; hot chocolate and warm sweaters. His smile, however, always seemed to pick me up and shake me around until I couldn't breathe. Those dimples would be the death of me. He was cute the first time I saw him, but now I realized he was more; he was beautiful.

At around 5 AM I fell asleep but was woken at 7 because we had plans to visit the Hoover Dam, which was going to take about 4 hours, since we were near California's boarder. We ate the dry eggs provided by the hotel, and headed on our way. I had planned to sleep in the van, but Max had other plans.

"Pleaseeeeeeee! I really want to know what happens to her!" Max complained, trying to convince me to read The Book Thief to him again. Flashing me his big brown eyes quickly before turning them back to the road. Inwardly I groaned, but I had no choice but give in. His cuteness was totally not fair.

"Fine. But you're buying me a Frosty next Wendy's we see." I grumbled, pulling the book from the glove compartment.

"Yay! Thank you Clara-Beara!" Max said with a grin.

"Beara? How's that even spelled?" I chuckled.

"Like bears, except with A at the end instead of S."

"Of course. How could I be so dumb?"

"I don't know Clara-Beara; I just don't know." He joked. After a silence settled around us, I flipped to the page we were on in The Book Thief and began to read.

I must've fallen asleep because I was woken suddenly by the blaring horn of a semi.

"What the hell?" I shouted. I rarely swore, but when I was really scared sometimes they slipped.

"It's okay, he was honking at someone else." Max tried to calm me. I took a deep breathe and looked around, seeing the Welcome To Nevada sign as we blazed by.

"How long have I been out?" I asked embarrassedly. If he saw me drool, I might die.

"Only about an hour. You read for 15 minutes, but then you repeated the same sentence over about 4 times before you were out cold. I was blasting Taylor and you didn't even twitch." He laughed. I felt my cheeks blaze, and I looked away quickly.

"How close are we?" I asked. I could do the math, but it was summer. No way was I doing math.

"About 2 and a half hours. You can go back to sleep if you want." Now I felt bad.

"No, I'll entertain you." I teased, hoping that didn't sound sexual. Oh my gosh, it did, didn't it? I'm such a freak. I just need to stop letting words come out of my mouth.

"How? By telling me the plot lines of those boring ballet movies you told me about?" He teased me right back.

"You are such a jerk! I was going to read to you again, but now I guess I won't." I huffed.

"No! Please!" He begged. I laughed and picked up the book.

"You want me to read this?" I asked, waving it to the side of me (not in front of his face, I wanted to live, after all).

"Yes?" He said, though making it sound more like a question. He sounded a bit afraid.

"See, I would love to read to you, I really would, but I don't read to jerks." His mouth fell open.

"I am not a jerk! Victoria doesn't think I am." He said, sounding miffed but had a joking sparkle to his eyes. Victoria was his youngest sister at only 12 and had autism. Max was her hero, and she was Max's.

"Victoria is your little sister; she's supposed to look up to you. But I am immune to your charm. I know the truth, Brewell, you. Are. A. Jerk." I told him, poking his right arm gently (again, I don't want to die).

He gasped mockingly and jabbed the radio button and began to turn it.

"I need some T-Swizzle to survive this betrayal. I thought we were friends, Harken, I really did." Max said, sniffing unconvincingly.

"Oh, Max, if only there was someone who cares." I coped with a smirk.

"You did not just use a Frozen quote. Shame." Max shook his head in shame.

"I think that fact you knew it was Frozen so quick is more shameful." I rebutted. He scowled at me, but it quickly melted to a grin when the first notes of blank space played.

The feeling of siting in the front of that van, screaming along to the lyrics of Blank Space along with a boy I was beginning to like way too much, was the best feeling I had felt in forever.

You see, when your dad leaves you at 6, a large part of your childhood dies. You aren't supposed to wake up to the sound of your mother sobbing. You aren't supposed to live with your Grandma for 6 months because your own mom can't bare to look at you. You aren't supposed to feel like something is wrong with you enough for your own Daddy to leave. Not at 6. I used to be Little C, now I'm just Clara.

Now I'm Clara-Beara. And I kinda like it.

Hey guys I'm so sorry I haven't been updating a lot and this ones only 1116 words😁 please go check out my new short story Ocean Eyes! I'm really proud of it!