Trouble In Paradise

21. "Why do people want to mourn so early in the morning?"

"Why are you toppling over like a drunk person?" Ethan asked.

"Grhgrh," I answered sleepily.

"Aria, sit straight, we're at a funeral!" Rhea whisper-yelled at me from beside Mae.

"Mae's asleep too," Pouting, I pointed at the tiny, dangerous, dark-haired girl sleeping beside me, all the while managing a ramrod-straight posture.

After all these years, I had stopped questioning Mae Jackson's abilities to sleep anywhere, anytime. I sensed it was sheer willpower and determination to sleep that helped her.

"Yes, but you can't even tell she's asleep. You, on the other hand..." Mason trailed off.

"Damn, why do people have to mourn so early in the morning?" I grumbled under my breath.

"I know, right?" Matt muttered, half asleep. He was sitting beside Ethan.

Yes. We had all decided to squeeze ourselves in one row.

"Rough night?" I yawned at Matt, hardly getting the words out of my mouth.

"Oh, it was a rough night, alright, if you know what I mean," he smirked, suddenly gaining the strength to weirdly wiggle his eyebrows.

I pulled a disgusted face.
"Ugh, what's happening to your face?"

"Hey, I was trying to- never mind," he sighed.

I looked away from Matt as I heard Owen snicker from his other side, and rested my head on the shoulder of the person next to me.

I had tried to rest my head on Mae's shoulder at first. But that had quickly become impossible seeing how she was sitting too damn straight.

And that was how I ended up with my head on Torryn Cole's shoulder.

In my sleep-induced state, I snuggled deeper into his shoulder. He tensed and I was sure he'd tell me to get my sleepy ass away from him when-

He slumped a little lower to allow me to sleep better. I almost sat up in surprise. Almost.

After spending all of last night reading Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows in one sitting and going to sleep at around 4 am, I had decided that it was cruel to hold a funeral at ten in the morning.

"Your shoulder makes for a nice pillow, Cole," I mumbled sleepily.

"That's nice to know," he said, quietly in a somewhat sarcastic tone.

"Can we please go have something to eat before we go to your house? Because I will fall asleep on your ass," I was still mumbling.

"You will fall asleep on my ass?" He turned his head toward me.

"You know what I mean," I stated drily.

"Hey, it's okay if we do the project sometime else if you're so tired," he said softly and my heart warmed at his words.

"Aw, Cole, as much as I appreciate you being concerned for me, I'll be fine once I have some food in my belly," I smiled at him.

"I am not concerned about you, " he scoffed, "I just don't want my parents to come home and find a girl sleeping like the dead," he muttered quickly.

I looked up at him and saw a startling sight. The tips of Torryn's ears were turning the lightest shade of pink very fast.

Wa- was the Torryn My-Face-Is-Made-Of-Stone Cole blushing?

Since I was feeling particularly generous (or maybe just sleepy), I decided not to call him out on it.

"Sure, Cole," I looked down at my converse, trying to hide my smile.

Except for Rhea, who was wearing a proper, funeral-appropriate, black dress, all of us were wearing almost casual black clothing. The boys all looked dashing in their black shirts. I had even let out an unintended low whistle when I saw just how good Torryn looked in black, completely missing Mae's smirk.

The boy was absolutely beautiful.

Sigh.

While Ethan was complaining about some red shirt that he had wanted to wear, Mae had no problem with the whole black ensemble thing. Seeing as black was the only color you'd find in her wardrobe, I could see why she had no problem. But she'd decided to be respectful and wear, well, less frightening clothes. I even gave her an A for effort.

Coming back to the present, I pouted as my stomach grumbled quietly. "I didn't have breakfast."

Ethan who was sitting on Torryn's other side, trying to count the hairs on the bald priest's head to pass time (we really weren't very respectful kids, were we?), snapped his head towards me. "Oh no, that's not good," he tutted and put his hand in his jean pocket and seemed to fiddle around in his pocket until he found what he was searching for and pulled out an energy bar. He then passed it to me.

"Oh, you're a lifesaver, Ethan. Thanks, bro!"

I even let out a squeal when I saw that there were little chocolate chips in it. This only resulted in gaining the attention of an old lady sitting in front of us.

"Do you have to be so damn loud?" The old lady hissed at us.

We all froze under the old lady's harsh gaze. I was certain she was going to throw all of us out, when unexpectedly-

"Is that the one with the chocolate chips? Can I have some?" She tried to get a closer look at the energy bar.

We all gaped at her.

"Well? Are you going to give me that or not? Because I'm not getting any younger and this ceremony isn't getting any shorter," she snapped at me.

All this time, all of us were ignoring what the priest was going on about (religious people right here).

Out of instinct, I inched the energy bar closer to me, as if protecting my food from any possible danger. Mae (who must have woken up at the sound of the old lady's voice), nudged me. She raised an eyebrow, motioning towards the energy bar clutched protectively in my hand, and then to the old lady as if to say give the oldie what she wants before she gets us thrown out.

I sighed sadly. I opened the wrapper without making any noise, a skill I had gained after years of practice, and proceeded on breaking the energy bar into half.

I gave one half to the old lady, who flashed me a triumphant smirk before turning around, and silently ate up the other half.

The old lady (she was probably my grandma's age) did not bother being quiet. And she also flashed her middle finger at another old lady who was making a judgemental face at her.

Whoa there, grandma.

"Hey, stop doing that, Ellie! You will be thrown out," a familiar voice whisper-yelled at grandma here.

We all looked at the man beside the old lady and exclaimed together,

"Mr Hatter?!"

********************************

Let me know what you think of this chapter!

VOTE
COMMENT
SHARE

Aria: Vote if you're possessive about your food!