☽Ⓛ❈Ⓒ☾

I slide my shoes off and he takes me around the ground floor first. The girls are playing in a playroom absolutely filled with toys. It's like a child's dream playroom.

His parents are in the kitchen, cooking together. I feel like Bella arriving at the Cullen house for the first time. They haven't changed the house much. Nearly everyone in the town stalked the pictures online when it came up for sale a few months ago.

There's lots of sculptures and pieces of art. The stairs lead up to the first floor where the landing is filled with natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

'Wow.'

The word falls from my lips. Alex smiles, clearly proud of their home, and leads me down the corridor. He shows me each of the rooms, finishing with his at the end of the corridor.

There is a lot of light in his bedroom, too. One of the walls is painted black and there is a bed pushed up against it, one of those pallet-style beds that is completely flat with no headboard.

Tacked to the black wall are hundreds upon hundreds of photos. They are a mixture of normal prints and polaroids. I'm immediately drawn to them and my feet take me across the room.

Many are of his family and people I don't recognise. There are a couple of him, but mostly he must be behind the camera. There are some animals, some landscapes and nature shots.

My favourite is definitely a gorgeous shot of a carnival at night. The lights are slightly blurry against the inky sky. It's beautiful.

'I took that last year. It was the night my parents announced we were moving after I'd finished my school year. They took us out to the carnival as an apology.'

Alex spots me looking at the photo and explains behind me. I look over my shoulder to catch his expression. He looks lost in thought, wistful.

'Do you miss your old home?'

He shrugs and puts his hands in his front pockets. 'My friends, mostly. But we talk a lot.'

'I can't imagine moving. I've lived in my house my whole life.'

Alex grimaces and takes a seat on his bed. I hover for a moment and then sit down a safe distance from him.

'You get used to it. My parents are always moving us whenever they get new jobs. Got to follow the money, you know?'

'Yeah, I guess.'

'Wanna see some more shots?' He offers.

I happily agree. Not only is he incredibly talented, he is obviously keen on showing people his work. He's not arrogant about his talent, in fact, he actually asks me for criticisms or anything to improve on. I'm surprised he asks considering that I have no knowledge in photography, but he says that sometimes, that's useful because I'm not biased or looking too deeply at a photo.

We stay up in his room for almost an hour, talking about his photos and watching silly videos on YouTube. His parents call us down for dinner and Alex takes me into the dining room.

His sisters have already eaten, so it is just the four of us at the table. His parents, Alison and Mosi, ask me about my interests and subjects at school.

The both of them are lovely. Their faces light up when they talk about Alex. They're obviously bursting with pride that their son is following in their photography footsteps. He showed me their studio, it's very impressive.

After the meal, we go back upstairs to Alex's bedroom. I sit on his bed and leaf through more albums. Alex puts on some music and shows me some of his cameras. I didn't know there was a need for a person to have more than one camera, but he has six.

He sits down next to me on the bed and snaps a couple of photos of me. I blush and put my hand over the lens, pushing the camera back. He chuckles and lowers the camera to look at the shots. He brings them up on the screen and leans in to show them to me.

His cologne fills my nose as he shows me the pictures. For candids, they're surprisingly complimentary. I expected a lot more half-blinks and double chin.

'I love them,' Alex comments softly.

He looks up from the camera and his eyes meet mine. There's a moment where we both freeze, simply looking at one another. He starts to lean in and my heart beats faster. His eyes drop to my lips and they part slightly in response.

I don't lean away, I want him to kiss me. I close the final gap between us by moving forwards. Our lips crush together and I have to lean back the tiniest amount to relieve the pressure. Alex smiles against my lips at the clumsy kiss and then kisses me properly.

Kissing Alex is everything. His lips are soft but insistent against mine. He pulls my bottom lip between his teeth and nips in gently, making me laugh softly. He leans back and gives me the kind of smile that has my stomach feeling all fuzzy.

