true colors - jb & ag 《completed》

{thirteen}

The small coffee shop overflowed with students celebrating Gilt Hollow's victory. Removed from the excitement, Ariana used her thumbnail to trace the cursive G on her paper cup, watching as the wax peeled off in a tight curl against her fingers. She'd come straight to Gino's from the football game and nabbed the back corner table, per Brayden's instructions. But he'd yet to show up. She checked her phone again. No messages, and it had been almost an hour.

Ariana took a sip of her now cold hot cocoa and scanned the room, noticing a few of the guys on the team had trickled in. She decided to give Brayden twenty more minutes before she gave up and went home.

The day had passed in a blur. After school she'd gone straight to Lisa's, where her friend had given her a head-to-toe makeover. Ariana had insisted on cute and comfortable. What she'd gotten had far exceeded her expectations. Lisa had insisted she bring the leggings and sweater she'd purchased, and then Lisa added a heather gray scarf, ankle boots, and a short leather jacket. Ariana still felt like herself, but it was different enough that it gave her confidence. And what Lisa had done with her hair was magic—it hung down Ariana's back in loose, shiny curls like something out of a shampoo ad. She didn't recognize the girl with the glowing skin and mysterious eyes.

She'd felt stares on her throughout the game, and several boys she'd never talked to had smiled at her. Yoko Ono had even taken notice. As Yolanda walked past her on the bleachers, she'd snapped a snide, "Nice biker jacket, Weepy." Before Ariana had been able to contrive a suitable comeback, Yolanda had hiked up to the back row. Ariana had let it go, but the name calling had to stop.

"Hey."

Ariana glanced up from her cup to find Isaiah Kagawa with his hands shoved in his back pockets, shoulder hitched up.

"I heard you were looking for me. Can I sit?" He indicated the chair opposite her.

She nodded, and he took a seat. He hadn't been in class that afternoon, but he appeared his usual healthy self.

"Were you sick today?" Ariana asked, deciding it was a safe question to break the ice.

"No . . . I . . . um . . . had something in town I had . . . I mean something I had to do . . ." A screech followed by cheers pulled his attention to the other end of the room where a junior girl had jumped up on a table and began a rap/poem. Isaiah turned back around. "Did I miss anything in Music Appreciation?" He lifted his hands and made air quotes.

Ariana sat back and chuckled. "Um . . . other than Mr. Rush making out with his baton? No." She wasn't even sure if that was true. The class had been torture. Something had changed between her and Justin. They'd sat next to each other as usual, but a new awareness buzzed through her with every move he made—her pulse jumped as he tapped his pencil against his thigh, the hair on her arms rose when he leaned in to take the eraser off her desk. And when he'd braced a hand on the back of her chair as he returned it, his thumb brushed her spine and she thought she might fly out of her seat.

She hadn't seen him or Penelope at the game. Ariana could only assume they were together, since they'd been joined at the hip all day at school. Ariana felt a soft pop as her thumbnail sliced through the paper cup.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Isaiah pulled off his beanie, and she noticed his dreads were knotted up in an intricate design on the back of his head.

Pushing the mutilated cup away from her, she commented, "Your hair looks cool. But how do you do that? Can you reach it yourself?"

He smiled and reached back to pat the loops of hair. "My sister did it."