Untouchable

Three

"So, I caught her sucking him off, when he was meant to be ill and I was dropping his work for the day off. I stormed out with the papers on the floor and went back to my house, which is why I'm so late," Ezra finished, sadness clouding in his eyes. Lada bit her lip and took in his features, tainted by hurt, betrayal, pain.

"Sorry to hear that," she winced, her words sounding flat as she spoke. almost as though they were insincere. She meant them, however, with the utmost sincerity, and when he looked at her in the eyes, he saw that reflected in her look and smiled, before breaking his gaze with the girl.

"Don't be, it's not your fault," he said softly, reassuring her. He toyed with his lips, chewing them in the nervous but comfortable silence. "It was his fault, he always flirted with her even when he knew we were dating, and she...she fucking let him!" He raised his voice for the first time that night, causing Lada to shrink back. Noticing this, he sighed, and said, "Sorry. I'm just pissed off, is all." He then began to look around her room, taking in every little detail.

There were posters dotted around the room, showing movies of old, heartthrobs of the 90s like River Phoenix and Leonardo DiCaprio, and Polaroids thrown in randomly in the spaces left behind, scattered like her thoughts in class, which Ezra had noticed when in a class with the girl, the way she could quickly move from  one idea to the next when in conversation with anyone and everyone. A pile of 45s lay next to a relatively modern-looking record player, all stacked in an assortment of colors. One was already on the turntable, a turquoise record, which was definitely out of the ordinary when compared to normal vinyl records. In the corner of the room was a basket full of foreign-looking sweets, a rainbow of colors.

Lada noticed him looking around the room and smiled to herself. The wonder on his face was plain to see, and it was beautiful in her eyes. "I kinda have a lot of random crap, in case you couldn't tell," she chuckled slightly, and he turned back to face her, shaking his head slightly.

"It's hardly random crap if you own it," he replied. "I mean, everything's gotta have a story behind it, otherwise why else would it all be in your personal space if you didn't like any of it?" He was right. She had so many reasons for every single object in her room that  made up the main decor, but it was impossible to begin to explain it all to someone like Ezra, mainly because most of the things held a true personal meaning to her, and she didn't feel right sharing that with anyone who she didn't really know that well, especially not the guy she had a massive crush on.

"Look, do you want to know why everything in here is the way it is?" She sighed, her voice quiet and nervous. His nod of reassurance was all she really needed to actually get on with everything, so she began to explain all her posters (which came from a love of old movies and the glamorous lives of 90's film stars, as well as how genuine many of them were, even if they were affected by the constant drug abuse that went on in Hollywood back in those days) and Polaroids ("I always like capturing the moment before it slips away, so I can keep that happy little snapshot forever, and relive it whenever I feel down"), her vinyl record collection (of which some were used, some never played, but she loved how authentic they all sounded on the player) and the sweets in the corner ("Japanese sweets are honestly the craziest, but also the nicest. You can try some, if you want").

They stayed discussing everything like this for a while, before Ezra dug around in his bag and brought out the script he wanted to show Lada, that he'd been working on for their Theatre Studies class. The point of creating a script was to show that they weren't only about the acting, but could also come up with a script that (hopefully) showcased some of their best thoughts and ideas, the types of things that people wouldn't normally be able to see on stage because everyone has their own ideas about how they want to perform something to an audience, or how they wish they could act in front of them, which may not match a script or how the audience actually interpret the piece. They then actually began working on the script itself, fine-tuning it and discussing the backstories of all the characters they had created.

"But what if Leonardo didn't want revenge and retribution for Damian, what if he genuinely just wanted to kill Mara because she was a vindictive, psychopathic bitch who basically got off on the misfortune of others?

"You mean schadenfreude? Nah, that seems too obvious a backstory for her. No, Mara just liked to influence people using her wit and charm to an extent where she could play them off against each other in order to achieve the desired outcome she had been planning for all along." Ezra grinned at her after he said this last statement, and Lada rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. I still think that my idea of her actually being a psycho would be cooler for the audience to think about," she smiled sweetly at him, before helping him pack up his laptop after they saved their nights work.

"Thanks for letting me work at yours tonight, Lada. It was great," he said, getting up as he spoke.

"You're welcome to come back any time, maybe I'll actually have some normal snacks next time for you to have as well!" She smirked, and he laughed at her statement.

"Maybe," he smiled, "Maybe indeed."

A/N: I AM SO SORRY THIS HAS TAKEN SO LONG TO WRITE

I am an absolutely terrible person.

But I've been busy with Cadets (I'm a Corporal now (yay responsibility :))) ) and NCS (my team was bloody brilliant tbh).

Also, dreading my exam results because they are in tWO WEEKS AND I AM NOT PREPARED FOR ANYTHING.

Anyways, hopefully I'll update this more, I need to get into the swing of writing things anyway because I'm doing Creative Writing as an AS-Level in Sixth Form (hopefully!) so expect updates :)

Thank you for the reads and votes on this story so far, and who knows? Maybe something will happen between Lada and Ezra? Or do you ship Lada and Pan more?