I Am Schizophrenic

Chapter Fifteen

“SURPRISE!” Derrick, Eliza and Ashton screamed merrily.

My heart almost stopped and I stared at them in relief. “I hate you.” I chuckled.

“Did I sound creepy? No? okay.” Derrick sarcastically asked.

“You did!”

I was busy being shocked and forgot that Eliza was there. She was laughing at me,  I was so excited about her that I tightly hugged her saying “You’re here!” I swear that I was about to cry, it’s been a really long time since I last saw her and I missed her badly, I missed my best-friend’s hug.

“Yes! I missed you, Christie! Happy birthday.” She hugged me back tighter.

“Aww.” Derrick commented.

“Ashton, I missed you too!” I hugged him for a second then let go.

“Same here. Happy birthday, Tina!” he sweetly told me. I smiled at him.

“Everyone got a hug except me.” Derrick whined like a little child.

“Awh,” I mockingly commented. “Come here, big guy.” I hugged him a long, tight hug.

“Happy birthday, roomie.” He whispered in my ears then kissed my cheek.

“Thank you all.” I thanked them in a happy voice. It was amazing from them to remember my birthday which nobody remembers, that was a one good birthday with the people I love.

“We bought you cupcakes!” Liza cheerfully said.

“Yay!” I cheerfully told her.

We sat and opened the cupcakes box and I found 3 cupcakes in the same line each one was written on it ‘Happy’, ‘Birthday’, ‘Tina’. It was so sweet of them and I really loved it! We sat, talked and laughed for almost an hour and they mentioned that we were going out together at night to see a movie and go to a decent restaurant. I realized that Eliza and Ashton held hands, so we left Derrick and Ashton to watch TV then Eliza and I went to my room.

“Ashton and you?” I asked her, winking my eye.

She blushed and said “We’re official!”

“Wow, congratulations. He asked you so? To be his girlfriend.”

“Yeah, he’s been looking after me for a long time and been asking about me, helping me. he’s such a sweetheart.” She said in a very loving way, I was really happy for her—just afraid that things would go wrong and that would break her heart eventually.

“I’m really happy for you.” I hugged her a short hug.

She smiled innocently as she said “What about you and Derrick?”

“What? No, we’re just friends—he’s been helping me only, nothing more.” I elaborated.

“But he seems to really like you, don’t you truly feel anything towards him?”

I silenced for a minute then said “no,” I paused and said “I’m not in a condition to feel anything towards anyone. I am schizophrenic, remember?”

“That doesn’t make any sense, anyone can feel love.”

“Maybe.” I said so she can change the subject.

We hung out at night, went to see The Avengers—it was fascinating.  After that we went to some carnival near the town and had loads of fun, eventually we went and had dinner. We had so much fun as well. But I felt that there was something missing, either my family or Jake—I haven’t been thinking about my family, so it’s definitely Jake. I wanted to see him and I wondered if he remembered my birthday or not, and I wondered if he’s looking for me or not. Many unanswered questions in my head; does he care? Does he care as Derrick does? I’ve found myself comparing between both of them, I hated love-triangles or so—so stupid. I had to act normal until the day ends and after that I can think about everything as much as I wanted.

“I’ll call you, okay?” Eliza assured me as she was leaving with Ashton.

“Okay,” I smiled. “Thank you for the day, Liza. I’ll miss you.” I hugged her tightly.

“Bye, Tina. Take care of yourself.” Ashton told me as he hugged me.

“Thank you.” I uttered.

They left and Derrick and I were left alone, there was awkward silence for some moments then he broke it saying “Are you sleepy?”

I shook my head, “not really.”

“Cool. You wanna grab ice-cream?” he offered.

“Alright.”

We went and grabbed ice-cream, and we sat on a bench in some park near the apartment. We both ate our ice-creams in awkward silence. He gazed at me for a while and said,

“You know, I’d be in so much trouble if my parents found out.”

I sighed. “well, you didn’t have to do this anyway.”

“No, I had to. It’s you we’re talking about here.” He told me with serious eyes.

“I could’ve handled it on my own.”

“I’m just worried about you..” he told me in a sad way.

“Thank you.” I said while looking at the ground.

He randomly chuckled and said “This is so crazy,” then he looked at me and continued, “I’ve never been this crazy or caring about someone before you.”

I have to admit, I felt my cheeks burn—I was blushing. But I wasn’t really comfortable about how this conversation would go.

“Derrick, I don’t want-..” I started but he interrupted me.

“Can’t you see? I’m head over heels in love you.” He said it, took my hand and kissed it.

I froze. I saw that coming but I didn’t plan my reaction. I said nothing while he gazed at me with his beautiful smile, and I remembered Jake. I love Jake. I stood up and told him,

“I wanna go home.”

“Okay, let’s go.” He said in a broken voice.

“No. I mean home, Derrick—my home.”

He stood astonished, he didn’t see that coming neither did I. I didn’t mean what I said but I have already said it—so, I need to be responsible.

“Christina—I am sorry. You don’t have to say, I will not mention this subject again, just don’t leave.”

“Fine.” I said, but what he didn’t know that I—lied.

We returned home, and quickly and quietly, each one of us went to sleep. I knew he wouldn’t sleep right away, ‘cause neither would I. I’m not the right girl for Derrick. After countless hours, while pretending to sleep, I felt Derrick entering my room and approaching to my bed—he was making sure that the blanket was covering me well. I felt him kissing my forehead and whispering in a very low voice “I love you.” Of course he thought I was sleeping, but I wasn’t—not because I was sleepless, but because I was planning for something he didn’t know.

5 am in the morning, I woke up—it was still dark. I packed everything quietly and left the apartment. I walked down the streets, afraid and unsecured. I left Derrick because I had to—anyways sooner or later he would have taken me back home. I arrived to a train-station and called Eliza from a payphone.

“Hello?” she answered in a sleepy voice. Obviously.

“Eliza, it’s me—you need to wake up and come now.”

“Christina? Where are you? And what’s wrong?”

“Pack everything now, and come to me at the train-station.”

“What…? We’re leaving? I can’t and…Ashton.” She uttered.

“We’ll call him, Liza. But I beg you, you need to come now—with everything packed.”

She sighed and said “alright, Christina.”

Escape number two, it was. You’ll probably wonder where we are to go—I’ll just leave it as a surprise.