Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(137)
Through Glass
May 4th 2013 7:30 p.m.
The window to my bedroom was thrown open, letting the warm summer breeze swirl into the room. It was supposed to keep me focused, but it was only distracting me as I partially attempted to finish my Trig homework. It was due tomorrow and I had already put it off too long. I didn’t want to admit that I had given up on school, but it was only a month before graduation and with every day it was getting harder and harder to focus. Not like the warm weather was helping much, either.
My eyes drifted in and out of focus as I stared at the block letters on the page, attempting to focus through numbers and cosines, but nothing was taking. They all blended together into jumbled squiggles. I didn’t really know why I was still trying. I had already secured my 4.0 and the last term didn’t matter. At least that’s what Cohen had always told me, but my mom had a different idea.
Either way, I already had my acceptance letter to The University of Cincinnati.
Right where I wanted to be.
Shifting my weight into an awkward squat, I perched myself on the old kitchen chair I used at my desk and let the numbers turn into a blur again. Maybe Trig wasn’t in the cards today; I did have my project on avian mythology I had to finish; but even that thought was washed away by the smell of spring lilacs that filled my room.
I breathed in the fresh scent and leaned against the back of the chair, my eyes closing as I absorbed the smell I loved so much.
We had planted the lilac bush right below my window when my grandmother had passed away, and every year it blossomed in the spring. This year, though, for some reason it had held off and waited to bloom until just a few days ago, even though summer was almost here. Not that I was complaining. It made the room smell like a salon and gave me even more of a reason to keep the window open.
I hated being indoors for too long. It made me feel like a trapped animal, which probably meant it was good that I lived in a warm climate. I would go mad being shut indoors for months on end. Plus, the cold. Ew. I didn’t know how some people did it. That only made it even more ridiculous that I would be trucking myself off to Ohio. I’d been told it snows there. Ugh.
“Alexis!”
I jumped at my name, practically falling off my chair as I turned toward my door, expecting to see my dad scowling at me for whatever reason. However, the door was closed.
“Alexis!”
The voice came again and I jumped even more; the action sending the chair sideways and me tumbling to the floor while someone else’s laughter filled my room.
Oh, no way. I knew where the voice was coming from now; that menace. I jumped up as indignantly as I could with my long, red hair fanning around me. As I turned toward my window, I came face to face with the object of my unobstructed infatuation since fifth grade.
I hadn’t seen him in months, not since he came home for Christmas break bearing gifts not only for me, but all four of my younger brothers.
“Cohen! You’re back,” I tried to keep my voice calm, maybe a little bit attractive. But instead, I practically yelled at him, my excitement at seeing him making my words twice as loud as they needed to be.
“Took you long enough to figure out it was me, firecracker,” he teased, flashing me his bright white smile, the color a stark abstract from the ebony of his eyes. Embarrassed, I only scowled in return, the subtle reminder of my irritating hair color unwelcome. He, however, smiled more, obviously glad his jab had wound its way under my skin. My irritation instantly melted. It was hard to stay mad at him when he smiled like that.
Trying hard to keep a smile off my face, I stared at him, heart beating heavily at the dark growth that was now covering his jawline. It made him look like a younger version of that lumberjack who sells paper towels. I liked it. Everything about him was familiar and warming while at the same time different and older.
I tried not to focus on the super sexy attempt at a beard he had going on; or the way the short, patchy scruff perfectly matched his neatly trimmed hair, or the way scruff and hair and everything squished together when he smiled, or the way…
This was a lost cause.
“Got back a couple hours ago. Nan was making me do laundry or I would have stopped by to pester you sooner. I guess college kids smell.” He smiled again and moved to sit on the large desk in front of his window, the same way we had always done.
I moved to mirror him, fully aware I was wearing my fuzzy pink pajama pants, but not caring. Cohen and I had done this since the day he moved in with his grandparents after his parents died eleven years ago. We would sit for hours in our windows and “shoot the ten foot gap”, as my mom called it. I didn’t even have curtains in my room until I hit puberty and became aware that a boy was able to look in my window.
“They do smell. In fact, you should probably stay over there.” I smiled at him, but he only laughed.
“Not me, I’ve been scrubbed by the ultimate authority in clean. Nan pulled out the bleach and everything.”
“Well, if she has done to you what she does to her kitchen, then I will have to take your word for it.” I swung my legs over the window sill, letting them dangle over the fifteen or so feet to the unkempt lawn below. It was a good thing I had never developed any vertigo or that would make this whole thing much more uncomfortable.
“I smell all lemony, Lex; you should come take a whiff.” Cohen lifted his arms and took an over-exaggerated inhale from each pit. I was torn between laughing and making gagging sounds.