Chapter 9
Tala’s Point of View
Unbelievable!
I hate them!
I wish they’d shut their traps, but noooooo
It is amazing how rude people nie now a days! Here it is, Sunday, and people have the nerve to be so loud while I’m trying to sleep! Everyone should know by now that I am not a moming person!
I crack my eyes open a fraction to check the time and I groan. It’s 7:44… AM! Some people obviously need to learn the definition of sleep!
I grab my extra pillow and cover my face with it, hoping to drown out the noise of the loud talking and even louder laughter from outside. Doesn’t really help. Whoever’s outside is really having a good time if they’re that loud.
“Oh for the love of GOD!” I throw the pillow across the room that was previously covering my face and sit up in bed. It lands with a soft thump‘ and Ash jumps up from her new dog bed under the TV startled by the flying object. I plant my feet firmly on the floor and stomp over to the window, I don’t even care if I look like I mess. I was woken up too early so what do you expect me to look like? With my yellow cami, white short shorts and a squirrel’s nest on my head, I imagine I look like hell.
Iyank my window and stick my head out. I glare daggers at the back of the familiar person’s head. Without my glasses, I can’t see his face clearly, but after spending a few weeks with him, I can easily recognize his stance and the way he walks.
“Jason! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut up!” I practically growl at the end from how cranky I am. The sun is hurting my eyes a little and not helping. He looks up and gives me a smile that should be illegal at this time in the morning. No one can be that happy!
“Moming princess. Love the hair!” He teases and my one hand flies up to the top of my head like it’ll shield him from seeing the mess.
“Screw you! Now be quiet or I swear I’ll cut your balls off in your sleep!” He smirks which only makes me glare at him harder. I grab the closest thing in reach, which ends up being my picture of my once happy family, and chuck it at him. He ducks and looks at me with an eyebrow raised.
“I love how you’re a morning person!” I flip him the bird and proceed to slam my window shut again. The glass rattles from the force, but doesn’t break. Cant say the same about the new frame I bought for the picture.
“Aw I love you too princess!” I storm back into bed and throw the covers over my body. He is so annoying. Why am I friends with him again? Oh right, it’s because he bought me pizza… I don’t actually think it’s enough anymore. He is testing my last bit of will power not to strangle him on
the spot.
After lying in bed for ten minutes, I cant seem to fall back asleep. Jason and his idiot friend, have officially woken me up for the day and I really wish they hadn’t. Weekends are my favorite time to sleep, but not when I get woken up at an ungodly hour. Sure it might not seem early, but
I don’t get to sleep in much.
I finally give up and roll out of bed. Grumbling to myself, I head into the bathroom for a shower. Ash tries to follow me, but I close the door
separating the bathroom from the bedroom before she makes it far enough. I love her, but she follows me almost everywhere now. Kinda don’t
want her in here
I let the hot water soothe my stiff muscles. Pretty soon, steam is covering the glass shower door and I draw a smiley face on it. Call it stupid, but I don’t care.
Finishing up a good twenty minutes later, I grab one of the towels on the shelf next to the shower. Wrapping it around my body and grabbing my glasses, I make my way back into my mom and into my closet. I stand there for a few moments and decide to wear a purple, long–sleeve shirt I got at a volleyball tournament. It has my name and number on the back in white lettering. Pairing that with a pair of back volleyball spandex, 1 deem myself ready for the day,
I just leave my hair down to dry. I’ll deal with whatever it looks like later once it’s dry.
The smell of bacon frying assaults my nose as soon as I open my bedroom door. My stomach growls in anticipation and I increase my pace
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Chapter
one piece.
slightly. Knowing the boys in this house, they eat it all before I even get o
“Good morning sleeping beauty. Barron teases once I walk into the kitchen. I glare in his direction, but don’t verbally answer him. Instead, I move right next to him and snatch a piece of bacon from his plate. “Hey!” He tries to get it back but I stuff it into my mouth with a victorious grin.
“Sucks to suck.” I grab a plate from the cabinet and fill my plate up with the waffles, more bacon and some freshly cut fruit. Whoever made breakfast this morning certainly went all out
I sit down at the marble island in the fartherst possible chair from my brother. To occupy myself, I begin humming This is How a Heart Breaks‘ by Rob Thomas I don’t have a mason for this particular song. I just popped into my head. It might have been the last thing I heard on the
radio yesterday
“What are you wearing?” Barron breaks the silence. I look at him with my fork half way to my mouth.
*Clothes. I think even you would know what they are since you’re wearing them yourself. He rolls his eyes and gestures to my legs. Have i ever mentioned that he doesn’t like when I wear spandex? He thinks every guy within a mile radius will take advantage of me.
