Gasoline

“Whoa, Mona Lisa, you’re guaranteed to run this town.” – Panic! At The Disco

The sun had dipped low in the autumn sky by the time Will decided to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, smiling as he walked towards his car. Cody said nothing, only smiling in return. Will paused, about to get into his car when he changed his mind and walked back to Cody. He wrapped his arms around her and held her so that there faces were centimeters apart and said, “You’re mysterious right now, Cody Laughlin, but I won’t let you stay that way.” He kissed her roughly and briefly, leaving Cody staring after him for a moment after he left.

It was one of the shortest moments of Cody’s life, but it was also one of the most confusing. She honestly didn’t know what to make of Will Harrison. He was as much a mystery as Cody was, and she hated that. Usually, people told Cody every secret, hoping she would feel the need to open her heart in return. But Cody remained an enigma, full of other people’s secrets and plenty of her own. She had never truly wanted to know anyone’s secrets before she met Will; she wanted to know everything about him as much as he wanted to know about her.

A few minutes after Cody walked back into her house, her mother and brother returned home. Mrs. Laughlin questioned Cody about her first day at school – what her classes were like, if she liked her teachers, if she’d made any friends. Cody decided not to mention Will – he wasn’t the kind of person to be brought home to the parents after the first day of school.

Cody was sitting at the kitchen table, staring out the window and not listening to her mother’s chatter when a phrase caught her attention. “The Bonhams invited us to have dinner tonight, so we’ll be going over there around six thirty.” Cody nodded and left the kitchen, walking slowly up the stairs to her room. She passed the door to her brother’s room, which was slightly open so that she could see her brother playing guitar. Cody smiled and wished, fleetingly, that there was something in this world she was passionate about. The only thing Cody really loved was fire, and burning things wasn’t considered a normal hobby.

Once she entered her bedroom, Cody flopped onto her bed and closed her eyes, colors flashing behind her eyelids like a flame. She had no idea how much time had passed, but her mother was calling her name and telling her they were going to the Bonhams now. Cody got up and didn’t bother glancing in the mirror, only checking that her lighter was still in her pocket before walking out the door and following her family across the street.

Jude had no idea the Laughlins were coming over for dinner. In fact, he planned on skipping dinner to draw until a few minutes before the neighbors arrived, when his mother told him they would be having guests for dinner and he couldn’t paint through the meal. Jude glanced in the mirror as he made his way downstairs, a few moments after the Laughlins walked through the front door.

“Good to see you, Jude,” Mrs. Laughlin said before walking into the kitchen with her husband. Cody’s brother followed them, leaving Cody and Jude alone in the hallway. Cody smiled at Jude and he was overwhelmed by his desire to draw her, to trap the contours of her face on paper.

“Hi,” she said, looking up at him. “How was your day?”

This completely normal statement surprised Jude. Until that moment, Cody had been the antithesis of normal. Now, she could have been any other girl in town, complete with manners and a sweet smile. There was still something behind Cody’s smile – some quality that held danger yet could be called trusting. Her smile would be almost impossible to draw. Jude realized that he had seen Cody’s smile before in a work of art – the girl in front of him was smiling in a bizarrely similar way to Mona Lisa. Her smile was just another extension of her personality; it was a mystery.

“It was fine,” he said. He wasn’t sure how long they had to talk until his mother called them to eat, but a question burst from his lips and he knew there would be no taking it back. “What were you doing with Will Harrison?”

Cody raised her eyebrows and said, “Were you spying on me, Jude?”

For a moment, Jude searched for the words to tell her he wasn’t spying on her. Whatever he could say would be something between truth and lies, and he knew she wouldn’t appreciate that. “I just glanced out the window and saw you sitting outside with him,” he finally said. That was close to the truth – he did glance out the window, but he watched them for much longer than the ephemeral moment the word “glance” suggested.

After a few seconds, Cody shrugged. “I met him at school today, and he seems… different,” she said. “I like him for that.” At that moment, Jude’s mother walked into the hallway and told them dinner was ready and they could eat. Jude couldn’t ask Cody what she meant while they were eating, and the meal passed with excruciating slowness, the dining room full of banal conversation that made Jude want to scream. Once all the plates had been cleared, people drifted away from the table to find a more comfortable place to continue the conversation. Jude waited for everyone else to leave before he leaned across the table and grabbed Cody’s hand.

“Can I draw you now?” he asked.

She stared at him, her blue eyes appearing wider than he had ever noticed. Finally, she said, “Sure.” Jude led her upstairs to his room, picking up his charcoal and carefully memorizing the face he’d wanted to draw from the second he saw her. Somehow, he would capture her smile with all of the perfection its living form held. Cody sat on the edge of Jude’s bed and Jude began to draw.