TESSA POV:
"Tessa! There's someone at the door for you!" Her mother called from the bottom of the stairs.
It was a Sunday morning. 10: 01 to be exact. Tessa put down the book she was in the middle of. Sighing, she slipped on her Japanese robe and slippers before making her way downstairs.
Sunday morning was a time Tessa dedicated entirely to herself: no homework, no stress and no drama. Until the afternoon at least. The morning consisted of a nice sleep in; Sunday's were the only day Tessa had nothing to wake up early for. When she was awake enough, Tessa would lose for self in a book for a decent hour. After that, Tessa would grab her yoga mat and if the weather was nice, she would find a little spot in the back garden; otherwise she would make do by clearing room by the window. After Tessa's yoga session, she would soak in the bath with candles and aromatherapy, soothing herself, her muscles and mind. To top that off, Tessa would usually have a brunch of pancakes with sticky maple syrup and sweet tea.
Everyone knew Tessa's Sunday Schedule and Tessa was annoyed that the "someone at the door" had interrupted it.
"Morning, Tess." Tessa's heart summersaulted. Only one person called her Tess.
Will stood by the door, one hand casually tucked in his pocket, the other holding a pair of black high-top converse that he had taken off his feet. He grinned from ear to ear when he saw her. Will Herondale was at her door?! Tessa's heart erupted and she leant against the nearest wall to steady herself.
She blushed. "Hello, Will. Why are you here?"
"Romeo and Juliet acquaintance of course. Clary said you'd be here."
"Okay, want to come up to my bedroom?" Tessa asked nervously.
"Usually I'd take a girl out first." Will smirked and pushed past Tessa taking the stairs two at a time.
"I like your room, Tess. Ah your books!" Will cried delightedly as Tessa shut the door behind her. What about her Sunday routine? She couldn't not do it! That just wouldn't be right.
Will must have picked up on her silence; "Is something wrong, Tess?" He asked softly as he raised a perfectly arched, dark eyebrow.
"You see, today is Sunday."
"That is correct" Will quirked. "Unless you're on the other side of the international date line."
"You don't understand. I have a Sunday routine and now, I can't do it."
Will laughed. "By all means, don't let me stop you."
So Tessa took off her robe and slippers and climbed back into bed, her body sinking into its place and the sky blue comforter closing the cocoon around her. She opened "Great Expectations" and casually flicked to her page.
Tessa looked up some time later to find Will lounging in her desk chair, his feet on her desk with a book in hand. Tessa eyed the cover and was amused to notice he was reading The Notebook.
Tessa checked the clock, surprised to find almost an hour had past and was about to inform Will it was yoga time, before she stopped herself and took in the situation: Will Herondale, her long time crush, was reading in her bedroom. His brow was furrowed in concentration and lively blue eyes framed by dark, long lashes scanned the text thoughtfully.
He looked up then and smiled at Tessa, his blue eyes meeting her storm gray. "Now what?"
"Yoga."
"This should be fun."
Will offered to drive them to the park to do their yoga, so Tessa found herself in the front seat of Will's car, windows down and singing to Taylor Swift on full volume. When they stopped at the traffic lights, the lady in the lane next to theirs gave them a funny look when Will attempted the "my ex-man" verse in "Shake it Off". Tessa couldn't help it, she laughed and laughed until her stomach ached.
Tessa was disappointed when their car trip ended. They grabbed the yoga mats and hopped out. Will led her to a spot in Alicante Park that Tessa had never been to; it was a place you wouldn't know was there unless you knew about it. People wandered around in their own world, filling the open space of the park. Bright yellow rays filtered through the branches of the droopy willow tree that obscured them from the view of passerby's.
Tessa laid out the yoga mats in front of them. "Have you ever actually, like, done yoga before?" She asked curiously as she sat crossed legged on her grey mat (she gave Will the hot pink one) and scrolled through the yoga classes on her IPod.
"All the time when I lived in the Bali treetops for a year." Will replied, his turquoise eyes twinkling under a ray of sunlight shooting through the willow's branches.
"Really?"
"No, I just made that up." He smiled goofily and sat down on his pink mat.
"Are you going to take this seriously?"
"Are you doubting my natural yoga abilities?" Will feigned shock.
Tessa selected an intermediate class; she wasn't going to make this easy for him, but she wasn't going to be mean by choosing advanced.
Will was a lot better at yoga than Tessa had thought he would be and had helped her hold her elbow stand until she felt all the blood rush out of her head and realize he had let go and she was still holding it.
"Can I choose one?" He asked when the yoga session had finished. She handed over her IPod, her warm hand brushing his and she was suddenly reminded of when their fingers almost brushed only weeks before.
He scrolled through the tracks, a mischievous glint in his eyes. The calming music started playing and a voice spoke: "Sit in a confortable position and close your eyes." Meditation. So she closed her eyes, smiling like an idiot.
"I bet you won't keep your eyes closed the whole time." Tessa whispered.
"Well, you will only know if you open yours." Will whispered, a challenge laced in his voice.
"Free your mind and grow your light-"
Will snickered. "Shhhh!" Tessa jokingly scowled.
"Sorry," he whispered and Tessa peaked one eye open a fraction to see he had his eyes closed. She smiled to herself; Will Herondale was meditating.
"Let your body relax. Feel your muscles loosen from the top of your head, to the tip of your toes. Embrace the sounds of nature around you."
Tessa let herself relax, the rustling of the willow branches in the light Alicante breeze and the sweet calls of local birds being the only sounds, all background traffic noise muted from her senses.
"Take a deep, calming breath in through your nose, now hold it. And slowly, release."
She breathed in crisp, unpolluted air, filling her lungs as her chest expanded and slowly contacted as she breathed out.
