03

*Pandora*

Shockingly, I find my mind wandering to Monte often. It doesn't help that my mama spends more than half of her time at his house with his mother, Georgia. And as if the cherry on top, the time she does spend at home, is spent rambling about how "lovely Georgia and Montgomery are."

I've spent the remainder of my first week avoiding any further conversations with him. Assuring myself I wouldn't let whatever weird attraction I have for him get out of hand. Trying to force the idea that I simply enjoyed the response my close proximity earned from him and not that his gentleness felt like a breath of fresh air. Air I wouldn't mind breathing more often.

It's been a long time since I've allowed myself to think like this and it almost makes me anxious to think of the possibility of those vulnerable feelings creeping back up on me. So to completely cut out the chance of this, I've made the decision to just avoid the handsome, defined features that bring those feelings. When he's in my presence, my composure crumbles and the resolve I've spent so long building wears thin. That can't happen.

That being said, his reserved attitude has made it much easier to avoid him, but the attraction seems to grow stronger the more I fight it. Every time I find my eyes locking with his kind emerald ones, I'd crack. After a week of sharing classroom after classroom with Monte, running into each other on our trip to or from school, and constantly spotting each other in crowded hallways, I'm not sure how long I've got before I cave.

Coincidentally, I don't have to wait long to find out.

"Uh- Pandora?" Monte's deep, shaky voice comes out soft from behind me. I pull my bag out of the back seat of my car and turn around to see him in dark jeans and a black hoodie, sporting a black beanie on top of his thick brown hair. And just like that, I cave.

He looks hot. But not in the way that makes me want to sleep with him. Not in this very moment at least. In a way that makes me want kiss him, slowly, gently. In a way that has my fingers itching to run my fingers through his currently covered locks.

"Yes, Montgomery?" I let out in a singsong tone.

He seems shocked at the sound of his name coming from me. But the shock wears off fast as I watch him shake his head, seemingly clearing his thoughts.

"My mom wanted me to invite you to our house tonight for dinner. She said your mom won't be home tonight and she'd hate for you to eat alone. You don't actually have to come. I know it's weird to have dinner with some strange family you just met. She just wanted me to invite you so you knew you had somewhere to go if you didn't want to be alone, you know?" He rambles for a while and the longer it went on the bigger my grin grows. It was cute that I did that to him.

"Well Monte, do you want me to come over for dinner tonight?" I step closer causing him to tense as usual.

He looks towards the ground, avoiding eye contact with me before shrugging.

And if it weren't for the emerald eyes that flashed in my mind as I stood before him, I probably would've shrugged back and continued avoiding him. But I can't stop the beautiful, bright eyes from invading my thoughts, so I do one of the many things I know will only deepen the attraction I feel towards him.

I lift his chin towards me, forcing his eyes to lift to mine and then I wrap my arms around his neck. His warm body is now pressed gently against mine as he tenses even more at me touch. I want to tell him to relax. I want him to be pulled towards me the way I'm pulled towards him. But instead I reach my lips up to ear, just like I'd done the first day we met and whisper.

"Speak, sweetheart."

Though my face is angled towards his ear, blocking my view of his expression, I can practically feel his eyes widen at my words. Stunned, he doesn't respond, not that I really expected him to.

"I'll be there." I pulled away to flash him a smile "What time?"

"S-Seven." His cheeks were tinted pink and if I were anyone else I probably would've blamed it on the chilled December weather.

"See you at seven then, Monte." I drop my arms and shut the car door before walking away, locking the door behind me.

Walking into the school, I almost miss the warmth of his body against mine. And somehow when I walk into my first class, one of the many classes we shared, he was sitting in his usual seat at the front of the classroom. I quickly avert my eyes before he has the chance to shift his attention from sorting through his binder to my semi-late arrival.

Half-way through fighting to keep my eyes open in the very back of the class, the door's thrown open harshly.

"Miss Wu, please have a seat. "

The bright-red headed girl smiled brightly at him, causing her narrow eyes to appear almost shut. She skips to the back of the room in black boots similar to my own and plops down on the seat next to me.

