The Bad Boy and the British Girl

The Girl Who Pushes Me Away

Authors note: hey! Sorry this is quite short, it's a bit of a filler chapter, picture above will make sense later down the chapter!

Zach Graye's POV:

When I tried to give Liz my hoodie she just shrugged it away...I swear girls are meant to love that thing. The whole giving them your hoodie or hugging them when they are cold. Any attempt I make to help her, or care for her or spend time with her she pushes me away. She shrugs off any gesture I make and responds with sarcasm with any compliment I give her, usually girls are falling over me by this point. But there's something about Elizabeth that makes her different, something that makes her see me differently to everyone else, she sees past the smirking and winking and sees every lie I tell or truth I've mentioned. She always looks at me like she making mental notes about me constantly, if I change an answer to a question she'll pick up on it, if I don't want to talk about something she drops it. But to me, she's a mystery, I see nothing in her face that indicates a lie, but nor do I see anything that shows she is saying the truth. Most of the time she doesn't even look at me when we speak, except when I was carving into that wood, but she wasn't watching me. She was watching what I was creating.

"How are you so calm about climbing down that tree?" I call to her, jogging to catch up with her. She's walking increasingly fast and isn't slowing down for anything.

"Because I've done it before, so many times." She answers plainly, still not looking at me. She doesn't ever care about the responses she gets from me, she doesn't care what people think of her.

"In the dark?" I pester her, trying to find out more.

"Yes." She answers bluntly, I decide it's better not to answer. She doesn't like talking about what she's done in the past, ever in fact. I just watch her bury her hands into her pockets and pace faster with every step, until she suddenly stops and spins on her heel. "I fell down the first time I did it alone." Her face softens a bit, she begins chuckling as she looks down. Clearly remembering the memory. "My brother, he climbed all the way down before me, telling me to do it on my own. I climbed about three metres down and my foot slipped and I plummeted to the ground. He softened the blow slightly as by catching my arm for a second. But I landed directly on my legs and shattered both my shins. That was four years ago." She finally looks up at me, a feeble smile on her lips.

"That's how you knew I would break my legs if I fell." I reply, making her laugh.

"Yes, it was. It really hurt I can tell you that much." She begins to turn around, but doesn't begin walking until I've caught up and I'm trudging by her side.

"I can imagine, I'm just glad you didn't make me go on my own." I chuckle at the thought.

"I wouldn't annoy me then Graye, you never know I might just climb down and leave you stranded." She remarks, she starts to howl with laughter.

"Hey! That's just cruelty." I retort at her, shoving her shoulder slightly with my own.

"Ah, I guess it would be classed as child abuse." She throws her head back, her hair flipping onto her back as she smiles endlessly into the sky.

"Excuse me, but I am seventeen years old, not a child!" I exclaim, with my hand on my heart with pride.

"Only a month older than me Graye!" She raises her hands in the air as she shrugs.

"Your only sixteen?" I am shocked, I thought she was seventeen.

"Yes, sadly not seventeen. October 28th, 1999 is the day I came into this world." She announces it proudly.

"It should be an international holiday." I wink at her, causing her to sign and roll her eyes.

"I have Halloween three days after?" She compromises with me.

"I guess that'll have to do kitten." I sigh in a frustrated way, she knows it's a joke.

"Why do you keep calling me kitten?" She asks me, with genuine interest on her face.

"Do you want the honest answer or the romantic answer?" I smirk at her as she shoves me lightly.

"Honest answer if you would." She responds as she wraps her fists around her rucksack straps.

"Well, when I first saw you. The first thing I noticed was the kitten patch you have on your bag. I guess the name kind of came from that, seeing as I didn't know your name." I admit, looking over to the small badge that rests on the front pocket of her bag. I look closer at it and notice that the white cat isn't holding its paws up, but in fact holding two middle fingers up. "What the fuck..." I whisper in shock.

"I was wondering when you'd notice that." She says as she bursts out laughing at my reaction.

"I didn't really take you for the badge kind of girl, but now I see why you have it. I want one." I whine mockingly at her.

"I want never gets Graye." She shakes her head as we turn onto our street.

"Wait I thought you couldn't sew? Or do anything with textiles?" I ask her, incredibly confused at this.

"It's an iron on, trust me I almost burnt myself on that as well." She admits, holding up her hands in defence.

"Ah, makes more sense." I utter, our conversation slowly dies down as we near our houses. It's a comfortable silence, the air is filled with the odd stone that one of us has kicked or a distant rumble from the highway that's over the hill. We come to my house and Liz doesn't stop walking, she just mutters goodbye and jogs up the path to her own front door way. It's there that she stops and waves at me while I stand there in utter disbelief that's she's just walked off, uninterested with me or anything. Any other girl would be begging to come to my house, but why isn't she? I trot up the stairs to my front door and let myself in. I muse hello to my mom and start to walk upstairs to my room, slumping down on my bed I wonder why Elizabeth pushes me away so much. Why she pushes every guy away, why she has no interest in anyone like that. It's insurmountable self control, if that's what it is, maybe she's gay, or asexual. I mean there'd be nothing wrong with it, but it would explain a lot. No boyfriend, only one female friend, dismissing every guy who comes near her...I don't know. But I sure as hell am going to know, I will find out why she is different to everyone else. For my sake and for every guy who has been crushed by her...