True Colours

"Fuck yeah, I love music!" Alex grinned as we walked into Miss Jennings' class, followed by Brendon who'd been having a piggyback from Alex the whole way here.

"Says the guy who can only play guitar: I play practically everything." Brendon smiled proudly. "Piano, bass guitar, guitar, keyboard, synth, drums, percussion, accordion, organ, cello, violin, trumpet, I program stuff and I sing pretty darn well." He listed off on his fingers and smirked at Alex.

"He also has the biggest head in the whole school." Alex snorted.

"Lips." A little guy with a scarf around his neck grinned cheekily as he walked over with an extremely tall guy.

"He has massive lips and is extremely sensitive about them. So if he shows off any more just bring those up." The taller guy winked to me.

"Shut up, Dallon." Brendon punched his chest, cheeks flushing.

"Hi, I'm Ryan and I like to take the piss out of Brendon." Scarf-guy smiled sheepishly at me, holding out his hand to shake. I shook it and, thankfully, Alex spoke for me.

"This is Oli, she doesn't speak much." Alex smiled for me.

"I'm Dallon and you're probably weirded out about how tall I am." Dallon shrugged and I shook my head, giggling softly. He seemed lovely, well, to me that is. "You're cute."

My cheeks set on fire.

"Stop flirting with her, she can't reject you without paper." Brendon shoved Dallon into an average sized guy who pushed Dallon back.

"I'm Ian and you didn't see me behind this big lug." The average-sized guy giggled. His giggle was contagious, much like Ryan's little smile, and so I ended up biting back uncontrollable sniggers. "Spence! Jon! Come talk to the new kid!"

A guy who looked like he was on drugs and a hyper-looking kid walked over and shook hands with me, grinning. "Oli: Spencer and Jon. Spencer and Jon: Oli." Alex introduced us, pointing to the one who looked high when he said Spencer and to the other when he said Jon.

"You got the eyes for this one, Al?" Jon winked, still holding my hand.

"No." Alex scoffed, sounding a little nervous.

"Well then," Jon smirked and skimmed his lips over my hand. "Enchantè."

And I thought I was blushing before, ha.

"And I always thought you were gay." Brendon teased.

"I was just being my usual polite and charming self." Jon grinned to him and loosed my hand. "You thought I was polite and charming, didn't you?"

"Say 'no'." Alex whispered to me from behind, breath ghosting the outer part of my ear. I shook my head, more to Alex, and Jon mocked hurt and grabbed at his chest, gasping.

I couldn't help but giggle while Ryan clapped his hand against my back, sniggering himself. "I like this kid." He smiled.

"She's awesome and she hasn't even spoke: Oli logic." Spencer laughed.

"I think she's mean." Jon pouted. I looked up at him, jutting out my bottom lip, and he grinned. "I'm joking, you're cool with me."

"Anyone attractive is cool with you." Ian scoffed.

'Woah, is he blind?' Ah, return of the bitchy self-conscious. At least she wasn't lingering in the doorway and smirking at me from there.

I'd been told that I had an over active imagination when my therapists had the time to diagnose my actions. They told me that my friend, who I thought had been my real friend at least, Alice, was a figment of my imagination. She was part of my subconscious, as a woman specialist explained to me. Ergo the name: my bitchy subconscious. I hadn't believed them that she wasn't real... Until I spoke to her in front of everyone else at the therapy institution thing. They all stared at me weirdly until one girl said that I was "talking to the air" and everyone started to laugh. I never mentioned her to anyone again, and she only occasionally appeared in front of me. Every other time she was locked away in my mind where I'd put her. She was just my imagination. She wasn't real. That's why she's so bitchy now; she hates being locked away.

Why am I talking as if she's a real person?

She's not real.

"Class, please take your seats." A woman with messy blonde hair, who I presumed was Miss Jennings, walked in hurriedly with lipstick smeared across her cheek. She rushed from the room into another cupboard-like one and reappeared a minute later with a clean face.

Someone's been doing to dirty.

I stumbled over to her, taking in the musky smell about her, and passed her the note which she read at least twice before smiling at me and taking a gander over at the class, "Go sit where you like, hon." She said with a sweet voice and I obliged, seeing that Alex had saved me a seat between him and Jon.

"What'd she smell like?" Alex mumbled to me as I sat down and pulled out my sketchbook.

