SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AT HOME with your mom and brother couldn’t get as boring as it already is.
“Honey, aren’t you going with Abby to the mall? Or with your other friends?” my mom asked me as a commercial played on TV. “You’re usually not home on a Saturday night.”
“Abby has a date with Brandon, Precious is downtown with Seth” And they left me here all alone, dateless. “Jared’s with his girlfriend, probably watching a movie.”
Abby and I used to hang out every Saturday night doing what any other single sixteen-year old girls would. But since Brandon asked her out tonight (again), she left me alone to figure out what to do so that I don’t die of boredom. And every second brings me closer to my funeral.
“Well don’t you have other friends?”
“Mom,” I rolled my eyes for the benefit of it. “Every person I know is out with dates tonight.”
Well, not really every person. But, near there.
“Well,” my Mom started to say but the commercial ended and her eyes glued to the TV screen.
I heaved a sigh as CSI returned to the screen. Everyone in this house is busy with something except me. Danny is in his room, doing God-knows-what in his computer. I don’t really care; I guess he’ll turn into a computer zombie anytime soon.
I stared at the brown and red carpet beneath my feet. It had some interesting shapes that I had never noticed before in the ten years that this carpet was here.
My eyes traced over a small brown circle enclosed by an almond-shaped outline that was abstractly hidden. Inside the small brown circle was another brown circle, only smaller and fainter. Only then as I looked at it more closely did I see what it was.
It looked like an eye—a brown eye. Like my brown eyes. But it isn’t exactly the same color. I tried to think of someone I know who has the same kind of brown in their eyes. Hmm…wait, I think it’s…
Chase Henman.
My heart thudded in my chest. Oh, why do I have to think about him?! Now I can’t get his stupid brown eyes in my head. Ever since I met him, I’ve been ambushed with bad luck over and over again. He’s such an annoying jerk that I want to hurl something at him when I see him. He thinks he’s a better artist than me, when we both now that it is completely false. I am SO much better than him.
But…he did help me when I tripped last Wednesday, even if he was the reason for it. And he did find my wallet, even if he looked inside and saw some things that were private. AND he did try to help me with my sleeves during Art Class, even though my pot was ruined in the process.
Maybe Abby was right. Maybe I should be nice to him. Maybe he’s just a really nice guy deep inside. Maybe, maybe not.
Hmmm. I wonder what Chase is doing tonight?
I banged my head on the wall once when I realized that I was just thinking about him once again. Which caused my mother to say, “Kelsie, what on earth are you doing?”
“Nothing, mom.” Just going crazy.
Just then, the doorbell rang. I jumped to my feet and ran to the door, ignoring my mother’s curious stare. I was sure that this door is for me. Who could it be? Abby? Precious? Seth? Brandon? Jared??
I opened the door and nearly fainted when I saw who it was.
“Hi Kelsie. You’re wearing only that?” He said as he looked over my simple t-shirt and jeans. But I didn’t answer his question. I had more important things to ask. Like, why the hell is he standing on my doorway on a Saturday night looking so gorgeous?
“Chase?!?! What are you doing here?!” I struggled to keep my voice low though I was close to hyperventilating.
“What do you mean what am I doing here? I told I’ll be picking you up at five.” He said slowly, like he was talking to a mentally-challenged person, which in this case, is probably true.
I stared at him in confusion, trying to put the puzzle pieces of his words together. “Pick me up at five? Since when did you—” The light bulb flickered to life in my head. “You mean you were serious when you asked me out???”
“Duh. What do you think I’m standing here for?” He rolled his eyes at me. I fought the urge to punch him in his face. I promised myself tonight that I’d take the time to be nice to him.
I looked back at my mother who was still watching CSI, to the chair that I was sitting at and back to Chase. Will I go out with him tonight? I’ve never have much experience with dating before, in fact, Chase was the first guy to ever ask me out. But I don’t like him. I don’t! If I had a choice, I’d want Jared to be my first date. But the chances of that to happen are lower than anyone can imagine.
