Someone Like You

Chapter Eight

His screams turn into laughter. His hands are on his stomach while laughing hilariously as tears glitters on his eyes.

"I get it. I get it." I try to act calm though his actually pissing me off.

He raises his hands. He takes deep breaths and even closes his eyes. He tries to look calm for a moment. "Okay. Okay." He slowly opens his eyes and looks at me. He instantly bites his lips and once again bursts into tears laughing at me.

I turned away from him. I don't want to get mad at him but I'm really pissed.

"Hey!" he says chuckling. I continue to walk pretending not to hear him. I walk faster trying to get away from him as much as possible. "Hey!" He calls out trying to catch up with me. "I'm sorry okay." He says. "Melissa, I'm sorry. Would you please stop walking and let me talk to you?"

I can't help it but I give in and follow his orders. I turn around to look at him. He's standing a few feet away staring directly at me with a straight face. I stay silent and wait for him to talk.

"I'm sorry. It's just that ..." he has a long pause thinking what to say.

"It's just that?"

"It's just that I was not expecting you too look this way. You look you so different. You look ..." he pause, finding the right word. " Tired."

Tired. I almost laugh at him. It's an understatement. Even I don't know what word fits my situation. I nod. I don't know what to say. I feel tired and I look tired – worse even. He's right.

"What?" he asks.

"What?"

"Say something!"

"What something?"

"Would you please react to what I said and not just look at me blankly."

"Ah. Yeah. You're right."

"What?!"

"I just said you're right. I agree with you. I look horrible."

"That's bullshit." He exclaims. "You can quit being our manager. Why are you even doing this?"

It's because of you, damn it. I entered the basketball team and go through this hell because of you! My mind is shouting but I keep my mouth shut. "I'm not as weak as what you think I am. I can handle being your manager. Don't even try to underestimate me." I say instead. It makes him shut up and for a second, I regret what I said.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to sound like that. It's just that you don't look like the way you were before. It makes me worry about you." He says looking genuinely sorry.

My heart leaps. It makes me worry about you. Our eyes meet as I look at him. After everything that had happened, I feel happy. I can't stop myself from feeling this way. It's so crazy. It makes me worry about you. I think all my hard work has paid off. The exhaustion vanishes. My decision to be in the basketball team was right after all.

"You don't have to say sorry you know." I manage to say calmly. I smile at him and he smiles back. I turn around and proceed to do my work. I really can't be angry at him for so long. I just can't do it.

To my surprise, Alexander walks with me.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

He grins. "I told you I am worried about you, right?" I nod shyly in answer. "Well, I came here to help you."

Since that day, Alexander always arrives to school even earlier than me. My work load decreases big time because he is helping me and because he's just simply there. We may not see each other for the rest of the day, at least, we already spend time alone with each other every morning.

It was a surprise for me at first to see him every day in the gym every morning. But as days pass, I come to the point that I am secretly expecting him to be there and without failure, he's always there ready to help me with anything with a smile.

"Why do you come here this early every day? You were always late before. I don't really get why you're here." I ask him.

"I just want to help you. I can't stand watching you get stress out because of us." He answers straightly. "I'm worried about you. I don't think there are any other reasons that could beat that."

I freeze and drop the things I'm carrying.

He looks at me and laughs. "Just kidding. I come here to practice a lot more."