Sunshiny Things (Original)

Ch. 30 Less Beautiful, More Distracting

Freya

I walk down the schools hallway, fiddling with a string of fabric that's fraying off of the sleeve of my baby yellow sweater. Last night I feel asleep on the phone with Dace. We stayed up till 1:00am talking about random crap like what our favorite colors are and if animals could talk what we would say to them. Daces favorite color is green and he would ask a shark why it can only swim forward.

I haven't talked to Cole since he came over to my apartment Friday night. I haven't even seen him either. Not that I care. Even though I really do. I don't want things to go back to how they were again, especially since we just now have called our truce. Hopefully I'll see him today and I can talk to him. And say what? I have no clue. But I have to say something before I end up in a mental hospital from driving myself insane.

I finally reach my locker through the crowd of people in the hallway, receiving my daily packet of sour patch kids from Dace. I swear if he continues giving me these, I'll end up gaining twenty pounds. Because if there's sour patch kids in my presence, there's nothing stoping me from consuming them in a time limit of under fourteen seconds. Nothing worldly that is.

"Hey, cutie," a husky male voice whispers in my ear causing me to immediately turn around with a slight screech, both of my hands already in karate chop formations. I might have picked up a few things when I was eight and watched Kung Fu Panda on repeat.

"Whoah, easy there, Jackie Chan," the culprit of the sneak attack mocks.

"Gosh, Dace," I scold as I quickly surrender my attack pose. "What have I told you about that?"

"Not to do it," he responds. "But your reaction is always so cute." I roll my eyes at his words but also blush slightly, which causes me to turn back around to hide my reaction.

"Darrow!" I hear a voice call out from down the hallway again which causes me to jump again and turn in their direction. What are with these people? I watch as josh, Kyle, Sophie, Becca, and Cole all walk down the hallway in our direction. Josh of course is the culprit of the screaming and is holding his arms out ready to attack Dace in a big bear hug.

"No, no, no, no," Dace pleads over and over again as he holds his hands out in front of him slightly. But josh just nods his back a Dace before wrapping his long arms around his body.

"Awe, what a cute bromance," Becca squeals as she interlocks fingers with Kyle as his arm is draped around her shoulders.

"Fuck you, dude," Dace seethes at Josh as he loosens himself from his grip.

"You know you love me," Josh mocks at him which causes Dace to just flip him off. Everyone laughs at his reaction. Well, everyone except for Cole. Cole. I look over at him as Sophie wraps her arms around his torso. Much like I've seen her do many times. I obviously roll my eyes at this action and Cole look over at me slightly. As soon as our eyes lock I feel my entire body tense. And for a second, I think that I see his do the same as well. I watch as he scans my entire body for a second which causes my skin to be enraptured with goosebumps. Immediately, I become very self conscious of the fact that my yellow sweater is cropped slightly so you can see my belly button a bit right above the waist line of my jeans, also about the fact that my jeans just happen to be skin tight as well. Pushing back my thoughts though I take the time to do the same to him as well. He's wearing his usual: a back long sleeve t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up revealing his tattooed arm, dark blue jeans and his big black boots. His dark curls are messy, falling over his forehead in an almost perfect way, and his faded, bruised face looks a bit more tired than normal. Finally, our eyes come back up and meet each other's again. But this time, his look is different. I smile at him slightly, trying to break the tension that I feel between us. But that might only be just me who feels anything. Cole doesn't do anything back to me though. He just leans down and whispers something in Sophie's ear before they disappear off down the hallway. Everyone in the group eyes them suspiciously, but Josh just shrugs him shoulders.