'Lynx and milk' I wrote down. I know milk doesn't have much of a smell, but I could taste it in the air when I walked to her.

"Let's hope she hasn't been given a milk enema." Ryan smirked from the other side of Alex.

"Ew, gross." Spencer moaned from in front of us.

"I wonder what it's like." Brendon bit his lip.

"You're disgusting." Jon groaned. "I'm sorry about them, they're just so gross."

I shrugged, smirking.

"Do you play anything?" Alex asked, changing the subject from enemas. I shook my head. "Do you want to be able to play anything?" I nodded. "What?"

'Some sort of guitar.' I wrote.

"I could teach you that." He smiled sweetly.

"That's when he'll put the moves on you, you know, when you're all cuddled up and he's showing you from behind. Really cheesy and shit." Jon grinned and Alex reached over me to shove him, inevitably getting his crotch way too close to my face for comfort.

"Gaskarth, will you please sit down? I'm sure Oli doesn't want herpes." Miss Jennings smirked causing the whole class to giggle and Alex to sit down, cheeks reddening.

I liked her already.

"She has such a crush on you, Al." Ryan stated.

"Who?" Alex asked.

"Miss Jennings: She's all flirty around you and never sends you out. Even if you're being a complete ass." Ryan elaborated. "And when you play guitar, she's not looking at your hands like she should be. Right in the eyes, rather."

"And then when you get stuck on a chord, she's not afraid to come and help you from behind." Spencer carried on.

"She gets so close to you it's plain weird." Brendon said.

"You can't really blame her. I am attractive." Alex winked smugly.

'And you said Brendon had a big head.' I printed and they all laughed once they saw it.

"I think we're going to be pretty good friends, you and me." Alex grinned to me when the laughter died down. I smiled widely at him.

Pretty good friends.

---

"Everyone for the my house on Saturday?" Jon asked, trailing after the rest of us and jumping into Brendon's back as we walked out of class. "That means Jack and shit too."

"Jackshit, haha." Brendon giggled, tugging Jon's legs up over his hips so that he wouldn't fall.

"Well?" Jon waited impatiently for our answers.

"Sure, I'll come." Ryan smiled.

"Same." Spencer and Dallon grinned while Brendon just nodded.

"Can't: Nan's birthday." Ian sighed.

"I'll be there." Alex smirked and looked to me. "Do you know where it is?" I shook my head. "Where'd you live? I could take you." I scribbled my address down onto the little scrap of paper in my pocket as my sketchbook was too deep down in my bag for me to be arsed to get it out, and passed it to him. "Hey, you live right by me. Yeah, I'll take you to there if you wanna come."

I nodded.

Twenty three 'thank you's.

"Awesome." Alex smiled at me and ruffled my, already scruffy, hair. I scrunched up my face and blushed when Jon 'aw'ed, jumping down from Brendon's back.

"You are adorable." Jon stated and pushed between Alex and I, resting his arm around my shoulders.

"You are such a dick." Dallon said to him in the same tone Jon had used with me. "Just give her your fucking number already."

"Good idea." Jon smiled and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, giving it straight to me.

"Do you just keep spares all the time?" Alex asked, smirking, and Jon nodded. "Weird."

"Not really: just prepared." Jon stated and kept his arm wrapped around my shoulders, rubbing the one furthest away from him with a cheeky grin stuck to his face. "Anyway, it's not like I've asked her on a date or anything yet. I get to know my girls first."

"So you're just going to flirt with her until you know whether you like her or not?" Ian scoffed.

"Oh, I definitely like her, I just don't know how much. So yeah, maybe." Jon shrugged and looked at me, a sly smirk painting across his lips. "I'm sure Oli wouldn't mind."

I just stared.

I'd never really been flirted with before.

"I'm never going to get a word out of you, am I?" Jon giggled and squeezed my shoulder. I smirked and shook my head. "We'll just have to buy stacks of paper and billions of pens so we can talk, hm?"

"Or she could just text you?" Spencer laughed.

"That's if she wants to talk to you." Alex smirked.

"Why wouldn't she want to talk to me? I'm pretty awesome, if I do say so myself." Jon chuckled, messing with my hair.

"That's what you think." Brendon snorted.

"Ah, shut up." Jon rolled his eyes.