Joe— I need to talk to you about something, before I die.
Chloe— what's going on?! :(
Joe— meet me at the park at 7pm sharp
Chloe— can't you tell me now??
He didn't respond.
This must be serious.
"Before I die" what does that mean?!
•••••••••
"So who are we doing the project on?"
"Isaac Newton" I say.
He scrunches his eyebrows.
"Who's that?"
"You did not just ask that"
How can you be doing science but you don't even know-
"Nah I'm kidding" he interrupts my thoughts.
"Good"
"Hey pass me the pen" he asked and pointed at the pen next to me.
I pick the pen up and give it to him, blushing as our hands brushed.
I KNOW ITS CLICHE BUT IT HAPPENED SO DEAL WITH IT.
"Why do you always blush"
"I'm not blushing"
He smiles at me which just makes things worse.
I'm gonna scream.
I look away quickly as I notice that he noticed me stare.
How awkward.
"Do you know how to do a push up?"I ask at an attempt to change the subject.
"Yeah it's easy, do you want me to teach you?"
No
"Yes" I say instead, as I thank God that he's falling for the change of subject.
"Come on" he leads me to the other side of the house where there's a gym that I never noticed when I was living here.
"Wow"
"I know right, so cool" he said.
I was talking about the abs but okay-
He leads me to the pull up bar and does 20 pull ups without even trying.
"Now it's you're turn"
"Ugh! Why did I even agree to this" I ask myself.
"C'mon I'll help you"
I hold the pole and try to do one. But I don't go up.
I pull as hard as I can, trying my best not to get embarrassed in front of him.
But I can't, my arms pulled me a little bit not over the pole.
"Can I help?" He suggests, smirking.
Which is kinda suspicious but imma do it anyway.
"Yes please!" I agree quickly.
I suddenly feel him hold my waist and push me up till my head goes higher than the pole.
I drop when I'm done, still blushing from the touch and pant like I just ran a marathon.
I look up just in time to catch him staring , but he doesn't turn away like I did, he just carries on staring.
"Um hello" I say, and wave my hand I front of his face.
"What?"
"I know I'm beautiful but can we save the staring for Valentine's Day?" I ask , and we both giggle at my terrible joke.
He stops laughing and stars again. It's kinda weird but I like it.
"What?" I finally ask.
He licks his lips and says, "nothing let's go back" he said and runs his fingers through his hair.
For a second I thought he was thinking of kissing me... but he didn't.
•••••
I get out my car and put my jacket on. It's really cold tonight so I hope Joe doesn't take long.
I sit on the nearest bench and wait for him until I feel a tap on my shoulder.
"Hi Joe"
"Hi" he greets.
He looks drained . Like he's been crying for awhile.
"What's going on?"
"Look I need to get straight to the point."
"Yeah"
"Even though you'll hate me after this" I frown when he says that.
Now I definitely want to know.
"So in the beginning of the year I was... I was secretly dating Stacy and-"
"— you were what?"
"Don't interrupt me."
I nod.
And he continues, " it was going good for a while and everything was fine until one day I... I cheated on her. I know it was wrong of me but the girl seduced me and it happened. So then I told Stacy and apologized, I thought it was good that I told her so I wouldn't have to feel guilty you know? But that's not how she took it. She took out a gun and was about to kill me but I promised to do anything she wants if she speared my life. She agreed and her first mission was to kill you and your dad. She kept doing evil things to you and your family and I felt even worse when your dad went to jail. And she said if I told anyone she would find out and kill me. So I thought that the best way to end this war was to end things. And so I... I poisoned your dad."