Covered In Ink

Chapter 21|My eyeballs!

"Do you believe in ghosts?" I asked randomly as we drove down a long straight road. One of my arms draped loosely over the steering wheel and the other hung lazily, resting on the open window.

"Ghosts no, spirits maybe, fairies hell yeah."

I grinned. "I always thought fairies lived in the clouds when I was a kid."

He smiled. "I wish I was a little kid again, life was so simple then." He seemed to drift out if the conversation a little then, lost in his own thoughts.

Silence filled the small space as the dry landscape blurred by.

"You know you're a lot different than I first thought you'd be," I admitted.

I heard him shift in his seat. "Different, how?"

"Well I thought you'd be the typical bad boy type, don't care attitude, rude, self centred."

He mock gasped. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to judge a book by its cover sunshine?"

I shrugged. "I never did like that saying. Books with shitty covers tend to have shitty content."

"What about me?"

"What about you?"

"Would you read me?" He saw me raise an eyebrow. "Hypothetically speaking, if I was a book."

"Well considering you're not actually a book, and we're speaking hypothetically, maybe I'd read you. But a few pages are missing words."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

Damn you Justin Bieber, you just have to show up everywhere don't you?

"You're hard to read, that's all."

"I take it we're not speaking hypothetically anymore."

I shrugged, kind of dropping the conversation. "What about me? If I was a book, would you read me?"

He nodded, grinning. "Yeah, you would be one of those beautiful old books with the leather covers, gold cursive and detailing on the cover and crisp pages with that smell only old books have."

"Are you calling me old?" I joked.

"No, I'm calling you beautiful."

My face was the colour of lava as those words left his mouth.

I saw him smirking out of the corner of my eye as he saw my reaction to the compliment.

I actually think I have an allergic reaction to compliments. Why else would my face get red and feel hot enough to cook an egg on?

"You don't get compliments very often, do you?" He asked.

"What's there to compliment?" I mumbled.

"You really don't get it do you?"

"Get what exactly?"

He sighed. "When you look in the mirror, what do you see?"

Was this a trick question?

"Uh...I see me?"

"Right, because you're so used to just seeing your own reflection. But when I see you, I see every little detail. The way your eyes aren't just brown, but they have little flecks of gold. The way the left side of your mouth lifts more than the right side when you smile. The tiny freckles that are spread over the bridge of your nose and cheeks, and don't think I forgot about that dimple on your left cheek."

What was I supposed to say to that?

"Um...thanks?"

He chuckled. "You're welcome sunshine."