Life in Search ✔️

23 ~ Beautiful

"Can we run through it one more time?"

Scarlett struggles to keep her eyes open, insistent on practicing before we present tomorrow. I guess her stress is partly my fault, I was at the football camp this weekend, so we didn't get a chance to practice. Although we did FaceTime all three days I was gone.

"Sweetheart, don't you want to sleep? It's midnight." Because I'm tired.

"Nope." She says through a yawn, so stubborn.

I say yes to her for the third time, despite how tired I am, at least I get to stare at her face. Halfway through my speaking part her fidgeting stops. As I finish, I wait for her to start but a look at the screen confirms she's fast asleep.

The reasonable thing to do would be to end the call, but I don't. Instead I watch her sleep, amused by the paper that moves every time she lets out a breath. Pulling out my phone, I video this.

"You're so beautiful." I mummer.

"Thanks, Ash, but I don't think I'm your type." a voice offers, and in my sleep deprived state I panic thinking it's Scarlett.

Silver laughs, his face appearing on my computer screen, getting way to close for comfort.

I jump back, why does this always happen? I try to appreciate Scarlett's features and someone's always there to hear me. Can't they just be normal and pretend they didn't hear it.

"Why are you even still awake?" I ask defensively.

He stills, "Couldn't sleep, it happens sometimes."

"Understandable."

"Why are you watching my sister sleep?" He asks smugly, "Oh my God, you're like Edward."

My jaw drops, he did not just compare me to a sparkly vampire. "Dude, I'm going to kick your ass."

"No, you're not." He states calmly, "You don't want Scarlett to find out any of this."

Something tells me any of this, also includes me calling her pretty and the library incident. "Fine, just don't call me that again."

"Deal, how was camp? Did you have fun? Did you meet the Coach?" He asks, the threat completely forgotten.

I chuckle at his sudden enthusiasm but inside I'm groaning. I don't want to think about camp.

"It went well." I admit, that's the problem. It was like I'd been playing my entire life. "I had loads of fun." Too much to be comfortable with, college has never been a thought, but it was this weekend. "And yes, I met him."

"Wow, did you get an offer?"

The smile falls, "No, Silv, I didn't." And I'm not expecting one.

"Maybe they're just waiting till after Christmas."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Promise you'll tell me instead of having Scarlett do it. We'll want to dog pile you." He catches my confusion, "It's a family thing, we're weird."

Weird isn't a bad thing. "Yeah, I'll tell you."

He doesn't say anything and I'm beginning to think the image froze when he clears his throat. "Thank you."

I blink, "Thank you for what?"

It's just an offer, nothing serious. I've never gotten chills through a video call, but the look on his face does the trick.

"Thank you for not rushing her."

"Silver, I don't-"

"Save the bravado for someone who buys it." He cuts me off, "I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, that's more Sterling's thing, but I can piece two and two together. You like Scarlett, a lot if you're still willing to be around her after the whole fiasco that happened when you hinted you like her."