Hearts of Ink (a TID fanfiction)

four

On my first weekend in London I played the role of the typical american tourist. I had arranged with my host family that I could spend saturday with my two friends. The Fawns would drag me to go sightseeing on sunday.

Sophie and Jess insisted on going shopping with me. Apparently that was a necessity for every teenage girl that happened to be in London.

They were currently hauling me down Oxford Street, past stores with multicolored show windows which displayed the newest fall collections.

We bought everything a girl's heart desires. I have to admit that I quite enjoyed myself. For lunch we sat down in an almost empty café.

"Well then, Tessa", Jess started as we sat down in a cozy booth. " I was told you had a little argument with Will Herondale?" She was the last one to put her bag on the fourth seat, propped her head on her entwined hands and looked expectant at me.

I sighed and flashed Sophie an angry glance, but she answered by shrugging and smiling innocently. "Yeah, there happened to be a little...let's call it disagreement." I didn't want to admit how much he had upset me, but that wasn't necessary, for Sophie started blabbering.

"Jess, it was so incredible!", shrieked Sophie. "It was an epic word duel. They both had totally different opinions but the tension between the two of them was undeniable."

I snorted indignantly. "That's not true at all, Sophie", I tried to defend myself. "It was a purely scholar issue and besides, he's an idiot. He does look quite handsome, but he's an idiot nonetheless."

Sophie merely shook her head in amusement and turned towards Jess. "After class they talked." She looked pensive. "I guess I should be mad at you for stealing my crush but somehow I'm not. You guys would be cute together." She tapped a finger against her chin. "What was so urgent you had to talk about?"

I squirmed under their curious gazes but eventually gave in. They were my only friends here, who else was I supposed to tell?

"It was quite strange." I paused for a moment to contemplate how to describe it. "At first he disarmed me with his unexpected kindliness." I told my friends about our short exchange of words and how he left shortly after. "And then James came and apologized for Will."

Our orders had arrived in the meantime and Jess sipped eagerly at her beverage before putting it down and answering me. " Yeah, that's just like him. James has always been the more accessible one. With Will, everyone encounters resistance, except for James." She shrugged.

"Exactly", Sophie interjected. " Will only lets James get to him and he is actually his only friend at school."

"Does that mean Will always reacts that way when someone tries to approach him?", I asked unbelievingly. " I thought the girls all had a crush on him. He certainly has had a girlfriend, right?" My friends both shook their heads.

"Not properly. His relationships never lasted long, they always broke off before it became too serious." Sophie drank up her coffee and put the mug back down on the table.

"I could imagine that's because of his mood swings", Jess added. "His looks can only make up for his bad mood to a certain degree."

I frowned. Funny, he had totally changed when I had told him I wanted to get to know him. Maybe he was afraid to let people in? But why was that? Had he ended his relationships or were the girls simply fed up with him? For some reason I couldn't believe that. My head ached beacuse of all these questions but after having this new information, I grew simply more curious of Will.

"Come on, Tessa. Instead of brooding over Will Herondale, we could go shopping some more." Jess ripped me away from my thoughts. And of course they dragged me back to all the stores.

*°*°*

After several hours on the shopping street, I made up an excuse and said goodbye to Sophie and Jess. There was only so much time I could spend shopping. We came along a bookshop earlier and I was heading towards it now.

It was situated on a side street and when I reached it, anticipation seized me. The books in the display gave me a comforting feeling. I was about to enter, when I saw a dark mop of hair at the cashpoint. Will. Jesus, what was I supposed to do? If I entered the shop he would definitely notice. Would he think that I followed him? I couldn't let that happen, that would be too embarassing.

I sighed and turned away, hoping that the boy between the books hadn't noticed me.