Page 75 of Lines

I look at my phone, probably for the thousandth time today, frowning at the screen, or better yet, at the person hiding behind the screen.

This isn’t the first message of this kind that he sent me this past week. Derek found a reason to stop by most days now. He would send me a text or sometimes just show up unannounced. More often than not, he blamed it on the project, but we never discussed it after the first ten minutes of his stay. Oh, we worked on our project, it’s nearly finished after all, but not as much as we liked other people to believe we did. Or, maybe, we were lying to ourselves. Another reason was that Ace and Lola were playmates, so we shouldn’t keep them away.

Apart from that, Derek and his friends kept joining us for lunch most days and he was always around, waiting at the parking lot or close to my locker, dragging me to the library far away from people studying and behind bookshelves nobody ever uses if it can be concluded by the amount of dust there, to sneak a few kisses between classes.

It confused me a lot.

He.

Stares from people. Especially the girls.

Our … relationship. Whatever kind of relationship we do or don’t have.

There is a lot of time when I’m stuck like this. Rethinking everything Derek or I do or say, or going over every touch, every kiss, every word, and every smile.

Derek is far from the boy he once was.

And I’m not the girl I used to be.

Maybe that’s good. Maybe it’s time to start over. Maybe it’s time to stop thinking and just enjoy being together.

I look at my screen.

7:48 PM.

I get off the window seat where I’ve been sitting and look down at my clothes. Another pair of leggings and hoodie. Sighing, I open my wardrobe door and grab a pair of ripped jeans and a light peach sweatshirt.

We are in the middle of October and it’s getting colder and colder by the second.

Letting my hair down from the bun, I brush it and then braid it in one loose fishtail braid. Some strands don’t like to be tamed so they run wild around my makeup-free face. I take in my reflection, debating if I should put on some makeup. Derek saw me without any and didn’t say a thing, so I simply put on a bit of pink lip gloss.

I grab some stuff on the way and pat Lola on the head before leaving my room, the door slightly open so that Lola can come out if she needs to.

“Lia? Where are you going?” Mom yells from the living room when she hears me come down the stairs and put on my shoes.

“Derek’s.”

My cheeks turning bright red.

This is the first time I’ve ever gone to his house. We are always usually hanging around my place and I don’t know what to expect from my parents. It’s not only that I’ve never been to Derek’s house, but I’ve also never been to aboy’shouse.

“Isn’t he coming here?” From the deep frown caressing her forehead, I can see she’s not too happy about it.

“No. He was gone a few days because of hockey, so he asked me to come to his place instead.”

I look at her expectedly, just waiting for her to ask about his parents or tell me I can’t go to a boy’s house, but let’s face it; we are talking about myMomhere.

“Okay.” She returns her attention to the television. “Just don’t be too late.”

Breathing sigh of relief, or maybe it’s frustration, I put on my jacket and throw my messenger bag over my shoulder before saying bye and going out.

I start my car and Emeli Sandé’sHurtscomes through speakers. It’s a powerful and soulful song.

The drive isn’t too long, and I spend most of the time singing softly along with the radio. I’m not really good at it, but I enjoy good music and like singing and humming to the songs while doing other stuff like drive a car, clean, or when I’m in the shower. Enthusiasm is what counts, right?

I turn onto Derek’s street. The houses here are bigger and way nicer than in my neighborhood. They have big front yards with shiny, new cars parked in front of the house and probably also big backyards, some of them with pools or hot tubs.

Finally, I find the house I’ve been looking for with Derek’s SUV parked in front of it and small, red Cabriolet next to it.

---