“Tala, you know what I mean?” His serious expression says it all. He wants me to change or at least put pants on, but I won’t. I’m quite
comfortable.
“You have no right to tell me what to wear” He sighs.
“Can’t you” He starts, but the look I give him shuts him up “You’re so difficult?”
“Really? And you’re telling me this because?”
“My friend has been away for the last two months on business with a few other people and he got back this morning. Thought you should know since he’ll be around the house a lot.“I shrug, but it’s making more sense why he doesn’t want me wearing spandex.
“Was that the guy standing with Jason when I threatened to cut his balls off this morning.” His eyes grow twice as big as before. Food falls from his mouth and I scrunch my my face up in disgust. “That’s nasty.” His mouth snaps shut, but he still looks surprised.
“Why were you threatening to cut his balls off?” He asks, almost warily. “I know he can be annoying, but i would never go that far.”
“woke me up.” I state simply and he shakes his head.
knew you were awful in the morning, but I never thought you were that bad. Waking you up while you had your concussion was bad enough” I threw my clock at him and it caught him off guard so it hit him in the forehead. Unfortunately I don’t remember actually doing that, but i
find in completely hilarious.
Tenjoy sleep and food. Take either of those away and all hell will break loose.” I give him a faked, cheery smile before standing to dump my dishes in the sink. I rinse them off before heading towards the living the closer room, ignoring my brother as I go. The disapproving looks he’s sending me aren’t necessary.
The closer I get to the living room, I’m hearing explosions and screaming so I’m guessing someone’s watching a movie. And I’m right.
Jason looks pretty comfortable with his feet on the coffee table, which my mother would be freaking out about if she knew. The remote is lying next to his ing in arms reach. The leather couch almost looks to be swallows him up, but that’s why I love this couch. It’s super comfortable. Whoever decorated has great taste in furniture.
It’s only then that I see another guy sitting next to him.
Unlike Jason with his brown hair, this guy has hair as black as a raven’s feathers. It’s short, but curling slightly at the ends showing he’s in need of a haircut. From what I can see, he has nicely chisted features. His black shirt is tight so it clings to his very visible muscles. If Tyler was here, she’d classify him as an inferno‘ in the hot category
Almost as if sensing my presence, he turns his head to look at me. My hand unconsciously moves to cover my mouth in shock. His eyes are the strangest color violet I’ve ever seen. They have flecks of dark blue in them and seem to pierce into my own. And I was right about the chised features. He has high cheekbones and a strong jaw. That plus his serious, and slightly surprised expression, makes him look all the more gorgeous.
After a few minutes, I realize th
that we’ve
we’ve just been staring at eachother I break eye contact and move to sit on the couch next to Jase on the
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couch. Not near the mysterious stranger, might I add. Something about unsettles me and I don’t even know his name yet. Jason, being the person he is, didn’t even notice the little exchange between us,
“Feeling better miss grumpy pants?” Jase teases and a small smille light up my face. I rest my head on his shoulder and turn my attention to the movie. In that moment, I swear I hear a small growl, but I shrug it off once I see Ash sleeping in the comer. She sometimes makes noises in her sleep so I wouldn’t put it past her to growl in her sleep.
“You’re not forgiven, just so you know.” He peers down at me with a smirk. The stranger stands up and casually sits on my other side, effectively squishing me in between the two boys
“Why not? You’re using my shoulder as a pillow”
“It’s a comfortable position stupid.” I roll my eyes. “So, what are you watching?” I change the subject, actually wanting to know.
“Fast Five.” Boys and their cars, plus explosions equals their idea of a perfect movie.
“You would be watching this movie. I still feel the other person’s gaze on my face, but I refuse to meet his stare. He can look all he wants, but boys looking like him can only mean trouble. One of the things I avoid when dating guys is if they’re like Greek god hot, then stay away. They’ll only break your heart in the end no matter how pretty they look.
“I’m not that predictable.” He defends and I laugh quietly, I open my mouth to reply, but someone clears their throat. We both look to the guy beside me. To say I’m surprised that he looks kind of mad would mean I’m lying. His face is a light shade of red and his eyes have even darkened from they’re pretty purple. “Oh, Tala, this is Bo Carson, Bo, this is Barron’s sister Tala.”
“Nice to meet you Tala.” Bos voice is deep and is what I would have imagined his voice to sound like. He unclenches one of his fists and holds it out to shake. I eye it suspicially and Jason rolls his eyes.
“It’s a hand, Tala. You put your hand in his and shake it up and down.” He makes it sound like I’m a preschooler.
