I raised my lowered head to look back up at Alviss. What did he mean by what I was afraid of? I could’ve thrown in something stupid, like saying I was afraid of spiders, heights, the dark, ghosts, naked cats, and a whole bunch of other things, but the look he was giving me told me to be serious. His bright eyes had turned slightly darker, not as dark as when he got that text when we were eating ice cream, but enough to show me he wasn’t kidding around.
I didn’t know how to answer his question. Even though I was supposed to be honest, there was no way I was going to bluntly say “Alviss, I’m afraid you’re not perfect.” Even if it was true, which it was because he didn’t have the behavior of my kind of prince, that would just make the whole atmosphere sour and I didn’t want that. But I wasn’t going to lie and say I wasn’t afraid of anything. I was afraid. I was very afraid.
“I’m afraid of being hurt.”
I was honest. I was afraid to be with someone that could have the ability to break my heart into tiny little pieces. I was afraid to trust someone that could stab me in the back. I was so afraid that each time I was in a relationship I never gave them all of me. In the back of my mind, I reminded myself it wasn’t going to work, and it kept my emotions in check so that when we eventually broke up or he did something horrible, I knew it was coming and could protect myself. But that kiss, the kiss that Alviss and I just shared, proved one thing to me: I wasn’t prepared for him.
In an attempt to change the subject and atmosphere, I finally moved away from him and into the living room. The remote to the TV was sitting on the adjacent couch, and I grabbed it to turn on the TV to something we could watch. I couldn’t bear the solitude of just us, and the tension was getting too thick. I figured watching something would distract us and maybe speed up time until Steph woke up so we could leave and get my car. I sat on the couch again, starting to flip through channels.
Honestly, nothing was ever on during Sunday afternoons. I kept flipping through, slightly feeling sorry that I left Alviss hanging like that. I normally preferred closure to topics like that, but this wasn’t a great time for me. I assumed he felt the same way as he grabbed the tub of ice cream and handed it to me. With his other hand, he held it out and asked silently for the remote. I agreed and traded with him without speaking a word. At least I knew we had ESP to an extent. It was helpful in the thick tension.
We both watched the TV as he flipped through the channels, sometimes pausing to see what was on for a few moments, then continuing on his journey through the stations. I picked my way through the ice cream and cookie dough, getting close to half way gone by the time Steph finally emerged from her slumber. She walked downstairs and entered the living room where we were, noticing Alviss and I were sitting on different couches and not speaking to each other, just watching the box of lights and sound. While Alviss continued to look at channels, I got a glare from Steph and got motioned to come into the kitchen. Great, I was going to get yelled at.
Here’s how the conversation went without a single word spoken: Steph glared at me with daggers, rapiers, maybe a grenade in there, and a machete attached to her eyes. I gave her the “you’re joking, right?” look. She pointed (furiously) at Alviss, then me, then brought both her pointer fingers close together and tapping each other a few times, symbolizing the alone time we had, then a glare of “what the hell happened?” including her hand resting on her hip. I hesitated, thought for a moment, then held up my hand showing her a “four”. I was going to regret showing her that. I let her brain connect the dots: four equaled a kiss. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth gaping, and she started to jump excitedly while trying to keep the sound low. I motioned her to shut up. She shut up. End of discussion. All of that happened in about twenty-five seconds. Impressive, right?
I looked at the time, seeing that it was almost 3:30. It was late enough that we could possibly get my car now. I mean, the stalker wasn’t going to stick around for several hours after he knew we left, and I’m pretty sure he didn’t know that the white Camry was mine when we were trying to escape Dillard’s. Besides, the sooner we got it, the sooner Alviss could leave and the horribly stuffy atmosphere could disappear.
I looked at Alviss, who wasn’t paying much attention to us, then called, “Hey, Alviss. Do you think it’s safe to get my car now?” He broke his concentration on the TV to look at the time, and gave it some thought.
He got up and turned off the TV with the remote while walking to us. “Yeah, it should be safe.”
Steph seemed to remember something and gasped out loud, “Wait, what about Daniel?!” Oh, right. His friends had met the stalker after he left. Wait, his friends had tried to stop the stalker! Where they alright?! They didn’t get hurt, did they?! How on earth did this slip our minds?! Then, I remembered Steph was sleeping and Alviss was trying to seduce me. I hated distractions.
