Chapter 5

An hour had passed.

Standing in the middle of the hallway, he was left wondering where his sister and mother were.

"I think mom should've been off work already..?"

To see if either one was on the way back to their apartment, he opened the door and looked out into both sides of the hallway.

Smoothly gliding the door open, he popped his head out, like a prairie dog checking its surroundings.

Gazing to his left and right, he spotted something else.

Instead of seeing them, he got an eyeful of Courtney.

Her hair, was let down, draping over the shoulders of her hoodie.

His cheeks reddened and his hands started to get sweaty.

"Oh… hi…"

She had earphones in, so she couldn't hear him.

However, she saw him out of the corner of her eye.

Removing her right earbud, she turned to him and asked:

"Yeah?"

Panicking mentally, he stumbled his words, saying:

"I… uh… ah… nothing…

Courtney shrugged off his nervous actions.

"You want to hear this song?"

Lauren's face blanked as she walked over to him.

She put her right earbud back in, before taking the left one out for him to listen with.

"The band has been around for a while. They released their debut right after I was born."

They both leaned against the wall, before sliding down it.

To Lauren, the queue to do so had felt natural, despite not being beckoned to do so by Courtney

Now sitting on the floor, she continued on about the group.

"My dad liked them, so he's really the reason I got into them. I remember headbanging to them as a little shithead baby…"

She laughed at her words.

Lauren thought it was the prettiest… giggling… he had ever heard.

When her laughter died down, she had one more thing to say about them.

"Yeah… they're still pretty unknown, so the attachment to them feels… more special?"

Lauren nodded quickly, saying:

"Nice, though I can't really understand that sort of thing…"

Courtney snapped her gaze to his eyes.

They shared the earbud still, the wire slacked and tightened with the little movements of their heads.

Now, the wire was at its most relaxed state.

Inches away from his face, her breath began to hit Lauren.

His eyes lowered, with the blush on his face becoming increasingly apparent.

"W… what is it..?"

Courtney saw the redness in his cheeks, as it deeply contrasted his porcelain skin.

She mumbled something, but not loud enough for Lauren to understand it.

"I see…"

There was a little grin on her face, as the corners of her mouth lifted.

Her thick black eyebrows pulled together, coming upwards at the middle, creasing the space between both brows.

Her cheeks were a little red now, too.

"Do you want to start walking to school with me?"

With the earbud violently shooting out of his ear, Lauren turned to her with surprise.

"Eh..!?"