"What a push-over." The girl in burgundy, faux leather legging and a black Nirvana sweatshirt, mumbles. She wasn't wrong. Mr. Kennedy was the most passive teacher I'd ever met, in fact he was overall the most boring person I've come across. His monotone voice only ever sparked with emotion in when he puts his usual government lesson on hold to discuss his role as a drummer in his own band.

"I'm Dalia, by the way. You're new right?" She pushes her hand towards me, not even bothering to whisper during the lesson. A few heads turn at the sound of the her voice before swinging back to face the front of the classroom.

"Yeah. Pandora. " I shake her outstretched hand.

"Love the leather, by the way. Gives you a real 'bad girl' vibe. " I almost chuckle at her excitement.

"Thanks."

"Hey, what do you have fourth period?"

"Physics, you?"

"Me too! Great, you're totally sitting with me. Then we'll go to lunch together." There was something about the eager redhead next to me that I liked. Her spunky attitude left me almost excited for our lunch period together.

~

Fourth period flew by with lots of laughter, on Dalia's part, at her own jokes. I don't mind it much though. Her laugh was contagious and sparked warmth in my cold heart.

The bell rings and in a flash Dalia's pulling me out of the classroom. She holds my hand the whole way to the lunch room and doesn't let go until we're both seated at a round table in the middle of the large cafeteria.

"P, this is Val," she points to a blue eyed, blonde girl, whose pale skin is littered with freckles and defined beauty marks. "Wyatt," who sits next to Val, has dark milky skin and short black hair that leaves his strong masculine features fully on display. "Hunter,"the boy next to Wyatt smiles a cute, albeit crooked smile at me. His hair is a mess of dirty blonde curls and he looks up at me through dark eyes. "and Piper," the last member of the table looks identical to Hunter, down to the crooked smile.

A chorus of warm greetings and smiles are thrown my way.

"Guys, this is Pandora. She just moved here."

Most of the hour is spent with jokes about the small town they've all grown up in. Val spends much of this time with her concentrated face buried in a composition notebook, only looking up to laugh at one of Wyatt's jokes.

"Oh! Pandora, there's a party tomorrow night you should come with us! " Piper speaks up excitedly. My smile faltered a little at the thought of a party. I haven't been much of the party type lately and the idea of a house full of drunken strangers doesn't exactly sit right with me. Noticing my hesitancy she speaks again, "Please, I promise it'll be fun. Queen Bitch is throwing it and the girl might not know much but she knows how to throw a party." Piper throws her hands in the air wildly, as if to indicate us having a good time.

I know parties are almost always recipes for disaster, between the amount of teenagers packed into one single space and the amount of alcohol they'd likely be consuming, a party was probably the worst place for me to be right now. But it could also be just the thing I need to get my mind off of all the recent events, so with a heavy sigh I say,

"Fine, I'll go."

Theres a round of applause from the table and a few loud cheers from Piper, causing a small grin to grown on my face before it falls back to its usual emotionless state.

"So let's all meet at Dalia's house to get ready and then we can leave for the party together. You two, " She moves her finger between Wyatt and Hunter, " are on your own. We need girl time."

Both boys feen hurt just as the bell rings, signaling the end of the period.

~

The rest of the day went on as expected. Extremely boring. But now, at exactly 6:30, I'm standing in my closet staring at a sea of black material. Usually, I wouldn't worry much about my appearance or what other thought of it but for some reason I cant't help but feel the slightest bit anxious at the lack of color in my closet. What do you even wear to a pity dinner? Are you expected to dress up to eat in someone else's home, even if that house is across the street?

Giving up of the dark content of my own closet I make my way to my mother's room and rummage through hers. Our closets are night and day, and with hers full of fun bright colors, it's very obvious who's is night. Finding a dark purple sweater, made of possibly the softest material I've ever felt in my life, I pick it up and decide to pair it with some black leggings. Trying not to step too far out of my comfort zone I slip my usual black boots back on and look at myself in the mirror. Pleased with outfit I quickly redo my light makeup before checking the time on my phone.

6:57. I let out a breath to clear my nerves before exiting the house and walking across the dark pavement.

I hold my breathe as I ring the door bell and before I even have time to take my finger of the button the door is swinging open to reveal a very happy Georgia. In the blink of an eye, she pulls me into a bone-crushing hug and I regret not taking a breath when I had the chance.

