Behind Your Walls

02 | the bully & the bad boy

I can speak?
Does he know that he can breathe?

It takes time for the question to sink in and when they do, I am pretty sure there is a frown on my face too. To top it all, he is making no attempt to move away. He looks at my hand which has accidentally landed on his thigh when he shifted towards me, making me follow his eyes. Startled, I am about to pull back instantly when he puts his hand on my knee and keeps me seated in place.

Yes, Carter Bell. I may dream of marrying you but the last time I checked, it was just a dream.

This near, I can see the beginning of a beard getting ready to adorn his face. It takes me a second to realize that I can already imagine him with a beard and he looks incredible. He notices my unmoved staring and pulls away to lean back in his seat.

"What do you mean? Did you think I was dumb?" I ask, ignoring the butterflies which just erupted in my stomach.

"Yes," he answers flatly. "We share two classes. Never seen nor heard you talk."

He isn't looking at me anymore. His eyes are on his phone and I am glad about that because I can imagine my cheeks burning with the thought that he has observed me too. I give myself a moment to recollect before I can continue the conversation.

"Whatever...do get rid of the feet. Devon is having trouble sitting up."

I roll my eyes and pretend that I am not affected by this conversation.

I am a little affected because this is the first time someone has spoken two words to me on this bus. A little part of me is overwhelmingly grateful for the distraction after how I left things at home. I catch Devon throwing me another glare from between the seats as Carter pulls down his feet from the back of his seat. I stick out my tongue and Devon's head disappears with a scowl on his face.

For the rest of the ride, none of us speaks but the shouts in the back continue. I can faintly identify Lucy's voice followed by Kyle's. They are arguing about whether Lucy had the right to dump him. The rest of the students continue with their wahoos and damns as the ex-couple continues with their quarrel. The noise gets so annoying at a point that it is impossible for me to stay quiet.

"Why can't you shut up?" I groan, pressing my fingers to my forehead.

"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed today?" Carter teases, making me turn to him.

He has gone back to keeping his eyes closed and his earphones are in his ears again.

"Do those earphones even work?" I snap.

He opens his eyes and his green irises meet mine. He curves his lips to a smirk and pulls the earphones out.

"Nope and yep, I was right. Someone's snippy today," he chuckles as he tucks the earphones back into his pocket. He looks at me and then at the window beside me. "Will you mind if I shut the window? I'm cold."

Instead of answering him, I turn to shut the window myself but the doors don't slide no matter how hard I pull.

"It's stuck."

"It's not."

Okay, that sounded so wrong.

I nearly jump when I hear his voice a little too close to my ear and before I can turn around, my hand holding the sliding doors of the window is covered by his. I feel the warmth of his body behind my back and lose all courage to turn around. His fingers press lightly over mine and his thumb moves over my knuckles.

"Hmm...Carter?" I say, wetting my lips.

"Hold on."

His hot breath fans my cheek as he gives a pull and the window slides easily to shut itself.