"What a surprise!" I whisper as I let him inside my house and shut the door behind him.

"You said you needed help." He responds, still searching me for something.

"Aw, you came" I smile and turn around to face him.

"That's what she said." I blurt out and bite my lip to stop.

"I'm surprised you came to my house. " I lean on the back of my couch as he stands in my living room, inches away from reaching the ceiling.

"Thalia? Who's at the door?" Dad calls out from downstairs and I panic, I forgot about him.

"Uhm..its.. the milk man!" I shout, saying the first thing that comes to mind.

"The milk man? Eh, tell him I need low fat milk, I'm on a diet!" He shouts and I tell him I will.

"So... were you in the neighborhood or?" I trail off, slightly nervous because he had a look that told me he may be a little upset.

"No. I wasn't." He says, looking around my house.

"Oh" I nod awkwardly and look away from him.

"Why did you fucking text me?" He asks, his tone seeming a bit pissed off.

"You're gonna laugh when I tell you, ready?" I ask but he doesn't reply.

"Well, I really did need urgent help, you see I stayed home from school and I was really bored. And everyone else is at school so I can't text them and then I remembered you, so I texted you." I let out a nervous chuckle.

"And now here we are ... funny, right?"'I chuckle but he doesn't even crack a smile.

"Okay, you're not laughing. But now that you're here, you'll stay right? Why go through all that trouble to not even stay?" He scoffs and shakes his head lightly.

"Plus you get to hang out with me. You're lucky, not many people get that chance." I say trying to make it seem like a good thing.

"I fucking left Duke for this shit." He lets out, coming closer to me.

"Aw, really?" My heart flutters when I hear that.

"I mean I'm sorry, but c'mon I'll make it up to you. You won't regret it." I nod and I think he's thinking about it.

"Let's go to my room." I reach for his hand which surprises him but he surprisingly lets me lead him up the stairs.

"To hang out, not for like other stuff...." I clear my throat, I think I made it awkward.

My voice was still a little groggy but I wouldn't say it was too bad. Just a little sore.

I open the door to my room, regretting not making my bed but I usually never do. He walks into my room and looks around. I start to feel slightly self conscious about what he was thinking and what he thought about my messy room.

"Sorry about the mess, I'm usually really clean.." I say even though I'm not.

"That's a lie. I'm not clean, I'm really messy, as you can see." I come clean and notice how he was still holding my hand, I don't think he noticed either.

I smile seeing as my hand was in his bigger, warmer one. I didn't mind, it was kinda cute. He observes every piece of my room, looking at the pictures on my wall and the random poster hung up on the walls.

"So what do you wanna do?" I ask, swinging our arms since our hands were interlocking.

He brings his attention to me and his eyes scan me up and down. His eyes linger a bit on my skirt and legs but he does it somewhat quick so that I probably didn't notice. But I did.

"I don't know." He shrugs and I giggle, playing with his ring on his finger.

"Wanna watch a movie? I think you do." I let go of his hand first and it drops to his side.

"Let's watch Mean Girls! I love that movie, don't you?" I jump over my bed to get to my remote and look for the movie to put on.

"Never watched it." He answers, looking at my shelf of pictures.

I drop the remote and slowly turn my head, my jaw dropped.

"Excuse you? You what? Never watched Mean Girls?!?" I look at him disappointingly and shake my head.

"Sit your butt down. Now." I said in all seriousness. This is absurd, oh that was new vocabulary for me.

"Don't make me sit you myself" I point a finger at him when he doesn't take a seat on my bed and is still standing.

He sighs but takes a seat on the edge of my bed.

I put on the movie and lay back on the head board. He looks awkward just sitting on the edge of my bed, looking too uncomfortable.

"You can sit next to me, if you want." I spoke but he doesn't budge.

I sigh and fix my pillows besides me, poofing them up for him. I sit them against the head board and scoot over making some space.

"Come sit here." I pat the spot next to me but he doesn't come over. I know damn well he's not comfortable on the edge of the bed but I can't force him.

"Fine. I'll be back. Don't go around snooping" I point a finger at him and crawl out of my bed.

I walk downstairs, hoping to get some snacks. Surprisingly dad is sitting on the stool of the kitchen on his phone, eating salt and vinegar chips with Nutella.

I definitely put him on.

"Hey, what're you doing? I thought you said you had plans today?" He looks up from his phone.

"Oh, I canceled them. Yeah, I'm still sick so I'm just gonna go to bed. Don't bother me." I make sure he won't go upstairs so that he won't see Heath in my room.

