Attached Strings √

Chapter 17

Paul's POV

We had been living together for two weeks already. Two full weeks and I still couldn't stop wanting her. I couldn't get her off my mind. I hated the whole 'no intimacy' rule of hers.

It was hidden in plain sight that Chloe wanted nothing to do with me and it was time for me to show her that I had accepted that. But one question was not keen on leaving my mind.

Had I really accepted that? Had I?
Yes? No? Maybe?

I needed something to take my mind off Chloe and so I decided to call Kitty or Katy... or was it Catherine?

Whatever her name was.

I called her because well, I knew she'd never let me down and besides, the girl loved hearing from me. It was a Friday afternoon. Chloe was downstairs, in the living room, watching a movie and I was lying in my bed.

As expected, she (I'd stopped trying to guess what her name was) wasted no time and I got a text from her, about thirty minutes later, saying that she was at the door. I told her to let herself in.

I was on my way down the stairs when I heard muffled noises coming from the living room. I went closer and listened in on their conversation.

"... so that gave you the right to just walk in here as you please?" That was definitely Chloe speaking. She was annoyed.

"Of course. You know why? Because whenever Paul called me here, I had never had to knock," Catherine stated proudly.

"You think that's something to be proud of? Being someone's booty call?" Chloe shook her head and continued, "I feel for you."

For a moment, I was happy that she stood her ground but I could sense something in her voice. People who paid no attention to her wouldn't have noticed it but, thanks to me being me, I did.

I noticed that she was hurt.

Why was she hurt by hearing that girls came here all the time? I thought she knew that by now. Heck, I thought that was general knowledge.

Somehow, Chloe's hurt expression angered me. Seeing her hurt made me want to strangle whoever had hurt her and that was why I decided to step in.

And no, I didn't strangle Catherine. I wanted to - I really did - but the gentleman in me wouldn't allow me to do so.

"Catherine, leave her alone," I told her bitterly.

"Oh hi, babe. So her name is Catherine?" this was not Chloe speaking, "I'm so glad you're here babe, tell Catherine to leave me alone," the dumb girl encouraged me.

She doesn't know her own name?

"No, you are Catherine," I reminded her.

"Oh my gosh, you got it all wrong, babe. It's Caitlyn. I'm Caitlyn, not Catherine," she corrected me.

"All right, Catherine," she stared at me, "-or whoever you are - you came here to me and only me so leave Chloe alone, understand?"

I turned to look at Chloe and found her smiling. Her smile was the most beautiful I'd ever seen. The girl, on the other hand, looked at me as if I had grown two heads.

"I mean it," I emphasized.

"But she was the one who started questioning me abou-"

"Just let it go. Forget it," I said cutting her off. I was getting angry and Chloe was silent the whole time.

"What is sh-" she tried to ask before I cut her off, again.

"I said forget it. What are you, an elephant?" I said, annoyance visible in my voice.

"You're comparing me to an elephant? Are you implying that I'm fat? Oh my gosh, I don't believe this."

I was referring to her inability to forget but I wasn't going to tell her that.

Chloe burst into a fit of laughter. She laughed so hard that I couldn't help but notice just how beautiful the sound her laughter was. I never wanted her to stop laughing ever again. Her laughter was so contagious, I found myself joining her. "Argh!" Catherine said as she stomped out of the house with her cheeks flaming with fury.

You know that moment when the laughter slowly dies down and you look at each other's eyes? No? Well that was what happened with us. In the process of clutching our stomachs and everything, we didn't realise how close we were to each other. I didn't even know when it happened but our hands were intertwined.

Silence took over.

I gently squeezed her hand and, surprisingly, she reciprocated. I saw that she was avoiding looking at my eyes and, with my other hand, I held her cheek and turned her to look at me. I brought my face closer to hers and she parted her lips lightly. I brushed her nose with mine and she closed her eyes. Slowly, I leaned even closer to her lips and just as I was about to kiss her, she moved away from me and cleared her throat, letting go of my hand.

"Interesting choice of girlfriends," she said in an attempt to do away with the awkwardness.

"She is not my girlfriend."

"I could tell. I mean, you couldn't even remember her name. If she were your girlfriend, I'm sure you'd remember her name perfectly."

"I remember your name perfectly, Chloe. Does that make you my girlfriend?"

She didn't respond.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, she asked in another attempt to change the subject, "So why were you defending me?" I was startled. She had asked me the question that even I was still pondering myself about.

Why did I feel the need to defend her? Why did I not want to see her get hurt? Was it because I cared about her? No. It couldn't be. Girls cared about me and not the other way around.

So why did I feel like I cared about her?

Those were just some of the questions that I couldn't bring myself to answering. Before I could think of a fitting response, I was interrupted by the ringing sound of the doorbell. "Another one of your girlfriends?" she teased and I realized, in that moment, that I was never going to hear the end of it.

Deciding not to honour that with an answer, I went to the door and opened to see Chloe's friend. She had been kind of creepy in the past few days and, honestly, I didn't really think she was a true friend. More often than not, I had found her glaring daggers at Chloe when she was not looking. Something was seriously up with her. I made it a point to show her that her presence was unwelcome here. I started off with pretending not to remember her name.

"April, hi. Come in," I said, moving aside to allow her access.

"It's Amber," she corrected.

"Oh, I'm truly sorry." I actually did that on purpose.