The Riverside Curse

Chapter Twenty Three: Anais

Anais' P.O.V

The three of us go to the head camp where they hand homeless families boxes of supplies. While we were there Jair, Sydnee and I helped them rebuild houses and played around with a few kids that stuck around to watch.

As I caught the final hide and seeker I picked her up and twirled her around. I smiled as her giggles filled my ears.

"You've changed," Jair says watching me closely.

I set her down and she ran off to her parents.

"I have? Well, you've changed also. A lot." I say, picking up a hammer.

He raises an eyebrow at me. "How?"

"You're..."

"Nicer? Not a total dick?" He scratches the back of his head and looks at me apologetically. "Yeah, I'm sorry about how I treated you before."

"I get it. I was younger, you were older. It's not fun being around an annoying kid."

"That's no excuse for the way I treated you. I should have been nicer. You were just a kid."

I kept waiting for the act to disappear and the idiotic jerk I knew to reveal himself and say some inappropriate comment or go and get drunk but he never shows. This Jair is sweet, thoughtful, and hotter than ever.

"Looks like college was good for you."

He laughs. "All the stuff that matters in high school won't matter in college. No one even cares if you showed up in your underwear."

I gasp. "No!"

He laughs. "I'm serious!"

"Well, then I can't wait to go. I've been petitioning that girls should be allowed to wear their shirts without bras."

"Then you're going to need to transfer to an all-girls school."

"Or... people should learn to keep their sexual desires in check. It's this little thing called self-control. I keep asking the school board that they add that to the health department as a class."

Jair smiles, shaking his head at me.

"I didn't know that Sydnee was coming with us. Trust me. I wanted to spend as much time alone with you as possible."

There he goes again saying stuff like that! I could feel my cheeks warm and I turned my head so he didn't see the smile that was creeping up my cheeks. None of this made sense. But when did anything make sense when it correlated with me?

"You still think I'm a little girl?"

He speaks softly, stepping towards me. "No, not at all."

Jair trails his finger to the side of my face and tucks my hair behind my ear. I take a sharp breath, getting lost in his dark ocean eyes.

Our tour guides arrived and handed us two backpacks and some shovels. "Let's get started!"

I break eye contact with him and shove my hands in my beige cargo pant pocket. I pull out a folded piece of paper and hand it to him.

He smirks. "What's this?"

I waved my hand at him, pretending to brush it off. "It's just something I drew in the plane. Couldn't sleep."

Jair unfolds it and stares at the paper then he looks at me in astonishment. "You're extremely talented Anais. You even got the small scar under my left eye."

"It was nothing. The model was the stunning one. All I did was simply try to replicate it."

Then I leave him standing there to ponder over my words.