White Lies and Music Notes

Chapter Fifteen

The sun was already starting to dip lower in the sky when I slipped into the barn that night. I was five minutes late, as instructed by Melanie.

"Oh my god, Leah. I thought you weren't going to come." Matt's voice rippled through the air. He rushed forward to hug me. I tensed, they were the wrong arms. They weren't Eric's. "Sit down." He motioned on a hay-bail for me to sit on. I sat down, Matt sitting next to me, our legs touching. I resisted the urge to pull away. This was a date after-all.

"So, Matt." I said, trying to remember all the instructions Melanie gave me that afternoon. I started playing with my hair. I looked him up and down, unsure of whether I should complement him. "Tell me a little about yourself, I hardly know you and I want to know things about the guy I'm dating."

"Um, okay." He said. "What do you want to know?"

"Let's start with sports. You play American football, right?" He nodded. "Who are you in the team?"

"I'm the Captain. I am the most important person on the team, Leah. Without me, the game is a fail." Ugh. His ego is WAY too big. I nodded. "I play the quarterback. It's the most important part of the offence."

"Offence?"

"Yeah, the people who score." He grinned at me and winked. I moved away slightly.

"Oh right, like attack?" He gave me a strangle look. "Never mind."

We chatted for a while, just about ourselves. Our lives before Wichita Mountain Boarding School and during. I made a point never to mention my anti-social-ness at my old school, as I didn't want to put him off.

"So what's your dad's job?" He asked.

Oh dear. I had to play this very carefully. He could never find out I had a scholarship. If I told him my dad was a primary school teacher, he would laugh at me. I needed to impress him.

"Oh, I don't really know." I said. "He does some...you know...business stuff. He....runs his own business."

"Wow that's ace, babe." I shrugged it off. "What's his business do?"

"Well, this and that. Mainly CCTV cameras." Ah! What the hell? CCTV camera's? "But he did tombstones before that." Ugh, Leah. You need some better ideas. What would impress Matt? "I think he said he was moving on to...sports....equipment."

"Oh, woah!"

And so ended the conversation. To be honest, Matt wasn't all that bad. He was actually pretty good looking, and he was quite fun to be around. He had a great sense of humour and we were laughing so much sometimes. After one of these laughing incidents, I found myself melting in his eyes. My head was telling myself to snap out of it, but I was loosing my willpower. Then I saw Matt slowly leaning forward. And I mirrored him. Our lips were nearly touching, but sirens were going off in my brain, screaming at me to leave. And just as I though we would kiss, I tore away.

"I need to go." I mumbled, as I stood up. "It's getting late." Only as I left did I realise how late it actually was. Time had flown so quickly with Matt, despite the fact that I had been dreading it. Perhaps doing this wasn't going to be so difficult after-all.

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I ran back to the dorm faster than I had ever run before. As I burst in, I saw Melanie and Taylor sitting on their beds playing on their phones. Roxanne was nowhere.

"Jeez Leah. About time! You've been gone almost two hours. Teachers are coming round soon to check we're all here."

"Oh well. I'm here now. Where's Roxanne?"

"With Eric." Taylor said. Her eyes went wide. "Wait, what? Didn't you say you liked Eric?" I nodded. "Then why did you go out with Matt?"

I shrugged. "Eric is too good for me. I figured, why not go out with Matt, if I can?" Technically not a lie. Taylor nodded.

"But you could get Eric any day, if you can get Matt!"

"Yeah maybe." I disappeared into the bathroom to. Get off all my make-up and get ready for bed. When I came back into the room, Roxanne had reappeared. When she saw me she turned red.

"What's up, Roxanne?" I said.

"Nothing." She said it way to quickly and I knew something had happened.

"There is something, Roxanne. I know it. Please tell me?" She shook her head. "Okay then." I shrugged it off and I disappeared under my duvet covers.

"The date was great, by the way." I announced as I rolled over, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.