Mixing Paints

S I X

Douglas Booth as Tyler Graham

* * *

L U N A

"He's going to think it's stupid," I argued with Dani, as we returned to the halls of hell for another long week of school.

"Woman up and give it to him Luna," Dani encouraged. "He'll appreciate it."

The quarrel Mick and I had after our first study session was petty. He could have just said the simple word "sorry" and I would've forgiven him. The situation wasn't that deep. Of course, Mick being Mick, he had to go out of his way to buy me a physical copy of one of his much-loved CDs

The idea warmed my heart. The band meant a lot to him and he was happily sharing this little piece of his world with me. As a lover of music, I knew it was a great deal to introduce people to music that you hold close to your heart.

This realisation led me to spending my entire weekend working on a new art piece. The album had grown on me so much that I decided to paint the cover of it, as a gift of gratitude for Mick.

"So there's going to be a party at Dylan's place after the football game... are you in?" Dani suggested.

I opened my mouth to explain to her that I had plans to watch Rick and Morty and taking shifts at the diner this weekend but she quickly cut me off before the words came out of my mouth.

"When was the last time you and I went to a party together?" she whined.

"A few months?" I wondered, I had been so caught up in my own bubble that I hadn't realised how long it had been. "And I had to get you out of the pool before you stripped out of your clothes, because you just wanted to go skinny dipping so desperately."

A smile crept up on both our faces at the amusing memory. "You only tried to get me because you thought that I was going to get eaten by sharks. Then your drunk self came to get me in the water while dramatically singing Under the Sea."

We both burst out into laughter that got us irritated stares from people around us, which triggered us to laugh even harder. I didn't drink very often, purely because when I do I literally jump straight to being drunk off a few sips. It must be some science about the alcohol hitting me real quick because I'm so small.

We stopped at my Biology class and Dani hugged me goodbye as she went off to her Physics class. "I'll think about it," I told her.

To Dani it sounded more like a yes because she started celebrating and practically skipped down the hallway. I don't know what type of drugs she used to remain so cheerful all the time, but I certainly needed some of it.

The room was flooded by teenagers one by one and eventual Mr. Kent joined us too. The seats were all full except for Mick's seat.

A small part of me sank, I really was looking forward to giving him the painting but I shook away the feeling. Knowing him he was probably about to arrive any second now with a story about his trip to the moon or something.

The minutes ticked by and eventually the dragged on lesson came to an end, with no dramatic entrance from Mick Alvarez.

* * *

I walked to the fourth period and hadn't seen Mick during any of the long hours that had past. It made me feel anxious. A part of me knew I shouldn't be this worked up, this happened every single year. Mick would come and go as he pleased, creating chaos then disappearing. Everyone knew it.

'Calm down, you're anxious because he's going to miss this afternoon's tutoring lesson,' I convinced myself in a mental conversation. 'He'll be able to catch it up, he's a smart boy.'

While having this internal monologue with myself, my forehead collided with something as hard as a brick wall.

"Luna!" the brick wall exclaimed. "I'm so sorry."

I looked up to see the prettiest brick wall I've ever seen, the same one I've been crushing on for years.

'Damn that's one hell of a chest you've got there Tyler,' I commented mentally. 'Those workouts from football are definitely doing him well.

He laughed sheepishly while he reached up to scratch the back of his neck, "Well, coach sure does drill us hard at practice."

My eyes widened as I realised that my internal monologue was actually a dialogue I was having out loud.

Dear God, why couldn't he have just hit me a little harder just enough to knock me unconscious and avoid this humiliation.

"I umm... I'm sorry for bumping into you," I finally cleared up the awkward silence that occurred while I was cursing myself for my awkwardness.

"No worries, I was actually on my way to find you."

I blinked twice almost like I was making sure this wasn't some sort of dream or hallucination but yes, Tyler Graham was still standing there.

"I was wondering if you wanted to help me out with the Spanish book this Friday?" he offered. "I know you're tutoring Mick and have to work at the diner so I understand if you can't."

I didn't have Spanish as a class so there were only two possible solutions.

1) Turning down the offer because I clearly wouldn't be above to help him if I don't even know the language.

2) Say yes and use Dani as my personal Cliffnotes to get as much knowledge about the book as possible, just so we can spend time together on Friday.

It's pretty clear what the logical option here is.

"Sure."

After this conversation I definitely needed to do some serious soul searching because attempting to read an entire book in a different language, in one week, just for a boy was borderline crazy.

"That's great, I'll meet you at 18:00?" he suggested.

"Perfecto!" I certainly had to thank both Handy Manny and Dora the Explorer for that one.

He thanked me once more before heading off to his pack of jocks.

* * *

Why is Luna me in every social situation?

Also where's my boy Mick? You'll have to read further to find out...

Chapter Question: What country do all of you come from?

My answer: South Africa :)

Thank you for the support

-Monique xx