“Lewis! What are you waiting for? Come on!” He urged.
“Alright, alright! You’re just lucky nothing on TV is worth watching tonight! I’m just gonna change.” I headed up the stairs and racked my mind for something to wear.
I began rummaging desperately into my closet, trying to find something decent to wear. What are you supposed to wear on a date anyway?! I haven’t got the slightest idea so I just picked a random outfit that looks casual and not too formal. I changed out of my comfy sweats and into the clothes that I picked as fast as I can and grabbed my brush and began combing my messy hair until it was untangled and ready to style. Then, I looked at the mirror and decided what hairdo would match my outfit. I was just about to go with wearing my hair down and curling it at the ends when I heard Chase’s car honk. Loudly. Guess it isn’t such a good time to curl my hair now, I thought as I rolled my eyes. Chase is so impatient. So in the end, I opted on wearing my hair in a sideways ponytail then curled the ends to save more time.
After that, I quickly snatched some accessories from my oversized jewelry box and put them on while I was walking down the stairs. I didn’t even get to see my whole outfit on the full-length bathroom mirror because I heard Chase’s car honk again. Louder this time. To my frustration, I shouted, “I’m coming! I’m coming!” although I’m pretty sure no one heard me. Sheesh. Can’t he wait for five whole minutes without getting impatient?! I nearly tripped and practically stumbled my way down. I really shouldn’t put my accessories on while going down the stairs. That is, if I want to live.
I walked over to my mom and said, “I’m going out tonight, Mom.”
She smiled at me in an odd way and said, “Well that’s sudden. I thought you don’t have any plans toni—” she stopped mid-sentence, just shakes her head and says “You go have fun, dear. Don’t forget your curfew.” Then she turned back to the TV.
“I won’t,” I said as I closed the door and ran over to Chase’s car, which by the way is the fanciest car I’ve ever seen. Well, besides Jared’s of course. It was a brand new Mercedes Benz. I couldn’t tell what kind but it sure looked expensive.
“Wow. For an annoying little brat, you’ve got really good taste in cars,” I said, quite impressed. I swung myself in the passenger seat, holding the roof as I get in.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said. Then he examined me from head to toe. His look gave me the chills and made the hair on my arms stand on their ends. But I guess I was just being paranoid. I mean, never in my entire life did I ever dream of being on a date with Chase Henman. I don’t even know what came over me when I agreed to go out with him. What the hell was I thinking?!?! Well, it’s too late to back out now…
“You know, you look really pretty,” he said, flashing his blinding, ultra white teeth at me. I haven’t really noticed this before but Chase sort of has a way of smiling. The kind that he smiles on one side only. Chills run down my spine again but not because of nervousness, but because Chase is just so damn gorgeous!!!
Suddenly, colors come crashing to my mind and I can feel the inspiration to make another painting. I haven’t painted for a few days now. This must be a sign.
“So, you ready?” Chase says without waiting for an answer. He stomped on the gas pedal and hit the road.
“Where are we going anyway?” I asked. I was curious to where Chase was going to take me. Maybe he’s going to take me to some lame action move where I’ll just get bored to death. Or maybe we’re going to some stupid skating park where he’d meet with his buddies and probably make lame jokes and show me their gross scabs. Or worse, what if he’s going to take me to my favorite Italian restaurant then he’d let me pay for everything. I mentally kicked myself for bringing only fifty bucks. That would never cover for a meal at La Dolce Vita, let alone two meals! I’d be embarrassed that I’ll never have to show my face to anyone ever again. Why did I even agree to this crazy idea anyway?!? I mean, all I wanted in my whole entire life is to have my first date with Jared and here I am, sitting next to Chase—the person I despise—who may or may not like me. What is wrong with me?
“You’ll see,” he said, his eyes straight on the road but his mouth turning up to that dazzling smile again. For a second I thought he was answering my question.
