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t e n : malady, her carriage, & 21 jump street

| TEN |

MALADY, HER CARRIAGE & 21 JUMP STREET

"I can't believe you made me watch that!"

Eira's tone was probably meant to be accusatory, but the smile on her face was too adorable and too giddy for Isaiah to actually take her seriously. She looked positively tickled.

"What I can't believe is that you hadn't seen 21 Jump Street." Isaiah shook his head pityingly. He shovelled some yellow popcorn into his mouth and sent her a smile.

"After that scare you gave me about watching Saw, you shouldn't be smiling, Sir." Isaiah laughed genuinely. "I don't see how you're laughing. Have you forgotten that there's a lot of blood in there?" she smiled teasingly.

"Real blood makes me do the f-word, sweetheart. Not that ketchupy stuff they show in movies." He rolled his eyes and grinned at her. "Besides...I was just checking if you were, indeed, not a very big fan of torture flicks." He shrugged, grinning cheekily at her. "It's safe to say that you are."

"I'm not a fan of torture flicks, Isaiah Matthews."

"I'm a fan of you, though. A really big fan." He blurted without thinking.

"So am I. A really big fan." She smiled bashfully.

He and Eira held their gazes, smiling at each other with tenderness that wasn't normally found in people who had known each other as long as they had. Isaiah didn't realise how he never noticed Eira had a beauty spot on her nose, or just how beautiful her eyes were. Well, he knew how beautiful they were, but he never really knew how beautiful they were.

He knew they were hazel, that they sparkled, that he sounded like a Mills and Boon book, and that besides being the most beautiful girl he'd ever met, seen or been in the presence of, that she was a special kind of person. Soft. Adorable. Nice. Beautiful. And though he didn't like to dwell on it, perfect. He thought that Eira was...perfect. Even though his nagging, logical brain told him it was impossible, he couldn't dispel it. He knew that placing her on a pedestal will only make it harder for him when he realises that she isn't, but he didn't care. Eira was perfect to him.

And that his first mistake.

"Uh...At least you've seen it 21 Jump Street now. Tell me, was your favourite part when they tripped, or when they tripped?" He cleared his throat.

"It was the beginning, where they became best friends even when he had been so mean to him before." Eira said, thoughtfully popping a popcorn into her mouth. "How they were able to work through their issues..."

Isaiah didn't want to seem like a creep, but he couldn't help but watch the way she chewed. He was a creep.

Eira shrugged, seemingly snapping out of her thoughtful haze. She avoided his eyes and wore a bashful smile. "I'm sorry. I'm a bit mushy when it comes to things like that. It's the kind of friendship I want." At the attentive look on Isaiah's face, she seemed to gather courage to delve deeper and...elaborate.

The look of attention one hope's for. Yearns for. The look that meant that you could say anything at all, anything, and the person giving you that look wouldn't judge you, or question you. The kind of look that everyone secretly hoped for. The kind of look Isaiah Matthews didn't know he wanted.