Chapter 6
“This? This is what you do in your free time?” Adam says in such a tone that it almost sounds like he’s mocking me. I look at him for a few seconds before flipping the page of my book. “What’s wrong with spending my free hours reading?” I ask not really taking an interest in his answer.
“Well I thought that because you have this whole mansion for you that you’d be doing something fun. Like I don’t know, playing hide and seek or like doing something outside in that big garden of yours.” He’s not even reading the book I generously lent him. He’s just waving it around. If only he knows that, that book he’s holding is worth a lot more than his life.
“Hide and seek? Are you some sort of a child?” I scoff, putting my book down on my lap. Adam raises an eyebrow, leaning forward a little. “Have you ever played hide and seek before? No one is too old to play hide and seek, Annabelle.” He states. “As a matter of fact, no I haven’t played hide and seek before.” His eyes go wide but I cut him off immediately. “How many times do I have to tell you that you cannot just call me Annabelle? You have to add Ms.” I scold him.
He falls back on his chair with a lazy grin. “Technically, we’re not doing our sessions today so that means I’m just purely hanging out with you as your dear friend and friends don’t call each other Ms. or Mr.” I look away and let my hair cover my face. He thinks we’re friends? Since when did we establish this? Okay fine. I guess its fine to just call me Annabelle…ONLY when we’re not in our sessions of course.
“Actually, Annabelle is such a long name to pronounce.” He sighs dramatically. “What’s wrong with pronouncing my full name?” I retort. “Can’t I just give you a nickname or something?” He blows a strand of hair that’s fallen from his hairstyle. His hair is gelled to go up and it slants slightly to the right. Anyway “You’re pushing it, Adam.” I warn him. “Isn’t it enough that I’m going to let you just call me Annabelle instead of Ms. Annabelle?” I huff.
“Everyone calls you Annabelle though. I want to be different.” He points out. He stands up and walks back and forth and around the chair I’m sitting in while looking at me intently.
“What about Anna?” He suggests after many seconds.
I shake my head to say that I disagree. “I don’t think that suits me quite well.” I give him my honest opinion. If he’s really going to do this nickname thing then I’d want to have a say in it if he’s going to be calling me that from now on.
“Well what about Belle?”
“Are you completely serious about that?”
“Yeah, it suits you!” He exclaims like a ten year old boy before plopping down on his chair. To be completely and utterly honest, no one has ever tried calling me that so he’s the first.
“Isn’t that the name of the character in the book ‘Beauty and the Beast’?” I ask, crossing my arms just under my chest. “I love that movie.” He declares before standing up again. Can he just pick a position and just stay like that?
“Wait, there’s a movie?” I tilt my head in confusion. I thought that there was only a book for that and not a movie. “Are you for real right now?!” He laughs at my lack of information and I glare at him until he stops to a smile. “Yes, there are a couple of movies about that but the most popular one would be the Disney one.” He tells me.
“So Belle-“He looks at me for approval and I just roll my eyes. “-You’re going to drop that book and come play hide and seek with me.” He’s a child in a man’s body. I’m very sure of that. “I don’t want to. Play by yourself.” I mutter, opening my book again and reading from where I ended.
‘-she says, and sprints down the stairs and into the-‘
“Hey! Give it back!” I shout, standing up. Adam wiggles the book in front of me and I try to snatch it away but with his quick reflexes, he rapidly raises it up above his head where I couldn’t reach it. “Adam! Give the book back!” He laughs when I slap his chest angrily. “Aw, Belle you’ve got to try harder than that.”
I scream in frustration before turning my back and walking away crossly. I’m not about to jump up and down in front of him to get the damn book.
He laughs once again before he reaches for my shoulder and turns me to face his grinning face. It seems as if our moods are always the opposite because I’m now holding a firm face. “Tell you what. I’ll make a deal with you.” He removes the hand that’s resting on my shoulder.
“You play one game of hide and seek with me. I’ll be the seeker don’t worry.” He starts and I nod for him to continue. “If I don’t find you within the first ten minutes then you win and we can do anything you want for the rest of the day.” I open my mouth to agree but he stops me abruptly. “But if I win, then I’ll have control over what we do for today.” The deal is simple enough and I’m quite a small girl so I could probably cram myself in pretty tight spaces. He’s in a disadvantage of course. I know this mansion very well while he doesn’t.
“And also, you can only hide on the east wing.” He puts my book down on the table before he takes his right hand and puts it forward ready to shake my hand. “Ten minutes?” I ask. “Just ten minutes.” He nods.
I hesitantly bring my hand to meet with his. “Deal.” I murmur.
“Better run and hide now, Belle.” He winks not letting go of my hand yet. “I’ll give you a minute to hide. Then I’ll come and find you.” I pull away before running out of the room. He starts to count loudly which just adds to my anxiety.
I jog quietly, looking at the rooms to see if it’s suitable for me to hide in. I spot the farthest room from the room where Adam is in this wing before I quickly got in, closing the door after me quietly. It creaked for a second but other than that, it went smoothly. I take a look at the room and I raise an eyebrow at the state of the room. It’s not as clean as all the other rooms and it’s filled with boxes. Maybe this is where they store my unused items?
