"All eyes hold secrets, deep within, layers upon layers of them. Some innocent, some filled with guilt and remorse, and some deeply unsettling. And those steely grey ones were no different."
Tessa Franklin lives the average teenager's life: loving f...
Cutlery clinked against the plates of food placed before the five people who sat silently around the family dining table. Tessa poked her fork into the lump of mashed potato she had on her plate and slowly placed the fork into her mouth as she observed Jason from the corner of her eye. He seemed distant and lost as he silently cut through his chicken, and she understood why. But, what bothered her was not how distant he seemed to be, but the aura that she felt come off him made shivers run down her spine. She couldn't help but feel self-conscious around him, like he was silently judging her. She was momentarily distracted by Carl, who dropped some of his mash on himself. She quickly grabbed her napkin and cleaned him up, eliciting a cute smile from him
Jason looked up from his plate as he chewed his food, the action making Tessa look down at her plate like the only thing in the world that existed in the world in that very moment was herself and her dinner. "The food is lovely, Mrs. Pritchett. Thank you so much." he complimented, making her mother smile warmly at him as she responded, "Thank you, dear. And please, don't call me 'Mrs. Pritchett', just call me Madison. We are a very informal family." He nodded in response and resumed eating his dinner.
The silence in the dinning room hung thick, it made her oddly uncomfortable seeing how the usually loud dinner table had been muted by just one person's presence. Jason's husky voice broke the silence with a question, "What year are you in, Tessa?" She licked her lip slowly but continued to keep her gaze steady on her plate as she answered, "Senior year." She couldn't ignore the feeling that his grey eyes were staring at her, like they were burning a hole into the sides of her head. She lifted her gaze up to him and realized she was right, his lips were drawn into a smirk and his eyes remained fixed at her. "Looks like I will have company at the new school." He commented, biting his lips lightly while staring at her. Tessa suppressed a shudder at his statement and began to twirl her fork in her mash. "Oh yes! At least one familiar face!" Ben's voice boomed and Jason began to chuckle in response.
Once everyone finished their dinner, Tessa went into the kitchen to do the dishes. She soaked the plates in soapy water and then cleaned some of the tougher bits that stuck to the plate with a sponge. Her hands and the plates were covered in lather when she heard the silent footsteps of someone approaching. She turned around to see Jason, with his hands in his jeans pocket, leaning against the kitchen island, observing her complete her task. She tried to ignore him but the burning sensation in the back of her head, as a result of his intent stare made it hard for her to even think she was alone in the room.
She began to place the plates onto the dish tray for her to towel dry later, but the plates were immediately being dried by his large hands, speeding up the process. "I, umm." He said, his tone hesitant, as if he was unsure of what to say. He sucked in a loud breath from his nose and continued, "I understand this is not the ideal way we should have met. But, given the situation it, cannot be helped." He paused, hoping to receive some form of reaction from her, but only gained a sideward glance from her. "I don't expect you to be fully accepting of me. At least not now. But, what I would like is for us to get to know each other, probably, if you are willing, we could start a certain friendship." He said, giving her a smile that failed to reach his eyes. Tessa handed him the last plate to be dried, and looked up at him from under her lashes. "Yeah, I think we can." She answered, her voice nothing more than a whisper. Her palms began to feel damp with sweat, a sense of confusion about how to process the situation clouding her mind. She rubbed her palm against her pajamas, wiping off the sticky feeling from her hand.
Jason beamed, the corners of his eyes crinkling and his grey eyes sparkling, an odd ominous gleam that made Tess sick in the gut and feel a strong urge to curl herself into a corner. "Great!" He exclaimed and began to walk away from her, but stopped mid way at the entrance of the kitchen, turning on his heel and asked, "Would you mind if I call you Tess? Like everyone else?" Her green eyes looked down at her feet, as her toes wiggled within the royal blue socks she wore. She placed her hands behind her back as she chanted to herself - Not now. Not now. "Yeah, you can call me Tess." she answered, suppressing the urge to throw up right there on the kitchen floor. "Cool. Good night, Tess." He said and made his way to the guest room that was now his assigned bedroom at the very end of the hallway.
She slowly walked up to her room, her fingers trembling around the door knob as she turned it and entered her brightly coloured room. Every night, the colours would uplift her mood, no matter how bad her day was. But tonight, she wished the colours of the wall were gloomy like hers. She locked her door and sat on the edge of her bed and pulled off the socks on one of her feet, exposing her toes, all of them covered in dried blood scabs and multiple scars around the nails, some of them relatively fresh. She ran her fingers on the underside of her foot, the roughness of the newly formed scabs giving her a sense of calm. The breath she held all this while left her lips shakily and then she lay down on her side, while tugging off the other sock and felt the similar scabs on the sole. She closed her eyes and began to pick on one of the older ones, the clotted wound tugging around the dry skin that surrounded it. She picked at it as she thought of how weird she felt Jason was, the vibes that he gave off, the sense of unease she felt around him. She picked at her feet even after she managed to get the scab of, her trimmed nails digging into her skin. She slowly pulled her skin, bit by bit, each bit bringing a sense of calm to her nerves and helping her control her thoughts.
She paused as a familiar feeling of warm liquid ran down her foot, she quickly grabbed her special towel from behind the head board, an odd brown colour due old blood stains and placed it under her foot as she began to pick another scab till she did not feel calm enough to get a few hours of sleep.
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Hey guys! What do you guys think of the chapter? What do you think of the story so far? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! I would love to here your theories! Also, don't forget to vote and share this story if you like what you are reading!
Side note: If you are confused about what Tessa is doing to her feet, it is a disorder called "Excoriation", also known as skin picking disorder, which is an obsessive-compulsive related disorder. In case you need more clarity, you could just check the internet. You will learn about the reason why she does this in the later chapters of the book, but it will take some time for us to get there. So, please be patient!
