Little Bird // Thomas Sangster

| Fences |

By the time I've watched multiple people get torn apart by zombies, it's almost evening. Time flies when you're crying over your favorite characters' deaths, I guess.

I pull myself up from my mattress (I wasn't kidding when I said I could stay there all day) and stretch my aching back, only to be met with the sound of someone knocking on my bedroom door and then trying the doorknob. When nothing happens, the person outside sighs.

I recognize the voice as Ava's when she says, "Seriously? You locked the door?"

"Why does that surprise you?"

"You're right, at this point it really shouldn't." After that, she chuckles and continues, "Well, you have to run to the store with Thomas in a few minutes. Your mum sent me to tell you to get ready."

"Is she trying to kill me?"

"I think the point is to get you to bond or something."

As I turn off my TV, put my headphones away, and slip my phone into my pocket, I hear her sigh again. I know what question is coming before she even asks it.

"Did you want to talk about him?"

I groan.

"Someone's going to make you eventually, and would you rather it be me or your mum?"

"Point taken, I guess," I say, letting my face fall a fraction. "I'm opening the door. And if I swear if any of the triplets are outside with the stupid hazelnut coffe--"

"It's just me, don't worry."

I unlock the door and not long after am met with Ava's friendly face.

"Okay, now let's get this over with," I say. "What is there to be said?"

"Well, uh..." She thinks for a second, carefully choosing what to respond with. "I would just try to be...nicer to him."

I raise an eyebrow skeptically. "What is he trying to pull?"

"Nothing," she sighs. "Nothing. I promise. He just doesn't know how to act around you, come to think of it; doesn't know what to do."

"What, is he scared I'll break his arm or something?"

"No, Emerald, just listen. He doesn't hate you--"

"Yeah, right."

"Emerald, please. He doesn't hate you. I don't really know how to word it... Uh, he...likes you."

"I must say, Ava, you have quite a convincing argument."

As I turn to go make sure the electronics in my room are off and all that, she stops me with, "Didn't anyone ever tell you that boys are mean to girls they like?"

"As a matter of fact, no."

"Well..." She pauses. "Well, he likes you. Trust me. Just don't go so rough on him, yeah?"

"Look, I'm sorry, Ava. I really am. But I can't just forgive him like that, you know? I can't just forget how terrible school was for me until he left to film Love Actually. Your brother has done nothing but try to ruin my life since we moved here."

She doesn't say a thing to that. As I turn to leave once more, she goes for one more sentence.

"Just try."

I apologize to her in my head. I just can't do that, either.

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I walk alongside the blonde as we head towards the local convenience store. My conversation with Ava rings out again and again in the back of my mind, and I try to focus on just putting one foot in front of the other as often as I hear "boys are mean to girls they like" replaying.

Thomas doesn't say much. Neither do I. I think silence between the two of us is the closest to "bonding" as we're going to get.

Well, until he decides to try to spark up a conversation.

"So," Thomas sighs. "We're buying milk."

"Mhm."

He pauses a moment. "Why did your mum send both of us? Why couldn't only one go?"

"Why couldn't she go?" I add.

"Yeah."

That's it. We walk along, my hands stuffed into my pockets, and I keep my gaze aimed downwards, my stare hard and awkward.

When the convenience store appears in the distance, he begins to look around more than he should. I watch him out of the corner of my eye as he starts to walk faster.

"Come on," he mumbles. "Let's get this over with."

"My thoughts exactly."

As we walk in, I make my way towards the juice and dairy section, where the milk is not hard to find. Thomas keeps looking around as if nervous that a terrorist will come out of nowhere and kill him. If only.

"Look, we're done," I say in a sarcastically cheerful way.

I place the milk on the counter and, while waiting for the cashier to come ring us up, Thomas kind of groans.

"Duck," he commands.

"What--"

"Duck!"

As I glance in the direction he is staring into, I see a group of several girls hurrying over and a photographer not-so-stealthily taking pictures of him. Ah. Paparazzi. He doesn't want them thinking we're dating or anything.

Completely agreeing with this logic, I duck under the counter, not caring about the cashier's confused look (he had just come over).

The idiotic girls ask Thomas for his autograph, not noticing the person clearly hiding just a few feet away. He acts all casual and honored and it takes everything in me to not kick him -- similar to how I'd done at lunch -- but that would give me away and I do not want to appear in the news.

I can see it now: "Local Girl Hides Under Counter, Kicks Celebrity To Get Attention." And then in the subtitles below it: "Reporters and Fellow London Citizens Question Girl's Mental State."

They must stay there for ten minutes before my former neighbor finally gets them to leave. He lets out a big sigh of relief before paying for the milk himself. Once he does that, he casts a brief look down at me.

"You can come out now."

"Yeah, thanks."

He offers me his hand, but I don't take it. I pull myself up on my own and tell him it's time to go. He doesn't object.

I almost laugh to myself, picturing how the cashier must have thought during all of that.

"So, we got the milk."

"Yes, we did, in case you forgot buying it literally twenty seconds ago."

That was the end of that. We walk in silence until, happily, my house materializes in front of us. Home sweet home.

"Back to zombies for me," I tell him. "Just let my mum know we're back."

"Yeah."

I jog up the stairs without another word. I'm not surprised to find Ava waiting outside my door for me. Anxiously, she turns to me.

"How did it go?"

"Fine," I shrug, brushing past her to get in my room.

And it's not a lie. After seeing those girls crowding around him, I felt a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny twinge of pity.

So yeah. Our run to buy milk went fine.

That's a new record.

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Hooray for new chapters!!

This one's based off of Fences by Paramore(:

I hope you enjoy my story!!