“I’m not stupid, Idiot.” I snap, lifting my head from his shoulder. I notice in the corner of my eye that Bo relaxes his posture slightly when I do this. “I’m Tala.” I briefly shake his outstretched hand and feelthe warmth immediately radiate from his to mine. Releasing it as quickly as ! grasped it, I stand up to go. No need to interupt their bonding time. From what I hear, Bo’s been gone a while and I’m sure they need to catch up. “Later Jason.” I start to walk from the room when I hear my friend’s reply
“Nice legs.” I turn around to see his smirk.
“Pig” He laughs and Bo punches him hard in the arm
“You love me princess and owl What was that for dude?!” I shake my head with the smallest smile on my face. Boys will be boys.
I don’t miss the disappointed look on Bo’s face when I don’t say goodbye to him as I leave. I can be pretty observant, but it dosen’t take a genius to see he was staring at me the whole time. I don’t think he once looked away, like he was afraid I’d disappear if he did.
“Dude what was that for?!” I hear Jason complain, even from down the hall.
“Don’t say anything like that ever again.“I halt in my tracks at the
e threat in Bos voice.
“I was just poking fun. It’s so easy to rile her up. Besides, why do you- no way.” Wall what?! I want to know too.
“Yea and if you so much as Jason cuts Bo off
“Chill, I didn’t know. And neither does she.”
I take this chance to run up the stairs and back into my room. It’s bad enough that I feel like my “family” is keeping secrets, but now everyone around me seems to be in on it as well. It’s like they’re waiting for something.
Or someone,
A voice in my head adds. I shake my head and flip on the TV to one of the music channels. I start dancing around my room to ‘Va Va Voom by Nicki Minaj. As I dance from place to place, I pick up a few clothes lying around so I can toss them into the hamper.
“H–1 wanna give you one last option, H—I wanna give you one last chance.” I sing loudly as the chorus comes on, I move to my desk chair and pick my feet up off the ground. It’s one of those with wheels so I entertain myself by spinning and singing at the top of my lungs.
If you got it, you got it, you got that voor voom!” I throw both my hands up in the air and tilt my head back to look at the ceiling. “If you want it-“I cut off seeing someone standing in my doorway. I immediately plant my feet on the ground to stop spinning and I turn to face the intruder.
“Don’t stop on my account.” Bo says, leaning on the door frame to my room. He uncrosses his arms with a small smile on his face.
“You have a pretty voice.” He compliments, ignoring my glare. Just because he’s hot doesn’t mean he can do what he wants. I’ll admit that
fact, but not out loud to him. It only inflate his ego.
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion.” I cross my y arms like he had them moments before. ‘Now get out before I scream.” His eyes light up in amusement showing he doesn’t believe me. Shrugging, I open my mouth to yell, but he’s across the room in a second to cover my mouth with his hand. It’s almost Inhuman how fast he moved, but instead of dwelling on that I muster an annoyed look. Believe me when I say I’ve had plenty of practice with these
“If I take my hand away, will you promise not to scream?” I nod agreement, but only I know that I don’t really mean it. As soon as he moves, he’s a dead men. Even though I’m still against my brother, he’ll flip a switch to see Bo in here with me alone and me screaming like a banshee.
“I don’t believe you.” I raise an eyebrow and try to pry his hand off my face with one of my own. He doesn’t budge. I claw at the back of his hand and curse the day I decided to cut my nails because it isn’t doing anything either. “Are you done?” His eyes are lit up in amusement and I roll my eyes. Going for the last thing I can think of, I do what any little kid would do in this situation.
He recoils like I burned him and stares at his hand like it’s an allen from outer space. How fame is that.
“Did you seriously just lick me?” I smirk and he wipes it on his fitted jeans.
“You had to have seen it coming, “I stand up and make my way into the bathroom to grab something for my hair. “Did you actually need
something?” I question, throwing my hair up into a ponytail. Satisfied, I walk back into my room and sit on the end of my bed.
He looks hesitant before closing my door and settling the room in temporary silence.
“Why don’t you like it here? Of all the things to talk about he chooses that. He hasn’t even been here two hours and he’s already butting into
my business.
“Why are
you asking?” I counter his question with one of my own and I can see he doesn’t like it. No one usually does, but that’s why I do it.
“I was talking to Barron and he told me how you’ve been since you got here. It’s been almost a month now hasn’t it? Usually people will have
warmed up to their new home by now.” He moves to sit next to me, but I hold my hand up to stop him
“This isn’t my home and if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m not like other people.” My hands find their way to my hips. “I never wanted to come here and as soon as I turn eighteen I stop myself mid–sentence. I hadn’t meant to say that last part to anyone, let alone Bo. His mouth presses.
together into a thin line and clenches his fists at his sides.
