Count on Me

Chapter Five: Counting The Minutes Till I See Your Face.

The phone rang... 

Ali's father sat where he was in the large armchair while her mother was too busy with something in the kitchen to even bother... her little brother was distracted by the television blaring in front of him, and Susan and Barbara were uninterested, so Ali got the phone instead "Mills' residence, speaking?" Her discomfort showed when she heard Johnny's voice on the other end 

"Johnny, no, I don't want to talk Johnny, not about this, there's nothing to talk about, well no I really don't think there is," the front door opened and Tommy walked in, carrying a bouquet of flowers, which instantly caught Ali's eye. 

Tommy waved and gave her a sideways grin, the gap just between his two front teeth showing and she felt a little confused as to why she found herself staring at it, thinking that was a cute feature she'd never seen bef— Johnny was talking again. 

"Tonight? Oh," she hardly wanted to speak with him, wanted to set the phone down and let him talk to thin air... so she did and walked over to Tommy. If she hadn't, she would have heard Johnny's half apology to her, but she didn't because she'd walked away from the phone and that relationship. 

She was half hoping those delicate little daisies in Tommy's hand were for her, but she felt a surge of — regret? Sadness? What was this feeling? The feeling she felt when Tommy cleared his throat and asked instead for Barbara without meeting Ali's eyes. 

That statement left Ali with a sick feeling inside, but why?

— All this was an act — an act that hurt Tommy as much as it did Ali, though he did not know that... he did not know that deep down, Ali would have liked to hear all those things, the words he'd written down in letters, he was never meaning to send. 

Ali watched with a reproachful look when Barbara threw the flowers right back in Tommy's face and told him point blank that she would never go out with him, even if he was the last boy on earth... 

it stung Ali as much as it did Tommy. 

Tommy merely shrugged and picked the flowers up before offering them to Ali with a slight playful smirk, the one you grew used to if you knew Tommy for long... the one that annoyed and infuriated Ali, but also made her stomach twist in knots and her smile back, as if she had just been let in on one big joke. 

"Thanks Tommy... daisies are my favourite." The blush crept over her face without her knowing. 

Barbara rolled her eyes "If you don't have anything better to do than just stand there staring, you should get lost," 

Tommy smiled "Boy were your parents making a mistake when they had you," 

And somehow, Ali barely held back a laugh, knowing Tommy meant it in fun and he was just being his sarcastic annoying funny self. 

And for some reason, Ali couldn't really place, she couldn't stop thinking about him.