The Modern Tale of Estella ON HOLD

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Hello," Gretta said, entering my room and closing the door.

"Hi," I greeted.

"So, I want to hear everything!" She said excitedly.

I told Gretta everything that happened last night and she looked at me like I had four heads.

"What's wrong with you?! You were that close to him and you didn't do anything?!" She exclaimed, while jumping up.

"I did do something! I talked to him." I said smugly.

"You know what I mean," Gretta said with a straigh face.

"Well, what was I supposed to do, jump on him?" I shouted.

"Sorry, but you have to at least try," she said quietly.

"Okay," I surrendered. "But you can't tell Liv about this," I told her.

"Why not? She's your friend." She asked.

"I know but I met her a few days ago, I can't just tell her everything about me like that," I argued.

"I think that if she was willing to give you her diamonds, then you can tell her," she said, hands on her hips and raising her left eyebrow.

"Okay," I said, standing up and grabbing my phone.

"Are you going somewhere?" she asked.

"Yup," I said, popping the 'p'. "I just need to relax a bit." And with that I left my room and headed for the lake.

I sat by the lake, writing a very detailed text to Michelle about last night. When I finished, I put my phone in my pocket and stood up. Then I found myself infront of the wall that was Tom's chest.

"Woah, watch it," his deep, familiar, voice said. He was wearing a navy blue t-shirt that showed off his muscles and black trousers.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said blushing. I looked up to see Tom in a tiger mask this time. "Are you playing with your cousin's daughter again?" I asked, pointing towards his mask.

"Nope, I just thought I'd carry on the mystery," he said in a spooky voice that made me laugh.

"Okay, so... what excatly do you do?" I asked, putting my hands behind my back.

"I'm... a gardener," he said, hesitating between 'I'm' and 'a'.

"Oh, well, how did you manage to get me that dress?" I asked bluntly.

"I didn't get you a dress," he said with a confused expression on his face.

"I know it was you because you're the only person I told about my 'dress dilema'," I said.

"Oh right," he said in defeat.

"How did you afford it?" I asked.

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly and looked at the ground. "I can't tell you,". He looked up and held my gaze like a little boy, his brown eyes frowning.

"Yes you can, come on," I persisted.

"Okay, let's make a deal, I'll tell you tomorrow, at 5, right here," he said, holding his hand out.

"No, because you won't come tomorrow," I whinned.

"I promise," he said, holding out his pinky instead.

I stared up at his dark, chocolatety eyes, getting lost in them. "Fine," I sighed. Reluctantly, I gripped my pinky in his and felt sparkd fly at the skin to skin contact.

I more or less skipped to my room. When I got in, I looked at the clock. 6. I sighed, 23 more hours! With slumed shoulders, I turned around only to find Liv sitting on the sofa patiently.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey, I lost you yesterday but I'm glad to see that you survived," she joked.

I fell on the sofa, laughing. "How did things go with you?" I asked, nearly falling off the sofa. 

"Fine, actually, more than fine. There was this guy there called Matthew and he asked me to dance. His eyes were... divine! They were blue and I think I spent most of the evening staring at them. He was so toned and tanned and his hair was curly and light brown." She said in a rush, practically fan-girling about her description of him. "And, well, I just came back from our date."

"What!" I shouted.

"Yeah! and he is so cute and a proper gentleman." She beamed.

"Aw, I'm so happy for you," I said hugging her.

"Now, I want to hear about your night," she said, raising her eyebrows. She obviously didn't know how funny she looked. I explained everything to her, about Tom and the Prince and Micheal.

"Do you think that maybe Tom is actually the Prince?" she asked.

"I don't know maybe," I said, thinking deeply about it.

By the time we finished filling each other in it was already 8 o'clock. 21 more hours. We said goodnight to each other and I fell asleep within seconds of laying on the bed.

***

The day could not have gone any slower. When it was 4 o'clock, I could not stay still for more than a minute. When it was quarter to 5, I decided that the best thing to do was to start to make my way to the lake not. Tom wasn't there yet so I sat in my usual spot and picked flowers.

"Hi," a familiar voice said behind me.

I whipped my head around, expecting to find Tom where but instead it was Nick. "Um, hi," I replied, trying to hide my disappointment.

"Were you expecting someone else?" he asked, taking a seat beside me.

"I guess," I said quickly.

"It's me," he said, looking away.

"What's you?" I asked, completely confused. Then I remembered Liv's words from yesterday: 'what if Tom's the Prince?'.

"I'm Tom, that's how I was able to get you the dress," he said, this time looking at me with intense eyes.

"Well what was this, some kind of game, is that why you avoided me for some days after I first met you?" I asked, avoiding his eyes, just incase I got lost in them again.

"No, look, the first time we met I was actually playing with my cousin's daughter. I didn't take off the mask because I wanted to know if you would talk to me or if you would walk away because I was a gardener. I'm tired of dating snobs." he said, looking at me like a little boy again.

I opened my mouth to respond but then my phone started ringing with Justin Bieber's Baby and I looked at the caller ID to see Michelle on the front. "I'm sorry, I have to get this," I said. Immediately, he stood up and offered me his hand.

I couldn't have gotten worse news. This cannot be happening. She was meant to take care of him!