Chapter 6

Dawn would be lying if she said that she didn't feel uncomfortable. Yes she was comfortable around Paul, but only in public areas, where other people could see them. Not her house. Leading the way down the street her house resided on, Dawn was hoping that her mother was still at home and didn't unexpectedly leave. Though as they turned the corner, she felt her heart sink when she didn't notice her mother's car in the driveway. Dawn had watched too many murder shows; her mind was already racing with different scenarios. She glanced back at him; Paul seemed uninterested in her own house and was staring down the street. She reached into her bag and pulled out a key, placing in in the key hole. She turned the key to find that it didn't budge. Her house was already unlocked.

"What?" She murmured to herself. Her mother never left the house unlocked when nobody was inside. She looked behind her again. Paul was now looking at her with a scowl. She laughed lightly before hurrying inside. "Mom?" She called. She frowned when she got no answer, "Maybe she actually did forget to lock the door." She reasoned. Dawn quickly turned around to face Paul again. "You can just take off your shoes there. Do you want a drink or a snack?"

"We just had ice cream." He said plainly.

She nodded quickly. "Right…"

A loud bang was heard from Dawn's living room. "Mom? Are you home? I didn't see your car." Her voice wavered slightly. She quickly flicked on the light switch in the hallway. Dawn clutched her lanyard, swinging keys around could be a good way to protect yourself. She felt Paul standing closer to her than he had before.

Cautiously Dawn rounded the corner, something jumped out from the side with a scream. Dawn screamed back and began to wildly swing her keys around, making many contact points with the opposer.

"Dawn stop!" She instantly recognised the voice, which was somewhat strained. She opened an eye and saw Barry lying on the ground, a cut on his cheek and red spots on his arms. "You hit me!" He wheezed. Dawn gasped; she did indeed hit him in many places but she also hit him exactly where the sun doesn't shine.

"Oh my god, Barry!" She knelt down beside him, placing a hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry!"

"Why would you hit me?" He groaned

Dawn glared at him. "You shouldn't have scared me! Why are you even here when my mom isn't home?"

"Here." Dawn looked up; Kenny was standing there with a bag of frozen peas in hand.

Dawn gladly took it from him and handed it to Barry. "Why didn't you stop him?"

Kenny shrugged. "You know he'll do things regardless if you try and stop him or not."

Dawn had to agree with him there. "Why are you even here? How did you get in?" She stood up, glancing warily at Barry who was still lying on her floor.

"We're here for Chinese food." Kenny stated. "Remember we planned this earlier in the week. Leona's here too. Plus we know where you hide you spare key." Dawn looked past Kenny's shoulder and saw an awkward looking Leona standing next to her couch. Kenny leaned to the side, looking behind Dawn. "I guess I should call Zoey to get more food."

"Don't bother." Paul grumbled. "I'm just here to order the exact stuff she wants for a dress she's making."

Dawn held back her laughter as she saw Kenny's face change upon hearing those words. "Paul Robelldo…" He whispered. "You're staying here for some Chinese food, even if it's only a fortune cookie!" He grinned. "Everyone here would love it if you stayed!"

"I'm just here to order stuff." Paul repeated.

Kenny's smile faltered for a moment. "Not even a fortune cookie?"

"I don't like sweets."

Dawn laughed slightly and rubbed the back of her head, "Kenny, why don't you help Barry. I'll show Paul my workspace and get my laptop, okay?" She gestured to Paul to follow her up the stairs.

"Sorry," She stated once they had reached the top of the stairs. "I forgot about our plans, and I didn't expect Barry to do that and cause a huge scene." Paul didn't answer. She opened her bedroom door and felt her heart sink even more, there was no way to hide the huge mess left behind from earlier today, she had already swung the door wide open. She looked back to Paul; his eyes were scanning every inch of her room. "Uh, it's not usually like this, I was… organising my closet!" She stated. "I just forgot to clean it because I was going to be late for our meeting and I didn't want-"

"You're late a lot." He cut her off. "This room is too small and messy to work properly in. I have an extra room that you can use.

Dawn picked up her laptop which was buried under a mass of clothes on her bed. "Really? I can work fine here. It's much bigger when it's clean."

"You're promoting my book." He said in monotone. "I want it to be the best thing you've ever made. I want more people to read my book."

Dawn nodded. "Right, okay. I'll need your address and your phone number so I know where I'm going once the materials arrive, plus it would be good to keep in contact in between then too. Once I have the time, I'm going to start working on the measurements and stuff using that." She pointed to her plush mannequin.

"I'll give it to you later. Let's just order this stuff. I need to meet with somebody later."

"Okay." She said. "Let's go back downstairs." Her room was far too messy for her to let Paul stand in there for a longer amount of time then needed. Paul looked a little dissatisfied about going back downstairs, but followed her anyway. Kenny quickly stood up from the couch, leaving two open seats for her and Paul. Barry was occupying the other, still holding them onto the peas. Dawn took the seat next to Barry, so Paul didn't have to sit next to him.

"Zoey will be coming soon." Kenny stated as Dawn turned on her laptop. Dawn nodded as she began visiting the websites she usually went to, to order fabrics. She preferred these fabrics than the ones sold at stores. She opened each of the things she wanted in new tabs and handed the laptop over to Paul, who began to type in his credit card information and other stuff.

"What did she get?" Dawn asked.

"Uhh, dumplings, shrimp fried rice, black bean chicken and that chicken and barbeque pork and stuff, dai dop woey I think." He shrugged. "Just what we usually get."

Paul stood up and handed her the laptop back. "I'm done, I need to go now."

"Oh, alright." Dawn closed her laptop rather than actually turning it off. She followed him to the front door. "Are you sure you don't want to stay and eat?"

"No." Paul said and opened the door. "I don't like Chinese food." He opened the door and stepped outside.

"That's fine." Dawn smiled, "I'll see you later then, bye!"

Paul didn't reply and left, walking down the street. Dawn frowned and went back to go see her friends who were waiting in the living room. "He didn't seem too happy here." Kenny stated.

Dawn shrugged. "He was much more talkative and nice when we went out for ice cream."

"Dawn went on a date and didn't tell us!" Barry jumped up. "The special ice cream parlour from when we were kids?"

Dawn nodded. "Yes, that one. No it wasn't a date, he's sponsoring me, we were just planning things out for the contest."

"He wrote that book Kenny made me read, right?" Leona asked. "He doesn't seem like the type of person to write a book like that, an adventure and some romance. I would expect him to be more of a history writer." She shrugged. "He is a good writer though, I'll give him that."

"I'm here!" Zoey yelled, hurrying into the living room, white plastic bags swinging from her raised arms. "I got us the good stuff!"

"You guys can get started on eating; I'm going to put this upstairs." She held up her laptop. "I'll be right back!" She raced up to her room. She threw her clothes off of her bed and onto her floor, opting to put them all away later. She opened her laptop and saw that a word document was open; on it was a phone number and an address. She smiled and created a new contact in her phone.

Second chapter done! I don't really like this chapter all too much, buuut I wanted more interaction with Paul and the others. I felt as if Paul was a little too ooc in this :p please tell me if he was! Ahhh, I'm just glad I got to finish this chapter in time too! I always make you guys wait too long for chapters! So I hope you liked it guys! I hope the rest of your summer is amazing! (I'm so not ready for school…)