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“Yeah, they’ve always been like that,” I say with a dry tone.
“Skye says, “Austin is a weird guy,” and I agree.
“Still sexy,” she says, and I feel something strange settle on my chest when she says that. Am I… Are you jealous? No, it can’t be.
Yes, I am.
Skye looks at me knowingly and shakes her head.
A hand grabs my elbow as we get ready to leave for our next class. My heart races, but when I turn around, my face falls. I still smiled.
“Hey, Lyra,” Eric says with a smile that makes him look like a boy. I say a little hi. I can feel hot eyes on me, and I know who is looking at me.
“So… um, I was wondering if I could take you on a… date?” he says nervously. Nice.
Hold on… A what?
“A date?” I squeak. He smiles at me nervously, and his eyes dart to something behind me and then back to me.
“You don’t have to answer me right now,” he says.
“Okay, I’ll let you know by the afternoon.”
After saying goodbye to Eric, I walk to Skye. He goes back to his friend, and I hear his friend cheer. My cheeks get a little warm. I can feel Austin’s angry eyes on me, but I don’t look at him. And I’m sure he didn’t hear what we said.
And I shouldn’t care.
“What did your good friend have to say?”
“He sort of asked me out?”
“Oh, so your good friend wants to be your boyfriend,” Skye says as we walk to the next class. “What did you say?”
“Nothing,” I say, biting my lip.
“Why? What?” Skye screams. “Oh, you like Austin, that’s why,” she says.
“No, that’s not the reason at all.”
We walk into the science class, which is almost full, and sit down in the back.
“That’s exactly why, babe,” Skye says, rolling her eyes. “But you have to tell him something. He didn’t ask you to be his girlfriend; it’s just a date. I say go for it.”
I think about it.
“Okay,” I say to her. I wish it was the brown-eyed devil who would ask me out instead of Eric. I let out a sigh as I try to focus on the teacher’s chatter, which had already started.
The day goes by very quickly. Eric was happy when I told him I would go. He told me he would take me out to dinner at 7. So I had to go to Austin’s house earlier than usual.
I knock on his door, and after a while, he lets me in. He has on a black sleeveless shirt and gym trousers. I don’t like it when he wears sleeveless clothes because his muscles are distracting.
And I hate it when he sees me drooling at the sight.
He says with a smirk, “You can stare all you want, bunny, but let’s get inside first.” He laughs when I mumble, “I wasn’t staring,” before going inside.
We enter the room. I see the canvas at the other end of the room right away. There are two eyes painted on the wall, and they aren’t grey, which is surprising. Or any colour but blue.
I tell myself that he painted the eyes of another girl, not mine, to calm my heart. That thought makes my heart race, but I’m glad he at least used some other colours. Austin sees where I’m looking and runs to cover it.
Then we walk to the other corner of the room, which I like to call my spot. Austin helps me with a new piece of art. I have to say that Austin is a great teacher. And a kisser. And I didn’t say it.
He gives me a brush and says, “Today we will play with strokes.”
He said that. Lyra!
He gives me acrylic paints and says, “Use sharp edges only when you want to paint something serious. Use soft edges when you want to paint something happy.”
“Can I paint a sunset?” I ask, my voice full of excitement. He laughs a little and says, “Go ahead.”
“I want you to use the crosshatching painting technique,” he says before walking behind me and sitting in one of the chairs that face me.
I begin with the sun. But I stop when my phone rings in my pocket. Before I went back to painting, I put it in the speaker.
I say, “Hello.”
“Lyra, please tell me you didn’t forget about the date. Are you having second thoughts?” Skye shouts.
“No,” I say, but I’m cut off.
“As sexy as Austin is, Eric is sweet, okay? Besides, Austin is a jerk. But Austin and your kids would be beautiful.” My eyes widen, and I quickly pull out my phone and put it on do not disturb.
“I’m going on the date, Skye. I’ll call you later,” I say quickly before hanging up.
I don’t want to turn around and look at Austin, so I keep painting.
After a while, Austin says, “A date?” in a hard tone, as if he didn’t understand. I swallow hard and turn to face him.
I smile at him as best I can, hoping to get rid of the anger in his eyes.
No, hold on. He can’t be mad. Not after acting like nothing happened between us. I stop smiling and get back to painting.
“With who?”
I don’t have to answer, so I don’t. Oh, but I’d love to see the jealousy if that’s possible.
“Eric,” I say coldly after a few seconds.
“What if he is just like Zeke?”
I stop. A lot of ideas come to mind. No, I won’t let him control me.
“Don’t you dare mess with me, Austin,” I say in a low voice. My voice is about to break. I keep painting angry red strokes around the sun.
“Lyra, not bunny,” I said.
“Are you jealous, Austin?” I turn to him with one eyebrow raised and a forced smile on my lips. He looks surprised when I accuse him, but he doesn’t say anything.
I go back to painting.
He says softly, “You shouldn’t trust people easily, bunny.” Are we back to saying bunny?
“I shouldn’t trust you either,” I say, and I wish I hadn’t said it right away. I know it’s not the same; he’s saved me so many times. I have no reason to doubt him.
I slowly turn around to look at him, and when I see his face change from hurt to something else, I almost gasp. But he quickly hides it. But he still has his jaw clenched and isn’t looking at me. He gets up and walks away instead.
I choose to walk after him to say I’m sorry, but when I get outside, I can’t see him. I feel guilty, and I look for him everywhere, but I can’t find him.
I have to go home. If not, I’ll be late for the date.
…I think that I attract jerks. Just mean people. Or maybe there aren’t any good people left.
I blink away the tears and look at my phone one last time. There are no messages. I just got stood up on my first date, which is great. I straighten my pastel pink dress, which I was dumb enough to buy and which cost more than three of my other dresses put together.