“Calm down, you two,” Alviss interjected. How could we?! We had unintentionally forgotten that those boys were with someone that was possibly dangerous! This was horrible! “They’re fine,” he reassured us. He reached for my arms and held them, staring into my eyes trying to tell me they were fine. But I didn’t believe him. His eyes were dark, and I knew that wasn’t a good thing. He gave a look at Steph and reiterated, “They’re fine, alright? I got a text from them earlier.” The text when we were sitting on the couch. “He’s not there anymore; they chased him off. And they aren’t hurt, so you can stop worrying about them.” That seemed to calm Steph down quite a bit, knowing that she hadn’t caused them unnecessary harm. I, on the other hand, knew he was hiding something. “It’s been a few hours, so I don’t think he’d still be there. We’ll just get there, put the new tire on, and get out. Okay?” Steph and I nodded, agreeing to the plan. Get in, get out. Couldn’t be too hard, right?
~*~*~*~*~*~
We arrived at the mall around four o’clock after we made sure we had a jack to lift the car up and read the instructions to make sure we knew how to do it quickly. My car was still there, untouched and luckily, no one was parked in the spot next to the flat tire, meaning we had room to work. Alviss parked in a different spot, pretty close to my car. When he turned the car off, we got to work.
Steph and I got to my car and started to lift my car up using the jack I got from my house while Alviss opened his trunk and got the spare tire out. We worked as fast as we could, although I could tell that we weren’t all that strong. When Alviss rolled the tire to us and saw how slow we were working, he told us to let him do it. I was reluctant, wanting to prove that we could do it, but time was of the essence, and Steph got me to get up and let him do it. He was stronger than us, and faster. We stood by the car, watching him work.
A few cars had passed us, going in and out the mall’s garage, but mostly they were leaving. Eventually, we and only about three other cars were around the entrance of the department store. I was really feeling uneasy about this, but I figured it was because I was so antsy and embarrassed that we were fixing a tire at the mall. Alviss continued to work, finally getting the spare tire on and putting the hubcap on the tire, then lowering the car. I had already placed the slashed tire into the trunk, where the bag of spare clothes from earlier was still in. Steph and I stood by the car, happy that today’s events were almost over. We had planned on romance movies, popcorn, my mom’s cooking when she got back from wherever she was with friends, and then I would take her to her house at night and sleep over for the night.
The coolest thing about having Steph as a best friend (excluding all the friendly attributes and such) was her family. She had her parents and her little brother, who against all odds is actually pretty cool. But her father was a motivational speaker that had gained plenty of fame from his speeches and is in the middle of writing a book. Her mother was a very supporting person, and Steph had obviously gained her looks from her. But what I loved the most about them was that even though they could be the family that was self-centered, self-righteous, obnoxious, rude, and be like any other rich family out there, they were actually very down to earth. The parents were raised well and kept good morals, and they taught their children them as well. The Davis family was the ideal family, and I loved spending time with them. Plus, they had an indoor pool inside their mansion. Always a wonderful perk!
It was after 4:30 now, which I think was pretty fast since Alviss was with us to help with this. He had been a big help today, although I was still shaken with our incident in my house. My lips pursed without my knowledge, just thinking of the kiss. He was great in so many ways, and purely annoying in others. I wanted to slap him, I wanted to hug him. My mind and emotions were being so confused by him. I didn’t know what to do with him. I watched him look up from where he was crouched, showing me his bright blue eyes again. God, they were beautiful.
I couldn’t stare into his eyes for long, though. I broke our eye contact and looked around the garage, trying to find something that distracted me for a bit. I looked at the different types of cars still in the garage with us (or lack thereof, really), but one particular car caught my interest. My heart suddenly quickened its beating, and my stomach gained some unwanted knots, looking at the car. It was green, and it was a Honda Civic. Calm down, Kora, I tried to tell myself, there are other green Civics out there.
Click.
My head turned to find the source of the sound, and I found it. The source was a gun pointed at Steph, whose mouth was covered by a hand and looked horrified.
“STEPH!”
----------------------------------------------------------------
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH gotta love hooks :) anyway, sorry this chapter was a bit boring, but i needed it. the next one will be friggin' awesome :D
-K