He was exceptional with his hands. He was good with instruments, had been the school band drummer throughout grade school, and he could draw anything and everything. Just give him a pencil – it didn’t have to be a good pencil either – and watch the fireworks explode.

We sought each other out during recesses and lunch. We sort of just fit together naturally, two unwanted souls among a sea of judgmental assholes. I didn’t mind it at all. Rome was very soft on the eyes anyways. His dark hair and green eyes would one day slay the ladies, but until then… we were loners, together.

So yeah, there you go. That was most of my experience right now. Fending off bullies by being a passive little wimp and hanging around a kid that was just as socially outcast as me.

It was no wonder I was clinging on to this bad boy. Carter was a guy that would never have blinked in my direction had he not witnessed me maul a bully over like a freaking bulldog. He could have anyone he wanted. Hell, I was there to witness it from time to time. There were many nights I’d seen him leave the house during the evenings, and sometimes there were girls there waiting for him out front of his home. Other times there weren’t, but he’d always come back after midnight, slipping into his bedroom window while I watched through the crack of my poor excuse of a curtain.

He’d be out enjoying himself, and I was inside my prison, shut inside my room, acting like a complete stalker Fatal Attraction style.

“So…” I started, clearing my throat as I searched around us for something to talk about. I didn’t want him to go.

Oh, God, please never go.

“I’ll be at the creek,” he suddenly said, a cocky smile forming at his lips. “And since you follow me around like a crazy person and all, I expect you’ll be there.”

I froze, my eyes widening as I stared up at him in horror. What… Did he…. Oh no. He knew I watched him? How long had he known?

Christ, Leah. My brain droned on. You’re not as stealthy as you think.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said casually. “I’ve always known you were there. I just didn’t say anything. Didn’t want you to feel weird.”

“I still feel weird,” I whispered, clasping my hands together nervously.

He chuckled before he flashed me those heart stopping eyes and replied, “But it’d have been weirder if I’d caught you in the act, right? I’ll spare you that trauma. I’m ready to have my only audience in sight for once anyways.”

I felt a pleasurable chill run down my spine. He disarmed me. I wanted him so much and I didn’t even understand what that really even meant, or why I even felt this way to begin with.

Coming a little closer to me, he leaned down and whispered, “I’ll see you in ten minutes, Leah.”

“Yeah,” I softly muttered as he walked off in the direction of his home and disappeared inside it.

I didn’t waste time. I hurried to the creek, half of me dying from the humiliation of being caught snooping, and the other half praising whatever deity I believed in at that time for making him act so normal about it.

Maybe he was just as crazy as me.

The truth was even sadder than I could bear.

Three

I waited only minutes at the creek, sitting on the moss covered fallen tree facing the running water. Carter showed up with his acoustic guitar and took a seat next to me. I felt like I was soaring through the skies with happiness being so near to him. This was really happening, and I felt like I was dreaming.

As I watched him tune his guitar, I asked, “How long have you known?”

His eyebrows were furrowed when he answered distractedly, “I always knew you were stalking me.”

My mouth parted in surprise. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

With a nonchalant shrug, he replied with a smirk, “There was nothing to say. You’re harmless as a fly, so I can’t say I ever felt threatened.”

“I can be threatening,” I lamely replied, affronted by how uncaring he’d been that I had been following him around for so long. I’d have liked some kind reaction out of him.

I mean, did he have other stalkers?

I glanced around quickly. He better not. I’d skin them alive. I was his stalker, goddammit. I earned those stripes fair and square!

“Maybe you’re threatening to someone like Graeme now,” he said with a chuckle, winking at me just then.

I went crimson, unable to hold back my grin. This guy totally had me wrapped around his finger, and I know he knew it too.

“I’m not too sure about that,” I said. “He seemed to be doing a good job hitting me. I think he might have won.”

“Yeah, he won the award for being the biggest coward and dick in the trailer park. I might just call him Cowardick from now on.”

“I think that name is perfect.”

He smiled. “You know, I really can’t believe you mauled him over like that. You can’t be stupid enough to think he was winning. You’ve got some viper blood in you, Angel.”

Angel. It was the first time he called me that, and it wasn’t going to be the last.

“Maybe I was wrong about you being a harmless stalker after all,” he added.

I laughed and shook my head. “Impossible. I like your singing too much to want to hurt you.”

That seemed to brighten his mood straightaway. He perked up but turned his face away from me, like maybe he didn’t want me to see just how good that made him feel. I’d grow to learn how bottled up Carter was a lot of the time. If it was mushy stuff, he checked out.

It was a little contradictory to the guy that was living it up on the edge, fighting boys left and right, and flirting with the girls like the Casanova he knew he was.

Our conversation stopped there. He stroked the strings of his guitar with his pick like it was second nature to him and began to sing. My body immediately relaxed at the sound of his voice. It was so strange hearing him from this close and not having to hide behind a bush while being mauled by insects. I couldn’t stop my lips from forming a smile. It stayed on my face for a long while as I swayed from side to side. He sang “Thank You” again and I shut my eyes, savouring every lyric that fell from his lips.

“Wow,” I whispered when he finished. Opening my eyes, I saw him staring out into the creek.

“You’re an amazing singer, Carter,” I eventually told him. Maybe cheering him up would break through whatever he was feeling.