Despite his all-black clothing, he looks like my favorite season.
Probably because his skin is so tanned.
It’s so beachy and bronzed. Like he’s been out in the sun for a long time. And that he could potentially stay out there for even longer and never ever get burned. Plus all that hair.
That I can see now that his hood has fallen off.
And even though his hair’s dark, as dark as his clothing, I still think that it’s a surfer’s look.
Probably because it’s on the long side, falling over his brows and the side of his face, skimming the neck of his hoodie, all loose, slightly wavy and messy.
So yeah, summer.
Despite being all dark and… dangerous.
“You done staring, Bubblegum?”
Startled, my eyes snap up to his.
They’re dark too.
Probably black or a very dark shade of brown; I can’t tell right now.
All I can tell is that they have a glint in them.
“I wasn’t…” I say, my hands coming off my hips and simply falling limp at my sides now. “Staring.”
Liar.
You’re a liar, Echo.
He knows that too, and so again he finds my words amusing.
But this time, he doesn’t chuckle.
He simply lets his mouth quirk up in a lopsided smile. And I think it’s worse because his smile isn’t just a smile. It’s a smirk, and it makes him look even more arrogant.
“Good,” he says. “Because then I’d have to tell you what I wasjust thinking.”
“What were you thinking?” I ask before I can stop myself.
His eyes glint some more. “About how rude it is that you’re staring at me and yet you haven’t told me your name.”
Your name…
His words, again all arrogant sounding, catch me up to the fact that he called me something just now, didn’t he?
Bubblegum.
He called me Bubblegum.
Just the thought of it makes things zoom and whoosh around in my belly.
Ignoring it, I ask, “What did you just call me?”
His lips stay quirked up as he shrugs. “I had two choices: bubblegum or strawberry.” Then, “I don’t like strawberries, so I picked bubblegum.”
Why would he call me that? What does that…