I pulled up outside Lee’s home about an hour later. I was feeling a little nervous about seeing Chris. I wasn’t sure why though. Taking a deep calming breath, I got out of the car and headed to the door and knocked.
There was a bit of noise from inside and I actually contemplated leaving and perhaps calling when the door was thrown open and Felicity appeared. She was wearing a green tank top and black leggings, her braided hair held messily on top of her head.
‘Chubby. Hey!’ She greeted with a small smile. ‘Looking for Lee or Chris?’
I gave her a smile of my own, ‘Both?’ Mostly Chris.
‘You just missed Chris. He left here ten minutes ago. Lee’s in his room,’ she said, holding the door wider to let me in. ‘Come in, please.’
‘Thank you.’ I walked into the house behind Felicity who walked to the stairs and stood at the bottom.
I’ve never really interacted with Lee’s sister, not even in school. But I could tell she was a really nice person, very chilled out.
‘Lee get your ass down here right now! You got a visitor!’ Felicity shouted at the top of her voice.
Okay. So maybe she wasn’t so chilled after all, I decided.
She turned back to me with a smile, ‘He’ll be down shortly. Don’t mind my shouting. It’s how I show him I love him.’ With a wink, she retreated to the living room, leaving me a little surprised but amused. She was an interesting character, alright.
Lee came trotting down the stairs, smiling when he saw me. ‘Chubby!’
‘Hey,’ I gave him a small smile.
‘If you’re looking for Chris-‘
I cut him off, ‘Yea. You’re sister told me. I guess I also wanted to talk to you.’
Lee nodded, ‘Well in that case, come to my room. I was just finishing editing a vine. It’ll only take a minute.’
‘Cool,’ I said, following him up the stairs.
Lee’s room, I concluded, looked as if a small tornado tore through it. Some clothes were strewn on the floor while others were on his bed. He had a desktop computer on one corner of his room and a small cooler beside it. He took a soda can from it and threw it at me; fortunately, I caught it.
‘As you can tell, I’m the messiest guy alive. And a bad host,’ he said with an apologetic smile. ‘I didn’t even ask if you wanted the soda.’
I shrugged, ‘It’s okay really. I kinda needed it.’ I said, looking around for somewhere to seat. At least it wasn’t dirty. Just really messy.
‘Oh. Right,’ he said, pushing aside some clothes on his bed. ‘You can sit here.’
I sat where he’d made space and opened the can, sipping slowly, looking around his room as I waited for him to finish.
There were just two posters on his dark blue walls; one of a Ferrari and another one of a basketball player... who I really didn’t know.
‘And I’m done,’ he said clicking his mouse severally before swing around to face me. ‘So, Chubby. What did you want to talk about?’
I thought about it. What did I really want to talk about? I had no idea really. But it all had to do with Chris.
‘What happened with Chris and Ash?’ I decide to first ask. I needed to know this side of the story. You can’t blame me though. I didn’t think I could trust Ash at this point for anything.
Lee nodded, leaning further on his chair, ‘I figure you’d ask that. Well...we’d just gotten to school and we decided to pass through the field when we bumped into Ash heading to the bleachers. Chris was angry with Ash since, you know, he knew Ash was just messing with you.
So Chris told Ash to back but Ash said he wouldn’t. A few words were exchanged and before I could even stop, Chris threw the first punch which Ash eagerly returned. And...then you came when I was trying to stop them from doing anymore damage.’
I looked down at my soda, wondering how my life got so complicated.
‘You gotta understand one thing though,’ Lee said, looking at his hands then at me. ‘Chris was only pissed at Ash because he didn’t want to see you hurt. Because he cares.’
I ignored the skip my heart did and simply nodded, takinga sip out of the can. ‘I know. I understand. Ash came clean and told me everything.’
Lee looked a little shocked. ‘He did? What did he say?’