My heart started to beat ten times faster. I tried to avoid eye contact with him for the rest of the ride. The music playing in the radio was “Falling for you” by Colbie Caillat. The lyrics hit me like a whiplash. Every word slapped me right in the face. I instantly reached my hand out to change the station. Any song would do except this one! Here I am, sitting with Chase, the guy I despise so much, who I may or may not like. And it doesn’t help that all these thoughts swimming in my head has background music! Sheesh! I was just about to turn the dial when Chase’s hand beat me to it.
“What are you doing?” he said, his brow furrowed together. He looked kind of pissed, although I’m not sure why.
Maybe I should keep this to myself…the irritating song went on. “Changing the radio station,” I said innocently. What’s his problem?
I am trying not to tell you, but I want to I’m scared of what you’ll say…
“Why?” he asked.
I struggled for an answer, “I just don’t like the song,” I said.
I’ve been spending all my time just thinking bout ya I don’t know what to do I think I’m falling for you…
“Really? I thought girls like you would go gaga for these kinds of songs,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Well I’m not that kind of girl,” I lied. Deep down inside, I know that I am one of those girls who would go crazy over a pretty love song but it would be too humiliating to admit it out aloud. Especially when I need a good cover to hide my irritation towards the song for making me feel queasy inside.
“Well, I happen to like it. So hands off my radio,” he said.
“Fine,” I pouted and put my arms across my chest like a grumpy three year old kid.
All around us I see nobody, here in silence it’s just you and me…
I looked through the window and watched as countless houses and trees and lampposts passed by as Chase drove in a very high speed. I looked at the speedometer and saw that we were going about a hundred and thirty miles per hour! And so I totally forgot about the song that’s annoying me every single second.
“Ohmigosh!!! Do you want us to crash or something?!?!?! Slow down!!!” I almost shrieked.
Chase, on the other hand, looked calm and just said confidently, “Don’t worry. We won’t crash,”
“Well can you at least slow the car down? Your driving is making me crazy!!!”
“I like driving fast.”
“Well I don’t.”
“It’s my car, remember?!” he said, and that totally caught me off guard.
“You now what, I don’t care. Just drop me off somewhere so I could go home,” I said as I tried to unbuckle my seat belt.
“Oh no you don’t,” he said, holding the steering wheel in one hand and stopping me from taking of my seat belt on the other hand. His hand still felt cold. Just like when we first touched in the rooftop. I wonder how that’s even possible since the car’s heater was up. Maybe it’s cause of the cold weather outside. Autumn is rolling down already.
In the end, Chase won at making my seat belt buckled. I flopped my back in the shot gun seat as a sign of defeat. “Can you please just tell me where we’re going? I’m dying of suspense here!”
“Nope,” he said smugly, his eyes still on the road.
So I just remained quiet the whole trip, not bothering to make conversation with him. I mean, how can I concentrate when I talk to a guy who’s like an angel sent from above? I tried not to make eye contact with him either because it still kind of freaks me out that we have the same eye color. Although it is a good feeling when someone so gorgeous can have the same eye color as yours.
Seconds, minutes, maybe hours—who’s counting?—passed by and still Chase hasn’t talked to me yet. It kind of amazes me that he was able to keep his mouth shut since I thought he was used to being a blabbermouth all the time. Just when I was about to give up to talking to him, we stopped in front of an ice cream shop.
I read the sign. “Haagen-Dazs?”
“It’s pronounced ha-gen-das,” he said, as he took the key off the ignition and stepped out of the car.
“Whatever,” I muttered as I stepped out of the car, too.
The car was parked in front of a large ice cream shop. Apparently, these were the kinds of ice creams worth more than ten bucks. I shivered thinking of how much this will cost me.
I followed Chase into the shop and entered through one of those automatic-opening doors. We walked into a brightly lit shop. There were little stools on the counter and near the window for single persons. And there were tables with more stools on the middle for couples and families. The floor was marble (I think) with a checkered black and white pattern. Kind of like the floors of kitchens way back in the eighties only those ones are tiles. The walls were colored sky blue, a color I always used in painting. There were few people in the shop. Only a girl and a boy sitting in the couples’ table and a family of four happily—and noisily, I might add—eating their ice creams at the back side of the little posh shop.
