Native Settlers (Wattys 2016)

Chapter 10

Spring break was officially over and I had been avoiding everyone for days. My grandpa had called me leaving voice mails but I wasn't in the mood to get bitched at.

I sat in the living room of my mom's house with my sister eating cereal and watching TV like we did when we were younger. Our mom was working late and Mikayla hates staying home alone, she said the house is haunted.

"I'm bored," she said breaking the silence and chewing with her mouth opened, I cringed at her. "Can we go to your house?"

"Why?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "There's nothing to do there either."

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Is that why you've been spending your time here for the past few days."

I sighed and took a bite of my cereal, "No."

"Then let's go to your house," she sat up from the all matching couch and grabbed my bowl and hers then went to the kitchen to put away the cereal.

I got up and slipped on my shoes, "There's nothing to do there you're going to be bored."

We rode in my car to my house, Mikayla listened to her music and sang along with each word.

"How do you understand what they say when they sing so fast?" I asked keeping my eyes on the road.

"I look up the lyrics and sing along," she paused her mid rapping to answer.

"You're a dork," I snorted and laughed.

"I don't care," she said then continued to sing.

Twenty minutes passed and we were turning onto the street I lived on.

"Did you tell mom we were going to my house?" I asked just now realising my mom might come home to an empty house and freak out.

"Yeah, she said she'll pick me up later when I call," she said next to me.

"Okay good," I said pulling up to the front of my house.

I got out of the car and locked the car doors making my way to the front door. I opened the door and of course Harry had to be sitting on the couch with his laptop doing his work like the good boy he is.

I walked in first then held the door open for Mikayla, I closed it once she got in and locked the door.

"Hey Keeza," he said looking up from the lit up screen. "Hey Mikayla," he smiles politely at her.

"Hey Harry," she said smiling with a bit of a blush appearing on her sun kissed cheeks.

"I hope you don't mind, Mikayla was bored at home." I said avoiding eye contact and sitting far from him on the couch.

"No problem," he said still looking up at us from his screen. "There's not much to do here though to be honest."

"Yeah that's what I told her but she doesn't listen," I said rolling my eyes. Mikayla flopped down between us on the couch and stuck her tongue out at me.

"That reminds me of someone else I know," he said smiling, Mikayla just laughed next to me and I rolled my eyes. "Well, if it's okay with your big sister we can go do something." Harry suggested turning to face Mikayla with full on eye contact like always.

"Well what do you say Keez, you done being a hermit crab?" Mikayla said while throwing an arm behind my head onto my shoulders.

"I guess," I shrugged. I got up from the couch and headed towards the front door grabbing my keys on the way out. "Well, where are we going then?"

Harry ended up driving and wouldn't let us know where he was taking us, as we rode down the highway I couldn't help but think of why Harry would like me or maybe he didn't like me and he liked someone else and I was just being cocky. Maybe I just misread him but I usually can read him like a book, the kids sucks at hiding his emotions.

"Pass me the aux, your music sucks," My jaw dropped and I turned to look at mikayla who sat in the backseat bored.

"Excuse me?" I asked squinting my eyes at her, "Don't ever disrespect my music again."

She rolled her eyes and I just threw the cord at her nearly whipping her in the face, "Hey!" She yelled and snatched the cord before it could hit her.

I ignored her and turned to face out the window crossing my arms. Music started playing through speakers moments after and of course this bitch puts on a love song, my body tenses and in the corner of my eye I see Harry turn to look at me for a split second. I continued to stare out the window and slowly start humming the song quietly.

He let out a breathy laugh, "What's so funny pepe?" I said turning to face him, he looked over at me and had a sly smirk on his face and shook his head.

Minutes later we pulled up to Powell's bookstore.

"What are you up too?" I asked as he parked the car and turned off the ignition.

"I have an idea, and you're either going to hate it or love it." Oh great.

"What is it?" I asked skeptically, he just smiled and shrugged shoulders.

I rolled my eyes and got out of the car Mikayla soon following after me. Harry got out and lead the way inside holding the door open for each of us.

"I brought you here today because I had the brilliant idea of getting a book you want to read then giving it someone else to read. Like a book exchange." He said walking further into the store full of hipsters.

"O-kay," I said stretching out the word. "Will you be paying for the books?" he nodded his head and the mop of curls bounced. "Sounds good to me," I said with a shrug.

"As long as it's not a boring book I don't care." Mikayla said while while putting her hands up in surrender.

We spent an hour or so just wondering the book store spending time reading the summary and prologues of the many books Powell's stores. I ended up finding this book called Sold by a woman named Patricia McCormick and it's about a young girl getting sold into sex trafficking. It seemed interesting enough and I thought it would be enlightening to read about other women and what they had to go through.

I found Harry holding a book but he quickly put it behind his back before I had the chance to see it.

"Why can't I see it?" I asked curiously.

"You can't show the other person the book just yet," he said with a sly smile. "We have do that all together." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Hey, got my book." Mikayla said holding the book close to her chest so I couldn't see.

We walked to the checkout line set each of our books out and Harry paid. We all grabbed our book and made our way outside to the front of the store.

"Okay Keez," Mikayla said holding her book behind her back. "The book I got for you is," she pulled the book from behind and put it out in front of me.

"Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley." I read aloud and nodded my head in approval. "Well here's the book I got you," I said handing her the paper back book with the yellow cover and red print.

"And for you Keeza," Harry said handing my a hard copy of Looking For Alaska. "I figured since you loved the fault in our stars so much you might like this." I smiled and nodded my head.

"Fair enough." I said holding the book feeling the imprints of the cover across the pads of my thumbs.

We went back home after that and I for the first in days felt happy again. I almost forgot about Harry and the girl (that might be me) he likes. Today felt like the first time we met and neither of us were drunk or high and we genuinely had a good time.

It was a feeling I missed, it almost made me want to give up drinking and getting high.

Almost.