"Pandora! It's so nice to see you again. You look lovely." She releases me and I bring as much air into my lungs as possible after the short hug.

"You too, Mrs. Collins. Thank you for inviting me." I smile politely.

"Come on in, sweetie. And please, call me Georgia." Her hand wraps tightly around mine as she pulls me into the large house.

The house looked identical to mine structurally but the way the interior was decorated gave it much more expensive feel than my house. Our house was full of cluttered, colorful objects that all seemed to be thrown together randomly but the Collins household was looked as if no one lived in the house at all. Clean, white furniture, beautiful paintings hung on the walls, shiny marble floors that peeked out beneath fluffy white rugs. The house was spotless and it was hard to think that me and my mother lived in a space exactly like this.

"Monte, come downstairs we're starting dinner!" Georgia's voice echoes through the empty house.

We move down the hallway and into the kitchen and the amazing smell invades my senses. If not for my quick recovery, I'm sure I would start drooling at the smell wafting around the Collins' kitchen.

Georgia sets three plates on the long table in the middle of kitchen and scoops spoonfuls of steamy lasagna onto each plate. Just as she sets the pan back onto the counter the smell of pine masks the mouthwatering scent of dinner and my mind clouds over. I blink back the excitement coursing through me before sitting down at the table and soon the scent of pine grows stronger and the chair next to mine is pulled out.

"Monte, don't be rude. Say hello. " Georgia, who is now sitting across from the two of us snaps at her son.

Monte looks up from his plate with wide eyes before slowly turning his head in my direction

"Uh- hey Pandora, great to see you again, " he turns back to his mother "for the second time today." He mumbles to her.

"Oh! Yes, I forgot you two must see each other all the time at school. How have your classes been, dear?" She asks, before placing a spoonful of food into her mouth.

"They've been good. Monte and I actually have a few classes together. "

"That's wonderful. Monte, I hope you've been helping her get accustomed to the new school." She playfully scolds the brown haired boy next to me, "I'm sure it must be difficult going to a new school so late in your senior year. "

"It's been okay. I do miss my old school at times but Monte here," I place my hand on his broad shoulder, feeling his body grow rigid under my cold hand, "has been so great helping me around school."

"Im so glad to hear that. I know he can be a bit timid at tim-"

"Mom!" Monte finally speaks up, almost choking on his food as he rushes to stop his mother from embarassing him any further.

"I'm sorry, hun. But it's true! You keep to yourself a lot, I'm glad you and Pandora are becoming friends. " Georgia smiles at me, to which I return with a mouthful of her delicious cooking.

We continue to eat in silence for a few more minutes before the sound of a phone ringing interrupts the sounds of our hungry chewing.

"It's your father, I'll be right back. Have as much food as you'd like Pandora." She rushes out of the room to answer the call.

I glance over at Monte to find his plate empty and his eyes trained on his own fiddling fingers.

"I don't see why you're still so nervous around me. I distinctly remember telling you I don't bite. Unless you want me to, that is."

"I'm not nervous." He lifts his head as a show of confidence but keeps his eyes focused elsewhere.

I place my spoon back on the place and lace my fingers with his fidgeting ones.

"Relax, Montgomery." While it delights me to know my presence has this effect on him, I want to know more about the tall, uneasy boy beside me. The feeling of nostalgia his presence brings draws me in, despite knowing I should avoid the possibility of getting close to another person. Something in me still feels tgi's overwhelming desire to pick apart every layer of Montgomery Collins. And I know I'll never be able to do that if he can't even breathe when I'm in the same room as him.

His eyes snap to our intertwined fingers before moving up to mine. It feels like the world around us stops when he stares back at me wide-eyed. After a while I see his shoulders slump slightly, telling me he was at least making an effort. Maybe there was hope for him after all.

"You remind me a lot of someone I used to know, Monte."

"Who?" His lips tug down slightly.

"Myself." His eyes widen at this. Im assuming he's surprised at how I could possibly be comparing us. Two people who, at first glance, could not be more different. I laugh at his shock before continuing, "I'm going to shatter that shell you hide yourself in. Then you'll understand. We're not as different as you think, sweetheart."