"Why do you always avoid my questions?"
"I'm not, it's just that there's nothing to say. Who would ever want to date someone they can't even talk to? It's not rocket science. My eyes are weird, and people get tired of me eventually. There's your on...
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FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WEEKS, Dallas wore a skirt to school, and it was liberating.
Sebastian wasn't coming back until Friday, after all. Surely it was okay, right?
Her passion twists bounced over her shoulders and light glistened on her gold hoop earrings and bangles as she freely strut down the corridors, stopping periodically to scan a few classrooms for the one person she craved to see again; the ghost of Ridge Walk High, Mathias Starr. Her hope dwindled as she came empty-handed again and again, and as a last resort, she pushed past the doors of the library and stepped inside.
The smell of dust and old books streamed past her nostrils as she wended her way around a few bookshelves in search of her friend. Relief poured through her when she finally spotted him.
But he wasn't alone.
A girl sat next to him, her dark brown hair swept into a high, messy bin atop her head, held in one place with a large red ribbon that matched her red and white polka dot dress. She pulled her chair closer to Mathias's as she slid her book across the table for him to see the contents. Dallas stood too far away to make out what they were saying, but she distinctly made out Mathias writing something down on a sheet of paper before handing it over to her, and the way the girl snickered at whatever he said. She braced her elbows off the table and discreetly snuck a couple of glances at Mathias, but he was too preoccupied with his textbook to pick up on the girl's subtle body language.
Dallas's fingers tightened around the strap of her handbag as an unfamiliar feeling flurried in her chest. She lingered between those bookshelves for what felt like forever before the girl finally got up, waving at him before leaving.
Even after she did, Dallas didn't take a step forward. She shook off whatever she felt prior she silently walked up behind him. In one swift motion, she slipped off his glasses just a bit and lay her fingers over his eyes, his long lashes tickling her fingertips as she kept her hands in place to conceal his vision.
"Guess who?"
Mathias smiled. He felt around the table for his whiteboard and market, jotting something down as soon as he secured a firm hold on them both.
"The boogeyman?"
Dallas laughed.She pulled her hands away, and he fixed his sunglasses before angling in his chair to look up at her. He wore a navy blue hoodie with the words 'Justice League' sprawled across the front, and Dallas could only imagine how good that coloured would look with his eyes. Blue looked good on him.
Mathias's demure smile came into play as he discarded his whiteboard and signed instead.
"It's you, Dallas."
"It is me," she said with another slight laugh before pointing to his books on the table. "You seem busy. Are you still studying?"
Mathias shook his head. He pulled out the chair on his left and tapped the pack of it, an open gesture for her to sit. Dallas dropped her handbag on the table before sliding into the seat. She peered over the contents of the desk, from his geography textbooks to the scrap of paper that contained the series of messages he'd had written to the girl from earlier. Dallas barely made out a few words and hand-drawn emojis before Mathias crimped the paper into a ball and stuffed it into his bag. He closed his textbooks too, stacking them into a neat pile and pushing the stack to the other side of the desk.
