Like Yesterday

Chapter 20

“You okay?” he asked me, staring at my agitated figure. Pulling out a piece of my curled hair, the one Claire did for me a while ago, I bit my lip as my worries came about.

“I'm scared. What if this doesn't work? What if Claire had seen wrong? What if someone else made that page instead?” I babbled out the words, clasping my hands tight. A thousand thoughts filled my head, most of them were doubts of what if.

Jace held my shoulders, steadying me as he caught my eyes and made my heart stop. For a while, a very familiar question lingered in my thoughts as I studied his comely face. How could he be this handsome?

I tried pressing out some reason from my mind. With those clear blue eyes, the way his brun hair perfectly stayed in place tonight, his outfit that looked just right for the occasion, and everything else about him wasn't making any sense. It was as if I could almost say that someone as ordinary as me had been showered with overflowing blessings from above to have this once in a lifetime, mind-cracking, unimaginable opportunity to have a date with him.

“Everything will be fine?” my trembling lips finally said.

He nodded in response, as if I had spoken those words that he wanted me to realize myself. This was what I liked about him, how he could easily pull me out of my shell and make me do things I was entirely hesitant about.

“Of course, you have me with you,” he replied confidently.

I felt relief as he said the words. You have me with you meant everything to me at this time. I badly wanted to hear it before, coming from him and not from my mortal enemy. And the more I was reminded of what Brittany did to me, the cellphone and everything else that came before and after that, the more I badly wanted to do this to her.

I psyched myself that this was the reason why I wanted to do this dare, together with my condition that she would not make me pay for that laptop that I broke. Claire made me do it last night, saying that I at least should gain something from this. So I called her and surprisingly, she had agreed. Actually, it was more like because she already had a new one after all. Of course, why should she wait for my paycheck if she could afford buying five of them at the same time if she wanted to?

“Okay, I can do this thing,” I assured myself, taking a deep breath.

The plan was we should make her feel bitter about me and Jace being together. It was a brilliant idea, if our assumptions were right. Unless another obsessed fan was setting her up, our chances in succeeding against her was high. Definitely. Who ever wanted to have their heart broken? Nobody would ever want that kind of thing to happen to them. It was the perfect comeback. After all, the matters of the heart were always vulnerable.

“We could only hope for the best. So how does it feel? Going on a date with your sworn enemy... enemies?” he playfully said, adding emphasis on the last part which made me pull half a smile myself. “How many are we again? Three? Including Nick?”

“I sure have a lot of people to hate,” I suggested. “The list keeps on getting longer.”

“You've been through a lot before. You can't help it,” he said lightly, giving me a friendly pat.

“It's horrible. But at least I only have one now, and the chance of getting rid of her is in sight. Nick has his own problems with regards to you. But I bet that he only went along with Brittany's plan. As for the other one...” I trailed off, looking directly into his eyes.

He nodded his head a bit, as if waiting for what I was going to say. Then I told him, “The other one, uhmm... he's not my enemy anymore. He's out of that category now.”

“Really?” he sounded amused. “So how do you categorize people again?”

“People I know,” I said, pausing a bit. “And people I don't know.”

“That's it? No enemy part? Friends part? Lovers part?” he grinned.

I laughed, “That's just the rough estimate. I could pull in the details but it will take time. We're going to be...”

I was about to say something else when my phone snapped us out of our conversation. That ominous, horrifying tone that I had especially reserved for Brittany resounded in the air.

“What is that shuddering tone?” he asked skeptically, looking at my phone and couldn't believe that I had done something like this. It was creepy enough to make your hairs stand out.