izzythomps:
“Me?” he asked stupidly as if there could be anyone else around, index finger pointing back to his chest clad with a thrifted Care Bears tee that had clearly been run through the wash more than a few times. “Yeah, I’m cool; just a few broken ribs and maybe a punctured lung, but other than that, I’m practically the best thing since sliced bread.” Had it been anyone else, his comparison likely would’ve been more vulgar and crude, but for her lamb-eyed sake, he abstained. Izzy eyed her with a suspicious air, gaze lingering on the foot that tapped anxiously on the pavement, little clicks accompanying the crickets that began to sing their nightly lullaby. He had seen her before, he knew he had. He knew because he wouldn’t have forgotten her. Not in the cliche, romantic, Jane Austen way, but in the way she presented herself as an individual, yet somehow remained unpretentious about it. It wasn’t like she was trying to be different or the fascination of some boy who John Green would make a protagonist out of, she simply marched to the beat of her own drum. And that interested him; again, not even in a platonic manner, just a human way. “Uh, I wasn’t asking if you’ve seen me,” he laughed, a goofy look on his face, “but I’ve seen you.” He stuck his tongue in his cheek, a smirk more boyish than devious on his lips, “And you’re not helping your case by being weird.”
Noisily digging her fists into the pockets of her windbreaker, Ines breathed out audibly, an almost laugh. “Oh, cool. I won’t need to call you an ambulance then, right? They can be fairly expensive. Good ol’ American healthcare, or lack of-- I guess--” She stopped herself from talking too much, as she usually did, pressing her lips together in a tight line. The word weird bounced off her skin and she visibly cringed, took half a step back. She had been right. He was definitely just like his friends. Suddenly, she felt like she was back under the southwestern sun, among the miserable people in the miserable dry heat. “Man, what is it with Socal boys and calling me weird, hm?” She said it before she could think better of it, licking her lips before carrying on, staring straight ahead, not at him but at fixed point behind him. Ines couldn’t make eye contact with him for the life of her. “Like, are you all born bullies or does it happen gradually? Could it be the drought, maybe? Or too many concussions from falling off of skateboards? The hair bleach seeping into your skulls? So many possibilities...” She trailed off, intending to walk around him and be done with it, but she lingered for a second, too lost in her own head. Her foot continued to tap against the pavement. “Weird is a pretty weird word itself, now that I think of it,” she glanced at him quickly before averting her gaze back to dark space around them. “Maybe you could come up with something more interesting next time. Spice it up.”
