Mine

Chapter Five

Days passed and Damian tried to avoid Astrid as much as humanly possible but it seemed to him that there she was at every turn. By Friday he had to admit defeat and found himself actually walking up to her and her lanky friend with the intention of just inviting them to Esther's party that weekend. But as he stood in front of them, he found he had no words like some lovesick schoolgirl.
"Yes?" Astrid asked, her eyebrow raised slightly and obviously find this situation somewhat amusing. "Can we help you?"
Damian looked from her to the brown-haired boy who sat beside her. His expression just showed confusion so Damian allowed himself to relax slightly as his eyes met the girl's grey ones again.
Somehow the older boy managed to remember what he'd come over there to ask in the first place. "My friend, the ginger one -" he indicated Esther who was sitting with the Forsyths and flirting heavily with all three by the looks of things, "- Esther. She's having a party and I was wondering if you two wanted to come..."

His eyes studied Astrid's face as she blinked rapidly, obviously somewhat surprised at the offer. "Uh...What day?" She asked slowly as she glanced sideways at the lanky boy who just shrugged at her.

"It's tomorrow. Saturday." Damian answered her without missing a beat. He had already decided that she just had to be there. He had to see her outside of school somehow, but not alone. He was too afraid of what would happen if they were.

"Right." Astrid's eyes were back on her friend as if she was looking for him to answer but Damian couldn't care less what the boy was going to do.

There was a moment of silence, of the pair in front of him exchanging looks before Astrid's eyes met Damian's again. An odd sort of smile was on her lips. Damian couldn't place that look and he wasn't sure that he particularly wanted to know what it meant.

"Yeah, okay. Let me give you my number and you can text me the address." The smile was on her face still as she extended a hand towards him.

Damian stared at her hand for a long moment as he tried to figure out what she was doing.

A laugh sounded from Astrid as he looked at her again. "Do you want to maybe give me your phone?" She suggested.

"Oh, yeah, sure." He nodded quickly and scrambled to pull his phone out of his pocket. He tried not to throw it at her in his mild excitement at the thought of the girl he couldn't get out of his mind actually coming to his best friend's party.

Astrid laughed again as she took the phone off of him and put her number in. Damian just stood there, his hands deep in his pockets as he watched her. He wasn't even aware that he probably looked like a creep while he did so.

When Astrid handed him his phone back, she did so with a smile. "We'll see you tomorrow."

"We...?" The boy beside her asked slowly which just earned a curt nod from Astrid. "Okay... I'm Mal, by the way."

Damian just nodded, his eyes still on the pink-haired girl. A part of his brain was telling him that this was a really bad idea but that part was easily ignored when he found that she was looking straight back at him. The hold she appeared to have on him was much too strong.

He swallowed hard and put his phone back in his pocket. "See - see you tomorrow." He kicked himself at the stutter. What the hell was that for?

Astrid flashed him what looked like a genuine smile which he attempted to return before he turned away and headed over to Esther. The redhead greeted him with a raised eyebrow which he tried to ignore. His business wasn't her business. She didn't have to know what he was thinking at that moment. She had given him permission to invite Astrid and so he had and that was all that she needed to know.

He took his seat next to Joasia and tried to ignore her as she leaned her knee against his. It sent shivers down his spine and not at all in a pleasant way. She was attractive enough, he supposed, but he had grown up with her and there was no way he could see her, Iona or Esther in the same way that they appeared to see him. So instead of responding to or even acknowledging Joasia, he picked up his can of coke and let his mind take him elsewhere.