Mrs. Grinch In Love

3. Catching up

I was in the middle of the battle between reality and dream when Daniel helped me sat in his car’s passenger seat. Closing my eyes, I sighed in pleasure when I felt the heat of the seat beneath me; he closed the door softly, after a second he sat beside me on the driver’s seat with a dull sound of his door closing.

Finally, my teeth stopped chattering, and I relaxed back in the seat. After a few minutes of relaxing, I opened my eyes and saw him gazing at me. Blushing by his intense stare, I sat up straight looking out through the windshield.

“I uh...” Clearing my throat, I searched my mind for words, “Umm...a... Thank you for your help.” I finally stuttered.

He said nothing, and I kept my gaze fixed outside.

Please, say something.

“You’re welcome, I guess.” His forehead creased.

I glimpsed at him and saw him still watching me. “Seriously, thank you I thought I was going to die today.” I gave a high-pitched laugh, trying to make the mood lighten, but failed when I saw him glaring at me.

What did I do now?

“Why were you even walking in this weather alone?“ He scolded.

My face reddened. I duck my head in embarrassment and told him what happened.

I want Mini to dig me a hole and bury me in it.

*~*~*~*~*

When I was done, I cast a glance at him. His eyes twinkled, lips pressed in a thin line, trying not to laugh.

Why me?!

“Wow-“ He coughed. “I uh... Don’t know what to say.”

“You can laugh-“ I didn’t even finish my sentence and was cut off by his guffaw, “-if you want to...” I trailed off.

“S-Sorry.” He chuckled. “It’s just funny.” He continued laughing.

If you ever humiliated yourself in front of your crush, you’d know exactly how I was feeling.

I covered my face with my hands, not being able to look at him. Even Mini was snickering behind.

His laugh died after a second. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to...” his voice faltered when I didn’t react. He continued, “... It’s been a while since I laughed like that.” He murmured.

“I saved that deer’s life,” I mumbled. I wasn’t mad at him for laughing at me. It was just embarrassing.

“Of course you did.” I peeked at him through my fingers and saw him smiling at me. I felt my heart thumping in my chest.

I missed his smile.

The last time I saw him was when he was leaving for college, which was around nine years ago.

I may have stalked him in these nine years, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“So where are you going?” He asked, turning on his car.

“Isn’t it obvious?” I said in a duh tone.

“You are going to our hometown?” He choked.

“Why are you so shocked?”

“Because since you left for college, you haven’t visited.” He grunted.

“And how do you know that?” I wondered.

Wait... Was he stalking me, too?

“Alice told me.” Ah! Now that made sense.

Alice and I were high school best friends. We went to different colleges and lost contact.