The change ( his mate)

Chapter 4: I like you

Lara

Damn it, I was smiling all the way home on the bus ride. I liked Grayson, he was snarly and temperamental, but he’d been nice enough when talking to me and then sweetly offering to walk me to the bus stop.

I didn’t want to get those stirring feelings of romantic thoughts, I knew he was way too gorgeous for me, if it wasn’t for that chiseled jawline he’d fall straight into that pretty boy category, he had a masculine beauty and probably had a girlfriend back home already, a guy that looked like him only dated girls that also looked like models, tall, slim and glamorous with lots of confidence.

I was none of those things, so I couldn’t get too excited about him just because he’d asked a few polite and curious questions and been a decent enough guy to walk me to the bus stop.

I got home, showered and tried to sleep and not think about him anymore, I didn’t really succeed in the latter.

When morning came I got ready for work, I applied some foundation, a rose gold shimmery eyeshadow with mascara and a small cat eye line and finished with a soft brown lipstick keeping it more natural today instead of the bold red I’d worn yesterday.

If I didn’t wake up looking like shrek I’d have gladly not bothered with makeup, I hated the long process of going through it and at the end of the day my face felt suffocated and would start to itch from irritation. Oh the things we do to feel good. I twisted my hair up and letting a few loose pieces free to frame my face I clipped it up with a hairclip.

As always I rushed out the door and barely made it on time to work. I was bringing an elderly couple their coffees to them and was walking back to the counter when Grayson sauntered in through the doors.

He looked up at me and his body stiffened, he looked at me suspiciously and I grew annoyed, did the arrogant d.ick think I’d followed him or something? I’d been here first! I stormed up to the counter and was too polite to say anything about it, I wasn’t so good at hiding my facial expressions though and hoped he didn’t see the anger. “What can I get you?” I asked.

“You work here?” He asked.

“Yes, that’s usually why one stands behind the counter asking what you’d like,” I replied sarcastically, but smiled so he’d know I was teasing and not being mean, I might have felt annoyed by his suspicions, but I was good at hiding it…most of the time.

He grunted a reply and then said, “can I have a bottle of water, some pancakes and the large breakfast to take away.”

I tried not to raise my eyebrows, the pancakes he wanted were six slices with syrup and the large breakfast came with four sausages, two eggs, four slices of bacon, mushrooms and beans alongside four slices of toast. I could tell even with the white sweater he wore he was well built, so I suppose it wasn’t that surprising that he could eat so much so early in the morning.

While waiting for his food he asked, “when do you finish?”

“Five.” I cringed inwardly for my one worded answers, I was s.hit at small talk.

“Must be tiring working here all day then rushing home just to come back to college after two hours of rest.”

“Can be, how about you?” I was blushing with those blue eyes staring at me and figured I needed to try and be polite and ask something back.

The question threw him off, like he wasn’t expecting to be asked about his own job. He hesitated and then said, “I’m a painter and decorator.”

“Is it a busy job?”

“Not really, sometimes during certain times of the year, winter is usually the quietest.”

“Are you self employed?”

“Yeah.”

“So you can choose if you want to do jobs or not?”

“Yep, pretty much.”

I nodded, and didn’t know what else to ask or say, thankfully the food was ready and I bagged it up and handed it to him.

“Thanks, see you later,” he said, not smiling and left.

I couldn’t figure him out, on the one hand it seemed like he didn’t like me at all, and on the other he would ask questions about me and my life, if he didn’t like me why did he care what I did or how I lived my life? Maybe he was just being polite and trying to fill the awkward silence.

Another customer came in while I was cleaning a table and I noticed she wore a pink rucksack with a wolf on it. I loved wolves so I mustered up the courage to ask her, “I love your bag where did you get it?”

She smiled up at me and said, “thank you, I got it on Amazon.”

“I’m going to have to get one,” I smiled and then took her order.

Amazon, nice and easy, I even had prime so looking online I saw I could have it delivered the next day, I chose baby blue instead of pink.

I did my part in this world, I woke up, ate, went to work and college, but that was it, besides that I had no life, no friends to meet, no one to talk to, I didn’t go to parties, didn’t like them anyway.

I’d been single for three years now, dating sites seemed hopeless, full of gross sleazy men, the only thing I wanted was a life partner, someone to love me and me them, loyalty and, shallow creature that I am, a handsome face.

I was a hopeless romantic at heart, in love with the idea of love, the whole soppy fairytale love, that’s what I wanted and my heart ached everytime I thought about it because I knew the kind of love I wanted didn’t exist, men didn’t seem interested in settling down or if they did they weren’t interested in me.

I was overthinking as I worked and only made myself feel more miserable, I was glad when work was finally over. I didn’t like admitting it, but I was looking forward to going to college and seeing Grayson.

I always arrived early, but today walking into the class I saw Grayson already seated at his desk. He gave a small smile and I smiled back, hopefully I didn’t beam with giddy happiness, he’d never smiled at anyone else so I couldn’t help feeling elated, I forced myself back to reality and squashed those feelings down, a guy like him was definitely not single.

When the class started we wrote for a while listening to Mrs Beaton and then she wanted us to have some fun trying to make pancakes from scratch. We didn’t have to pair up this time, but Grayson still chose to share my oven. It was mine or he would have had to join the two blonde friends and I could tell he really didn’t want to.

We listened to Mrs Beatons instructions and added all the ingredients, flour, eggs, milk, etc. we whisked it all together and then put our frying pans on a medium heat, wiped them with some light oil and poured our batter onto the pan.

I looked over and saw Grayson try to flip his pancake and I couldn’t stop myself from bursting into laughter when it hit the ceiling with a splat. He was looking up at it with this almost childlike innocence and then he mumbled, “f**k,” under his breath.

It looked like he was debating whether to climb onto the table and scrape it off the ceiling.

Laughing, I said, “why did you flip it?”

He turned his face to look at me and said, “I don’t know. They do it all the time in the f.ucking movies, I thought you were supposed to.”

I laughed and grabbed his arm when he went to climb onto the table. “Don’t do that,” I whispered still giggling like an i.diot.

He looked down at my hand on his arm and I quickly let go. He turned to me and said, “what do you like to do in your spare time?”

“Uh, well, I’m a bit boring,” I blushed, there was no point wasting his time in thinking I was some fun party girl or something.

“Why are you boring?”

“I don’t like going out drinking, I prefer the movies and meals out, walks, and that’s it really.”

“I like those things.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, we should do those things sometime.”

I tried to ignore the racing of my heart at his words, he probably meant just as friends. I nodded and tried to sound casual when I replied, “yeah, that’d be cool.”

“What movies do you like?”

“Horrors are my favourite and then action, how about you?”

“Same,” he grinned.

He had a heart stopping grin.

I was actually kind of disappointed when the class ended, I liked spending time with him. He walked me to the bus stop again.

“Would you want to go to the movies on Saturday with me?” He asked. Ok, now my heart was doing somersaults, but I stayed composed and smiled, “yeah, sure.”

“Alright, good. See you tomorrow Lara.”

Ugh, the sound of my name on his lips made my knees weak, nope, I wouldn’t let myself fall for him, it would only end in heartbreak for me.