See You Around

| Chapter 24 |

"Fine," he muttered to himself, and if I wasn't so focused, I would've missed it.

Even though his words hurt me yesterday to a slight degree, I found the corner of my lips twitching up. "Thank you." He paid me a brief nod in response and I turned on my heels, once again entering the house. In a matter of seconds, I returned to my room and began choosing an outfit.

In the end, I settled on a red dress with a black cardigan to go with it. I slipped on some black leggings under the dress, in fear that it would fly up and reveal my underwear. I was grateful for the fact that I didn't need to take a shower, since I already took one in the morning.

"When I wake up, I'm afraid somebody else might take my place," I sang under my breath as I straightened my hair.

Humming the song under my breath, I applied some strawberry lip gloss. Placing all my belongings in my wallet, I slid into some black ankle boots and then climbed down the stairs. It wasn't that surprising that I didn't take a long time to change. When I looked around, I noticed that Christopher wasn't there so I decided to just wait for him.

"Dani!" a voice called. My head snapped upward and I caught a glimpse of Noah running down the stairs. He extended his hand, revealing a white piece of paper with a few words scrawled on it. When I took a closer look, I realized that it was Noah wishing me happy birthday. "Look, that's you." He pointed to a drawing of a girl in a dress and I felt myself smiling.

"Aw, thank you, Noah," I told him as I stood up, towering over him in the process. "I'm going to go hang this in my room."

He nodded. "Can I come?" With a nod, I climbed up the stairs with Noah trailing behind me in an excited manner. I arrived at my room and grabbed some sticky tape before taping the paper to the wall. "I'm such a good drawer," he vapoured.

I nodded. "That, you are." We were interrupted by the sound of somebody clearing their throat in an impatient fashion. Both Noah and I turned around to face Christopher, who leaned against the doorframe and jiggled his keys.

It was no doubt that I was surprised by his choice of clothing. We shared a few similarities; for example, he had a red flannel shirt on with a black undershirt. He, too, was arrayed in black jeans with a pair of black combat boots. I really wanted to roll my eyes. Of course. How could I ever forget the combat boots?

Most likely, I wasn't the only one who noticed the similarities between our clothing. "You look like her!" Noah pointed out, his head flicking back and forth between the two of us.

I wanted to clamp a hand over Noah's mouth, but it was too late. The words were already hung in the air, and I could almost feel the thick tension layered among us. "Get out," Christopher narrowed his eyes, nodding his head to the left. Noah provided a slight shrug of the shoulders as he bounded away from us. 

"You're done?" I asked Christopher as I walked past him. He closed the door to my room shut and nodded. I expected him to make a tart comment, but to my utter surprise, he didn't. Not looking too into things, I just continued walking towards his car.

I buckled my seatbelt and then pulled out my mascara from my wallet, glancing at Christopher from the corner of my eyes. He assumed a puzzled stare on his face as he watched me with fanatic interest. "Why do you girls wear that thing?"

I quirked an eyebrow as I blinked rapidly. "Thing?"

He nodded. "Yeah, that mascara thingy."