Dixie

April

~~~~

"Tell me your secret," He says. "How can you still glow, how can your bones speak of sunshine when I always keep you in the dark? In the cold. You don't know me.'

She looks up at him, through long brown lashes. She looks at him, really looks at him for a moment, and then thinks about her answer.

Dixie smiles at him slightly. "Darkness, huh? No. You couldn't keep the light out of me. Maybe it's because you have more light in you than you choose to see. I will always have the light in me, but you, you seem to think you're nothing but darkness. But that's not true. You're the light in your own way."

Things have changed between them since that day in March. Since she gave him a ride home. Since something shifted between the two seeming opposites.

A couple months ago, Dixie could never imagine that she'd be sort of friends with Noah. He's not friends with anyone, hell, he doesn't even talk to anyone.

Noah is silent for a moment, and she figures he's analyzing her every word. Their friendship isn't something you'd expect. And frankly, Dixie didn't even expect it. But somehow and some way, Noah chose her. Of all the things he could have done, he asked her for a ride that night.

He gets up after a few moments and walks away, leaving Dixie sitting on the bleachers that she tends to find him sitting on during lunch.

She takes this time to think about everything. Everything that has happened between them. Everything that has changed since she gave him that ride home.

When she had told him yes, he had walked over to her car and got in the passenger seat so casually you'd think he'd been there many times. Meanwhile, she fumbled to get into the car, nervous that a boy as attractive as this is really inside her car right now.

She got into the car and started driving, driving the speed limit for once because of the ice on the road.

She didn't expect him to talk to her, so when he said, "You're driving really slow," she was taken aback.

"I'm only driving slow because of the ice. You can't speed while the roads are icy. I don't know about you, but I don't want to die." Freya had replied. She wasn't afraid of him, no, he just made her nervous. But that doesn't mean she was going to dial the sarcasm down.

Noah just scoffed at her. "You wouldn't know if I did." She stole a glance at him then, wondering, is he saying that he wants to die? No, he couldn't have been saying that. But if he wasn't, what was he saying? She wouldn't suspect him of being suicidal.

Dixie didn't really know what to say to that, but she knew anything was better than silence so she blurted out the first thing that popped into her head.

"What's your favorite color?!" She all but yelled. Noah didn't jump, despite the outburst.

Instead, he did something else.

He started laughing.

His laugh was unexpected. It was smooth, rich, a mix of deep but a good amount of normal that it was beautiful. A perfect balance between the silence.

Between breaths, he managed to gasp out, "Really? That's what you ask just randomly?"

Looking back on that moment now, hearing his laugh, his rare laugh that she's sure nobody has heard before, she felt something she hadn't felt before. And it scared her. He was just a boy. A boy she hardly knew. A boy who she didn't know a single thing about.

After he had caught his breath, he had been silent for awhile. When she reached his house, since everyone knew where everyone lived, even her, being new, he had gotten out of the car and shut the door.

He had left the window down, because he had it down the entire car ride, making it quite cold, and he leaned inside at the last minute before she drove off.

"Green." Noah had answered. And with one final look up and down, he left. Just like he had he had gone. come, he had

And even know, for the life of her, after having a few here and there conversations with him, she still doesn't understand him. She doesn't think she ever would.

Sometimes he'd start a conversation with her and make her feel special and happy because he chose her to talk to of all people. But then other days, in the blink of an eye, he would change and she would feel as if she is annoying him or inconveniencing him and just wants to shake her off. After a while, it starts over again and they continue to go in circies.

After a month, she didn't know why she would put up with it. He was a man of few words, strong and silent. But she knew from his eyes, those steely blue eyes that he had a beautiful soul, even if it was a bit beaten and damaged and hurt. He had a raw heart, even if he didn't want to admit it. An exterior of stone doesn't always hide everything, little did he know.

She gets up from the bleachers finally, realizing she's missed the bell and late to 4th, but she's in no hurry at this point. Never going to use any of it anyways.

As she's walking, she's about to open her locker to throw her bag in and grab her books, when someone grabs her arm.

Startled, Dixie turns around.

"Uh, hi, I know you don't know me, but I've seen you around and I know you're new." The boy says. Dixie furrows her eyebrows because she knows she's never seen the boy before.

She waits for him to continue. "Sorry, this is more awkward than I expected. I'm Elijah." He holds his hand out to shake, and Dixie takes it.

"So, Elijah, what do you want?" She says, bluntly. He's pretty attractive, attractive enough that she's not sure why he's talking to her. He's the opposite of Noah , blonde, deep brown eyes and most likely a tad shorter than Noah . But then again, she thinks, why is she even comparing Elijah to Noah?

Elijah runs his hand through his honey blonde hair nervously. "I saw that you applied to Stanford and I wanted to know if you would help me with the application. I know know me but I think you're really pretty and I want to get to know you better." you don't

Dixie laughs. "If that was it, you could have just asked me on a date, silly." He lightens up, after that, smiles more, and she realizes this could be good for her.

She looked at him and then thought of Noah, and she wondered, what would it be like to fall in love?

But she didn't know then. She was already falling in love.