I wanna touch you.

“Hey! Ryan!” I shouted after the gangly limbed male. He stopped walking and looked over his shoulder, shooting me a sneer. Wow, who knew he had so many... issues?

“What?” He grunted once I caught up. The heels I was wearing were rubbing against my foot and were threatening to leave a monster of a blister.

“I’m coming to your house remember? To do this project thing.” He shot me a cold look before turning around and storming off in the direction I presumed his house was in. I followed after him, struggling a little to keep up. He didn’t tell me to piss off so I was taking that as an invitation to come.

We walked in silence for at least fifteen minutes. I tried hard to strike a conversation but I couldn’t come up with anything that wasn’t slightly patronising or could result in me getting punched. The streets in this part of town all looked the same and I found it slightly confusing. The crunch of gravel sounded painfully loud in the awkwardness of the situation and I could feel myself becoming irritated.

“So, where is your house?” I asked kind of regretting ever wanting to come.

“Here.” He grunted turning into a neat little garden. I observed his home for a few seconds. It looked just like every house on the street; small, tidy, not a leaf out of place on his hedge. Someone had too much time on their hands. “Are you coming in then?” He snapped, pulling me out of my day dream. I stuck my tongue out at his retreating back and followed him inside.

Outside was just a cover. Inside Ryan’s house was untidy with coats and jackets hanging sloppily over the stair banister. The walls were over cluttered with pictures of his family and fun holiday snaps. I scowled at them and drew my eyes away. Ryan had walked into the front room. I followed him timidly, not knowing whether his parents were going to be in the room.

It was all clear. The room was empty but still seemed crowded with a huge couch that looked like you could just sink into. A T.V sat in the corner complete with a shelf full of hundreds of movies I had never seen and probably never will. Ryan was already laying out notebooks and sheets of paper we would need on the coffee table that lay in the middle of the room.

The walls were painted in dark tones of red and brown giving that room that extra cosy feel. I was already feeling sick. “Are you just gonna stand there gawping or are we actually going to get something done?” Ryan growled. I glared at him and swung my school bag off my shoulders and onto the couch, not checking if it was okay.

I plopped myself down next to my bag and he stared at me. “What?” I nearly yelled. He just shook his head and placed his pen to paper.

“Have you got any ideas?”

“No, have you?”

“I was thinking a play about aliens invading the Earth-“I cut him off by scoffing. He glanced at me. If looks could kill, I would be flat on my back with his protractor sticking out of my heart.

“Can’t we least write about something real, and something a little less... geeky?”

“What? A play about one girl’s constant battle with Chlamydia?” Ooh, touché.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. And for your information I have no STD’s.” I huffed. I didn’t know what rumours were currently going around the school about me but that was a popular one. Oh, and that I’m pregnant with twins. That’s my favourite, especially because it got started about eight months ago. Surely I would have, you know, a little bit of a bump if I was.

“How about...” I started thinking to myself. “A play about a broken family.” He looked at me for a moment.

“Go on.” Ah, ha.

“Well, lots of teenagers are from broken families so we should look at how it affects them. We should maybe have two main characters, a girl and a boy. Each of them becomes affected in different ways. One is craving any kind of attention so they do outrageous stuff hoping to get noticed but they never do because the parents are too caught up in work and arguing with each other...” I trailed off realising I was describing my situation. I bit my lip hesitantly wondering if Ryan had spotted anything but he was scribbling down furiously on his sheet of paper.

“And?”

“I don’t know. Maybe the other becomes depressed and kills them self. Life sucks.” I snorted and lolled back on the couch. I could hear Ryan slam his pen down on the coffee table in frustration. I smiled a little; at least I had managed to annoy him a little.

“I think you’re actually starting to be serious about this project, then you just go all jokey again. Do you actually care about your grades?”

“Nope.”

He sighed heavily. Honestly, I have enough of this at school. Why did he think he was gonna make a difference. “What about college?” He pressed on. I looked at him with amusement.

“Screw college; I’m gonna be a stripper.” The purple tint to his cheeks made him look like he was gonna explode any time soon.

“Well, it makes sense.” He sneered. I sat up and folded my arms.

“And what is that suppose to mean?” He opened his mouth to answer but a loud smash from upstairs interrupted him. I glanced up to the ceiling and frowned. “I thought your parents weren’t home.” He hadn’t actually said but I had assumed so.

“It’ll be my brother.” He said, running his hands through his dark blonde hair.

