7.07PM, Wednesday, Dec. 9th
Manhattan Village, New York
I walked, side by side with Oscar. I waited for him to talk. I mean, he was the one who called me out, and asked for me to come to watch a movie with him. My fingers fumbled on my frayed shirt hem nervously, as I avoided his gaze. Was I meant to apologize, again? About the whole...Blane thing?
"So, uh..." I started. "You don't...look sick."
"My roommate looked after me."
"Right, right. Well, uh...what did you want to watch?"
"Saw, the final chapter?"
"No," I said, a little bit too quickly. Oscar looked at me, frowning. "I've...already seen it."
"When?" he asked. Then his hazel eyes hardened. "Did you go with Blane? Your boyfriend"
"N - I mean, yes. I did...go with my boyfriend."
"Summy...you aren't just using Blane, right? You do like him, right?"
I really didn't want to lie to him. Oscar was my best friend. "I...do like my boyfriend, yes." I said, running my fingers through my hair - something I did when in stress.
"Did you...get that ring from him?" Oscar asked suddenly, grabbing my hand. I froze. "Blue topaz...did you tell him your birthday?" His eyes burned into mine with a ferocity that I couldn't describe.
I gave a nervous laugh. "It's just my birthday...why wouldn't I tell him?"
"You hate your birth date. You told me your birthday three years after we became friend."
"Uh...yeah, but..."
Oscar gave me forced smile "Fine, then. You really like him..." He took a deep, steadying breath. "So...What do you want to watch?"
I looked over the movies on offer. They were the usual variety. A romantic comedy...an action...an adventure... None of them looked that good to me. I was the type of person who judged books by their covers...or films by the picture and font they used to make it appealing. Not in a shallow way, but without the cover/picture and font, how are we meant to know if the book/film is good or not?
I immediately felt guilty for my inevitable shallowness, and pointed at a random film that looked boring to me. But then I'd thought - maybe I was leaving it out? Maybe I'd been offending it!
I was also the type of person who was too afraid to make choices, for fear of offending the thing I did not chose. For instance - cookies, sneakers, books, pens, fruit, etc. In the end, I normally picked the one I hated, in my usual masochistic way.
"Are you sure?" Oscar asked, eyeing it doubtfully. I nodded. It wasn't Oscar's type of movie (he liked action, like most other guys. The movie I'd picked out - a heart-warming romantic comedy - was the exact type of 'chick' movie he thought was lame). I mentally begged him to say no, grow a pair, and make the stupid choice I was too scared to make. "Okay, sure," he said, paying for our tickets.
I glared at his back. He was a coward.
"Why are you buying three tickets?" I asked, frowning.
"Oh, did I forget to tell you? I invited my roommate to come as well..."
"Your roommate?"
"Yeah," he said. His was staring above my head. "Here he comes now..."
I turned around, and my eyes met with familiar grey-green ones. I gaped. Jake. And the only thing that could make this moment worse...behind him, Blane walked in, holding hands with a pretty girl with wavy black hair.
This situation was so similar to the Winter Formal night, it was almost déjà vu...except everything was completely and utterly backwards.
***
As luck would have it, we were watching the same movie. I was sat in between Jake and Blane.
God, kill me now.
Okay, re-cap. Oscar's roommate is Jake. Oscar knows Blane is (one of them, but still) my boyfriend. Blane thinks Jake is my cousin, and knows Oscar is my friend. Jake knew nothing about Blane, until I'd just told him Blane was my...friend.
I covered my face with my hands. My head was starting to hurt.
"S," Jake said, looking worried. "Are you okay?"
I nodded, wordlessly, as Blane handed me a popcorn bucket. I ate some, to fill the silence.
"I didn't know her family members called her that!" Blane said, smiling like a goon.
Jake stared at him, clearly not knowing what he was talking about. This was awful. I can't believe they're actually meeting. I can't believe my two worlds are colliding - Blane-world, with boring stories and art movies, and Jake-world, with climbing Central Park trees, and rings.
I looked at the girl sat on the other side of Blane, smiling at me as well. I felt kind of self-conscious. She was clearly assessing me. I suppose I ought to feel jealous, but... I couldn't give a damn. That was weird. I thought I'd liked Blane, at least a little bit. Yet how come, when I look at him...nothing.
The girl sneakily peeked at Jake, through long eyelashes.
Suddenly, I was blazingly angry. How dare she?! Heat burned in my cheeks as my breathing quickened. I glared at her so hard she must've felt it, because she turned around, and looked at me, startled. She gave an uneasy smile.
"Uh, Blane, you might want to introduce us. She's staring at me weirdly."
"Ah, sure. Summer, this is Rebecca. She's my sister."
I blinked. Oh, yeah. That's how she looked so familiar. She had Blane's wavy black hair and blue eyes. Even their bone structure was kind of similar. She aimed a beautiful smile at Jake, and my eyes narrowed again. No. She was not to be trusted.
"And Rebecca, Summer is my g -"
"- gardener!" I finished for him, quickly. "Yep, I'm his gardener. I do flowers, mostly. I specialize in exotic plants."
For a bad liar, that was a pretty good one.
Blane looked kind of hurt, but I didn't have time to worry about that now...as long as he didn't say anything that contradicted my story, I was fine. I was more worried about Jake. I snuck a glance at him. He was talking to Oscar. Thank God.
"Really?" Rebecca asked. "Can you tell me one?"
"Uh...what?" Crap. An exotic plant! Come on, think of one! "Uh...the...daffodil."
"Daffodil?"
"Yeah. You know, green, and all...claw-like. And eats flies and things."
She frowned. "The Venus Fly-Trap?"
"Oh, yeah. That. Sorry, I always get those two mixed up."
***
Author's Note: Short part, I know, but am going crazy trying to figure my new book out... Sorry../ :P
VOOMENTTTTT!!!!!
