Chapter 8

Laura closed her notebook, leant back on her chair and let out a long and tired sigh.

"Three hours! It took me three hours to copy Arnaldo's homework! I'm starting to wonder if our professor hates us."

She took a minute to just look at her room.

It was smaller than Arnaldo's. The walls were painted dark purple with posters of bands plastered on them. The bed, with a purple and pink cover, laid in the centre of the room. Left of that were a desk and a wardrobe.

She glanced at her phone.

"Guess it's about as good as time as any to take a shower," she opened her wardrobe and picked out some pink panties and a white T-shirt that she stole from Arnaldo a couple of years ago.

She left her room and entered the small, blue tiled bathroom. She took off her clothes and began to examine herself in the mirror.

She started with her hair.

"The colour is starting to fade away. Great. Means I'm going to have to dye it again. I always enjoyed the colour purple. It just seemed like a more interesting colour than my natural hair colour. I wonder if he likes my hair as much as I do."

She shifted her focus to her eyes.

"My eyes are pretty dull. Brown. Coffee brown. Arnaldo gets beautiful, ocean blue eyes. Nick gets emerald green eyes. And then there is me. With my boring, brown eyes. But Matt has-Oh, Matt has the most beautiful eyes I ever saw. Arnaldo's eyes always give off a vibe of seduction and Nick's eyes make my eyes hurt at times. But I could just get lost in Matt's dark green eyes-" she quickly shook her head after that thought.

"Gah, look at me. Gushing about like some obsessed school girl."

She continued her gaze down her body and pouted once she reached her chest.

"Look at them. They're like infected mosquito bites. I have the lowest measurements in my class. Which is just. Fucking. Peachy," she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Oh well. At least they're there. It's not like I'm flat chested or anything. Though, I'm pretty close to."

Her gaze travelled lower to her stomach.

"Stomach looks good. How come I don't get fat, even though all I do is eat snacks and lay around? Must be one hell of a metabolism."

She decided she had been lollygagging long enough and stepped into the shower.

She turned on the hot water and let the water fall from her head down her back. She squeezed her bottle of shampoo and started rubbing it in her scalp as the smell of lilacs invaded her nose, to which she hummed in satisfaction.

"Ahh-Hot water. Oh, how I love thee. I love you almost as much as I love-" she stopped her train of thought right then and there.

"I mean, I do have feelings for him, there's no arguing that. But is what I'm feeling love or just a crush? What even is love? And when could one say that they love another person...do I even want to fall in love?" she laughed at herself.

"Heh, I become a real philosopher when I'm in the shower don't I?"

She turned off the water, stepped out and began to dry herself off.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Honey, may I come in?" called a tied and weak voice.

"Yeah dad!" she called as she threw on her shirt and panties.

The door opened and into the bathroom stepped a man, somewhere in his mid to late 50's, with a shaved head, a lazy right eye, bags under his eyes and wearing a cop uniform.

"Hey," he greeted meekly as he stepped up to the sink. "How was practice?"

"It was good."

"You talk to that cute boy you like?" he said as he grabbed the mouthwash

"Daddy!" screamed Laura embarrassment almost written on her face as Mr Riverman gargled the mouthwash and spat it into the white sink.

"Just teasing you honey," he said as he let out a big yawn.

"Graveyard shift again?"

"Yeah. And it seems like I'll be having it for the next two months," he answered letting out a tired sigh.

"But hey, if all goes well, I might get a promotion," he ruffled her hair and began to walk down the hallway.

"Don't stay up too late!" he screamed back into the bathroom.

"I won't!" she screamed back. She heard her front door closing and the distant sound of a car driving away.

She walked back into her room, grabbed a pair of headphones and her phone and flopped down on her bed.

She stayed like that, her gaze fixed on her ceiling fan, rock music blasting in her ears as she let her mind wander aimlessly.

"What am I going to do? I don't know the first thing when it comes to-what was that fancy word he used? Courting? Yeah, I think that's what it was that. I'm not like Arnaldo. I don't even know how to accept these feelings, let alone know how to approach them. I just hope that dumbass can think of something useful."

She felt her eyes becoming weak, so she threw her phone and headphones on her desk and went under the covers. The last image that went through her head, before sleep overcame her, was the black haired boy.

With the red highlight and green eyes.