Chapter 6

"What's wrong?"

She moved closer as she said it.

Her head was almost resting on his shoulders at this point

Feeling as if she was possessed, she awoken to a strange sensation.

Something about this guy was putting butterflies in her stomach.

Courtney knew Lauren for a while now, even before she discovered he was her neighbor.

She saw him in class pretty often, but he didn't do much of anything.

With robotic movements and a frozen face, he seated himself in a seat essentially at the middle of the room.

He rarely moved while in his chair.

To add on to this, his chest seemed to barely shift with his breathing.

Laurens actions caused her to not think much of him then, other than he was a little interesting, but seeing him now shattered that impression.

"N-nothings… wrong…"

She slowly dropper he head down, rested it on his shoulder.

Picking up the dropped earbud, she held it in her palm in front of Lauren.

"Put the earbud back in real quick. I got a song to show you."

"Alright…"

Lauren looked as she flipped through her collection on her phone, her finger moved amazingly fast.

The music from the old song quickly cut off, before moving to the new one she chose.

It was a peaceful little intro.

However, no instruments came to mind when he listened.

While trying to analyze it, a female voice came on.

"Waiting by the mailbox, by the train…"

Something was vaguely familiar about the song.

He thought to himself:

"Where have I heard this before..?"

As he was lost in thought, with his fingers sitting on his chin, something happened.

Smooth flesh gently brushed against his ear.

Courtney went to grab the earbud back from him.

She coiled up the cord and put it in her pocket.

"Oh sorry about that."

Lauren had a shocked expression on his face, with his hand on his ear.

"W-what…"

Abruptly, she stood up.

"Night."

Like his last encounter with her, he was frozen for a while even after he left.

He didn't even say bye to her either.

With a jolt, he broke his frozen form.

"Holy…"

Over a minute passed, from his guesstimation.

He got up too, slinking back to his apartment.

No one was home yet still, at least he thought so.

While in his room, he did a light workout for 30 minutes.

Looking out the window while doing push-ups, he noted that it was getting dark now.

After exercising, he was left sweaty, so he swept his hair back with a nice little black headband his sister left him.

It seemingly blended in with his hair.

He lifted up the edge of his neatly made bed.

There was a pack of cheap smokes tucked away.

The packaging was rather plain, but the colors were a pleasing teal and white.

Leaning on the plain stucco wall on the balcony, he pulled out one and put it to his mouth.

Moving his lighter out of his pocket, he covered the spark it made against the cigarette, as it was windy out.

When it was fully lit, the scent began to disperse.

As he enjoyed a drag, he heard a voice.

"Liar."

He recognized the voice.

While looking out into the streets in front of him, he replied.

"I didn't lie. I said I don't have any Spirits."

The cars crammed in the streets reflected across his eyes, their headlights shined like stars in them.

"Right."