‘He told me what you guys had insinuated already. That I was a stupid bet,’ I said, shrugging. It still hurt admitting it. That he had lied to me. If Ash could act so well and pretend to like me, who could I really trust?
‘Well,’ Lee looked like he didn’t believe what I had just said. ‘I hadn’t expected that at all.’
‘Me too,’ I laughed drily. ‘I feel like such a fool though. I feel so stupid because I fell for his act.’
‘Well that was kinda dumb of you,’ Lee said. I narrowed my eyes at him and he raised his hands in defence, ‘What? I’m being honest. But don’t blame yourself. Deception to him and his friends is a perfected gift. So you couldn’t really know.’
‘How’s Chris?’ I asked after a moment of silence.
‘Ah,’ Lee said with a knowing smile. ‘I was wondering when you’d come to that.’
I chuckled, feeling my cheeks heating up, ‘Just answer, Lee!’
'Yea, Chris is fine. A bit pissed that you went with Ash though. But he’ll get over it,’ Lee said giving me a smile.
‘I hope so,’ I said in a sotto voce.
‘Cheer up! Come on. I know Chris, he’s just being a big baby,’ Lee said standing up. He walked over to his radio and switched it on and immediately an old tune started playing. The piano starting the song and soon after the singer, a man with a voice like honey with just right grit in his voice, started singing.
If I go, a million miles away,
I’d write a letter, each and every day,
‘Cause honey nothing, nothing can ever change this,
Love I have, for you...
Have you ever heard a song that just touched your soul? The type of songs that gave your goose bumps goose bumps?
Mmmmh...Make me weak,
And you can make me cry,
See me coming, and you can pass me by,
But honey, nothing, nothing, can ever change this,
Love I have for you...
Lee looked at me with a smile, his eyes eager, ‘So? What do you think?’
I shook my head to rid myself of the spell that the song had cast on me, ‘I’m sorry what?’
‘The song...You like it?’
‘Like it? I love it...its beautiful...Who’s the singer?’ I asked, half listening to the song.
‘I’m really glad you do,’ Lee said, grinning widely. ‘I’ve been looking for someone to share my new found love with and no one seems to like it. Felicity hated it, Chris wasn’t in the mood to listen to it today so...That leaves you and you love it!’
I almost expected him to start jumping up and down. Instead, he walked to his desk and got a CD, put it in its casing and gave it to me. ‘My Nana was here yesterday and brought like three of them. Mum took one I took one and this was left.’
I looked at the casing. Sam Cooke - 16 Greatest Hits Only sixteen, it read. The cover was white, the word in red and there was a drawing of an African American on it. ‘Is this Sam Cooke?’
‘Yep,’ Lee said. ‘You can have it.’
‘Really?’ I was elated! This was the only good thing that had happened today. ‘Thank you!’
‘Don’t mention it,’ he said, settling back on his chair. My phone vibrated with a text and I took it out to read it.
Sammy: Where are you? I’m with Alex at your place. Your Mum asked where you were so I said you were buying some junk food! You better come with Mint chocolate ice cream and a bag of chips.
Another text came in immediately after.
Sammy: And Alex wants Oreos.
I looked at the time and sighed, standing up. ‘I need to go, Lee. Thank you for the CD.’
‘No problem-o! I’ll see you around then?’
‘Yea,’ I said, nodding and smiling, excited to start playing the album already.
I let myself out, shouting a ‘bye’ to Felicity before heading to my car. I wonder what Sammy wanted... although I did ditch the afternoon, so maybe she was worried.
Putting the Sam Cooke album into the CD player in my car, I started for home, eagerly waiting for some peace and quiet that would eventually come when I safe inside my room. No lie, the day had been emotionally tiring for me.
A/N:
Hey guys.
Filler, I know. There’s not much going on.
They’ll be lots of Chricelia in the coming chapters so stay tuned: )
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Angie.
I’ll try to update ASAP so…yea…just keep reading: )