corrupted lungs | d.w #Wattys2016

f i f t e e n

A few days later.

School was finally over and me and Dallon was on our way home to my place. He had told me that he was ready to meet my family. So tonight he was eating dinner with us. My parents wouldn't be home for a few hours, but later in the night they would be and so would Josh since he was having dinner with us again.

I was anxious about it because I didn't know how they'd react since Dallon was so different from my other friends. I knew Dallon was anxious too, but for a whole other reason. We arrived at my house. For the first time he followed me inside and not just to my front door. His mouth was pursed into a big O as I showed him around our big house.

"Are you hungry?" I asked him when we were stood in the kitchen, but he just shook his head.

"Can we go upstairs?" He asked me quietly and I nodded. If it would've been any other guy than Dallon, I would've assumed that he just wanted to sleep with me. I lead the way to my room. This was the only room he hadn't seen yet.

"I'm not a very colorful person," I chuckled awkwardly as we walked in. He said nothing, just curiously gazed around the room.

"You can have a seat if you like." I told him, but he remained standing.

He continued to look up and down my walls, over my desk, his eyes scanning so gently over my computer like he was scared he'd break it otherwise.

"Want to hear some music?" I asked and he nodded a little. I walked over to my speaker and plugged my phone in, scrolling down my playlist to pick a song that Dallon might enjoy too.

I felt his eyes on me the whole time and his slow breaths was filling up the room. I picked a song called I Can Read You, mostly because that's what I felt Dallon did to me. As the music started flowing through the speakers and I turned around, the tall boy stood closer than I thought.

I slightly jumped, which made him smile. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He said and looked down, which brought me back to the first time we talked in the hallway when it was I who spoke those words.

I smiled and shook my head. "It's alright." I told him softly as he took a step back.

"Hey, since you're not done with the math.. would you like for me to help you out with it?" He asked and shifted from side to side.

We'd gotten so much closer to each other that he wasn't longer afraid of asking me smaller things like that. Even though we didn't know each other that well yet, it was almost like we were best friends. I'd never told him that, or even said it out loud. It didn't feel right to do so yet.

I nodded. "I'd like that." I said and he smiled with the corner of his lips, before following me over to my desk. I pulled out my books before running off to get a chair for Dallon. We then sat and I opened up the page I was currently on.

"So.. I guess I don't get this." I said and ran my finger across the question. "I mean I understand what the answer is but I don't get why it's like that.." I rambled awkwardly.

Dallon was great at all the subjects, especially math, so sitting here not understanding something that was in fact very easy was kind of awkward for me.

But the taller one just smiled, before straightening his back a little and leaning over to my side more. He opened up his mouth and slowly started explaining. He stopped talking several times to make sure that I understood before he continued.

He helped me through almost the whole page before I could actually get to work on my own. As I did, he watched me with curious eyes.

"That first song you played..." Dallon suddenly said and I looked up. "Was that about me?"

I felt my cheeks heat up a little. I knew that wasn't just a wild guess from him.  "Yeah, or.. it reminds me of you a lot." I said and glanced at him.

Dallon smiled slightly. "How does it remind you of me?" He asked carefully, but the tone in his voice made me think that he already knew the answer to that question.

It was like our roles had switched for a second. Between the two of us, I used to be the therapist and he my patient. I guess that was the best way of explaining it. But now he was taking the lead.

"You're not like other people." I said and looked at him fully now. "You don't just jump at them and give them your name- you study people, read them. Like you'd read between the lines in a book to find the secret message,"

Dallon looked down, an almost defeated look on his face. "And you understand me like no one ever has." He mumbled and turned his head to the side to look at me.

"I guess I do. Because you give me time to do so." I said and played a little with my pen, hearing the tones of yet another song begin to play. Dallon seemed to enjoy my music.

"Maybe that's our song then." He said quietly and I smiled rather crookedly.

"Maybe it is." I said and shot a last look at him. We exchanged another smile, before I went back to work with the assignments in my book and Dallon went back to watching me.