“READY OR NOT HERE I COME!” I could hear Adam shout. It’s too late to find another room so I quickly went behind a couple of boxes, pushing and pulling boxes around me so I’m well hidden. All I need to do is to stay quiet and small for ten minutes.
I wish I brought a book or any sort of entertainment with me though. What am I supposed to do for ten whole minutes?
Adam’s pretty loud with seeking and I almost let out a chuckle whenever I hear him shout out some phrase between the lines of “Belle! Where art thou?”
What am I even doing?
Why am I here, surrounded with a couple of dusty boxes waiting for someone to find me? Why did I agree to do this? Why did I just agree to something Adam wants to do? I hope I’m not showing any soft spots.
“Belle!” He’s getting nearer and I make myself smaller while my heart beat faster. Is this how everyone feels whenever they play this stupid childish game? Do they all experience adrenaline running through their whole body whenever they do something like this? Why have I not experienced this before? Why does it feel so good?
I can hear him checking the room besides this one. Soon enough, he will check this one and it hasn’t even passed the seven minute mark. I let out a low growl of frustration.
The growl that turns into a shriek in under a second when I see something crawling towards to where I am sitting.
I try to stand up but quickly sit back down as the door opens. Light comes in the room and I gasp quietly as I see an enormous spider just sitting centimeters away from me. Its hairy legs move slowly and I have to bite my lip so hard that I’m almost sure that it draws blood just to prevent myself from screaming.
I’ve always hated insects especially spiders. It’s a common phobia so I don’t feel bad for being scared of such creatures. Of course, my hatred for such devil spawn beings had to start somewhere. It started one faithful morning when my seven year old self woke up beside a spider. It’s not a pretty picture to see a spider close up to your face when you just woke up from a wonderful dream. I had Cole and Luis check my room for any spiders every night for the next two months after that. I also had them spray this insecticide every two weeks which is probably not very healthy now that I think about it but I was seven after all.
“Belle? You in here?” Adam’s voice made the spider move again and I let out a small whimper, something that I think is very shameful.
Stupid, Adam.
“Belle?” He repeats that stupid nickname again and the spider moves closer to where I am. My eyesight turns blurry and I wipe them away quickly. I’m not about to cry twice in a day.
Don’t cry
Don’t cry
Don’t cry
F*CK
I let a few tears fall, both my hands on my mouth when the spider touches the material of my shirt.
That’s it. I’m so done. Nothing that Adam will let me do today is as bad as what I’m experiencing right now.
I shakily take my hands out of the way of my mouth. “Adam…” I bellow in a soft whisper. It’s barely audible but it’s enough for him to hear me. Quick footsteps and seconds later, I see Adam’s face popping out from the stacks of boxes in front of me.
He’s grinning from ear to ear but quickly frowns when he sees my tear stricken face. He rapidly removes the boxes that are separating us while I just sit frozen. The spider has not dared to move away but it’s actually doing something else. “Please.” I plead, looking at the spider that’s now clinging on the sides of my shirt.
“Stop crying, Belle.” He coos as if I was a child he’s comforting. He makes me face him, away from the devil spawn. He wipes my tears away with his right hand while his left hand is doing something that’s hopefully getting rid of the spider. I couldn’t see because I’m facing him of course. He’s offering me a soothing smile that relaxes me slightly. The distance between our faces should have me running to the other side of the mansion in any other given day but it didn’t this time. In fact, it’s giving me the sense of security.
“You’re ruining that pretty face of yours by shedding tears.” He pouts, tucking bits of hair out of the way of my sight. His hands slide down to my waist and he stands me up slowly. “Where is it?” I ask my voice still shaky and unstable. A complete 180 degrees turn to my usual tone.
“Don’t worry.” He’s guiding me out of the dark room slowly. He’s walking backwards and both his hands are now on mine. “I flicked it somewhere. Quite a big guy wasn’t he?” He chuckles. “Y-yeah” I gulp. I really want to break our eye contact but I couldn’t. I’m terrified that I’m going to see more of the devil spawns around the room. One is enough.
“Hey it’s okay now. You got me.”
I nod shakily.
“You have arachnophobia?”
“Actually I think I have entomophobia. I despise insects.”
“Noted”
I know that I’m still shaking and he knows it too and this is why he’s drawing small circles on the back of my hand until we’re finally out of the room. The room that I’m going to have to get them to exterminate.
After a few seconds of catching my breath and my heart beat returning normal, I gradually let go of his hand.
“Thank you…”
“Always here to save you, Belle.”
Author's Note
A chapter that allows their relationship to jump to the next level :')
I know a lot of you are waiting for juicy drama and I will get there. Don't worry. Everything is planned out >:) But before we could get to the drama, we actually need to get the two to fall deeply in love with each other <3 (and the nickname omg *.*)
I might have exaggerated that scene but who cares? Adam is such a big sweet heart! Who wants him as a valentine?! Me!
Please comment what you think and vote as well!
Stay pretty my daydreamers! Unless you're a dude! Then stay handsome!
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Love you xxx
:)