“I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“You didn’t guess by the pictures. I saw you looking at them.” He started gathering up the notes he had made.

“I just thought they were of you.” I replied, straining my ears for any further sounds.
“What, even the ones with two toddlers in the picture?” I glared at him but he was smiling. Oh, he did have a sense of humour then. Even if it was at my expense.

“Well, are you going to see if his all right? He could have fainted or something.”

“Nah, he’s probably broke one of his creations again.”

“Creations?” I repeated.

“Yeah, he makes pots and stuff.”

“Pots?” Wow, this guy sounded as geeky as his brother. His expression suddenly went from amused to serious.

“Yeah. Look, maybe we should finish up now. We know what we’re doing and everything...” Ah, I got it. Ryan thought I was gonna try and seduce his brother or something. Bloody hell, even I had standards.

“Can I go pee first?” I asked interrupting him. He frowned for a moment. “I’ll just be a minute.” I got up before he could say anything and headed upstairs. I didn’t really need to use the loo; I just knew it would piss Ryan off even further if he thought I was trying it on with his brother.

I observed the pictures once again before skipping up the steps two at a time. Sure enough there were two kids; a bony, skinny one, burnt pink from the fierce sun and a second slightly chubbier kid. Once I reached the top, I gazed around with curiosity. Just like my house there were four rooms. All the doors were slightly ajar apart from one.

I crept closer to the shut door, my ears pricking up. The quiet, soft sound of classical music floated into my ears and I smirked. Was this guy for real? I knew the bathroom was directly in front of me because I could see it but I decided to play stupid.

I reached out and gently tapped on his door, biting my lip to hide my laugher. The awful music shut off, but the door didn’t swing open. “Um, hello?” A male voice said from inside. I grinned to myself.

“Oops, sorry wrong room. Looking for the bathroom. Found it now.” I squeaked.

“Well, it’s not hard to find; room with the toilet.” He replied.

“Gotcha.” I laughed, heading towards it. I heard the sound of his bedroom door opening and quickly spun around. A flash of black caught my eye before disappearing again. The door slammed shut once again. I raised my eyebrows in confusion before a small smirk found its way to my lips.

“Candy, what are you doing?!” Ryan shouted up the stairs. I rolled my eyes before calling back some lame excuse. Wait until Mia heard about this.

**

“He what?” Mia’s voice shrieked down the phone. I sniggered and repeated what I just said.

“He makes pots and listens to classical music.”

“Bloody hell, no one wonder he’s Ryan’s brother.” She cackled. I giggled back and started picking the dead skin around my finger nails. “Anyway, I’ve got to go now.”

“Why?” I asked, changing my sitting position.

“I’m going out with Simon.”

“Who?”

“That boy I met at the club.” She suddenly laughed. “He’s really keen.”

“Oh, I bet he is.” I snapped.

“Are you jealous or something?” She questioned harshly.

“No, not at all.” I spat. “Go have fun.” I hung up and threw my phone across my bedroom. I landed with a thump in the corner- luckily it hadn’t broken.

“Candy!?” A familiar voice shouted up the stairs. I groaned with annoyance. “Candy, are you home?” I sighed and figured I may as well go downstairs to see what she wanted. My mother was dressed up in a business suit as usual, her blonde hair pulled back tight against her head, smoothing out the frown lies that had formed in the past month. She was flicking through my English book.

“What did you want?” I asked.

“What’s this?” She said, ignoring my question.

“A project I’m doing at school.” I answered.

“Since when have you taken an interest in your school work?”

“Since when have you?” I retorted. She shrugged and placed my book back where it was. “What did you want?” I asked again.

“I’m going out tonight. You’re father’s staying at that whores house.” Ah, yes. The busty, brunette my dad left my mother for. I haven’t even bothered to learn her name. He says they’re in love but like I said, love doesn’t exist. He’ll soon leave her just like he left us. “Will, you be alright?”

“Yes.” It wasn’t like she usually cared. I sat on the table and opened up a packet of crisps, before slipping one into my mouth.

“They’ll make you fat.” She was nodding at the crisps I was eating. I glanced down at my body as if I had just put on twice my body weight. Why does she always put me down? “So, there’s food in the freezer. You can just pop something into the microwave.”

“Hmm,” I mumbled. She smiled at me, slightly resembling someone being tortured and with a goodbye she was gone.

The house quickly became unbearably quiet. Why are people always leaving? For once I just want someone to stick around- just for a little while.