“You don’t want to stay here?” I stay quiet and his eyes seem to get a little darker. “I’ll just have to change your mind then” He suddenly smiles
and I look at him like he’s crazy. Maybe he’s bipolar. That was probably the quickest mood change I’ve ever seen. Yea, that makes a whole lot
more sense then anything else I could come up with.
“Don’t try too hard Bo, I’m not worth the time. Jason and my ‘family‘ have tried almost everything already” I put air quotes around the word family because I still haven’t forgiven them for anything.
“You can’t blame them forever, but I want you to know that I won’t ever give up on you. I’ll always be here.” He states, sounding sad yet determined at the same time. Without saying anything more, he leaves.
I sit there staring at the door, not quite sure what to do no
now. He says he won’t give up on me, but he has no reason to even want to help me Me being here is everyone else’s fault and I will never consider Asher a part of my family. He thinks he can weasel his way into my life and I refuse to let that happen. My parents got a divorce because of him! I had to leave my whole life behind in California for him! He just makes me so mad
I take a deep breath in an attempt to calm down.
I need to get out of here before I do something I shoudn’t. Making a split second decision, I quickly pull my window open and climb out onto the roof. Just a minute, I never said I was going to jump. I’m going to climb down the tree on the opposite side of the house like I should have done the first time.
I carefully walk on the shingles, but its a flat roof so it isn’t too hard to stay up. Ducking down every time I pass a window is just a precaution in
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case someone is inside
I move to go by the last window next to the tree when I hear loud voices coming from inside. Curiosity getting the better of me, I pause to
listen
“She hates me.” He pauses. “I mean she literally hates me. Every time she see
sees me, I get this glare and the silent treatment. It’s either that or
she’s yelling at everyone.” Way to win me over Asher, It’s great to know you talk about me behind my back, but he’s at least speaking the truth. I
hate his guts.
I listen for a few more seconds for the persons, but I don’t hear one. He must be on he phone.
“I just don’t know what to do. Knowing how she is, it’s not going to be fun when the time comes,”
Not following what he’s saying anymore, I slide by his window and grab onto closest branch. I use the sturdiest of the limbs so they don’t snap an send me falling the remaining distance to the ground.
Faster then I thought, my feet are firmly on the ground and I run towards the forest, Right now. I just need some peace and quiet. Everyone is just driving me crazy and since I was hurt, I haven’t been able to run to let out all of my anger and stress. The forest seems to calm me down
though.
I take a deep breath and everything seems to stand still. The wind rustles my hair and blows a few loose strands from my face. The afternoon sun warms me up even though the winter weather can chill a person to the bone. It doesn’t bother me. I probably should have put on some sweat pants or something before I left. It’s supposed to get colder tonight an I don’t know how long I’ll be out here
I follow a random path turn for tum. My thoughts drift from one thing to another, nothing really specific.
I sat down a few times on the trail and I think I dozed off for a little too. Even with it being chilly, I still managed to fall asleep.
The next time I jolt awake and freak out for a few seconds before I remember where I am. The sky is turning all sorts of different colors that is part of a sunset which means I’ve been outside way longer than I originally thought I would be. I never once stepped off the path, but this is probably the farthest along I’ve gone so far. Plus, if no one is searching for me by now, I’m obviously not missed. I can take a hint.
The quiet of the trees and the small noises of things living in them is calming. It’s almost melodic. I stand up and brush off a few leaves sticking to my legs. Slowly starting my walk once more, I look every which way to take in my surroundings.
The moon starts to peek through the clouds and bathes the world in pale light, turning everything either silver or grey. I wish I had my sketchbook. This is absolutely gorgeous right now. I never realized how beautiful the forest can be. Every leaf lights up like its the only one of its kind and all of the shadows seem to have disappeared completely
the
The trail suddenly starts to widen before finally opening up into a large clearing. All trees are clear from the area and short grass covers ground. A few patches of flowers are scattered over the open area, but other then that it’s completely bare. Strangely enough, I feel like there’s a force pulling me to the center of the field. I tilt my head in puzzlement, but allow my body to move automatically.
Once I get to the exact point below the moon, I tip my head back to stare in awe at the sphere in the sky. It looks like a full moon tonight and seems to shine brighter then any other of its phases. Back in California, the city lights would always wash out the natural light of the moon and the start, but here it’s absolutely gorgeous. There aren’t any big city lights to wipe the sky clean.
eyes
wbody as
A tingling sensation suddenly spreads through the light shines down on me. I smile slightly at the pleasant feeling and close my
I start to feel completely at ease, more then ever before in my life. All the anger and stress I’ve had in the past month seems to fade, leaving me relaxed.
But that’s when the pain started.
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