He'll start thinking we were doing something dirty and give me the once awkward talk we've had about where babies come from.

I look into the cabinets and see a bag of unopened popcorn. I take it and rush back upstairs. When I get back to the room I see Heath sitting against the head board, arms crossed looking very intrigued in the movie.

I smirk but don't mention it, I sit right next to him and notice how he somewhat takes up most of the space on my bed.

"Want some?" I offer him some popcorn but he shakes his head.

"No. Fucking disgusting." He shakes his head and turns his head away, back to the tv.

"Me or the popcorn?" I ask, furrowing my brows.

He gestures to the popcorn and I give him a look. Geez, is this guy picky.

"Of course you hate popcorn-" I stop when my voice cracks again. That's so embarrassing. He looks at me and I look at him.

"Why are you talking like that?" He asks, scanning my face.

His grayish blue eyes search my face and I only now noticed the close proximity we're at.

"I have a sore throat." I clear my throat and look away, chewing on the popcorn.

I finish half of the bag before I put it away. I stretch a bit and yawn, feeling myself grow tired now that I'm in bed again.

I glance at Heath to see he was still focused on the movie, he seemed to be liking it from the looks of it. He wont notice if I shut my eyes for one second.

I shut my eyes from where I'm seated and let myself drift away to sleep.

When I woke up again, I find myself in a whole different position. My head was lying on Heaths shoulder and I was curled up onto his side. I glance at the tv to see the credits rolling and see Heath on his phone.

I lift my head up and stretch again.

"Good movie, isn't it?" I say pretending like I never fell asleep.

"You move a lot when you sleep." He says gently, still scrolling down his phone.

"Heh, do I?" I pat down my hair, trying to fix it a little.

My phone rings and I look at the caller ID to find my moms name pop up. I take a deep breath before answering.

"Thalia. Why did I just get a phone call saying you weren't in school?" Mom gets to the point not even bothering to say hello first.

"I don't know, maybe because I wasn't at school" I said obviously, knowing she'd take that as having 'attitude'.

"You better have a valid reason for missing school, your grades aren't excellent for you to be missing school for nothing." She says, seemingly agitated.

"I know, my throats feeling a little sore thats all, and dad said I could stay-"

"A sore throat? That's it? Just brush it off and go to school next time. Your dad gives you too much freedom, he thinks that makes him a better parent but it doesn't." She sighs and my mood slightly ruins.

"No, I think he just listens to me-"

"Listens? I listen to you Thalia. But you gotta be more responsible and mature, not everything is a joke in life and jokes will get you no where in life." She gives me the same speech she always does.

I sigh not wanting to have this conversation anymore.

"You're right, okay, Love you bye." I cut it short so that she'll stop with the lecture.

"You're going to school tomorrow. Sick or not. Bye." She Hangs up right away.

"She's fun at parties." I roll my eyes and throw my phone across the bed.

I look over at Heath to see him focused on his silver ring on his hand. I know he heard everything but I'm glad he didn't mention anything.

I lay my head back on the head board and stare up at the ceiling.

"Heath?" I ask, staring into space.

"Hm?" He answers and I sigh before speaking.

"Are you happy?" I ask and he goes silent for a while.

"I don't know" He answers this time, I finally turn my eyes to him and watch him running his fingers through his hair, making it appear somewhat messy.

"Well when you do know, can you tell me?" I turn to my side and lay my head on my hand, facing him.

"Ok" He responds and I smile.

"Pinky promise?" I hold out my pinky but he doesn't seem to know what to do.

"It's a pinky promise. You can't break a pinky promise." I sit up and smile, holding my pinky out putting it closer to him.

"That's stupid." He looks at my pinky and then back at my face as I pout.

"C'mon just do it anyway, it'll make me feel better." I nudge him and he sticks out his pinky.

I smile and laugh when I intersect our pinky's together. This seemed so out of character for him but I'm glad I'm making him do things he usually wouldn't.

I wonder if he enjoyed them as much as I enjoy doing it with him.

"Now-" I sit up straight and he does too.

"Ever heard of an eye lash curler?" I plan on giving his already curled lashes more max volume.

He shakes his head and I'm already so excited to show him. I know I'll probably have to do some begging and convincing before he agrees but at least he'll do it.

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A/N

Thank you for all the reads, I highly appreciate it 💕

There will be some exciting things coming soon 😉

7/9/22