Cupid's Soldier

Chapter 8

'I have a crush on this girl, she's so beautiful. She's kind, intelligent, and sweet. Thing is, I don't really think she likes me much. How do I get her to change her mind about me?'

I stare at my laptop screen in sadness as I come up with a short and simple response that could hopefully help him.

'First, you need to show her more of your good side. By that I don't mean to pretend to be someone else entirely around her. Don't change the way you are to be with her, it never works out. If she does end up liking that fake version of you then you'll have to pretend to be that person during the whole entire relationship. Just be yourself, show her the best of who you are, and most importantly just talk to her. If she doesn't like you after all of that, it wasn't meant to be.'

I've been trying to distract myself with work ever since I got back home. Austen's been on my mind a lot since the drive home. I've been thinking about his smile, his laugh, his taunts. I can't seem to get him out of my mind. No matter what I do the ghost of his face floats around my brain like a graveyard. Trying to swat the image of his smug expression is becoming more and more impossible. He seems to have bought land in my brain and he refuses to let it go.

I groan, slamming my laptop shut. Realizing that I'm not ever going to sleep since it's already four o' clock in the morning, I decide to just get ready for school. Being early for school isn't such a bad thing. If I take my laptop with me I can get started on answering more questions from my blog.

It takes me another hour to look like a human being and in that hour I think about my obstacles and how I can get over them. Sadly, I came up with nothing. How can you beat someone when you don't know what their plan is or why they're going to do it? All I know is that my dad is back, he called me a slut, and Xavier went to my school and tried to grab me.

Grabbing my backpack, I make my way down the stairs and into the living room. Writing a note on the kitchen table saying that I've left for school early. Hopefully today will be a good day for both of us.

When I get to school, the doors are locked, so I just sit under a tree near the steps, looking up at the sunrise. The orange, red, and pink colors burst out into the sky like a firework. The surreal beauty has me captured, and because I haven't gotten any sleep, makes a few tears fall down my face.

Something touches my shoulder, and I jump.

"Seline, darling, you're a wimp," a boy says, chuckling. When I turn around to look at him, I'm not surprised to find Austen there, though, I am surprised that he seems to actually know my real name. He's always using pet names so I thought he just didn't know my real one. He kneels down so he can be level with me and those brown eyes stare into my soul, catching my body on fire.

"Because I notice beautiful things?" I ask in a whisper, he leans in closer to me, our lips almost brushing. "I'm noticing something beautiful right now and you don't see me crying." He whispers back at me with a little smirk on his face.