"Now, mentally, take yourself to your ideal place of relaxation."
Wisps of hair had escaped her bun and were floating around her in the cool Alicante breeze, but she barely noticed. The sun must have shown itself from behind a cloud as her body was bathed in sunlight, the warmth hitting the top of her head and seeping through her pores, making her feel alive and free. Tessa took herself to her ideal place of relaxation: a big room with bookshelves covering every wall and ladders that moved along the shelves on wheels. There was a warm fire and a comfortable window seat overlooking a view of the sea, as blue as Will's eyes.
WILL POV:
Daringly, Will peeked his eyes open a fraction and then all the way when he was satisfied Tessa wasn't going to catch him. And then he saw Tessa. He really saw her.
She was sitting cross-legged on the grey yoga mat, her small hands resting atop her thighs, palms facing skyward and fingers naturally curling. She was sitting upright, her back in perfect posture, like energy was streaming from the top of her head up into the heavens above. Tessa's chest was rising and falling at a rhythmic pace, her purple tank top expanding and compressing as the bronze angel necklace at the hallow of her throat matched the rise and fall of breath. A strap of her tank top had slid off her shoulder, exposing the creamy skin of her collarbone.
Stubborn strands of russet hair were loose, broken free from the elastic and floated around her in a dance. Sunlight beamed upon her and brought out the honey and coffee tones in her hair.
Tessa's face was relaxed; her usual anxious expression smoothened out and a pink flush bloomed on her cheeks. For some reason, Will ached to trace the lines of her face, run his finger down the bridge of her nose and along her cheekbones, along the small scattering of freckles that weren't noticeable unless you close enough to see them. Her lips were slightly parted, her eyelids softly fluttering.
She was the angel that glinted at her throat. She was achingly and infinitely beautiful.
TESSA POV:
The meditation track finished and she opened her eyes to find Will was rolling up his mat. Had he had enough of her? Was he bored? Did he think she was weird?
"Now what?" She whispered and rolled her own mat up.
"You tell me, it's your routine." Will whispered back and turned around to face her, a lopsided smile lighting up his features.
"Um, well, usually I bathe."
Will crossed the space between them so they were merely inches apart, so close Tessa was surprised to notice flecks of gold in the blue of his irises. She felt his breath puff out around them and he suddenly stooped down and quite literally swept Tessa off her feet.
"Will!" She cried, whacking him with the yoga mat she was still carrying. She however was secretly thrilled to notice that Will Herondale was carrying her bride-style.
"WILL!" Tessa laughed as he started walking, "put me down!"
"As you wish." And he threw her in the duck pond.
The coldness shocked Tessa as she plunged through the filthy water. She broke the surface, startling a group of nearby ducks, and swam furiously to the bank where Will waited with a helping hand. He was hysterically laughing, almost doubled over as Tessa reached for his hand with a murderous expression. She pulled him down with her.
Will realized what was happening just as it was too late and he fell head first into the duck pond. It was Tessa's turn to burst into hysterical laughter as he violently thrashed around in panic. When he broke the surface, horror filled his face.
"DUCKS!" And Tessa remembered what he had told her in the bookshop over Chinese: "Never trust a duck."
Tessa erupted into a fit of giggles as he swam to the bank and shot out the water like he was being chased. This time Will didn't give her a helping hand and was standing in shock, a haunted expression ghosting his face.
"How could you do that to me, Tessa. I thought were friends!"
Tessa wasn't sure if he was joking or not. "Well you did it first."
"That is true." Will broke into a smile. His thin white t-shirt was stuck flush to his body, outlining the muscles of his abdomen. Water dripped from raven curls that had been flattened, but he raked his hands through them and they stuck up in all directions. God he was cute. Tessa blushed and looked away so he wouldn't catch her staring.
"Now what?"
Will led Tessa back to his car and found a flannel of his in the backseat, which he handed to her and she gratefully accepted. She wrapped it around herself like a cocoon. It smelt like vanilla and orange. It smelt like him.
A while later, Tessa found herself sitting in a booth opposite Will at the pancake house on the main street of Alicante.
"Ohmygodthisissogooooood." Will moaned between mouthfuls of pancake. Tessa had to agree as she shoveled another forkful of fluffy pancake drenched in sticky maple syrup into her mouth. "The best."
He looked up at her through his dark, wet curls and Tessa blurted out what had been in the back of her mind all morning: "Why are you here, Will?"
"To eat pancakes."
"No, I mean why are you here with me?"
"Because you're pretty cool, Tess." Will smiled sheepishly, pouring more maple syrup over his remaining bit of pancake. Will thought she was cool?
"I don't think anyone's ever described me as cool before," Tessa laughed, "I don't go to parties and wear stylish clothes; I'm not popular or particularly pretty. I read books and do weird stuff like meditate."
Will lowered his forkful of pancake and his turquoise eyes met hers softly. "Oh, my Tessa. What's much more attractive in a person is their them-ness. And dear God Tessa, you don't see the way guys look at you, the way I look at you." Will suddenly averted his gaze as if realizing what he had just said.
Tessa's heart was beating rapidly in her chest as she stared at him. How did he look at her? Was that a good thing? Self-consciously she tucked the loose strands of hair behind her ears.
He met her gaze again. "You're right, you're not cool. Cool is over-rated, you're rad."
Despite everything that was swarming though her mind, heart and veins, Tessa laughed.
"I'm rad." She repeated and burst out laughing again.
It wasn't until he had dropped her home that Tessa realize she was still enveloped in vanilla and orange. Tessa was still wearing Will's jacket and she also realized that she had no intention of giving it back.
AN: Just a little but cute chapter :) would love to hear thoughts.