When I Fell...

Chapter 16: Getting Familiar

Colton's P.O.V

I was late.  The first time I would be able to spend time with Aspen and I'm late.  I was rushing down the sidewalk and I came around the corner, to the entrance of the library and proceeded to accidentally bump into the unsuspecting pedestrian.

"Hey!" Said person yelled.  Wait.  Is that who I think it is?  Aspen.  Snapping out of my thoughts I exclaimed, "Oh! Hey, guess I'm not  the only late one."

"Whatever..." she shook her head, obviously already annoyed with my presence. I followed her departing figure into the quiet library. The inside looked fairly new with the occasional computer and TV. Deciding to follow Aspen, as she seemed to know where to go, we served through the various book shelves, with different book genres on every other aisle.

Soon we came to a deserted corner of the library that seemed to be hidden behind two bookcases and the walls. The lonely table seated six but was surprisingly empty. The library near the front entrance was as packed as a library could be packed in this day and age, but this spot seemed to be desolate.

Aspen immediately placed her bag down on a chair and occupied the one beside it. She started to empty her bag and took a sketchbook, a few pencils, and an eraser. Without looking up from the contents of her bag she queried, "Are you going to sit or are you going to stand the whole time?" The tone of her voice was sarcastic and I realized that I was just standing there watching her like a creep. Go figure.

"Oh! Right..." I trailed off, only I could make a relatively normal situation the most awkward encounter ever.  I quickly took the seat across from Aspen and repeated the same actions but instead of multiple pencils like her, I only had one.  But, I had remembered last minute that this was an art project and I would probably need a pencil sharpener.  The hunt for said sharpener happened to be the reason for my tardiness.

"So... To get to know each other... Do you wanna play 20 questions?" I trailed off, avoiding eye contact. Her face looked pensive, probably debating whether that was a good idea.

"Fine, if we must." She said reluctantly. Inside my head I did a little happy dance, first success of the day.

"Ok, I'll go first. Do you have any siblings?" I asked. I figured to start off slow and work my way from there, I didn't want to get too cocky and ruin my chances of actually knowing a thing or two about her.

"No. You?" She said in a clipped tone. I could see she was being purposely vague, either because she didn't want me to get a good grade, which was unlikely. Or she just didn't want me to know anything about her, I predicted the latter.

"Look, I get that you don't particularly like me or something like that, but we are both getting marked on these and I don't know about you but I would like a good grade.  So, can we please just be remotely civil, at least until the end of the project?"  I rambled.  I truly did want a good mark on this, but not as much as I wanted to get to know her.

Her faced scrunched up in displeasure, it was apparent that she would rather do anything but this project. She didn't say anything at first, stuck in her thoughts, very hesitant upon opening up to me if anyone. She sighed.

"As much as I don't want to be participating in this little activity, art is the least boring subject to me and I do kind of want to have a decent mark in it, so fine whatever, let's start over," she paused. "No I do not have any siblings, sometimes that idea doesn't seem so bad, what's your favourite thing to do?"

Honestly, I was surprised she relented so easily. I had half expected having to get down on my knees and beg.

"Umm... I guess my favourite thing to do would be to play soccer whether it is practice or a game, do you have any hobbies?" I was still a little thrown off by her being so easy going about it but I soon got used to it and my words seemed to flow from there.

"I like to sketch, hence the subject being the least boring, and I sometimes read, do you have any pets?" She asked, she seemed to be doing the same ting as me, starting off slow and working up from there.

"I used to have a dog named Kyler, he was great, a classic Husky that loved to run around with me when I played soccer, who do you spend most of your time with?" The question could be a little touchy, depending on the way you saw it but I decided to take the risk anyway. After all, she seemed pretty compliant today.

"I guess I spend most of my time with Adonis, we've been through a lot together and he's always stuck by me and vice versa, what's your family life like?" She pried. This question as well could be interpreted as a over sensitive question.

"Well... I have a twin sister back at home, and our relationship could be better I guess, my parents and I are kind of on the outs these days as they were the ones that sent me to this here in the first place. I only just recently actually met my Aunt so it's hard for me to say what our relationship is like but it looks like it's going well so far, how many places in the world have you been?" I examined after my long ramble about my family, avoiding some factors.

"I've been to lots of places, Adonis and I move around a lot, mostly staying in the country but we've visited Europe and Canada a lot for vacations and family get togethers during the holidays."

And we continued with this pattern, for once being some what civil with each other. Thankfully, I felt that I'd learned enough for my project. Once all of our questions were asked and answered we decided to part ways and see each other at school on Monday. That night I laid in bed thinking about all I had learnt about Aspen.

She avoided the topic of parents religiously, her relationship with Adonis seemed to be merely platonic, she loved art, and she took being an introvert to the extreme. Overall, I believed that this was the first stepping stone to friendship, hopefully, later on more than that.