Side by side, he smoked and I joked.
I started school at Oceanview High in three days. When we moved from our old house, we changed districts, which meant I left my three sorta-friends at my old school, only one of which I had texted since the move. I was not excited.
It was my senior year, and no one changed schools in the middle of January. It made me nervous to imagine the stares I would get at Oceanview. Saturday Mom unpacked and I mindlessly scrolled through social media. I only followed Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr., as one would. Marvel fanatic? Noooooooo.
At around three o’clock, I decided to go outside and car-watch again (yes, I was that bored. So, I gathered the lawn chair once more, and headed outside. I was instantly hit with the stinging stench of smoke, and looked over to see a guy, around my age, dressed in a denim jacket and ripped jeans, with a cigarette in his hands. He blew out another puff of smoke, which the wind pushed my way, causing me to cough. He looked over at me, shock evident in his alarmingly handsome features.
His charcoal hair hung in soft curls over his forehead, deep blue eyes not far beneath. He had full–but not too full–lips with symmetric, white teeth.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” he said, taking another drag of his cancer stick. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and I did just that, snapping a quick picture of his dauntingly beautiful features. I heard him chuckle softly, turning back to the road.
“Smoking kills, you know?” I asked, casually leaning against the one thing separating us–a waist-high black fence between our balconies. He gave me an almost condescending look, amusement dancing in his eyes.
“D’you become my mother, or something?” he asked, one eyebrow cocked as he studied me. I was dressed in a yellow striped t-shirt tucked into my white-washed high-waisted jeans, and on my feet were gray fuzzy slippers. He smirked at that. I suddenly felt self-conscious. My dark brown hair was pulled into a messy bun, and I hadn’t bothered with makeup, so the acne on my forehead clearly showed. I turned slightly away.
“Kaden,” he said, snapping me out of my own chamber of low self-esteem. “But people call me Kade.”
“Oh, nice.” He looked at me, fighting a smile, and it took me a moment to realize he wanted me to share my name as well. “Um, Rowan.”
“Rowan,” he said, then kissed his teeth, as if he was deciding that was really my name or not. “I came out here to smoke yesterday, but you were here, half-asleep.”
“Oh, sorry,” I said after a moment, gazing out at the street. The guy in the yellow bug is going to the airport to pick up his girlfriend, who specifically asked for him to bring her car, despite the lack of space for her luggage.
“Nah, I had better things to do.” I didn’t miss the brief clenching of his jaw, and my interest spiked. Pushing that down, knowing that it had only led to trouble before, I turned away to watch a beat-up Toyota crawl its way around the corner. She’s going to the grocery store for frozen pizza because take-out is too expensive.
I stiffened slightly, instead fixating my gaze on a bit of shrubbery in the small parking lot.
“Well, it was nice meeting you, Rowan, but I have to go.” I turned just in time to see him tucking his phone into his back pocket, reaching out a hand to open his balcony door.
“See you,” was all I said as he disappeared inside his condo.
Realistic Fiction
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