Chase walked over to a round table with two stools on each side next to the glass window, or wall, or whatever you might want to call it.
Then, out of nowhere, a blonde-haired girl wearing a dorky looking uniform—a French maid outfit with the colors white and hot pink—came over to our table and took our orders. Guess she was the waitress. That is, if she’s not the maid.
“Hi sir. May I take your order?” the girl said, looking at Chase from underneath her long, lashes. She gave us the menu which was a piece of rectangle metal with the menu engraved in silver letters. The different flavors of ice cream, yogurt, sorbet and reserve were described with bold, red and blue letters which were also engraved in a posh looking font that suited the place. It was obvious that she was talking to Chase and not me. Which kind of irritated me.
“Yeah. What do you want, Kelsie?” Chase said, looking at me and totally ignoring the flirty shopkeeper. Ha! In your face!
“Um, honestly I don’t know if I can afford these prices. I mean, come on! Twelve dollars for an ice cream!?!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll cover the expenses for you,” he said, grinning at me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the shopkeeper roll her eyes in a disgusted way. Or maybe I just imagined it. I don’t know.
“Okay.”
“So…what flavor?” he said.
“Um,” I looked over at the piece of metal in my hands—while trying to ignore the cold, icy stare of the annoying blonde girl who was eyeing me carefully as if she was a snake ready to snap at its prey. There were flavors you would normally see on most ice cream shops like Coffee and Pistachio but there were flavors with unusual names that I have no clue what they’d look like, let alone taste like. I saw bizarre-o flavors like Rum Raisin (ew, I hate raisins), Pineapple Coconut (what the hell does that taste like?!), Green Tea (weird…) and one that sounds really, really fancy with the name White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle (ooh…).
“There’ so many choices. I don’t know what to pick,” I said.
“How ‘bout this one,” Chase pointed to the flavor under the ice cream column, “Chocolate Chocolate Chip. That’s one of my favorite,” he smiled again and my heart did back flips over and over. He read the description underneath it, “Häagen-Dazs® chocolate chocolate chip ice cream is the perfect combination of pure, sweet cream, decadent Dutch cocoa and rich chocolate chips an ice cream experience for those who appreciate the true essence of chocolate.”
I stifled a laugh.
“Okay! I’m feeling chocoholic today!” I said with much enthusiasm.
Chase chuckled but Blondey French Maid just rolled her eyes again—although I was sure of it this time.
“So, we’ll have one Chocolate Chocolate Chip,” he winked at me and I automatically smiled, “and um, one Vanilla Swiss Almond,” he said, picking our orders.
“One Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Vanilla Swiss Almond coming up!” the French-maid-looking waitress grabbed the menu from us—she kind of snatched mine, as a matter of fact—and walked away with one last roll of her pink-eye-shadowed eye.
“Man! It’s so hot here!” Chase said as he took of his leather, tan jacket. I really haven’t noticed what he was wearing until now. He took off his jacket and dropped it on the small, round table revealing his strong, muscular figure. He was wearing a slim white tee that hugged his body too tightly that it showed his six-pack-like abs. I stopped myself from drooling at the sight of his cut body.
“So,” he said after neatly folding his jacket and putting it on his lap.
“So,” I echoed. I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“How’s your painting going?” he asked casually.
“My painting?” I asked. Oh right. My paintings. Man! When was the last time I painted!? I mean, it’s so not like me to just leave my hobby just like that.
“Yeah. You know the one you’re supposed to do for the art fair?” he reminded me.
“Whaaaaaat?!?!” I almost shrieked, “I was supposed to do a painting for the art fair?!?! Wh-what? I didn’t hear Mrs. Macready say anything about that!” Oh man! I cannot believe this! I’m supposed to do a painting for the art fair I always wanted to be a part of since middle school and I don’t even know it! My gosh! What the hell is happening to me? I’m not usually the one to forget things. My brother maybe, but not me. This only started happening to me since, since…
…since Chase came to my life!
