Chapter Sixteen: So you girl-scouts wanna play, huh?
We both looked down to my hand wrapped around his arm, preventing him from going anywhere. Awkwardly I let go of him, that was too confident a move for Ally! She would never do that, she'd have just smiled politely and let him leave without a fuss, even if inside she wished she had done more to keep him near her. How on earth do shy people ever get anything done in their lives? Oh well, it's not like I could turn back time.
Nate was staring at me. Just out-rightly staring, he wasn't even trying to make it subtle. You know that look a homeless man gives you while you're walking past about to take a bite out of the most delicious cheese burger you just bought? Yeah. It was one of those looks, creepy right? There was a strangle tingling sensation in my cheeks that crept up to my nose.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, remembering to use that wanna-be Irish accent I'd practised on Melissa. “I just...um, don't want to be alone?”
It came out as a question, I don't know if Nate noticed it as such, but I was wondering if that kind of approach would work on him.
“Okay? Do you know me or something?” He asked guarded.
I shook my head and lowered my eyes to the ground.
“Then why are you here?”
I looked back up, caught his gaze and shrugged. “I dunno. I was just walking around. I'm new here.”
“Oh,” he breathed, and for a long moment both of us fell silent. Then I mutely began happy-dancing inside when Nate dismounted his bike and propped it up against the railing, before walking around to sit on my other side.
“So...” he drawled, as he began fidgeting with his hands in his lap. “What's your name?”
“Ally Monsoon.” I told him.
“Nice to meet you, Ally. I'm Nate.” He held his hand out and I gingerly shook it. His hand was callous and rough with cuts and blisters, and strangely it didn't gross me out and make me want to soak my hands in antibacterial hand wash. Besides, no man wants girl-y hands.
“Nice to meet you too.” I whispered in reply, hoping I was nailing this whole shy-girl act. Maybe I was talking too much? Or maybe I was looking at him too much? I wasn't quite sure, but Nate seemed to be buying it. I think. It was weird talking and seeing him as someone else, I mean it wasn't like I knew him well before now, but it was still weird.
“Where're you from?” He asked and I looked back out across the park idly, my wonderfully, deceitful pet spider had returned and lies poured from my lips like sweet honey from a jar.
“I've just moved from North Yorkshire. My mum got transferred here from her job.”
“Oh. I mean originally. Your accent, it sounds Scottish or something?”
“Irish.” I quickly corrected him. My accent wasn't that bad, was it? I thought Melissa was being dramatic and mean to me, she could have told me I was seriously that bad at pulling off an Irish accent!
“Never heard an Irish accent like that before. My cousins live there, what part you from?”
“Erm,” I stuttered, panicking a little. “The southern part. A village in the middle of nowhere that barely anyone knows the existence of. Yeah. We kinda have our own kind of accent there, different from the rest of...um, Ireland.”
“Oh, right.”
There were a thousand things I could say next, a million questions I could ask him to keep this conversation going but I couldn't say them before then I come across as confident and a chatterbox. It was too dangerous to do that, Ally Monsoon had to be the exact polar opposite of Shayenne Hall. I had to admit that this character was the the hardest act to pull off, but that didn't mean I couldn't do it. No sir.
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The Boyfriend Diaries
Genç KurguCompleted Novel. Shayenne has always looked out for her best friend, Melissa, especially when it comes to boyfriends. Melissa has been hurt more times than she can count, and Shay has had enough. So she devises a plan to find out just who the perfec...