charity project // mischa bachinski (ride the cyclone)

29 - je te veux

It took me a moment to register what he just said. Wasn't Talia the girl from Ukraine that he really liked?

"What about her?" I asked.

"She just texted me. She said she broke up with my friend and that she was in love with me the whole time."

I felt a weird feeling settle in the pit of my stomach. "Oh."

"I cannot believe her. She dated my friend to try and make me jealous. Talia was trying to manipulate me. How sick and twisted is that? Only to come back crying to me when it didn't work!" He ran his fingers through his hair.

"I don't know what to say," I looked at him, hoping for a response.

His gaze softened. "You don't need to say anything. You're better than she ever was. We should just go now. Forget about that whole thing."

We stood up and walked out of the Subway, and he held my hand with a bit more force than truly necessary.

I tried to change the subject. Unfortunately, I was terrible at small talk.

"So... What's your favorite color?"

He looked very confused. "What?"

"Your favorite color. What is it?"

He thought about this for a moment. "Red."

"You seem like the type of guy to like red."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

I shrugged. "You just do. You are the embodiment of red."

"I think that you are like purple. Light purple."

"Cool. What about Noel?"

Both of us paused in thought.

"Dark Blue!" We said simultaneously.

"I think that Ocean seems yellow. Like a dark yellow," I told him.

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah. And then Ricky is green. Constance is light pink."

"I can see that, actually."

"Of course you can. I'm right. All of the time."

"Oh, shut up," I rolled my eyes.

He grinned and slung an arm over my shoulder. "You love me."

"Unfortunately," I shrugged off his arm, laughing.

"Can we skip the next rehearsal? I want to do something else."

"No. We'll be kicked out," I said.

He tapped his chin. "What if you fell in the fountain over there and got all wet and had to go back and change? That would be a valid excuse, no?"

"No! What is so important that you want to do that is worth me getting pushed into a fountain?"

"You and me. We would go back to the house when everyone else is rehearsing."

"I don't follow. Why are we at the house? I mean, there's no one else there. What's the point?" I asked, knowing full well what he meant. I just thought it would be funny to hear him try to explain himself.

"That is the point. No one else is there."

"I still don't get it."

I did actually get it.

"If no one else is there, Ocean cannot interrupt us again."

"Interrupt what?"

He groaned. "You know what. You're doing this on purpose."