My phone buzzes and I see the text from my mum, asking when I'm going to be home and if I've kissed him yet. I quickly flip my phone upside down, but it's too late. Alex read the text and laughs.

My cheeks burn as I slowly get to my feet.

'I guess I should be going...'

He stands up with me. 'Sure. I'll walk you down.'

We go downstairs and I say goodbye to his parents and thank them for dinner. They offer for me to come back anytime. They're really so lovely.

'Are you sure you won't let me walk you home?' Alex says as we stand on his doorstep.

'No! Honestly, I'm like three minutes away. I'll be fine,' I insist.

He reluctantly agrees. I give him a brief hug and he kisses my cheek. I walk home with a wide smile on my face.

When I get through the door, my mum points at my face.

'Look at that smile! Someone got a smoooch!'

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I open my locker on Monday morning and a piece of coloured paper flutters out and falls to the ground. I bend down and pick it up. The girls watch curiously as I unfold the paper and read the hand-written note.

Cinema tomorrow? -Alex

'Aw! Second date!' Halle coos.

I bump into Alex in the corridor during the changeover to second period. He grabs my wrist and pulls me to a stop as I walk past him, blissfully unaware of his presence.

'So? Did you get my note?' He asks.

'Yeah, I did. I'm up for that.'

'Awesome. Wanna go straight after school?'

'Sure,' I reply, suddenly feeling shy.

Everyone is watching us as they pass us in the corridor. We're stood close together and he is now holding my hand instead of my wrist.

'Great. I'll see you at lunch, okay?'

I walk to my next class with flushed cheeks and a smile playing on my lips. I'm excited to spend more time with him.

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I wait for Alex outside school the next day.

Alex spent lunch with my friends and I yesterday and then again today. However, today he brought the guys with him. It was a new dynamic, having them at the table, but I liked it.

He comes out of the building with a lazy smile on his face and his hands stuffed into his front pockets. He walks over to me and bumps his shoulder against mine.

'Ready to go?'

We walk into town and to the cinema. There's barely any queue because of the early afternoon timing. We choose an action film and Alex insists on buying our tickets.

We choose seats at the back, away from the few other people in the screen. We talk through the ads, making jokes about them and poking fun at the tag lines.

When the movie starts, we fall silent and enjoy it. Alex doesn't try the cheesy arm around the shoulder thing, he just outright takes my hand and holds it on his thigh.

I'm grinning as the credits roll. I turn to Alex and he has a matching grin.

'That was awesome!'

'It was. Come on, next stop, the sushi café.'

'You like sushi?'

'Um, yes. Who doesn't?' Alex replies.

'I'm not sure. Allergic people and strange people, I think.'

We cross a couple streets and go to the sushi bar. Alex seats us at the high table in the window. He slides off his backpack and opens it up. He takes out two pieces of paper and two pens.

He sets it in front of me and I eagerly look over it, wondering what it is.

'This is a questionnaire about the movie. You fill it out and then we compare our answers to pick apart the film.'

I look between him and the questionnaire, trying to work out if he is serious.

'It's something I started doing with a mate of mine, he's a bit of a film boff. I promise, it's more fun than it sounds.'

I give him an unconvinced look and let out a light laugh. 'Okay.'

Twenty minutes and ten pieces of sushi later, I'll admit he might be onto something with the questionnaire.

'Okay, I'll confess that it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.'

Alex grins at my reluctant admission. 'See? I told you.'

'It's definitely a great way to start discussions about the film and share your feelings, but I feel like it's the nerd way of doing it, you know? It's kind of like doing homework or a school assignment.'

Alex picks up a piece of sushi and presses it to my lips.

'Eat this nigiri and tell me what your points for improvement are.'

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I'm sorry, I know that this story is kinda basic and doesn't have a strong plot or drama...but I've had a long week and I just wanted to write something simple and easy, you know? 😭🙈

Thank you so much if you answered the reader questions in TLA chapter. It was so interesting reading your answers! I will address some of them in tomorrow's chapter 🥰

Have a banging Friday, angels 💗