Her Muse

Chapter thirteen

We ran through the rain, the harsh weather drenching our clothes and-maybe just for me, providing hydration. Yes, I drank some. So what? Sue me.

We finally got to his home, my chest heaving hard from all that running. What a far cry from being graceful. I didn't have time to observe the exterior of his house because we ran straight in.

I stood at the entrance to avoid getting the whole place ruined.

"I'll get some towels." he said quickly before hobbling off to a corner of his house.

I stood at the passageway and the wall contained photos of Pierce and his mom in most of them, from his 5-year-old birthdays, to beach visits but in all of them something was wrong he never smiled. His expression was always blank and I now knew why his mom so desperately wanted him to do the surgery. I looked at more photos and then I saw a picture of a man with Pierce's mom grinning brightly at the camera.
His mom looked so beautiful with her ocean blue eyes and her brown wavy hair. What a coincidence. My mom also has that hair and eye color. She however has striking features and my mom had softer ones. They look nothing alike. Whew, my mom doesn't have a long lost sister or anything.

I glanced at more of the pictures lost in thought until Pierce came back with the towels.

"Thanks." I breathed before wrapping myself with it. I groaned dramatically. "This is so warm." he blushed and I snorted.

"My, my don't you blush a lot." and he turned away and blushed even harder.

We went over to his room and I surveyed the surroundings. Come to think of it, I've been to two boys' rooms in the span of a week. What a bad-butt I am. I looked to the wall and spotted a guitar.

"You play?"

"I'm still kind of learning." he took it off the wall playing a few chords.

"Can I try?" I reached out my hand and he gave it to me. I began strumming the guitar like I used to see on TV. Yeah, the only difference was that the sound was different. Like a lot different.
I crinkled my nose in annoyance and Pierce laughed.

"I kind of hoped I'd be like those musical geniuses that knew how to play after hearing it just once." I said bashfully. Curse you Beethoven.

He shook his head, his curls flopping.
"Okay, let me adjust the tuning a bit so I can teach you some things." he bent down to my level to adjust the tuning. His hair got in my face and began tickling my nose. I should probably tell him that.

"U-um Pierce?" I whispered.

"Mhm?" He hummed absentmindedly focusing on his task.

"P-please move your head." I mumbled. His head shook, tickling my nose.

"In a bit." He mumbled. I couldn't move because I was holding the guitar so if I did, it would have fallen because Pierce wasn't holding it. And he was too concentrated to take it from my hands anyway.

"I'm going to- ACHOO!!" I sneezed loudly. Oops, well in my defense I told him to move and in my somewhat obscure research mucus is very good for the hair. Or was it pee? Nah it was just water.

Pierce jerked his head back, sadly but efficiently hitting my nose sending me flailing backwards and falling on my butt. Great. Now, I have a broken nose and a broken butt. I cried out and held my nose, the pain coursing through me like Peter Parker's spider sense. I'm pretty sure this is how it feels for something to course through you. Focus. I'm in pain.

Pierce reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me up. He altered so many 'sorrys' and 'it was a mistake-s' that I couldn't keep count. Oh, maybe because my head was spinning. Maybe, the words were spinning too, I couldn't tell.

He removed my hand covering my nose and wiggled it slightly.

"Thank god it's not broken."  He mumured standing very close to me.

I chuckled weakly, "Yay me."

He still stood there, looking at me and I thought someone who had been controlling him pressed a pause button. How do novels describe this as heart fluttering? I was uncomfortable under his scrutinizing gaze. I was about to move back when his door opened widely

"Hey P, I'm back from work early because Miranda took my shift. Something about not wanting to see her roommate." Pierce's mom rambled absent mindedly. She then turned to me, from her expression just noticing me and my too-close-for-comfort we were in.

"Oh who are you?"  she said nicely but warily.

" Oh she's-um-er-" he stuttered. I rolled my eyes. Pierce is cute but he can be a little extra sometimes.

"Hi Mrs Stone, I'm Roxy, Pierce's friend. There was a downpour so Pierce and I decided to crash here. Or just me cause for him it wouldn't be crashing." she chuckled and I grinned. Yep, she got sucked into my charms too. (insert smirking emoji).
"I hope that okay with you."  I said and blinked three consecutive times rapidly. And that's the finishing touch people.

"No, I'm very okay with that. In fact it's exciting really, Pierce has never brought any of his friends here and I was starting to think he doesn't have any." She rambled with a small nervous laugh.

"Mom" Pierce whined blushed. Safe to say his mom's intuition was correct.

"Mrs Stone, Pierce kinda head-butted me in the nose while tuning his guitar." I did my best pity face and her gaze softened.

"I did not."  he argued and I sent him a glare that immediately shut him up.

"That's why we were in that position. Do you maybe have any ice packs that could help?" I asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry but we don't have any ice packs at the moment maybe a bag of frozen peas will help?" She said walking over to inspect it. I got a closer look at her face and my, she was beautiful. Her ocean blue eyes scanned my nose closely.

"That would help a bunch. Thank you Mrs Stone." I smiled warmly. She stopped looking at my nose and backed away.

"No problem Roxy. I'm glad he has a friend like you. Oh, and you can call me Mary." she winked at me before going out of the room. Pierce who had been quiet all this while finally spoke up.

"How?"  he asked surprised.  I opened my mouth to ask what he was talking about when he continued.

"How did you make it seem to my mom like we were doing nothing wrong and even get her to like you?" he asked in awe of my super skills. I chuckled.

"Okay I'm going to tell you this once and you have to keep it a secret." I said in my most serious voice. He nodded slowly, eager to hear what I had to say.

"It's because we were doing nothing wrong. Plus my natural charms." I stated simply and shrugged and he blinked at me. I folded my arms with a smug grin and he rolled his eyes at me.

His mom later came back with the bag of peas and I made sure to express my gratitude very clearly *innocent smile.

Pierce and I stayed in the room with him doing bad boy expressions and me laughing my butt off at how corny they were. I definitely learned some stuff I would add in my book.

When the rain stopped, he took me back to my place which was only four streets away. Who knew? Gee I need to get out more often. People live closer to me than I thought....just kidding I don't think I'm going to do that. As soon as my head hit the bed ready for sleep, I heard my name called by my mom and I grimaced. Great.

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Can't believe I have 300 reads thanks so much for reading this book... That I should put more time and energy into. Anyhoo thanks again and don't forget to vote, comment and share.👋♥️