Ohmigosh! It’s bad enough that he’s making me feel confused about my feelings—both with him and Jared—he’s also making me lose it. I can’t believe that I’m letting him get into my head. Ugh!
“Oh, well, if you haven’t done anything yet…I could help you.” He offered.
I waited. “Where’s the punch line?” I said sarcastically when he remained silent.
“What do you mean?” He asked, his brows knitting together.
“Oh, come on! Are you seriously telling me that you want to help me?” Chase Henman offering me help? That was out of character.
He rolled his eyes. “I may be an annoying jerk but I still have a heart you know.”
“I didn’t think you had one.” I muttered to myself.
“Well, will you give me tonight to prove to you that I do have a heart?” he asked, smiling widely.
I can’t help smiling at him. “Sure thing—we could always follow the yellow brick road if it turns out that you didn’t have one.”
Chase chuckled. “Aren’t you a little old for The Wizard of Oz?”
I frowned at him “Hey, I like that story!”
He pursed his lips. “Okay, tell me all about it…”
I bit my lip. “I can’t. I already forgot it.”
We laughed out loud. It felt so good to laugh…to feel free of anything and everything.
The waitress then brought over our Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Vanilla Swiss Almond to our table. She winked at Chase flirtatiously before walking away.
I stared after her. Dang, she’s pretty. Way more than me—if I am what you would call pretty. Her light yellow hair was curled all the way down to her chest. Eyes colored ocean blue glinted through long fringes of eyelashes. Her nose was pointed, her pink lips jutting out to our direction.
“Jealous are we?” Chase asked, raising his brows up. He smiled at me again and I almost forgot to respond. “Don’t worry, I get that a lot”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I lied. I scooped up a spoonful of ice-cream and sighed when the chocolate taste saturated my taste buds.
“You like that don’t you?”
“Mmh-mh!”
He continued to watch me gulp up my ice-cream with an amused expression on his face.
“What?”
He smirked at me. “Well, it’s the first time I saw a girl enjoy some ice-cream so much.”
“What, you want me to look like this”—I wrinkled my face—“while eating this delicious Chocolate Chocolate Chip ice-cream?”
His laugh startled everybody in the building. The flirty Blonde waitress shot daggers at me.
“How about this?” He put his spoon between his lips and crossed his eyes.
It was my turn to laugh now. “You look like a cross-eyed monkey who has a silver spoon as a tongue!”
We spent the rest of the hour making funny faces at each other—and annoying the customers because we were laughing so hard.
“Okay! Okay…enough! I…can’t…breathe!” I said through loud guffaws.
“Alright! Alright!” He said after another round of laughter. “Come on, let’s go before they kick us out.”
I got the chance to see my outfit through the glass wall of the shop. My hair was sort of messy by now since the wind was sort of blowing locks of my now-wavy hair out of my loose ponytail. But the result was kind of really nice, though. Kind of like a natural, crawled-out-of-bed-then-put-on-a-ponytail way. The blond highlights on my hair shined on the setting sun like golden honey. I saw my whole entire outfit (which I didn’t get a chance to see before I left the house) which is basically an original Matthew Williamson wool funnel neck jacket thrown over an Alicia + Olivia scarf detailed top, Lace-print cropped skinny jeans and Aston suede calf Halston boots.
“Man!” I said as we walked back to his Mercedes. “I’ve never laughed so hard in years!” and
“Me too.” He said, his breath coming out huffily.
“After you…” Chase opened the door to his car and motioned his hand in.
I stared at him, confused. Why was he doing this? He couldn’t really like me right? I mean, why would he?
“I told you I’ll prove to you that I have a heart.”
“Oh.” He was just doing because he’s playing the nice guy. He so does not have any interest in me whatsoever.
I went in silently, still confused. He slid next to me in the driver’s seat and turned the engine on.
“Where are we going now?” I asked. While fidgeting on my seatbelt strap.
He smirked at me. “You’ll see.”
He hit the gas pedal and I held on to my seat for dear life