Determined to wake up on time, I decided to finish my painting session early for the first time in months. I looked at my current work in progress drying on the easel as I climbed into bed. It showed a silver birch forest in autumn, the white trunks peeking through shades of golden yellow. It was something I really wanted to spend time on and it was taking me longer than usual. I could go one night of not sacrificing sleep, though.

To absolutely no one's surprise, I made it to school at a reasonable hour.

I countered Ms Lyle's scowl of greeting with a sweet smile. That woman gave me no quarter, but I would continue to be her most annoying student for the rest of the year if I had to and she knew it. We had a great relationship.

All heads - including mine - shot to the door as it opened and Ryder came in, his hair still damp from a shower. It seemed like he was quite the celebrity already. I felt a little bolt of satisfaction as he smiled at me and walked over, ignoring everyone else in the room.

"Look at you making a name for yourself," I said as he sat down. He just shrugged.

"What can I say, I'm a charmer," he said with a wink, making me laugh. Whispers rose around us but neither of us paid any attention.

"A self-aware charmer at that, you're quite the catch. Give us lesser mortals a chance."

He just grinned and reached out to ruffle my hair. In an instant I had grabbed hold of his wrist, keeping him back, but almost dropped it at the shock that went through my hand at the same time. I saw the feeling reflected on his face. A face that suddenly seemed even more attractive - and damn, since when did he smell so good?

"How the hell do you have such fast reflexes?" he said, breaking the spell. He looked a little dazed himself.

"I always have," I murmured, preoccupied with looking at my hand. "And I'm not good with being touched, sorry. Should have warned you earlier."

He shook his head. "It's alright, I shouldn't have assumed." He looked like he wanted to say something more, but Ms Lyle decided to start the class at that moment and he turned back towards the front instead.

I couldn't focus for the rest of the lesson. Luckily it seemed to go unnoticed, as I went through all the right actions like copying down notes, but I took absolutely nothing in. My mind was only on the weird interactions I kept having with Ryder. It seemed like we couldn't even touch without me feeling something, as embarrassing as it was to admit, but from his reactions he seemed to be experiencing the same thing. A little sliver of doubt kept me from asking him.

He made himself scarce for the rest of the day, and didn't talk much in chemistry. It felt an awful lot like he was avoiding me, which I couldn't exactly blame him for after what happened earlier, but it was also frustrating to be away from the only person I might be able to talk about this with. If I ever got up the courage, that is. I resolved to catch him before school was out and see what was bothering him.

My chance came after last period when I was putting some books back in my locker. Footsteps echoed down the emptying corridor and I saw Ryder approaching with his new friends, four or five guys that I knew but wasn't particularly close with. They stopped at a locker further down, and talked in hushed voices as Ryder switched over a few books. They didn't look up. I couldn't make out the words, but they seemed to be low and intense - a lot deeper than what I'd expect from guys who had only known each other for two days. They only stopped when I closed my locker door and started down the corridor.

Ryder said something to them and they began to disperse. He stood, waiting for me, and for some reason that made me more nervous than if he'd tried to avoid me like he'd been doing all day.

"Hey, Leila," he said when I stopped in front of him, as if he hadn't been escaping from me since first period. "Uh, you alright? Need a ride home or something?"

"My answer's the same as yesterday," I said. "I was actually wondering if you were alright. You were distant today. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, and I know we've only known each other for a couple of days, but it seemed strange and I just wanted to see--"

"It's alright," he assured me, cutting off my rambling. "I'm sorry for disappearing so much today, I just got a load more work dumped on me and it's been a bit overwhelming. I can understand why you'd be worried considering I usually hang around a lot more."

"Ah, ok," I said, relieved. "I should have suspected that. You chose an awful time to join."

He chuckled. "Yeah, it's kicking my ass a bit. Still, I'm glad I'm here. I did get to meet you, after all." He wiggled his eyebrows in such a ridiculous way that I couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, alright, smooth," I grinned. "I'm gonna go before I'm entirely seduced, just in case I can't control myself."

"I can at least walk you to the door." He fell into step beside me and we made our way into the autumn sunshine, squinting at the brightness. The air had the cold-nothingness scent of snow. We stopped beside a battered red pick-up which looked like it spent its spare time careening down cliffsides. I didn't mention it.

"Well, this is where we part," Ryder said. "Sure I can't drop you off anywhere?"

"I'm good, I enjoy the walk," I said. "Drive safe, though. That's an order."

He saluted and slid behind the wheel. "Aye aye, mother. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you." I watched as he drove away at an exaggeratedly slow pace, and flipped him off as he passed me on the road. I could see him laughing as he continued on.

I could only shake my head. He was an adorable idiot and he knew it, but I just hated how goofy that made me feel too. I was like a girl with her first crush. I had never felt like that before, with anyone. It just wasn't me.

I mulled it over for the rest of the walk, which was probably giving the situation more thought than it was worth. I was glad of the distraction when my parents called a greeting from the living room.

Kicking off my boots, I ambled through to say hello. They were curled up on the sofa wearing matching cable-knit sweaters, my mom with dungarees over the top and my dad in faded jeans. They were looking at a laptop and frowning - no doubt going through photos. My dad was a professional photographer specialising in the outdoors and often spent hours deciding which photos to keep and which ones to cut after each shoot. My mom would occasionally help, though most of the time just ended up napping on his shoulder or doodling. She was an architect, but often helped my dad set up shoots if they were for a client.

"Hello, parentals," I said, perching on a seat opposite. "How's it going?"

"It's going," my dad sighed. Uh-oh. Those words were never a good sign.

"We don't know which photo to keep," my mom elaborated. "Maybe you can help us decide."

I knew it. I hopped to my feet and headed over, ready to make the all-important decision.

My dad turned the laptop screen to face me, and I sighed almost as hard as he had done.

"These look exactly the same," I said. "Literally the same. Why not just delete one and keep the other?"

"I need to justify it," my dad said sadly. "What if I delete one and it ends up being the better one?"

My mom smacked his arm. "Well you wouldn't know, would you?"

"She's right, you wouldn't. But I'll spare you that pain and say that the second one looks better, even if you'll never know whether I'm telling the truth or not."

"Ah, the burden has been lifted regardless," my dad said. "Good work, mini-me. There are waffles in the kitchen as a reward."

"I knew I smelled something good!" I needed no further encouragement. My parents sometimes made treats while I was at school and I loved coming home to find them waiting for me. It was the highlight of my day for sure - I stocked up and headed to my room.

It wasn't until later that I noticed a follow request from Ryder. His account had no posts, or any paper trail at all, which I didn't find unusual. I accepted the request. I half-expected him to message, but nothing came through and I wasn't about to make that move myself.

His follow request put me in mind of the morning's strange encounter. I kept turning it over in my head but, despite my racing thoughts, I couldn't figure it out and fell asleep with a thousand possibilities running through my head.