1 | ONE BREATH | MINIMINTER ✔️

FIVE

FIVE
s i m o n

"So, what d'you guys thing?" He asks, concluding his explanation of how they'd all been invited to the party that only the most popular people in the school went to. It was an achievement if you managed to get an invitation for you and one friend, let alone you and your entire group of friends.

"I don't know, man," Tobi says, shaking his head slightly.

"Yeah," Vik adds, "James doesn't want us to go and now that him and Dallas aren't a thing... she doesn't really have the right to invite us."

Simon frowns and looks to JJ.

"How often do we even get an invite to these kinds of parties, guys, we should go while we have the chance. Who knows, we might even get lucky," JJ laughs, bringing light to the situation.

"Exactly, so we should go," Simon says. He knew he wanted to go from the moment Dallas asked him, but there was the issue of convincing his friends to come too. Going alone would look sad.

"We definitely don't need to worry," Ethan cuts in, looking up from his phone. "Boys, one of the most popular girls in school invited us. No one questions Dallas, stop worrying and tell her we can come."

"I-" Simon begins, but his attention is sucked elsewhere as Dallas storms into the lunch hall with her hair curled around her face in waves of brown and her face pinched as if she were in pain.

He sees her sigh heavily as she stops in the doorway, a few smaller kids bumping into her with their lunch trays, and then those stormy eyes lock onto him.

When she's at his side, she avoids his eyes and produces his pen from her pocket. It's slammed down on the table in front of him.

"Thanks," She says sharply with a forced smile and a sly look around the table. For a moment her eyes stay on Cal, but then she moves away back to Simon.

And for a moment she turns towards him, her eyes lingering. Her fingers scoop her hair behind her ear and, in that brief moment as she turned away from him, he saw the inky purple swell on her cheek. It was darker than the storm that raged within her eyes.

Her eyes widen slightly as if she realised she'd drawn the curtain back too far and it all comes crumbling back down right in front of him. Here she was, right in front of him, an all Simon could do was stare at the mess of black on her cheek.

Before he can say anything, she's strutting away with her hands stuffed deep into the pockets of her infamous bomber jacket, but her strut no longer looks catwalk worthy. It looks tired, worn down and wooden. Like she was simply going through the motions until the day was done.

And then she'd do it all over again tomorrow, strutting like she meant it and smiling like she was happy.

He watches as she slips into the seat in between Violet and Allison, instantly indulging in the conversation.

"Why didn't you say anything about the party just then?" Harry asks, his mouth filled with half-chewed cheese sandwich. The others look to him for his response. They just assumed he'd been a deer in headlights, caught in he sight of beauty. But they didn't see the wound in the beauty.

"It's fine," Simon shrugs. "I can just call her later and tell her then."

Cal's jaw falls open. "You have her number? You?" Harry stops chewing and the others try not to look so surprised, but Cal continues. "Out of all of us, you got Dallas' number? What have we become, boys?"

"Guess I got lucky," Simon replies and looks over his shoulder at Dallas again, but she's paying him no attention. She's laughing, smiling and appearing to enjoy herself, but there was something off about the way she laughed now.

The bruise stained it with an imminent sense of worry and disbelief.

If Dallas had known that the curtain had faltered, she would've hated it, but she just carried on giggling at every word Marnie said just because that was what she had to do.

If there was one thing everyone knew about Dallas, it was that she was reliable.

-

shorter chapter, but this was just a simon chapter so the next chapter, which is a dallas chapter, should be a little longer.

also! doesn't that gif just give you the good old minge twinge??

[i added more to this chapter because it seemed rushed, but i like it more now, so here's take two! sorry for the inconvenience!]