{{Dedicated to @Whimsical for her insightful comments}}
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
For the next week, Rhea ignored Caleb to the best of her abilities. She was more hurt than angry and she didn't know how else to deal with those emotions other than to pour them all into her attitude towards Caleb. She wasn't mean to him per se, she just made sure he knew she was still upset with him subtly—with the way she faced away from him slightly during classes for instance, even though he sat on the isle side where the class took place or the way she shoved her things into her backpack with a little more force than necessary after each class.
Caleb didn't make being ignored very hard on her. It wasn't that he was giving her the cold shoulder—no, that was all her—, he just didn't attempt to talk to her again after that day on the porch. Rhea didn't want to decipher if it was relief she felt at his distance or crushing disappointment. She did catch his stares from the seat next to her or from across the hallways and he never tried to hide the fact that he was staring, he never looked away before she did. His gaze was always strong and direct and sometimes there was apology behind it and sometimes something completely different—something she was too afraid to dub as longing.
As the week droned on with little to no interaction with each other, Rhea's attitude became less and less about being upset with him and a lot more about keeping a safe distance. She was adamant about him being the one to make the next move because all this time it felt like it was her that took all the leaps towards him.
The next Monday, Caleb talked to her in class for the first time.
Right before the lecture started, he tapped on her arm lightly. Rhea closed her eyes briefly at the contact, not trusting herself to keep a straight face when she turned to face him. A moment later, she let out the breath she'd been holding and turned in her seat to face him with an indifferent expression.
"Yes?" she asked.
"I was wondering if you had a pencil I could borrow." Whatever she'd been expecting to come out of Caleb's mouth, this wasn't it and she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that their first interaction in over a week was about something as trivial. She'd secretly hoped it'd be something grand and meaningful—something that'd solve their issues and bring them their happy ending. How very cheesy of her. When she failed to reply he added, "Caroline was going through my stuff last night and apparently she didn't think to put them back where she found them."
She didn't think his words required an answer so instead she wordlessly reached into her bag and retrieved a spare pencil, making sure their fingers didn't brush as she handed it to him.
"Thanks," he said. Even though she could feel his eyes searching for hers, she kept her gaze trained on the blackboard and nodded her acknowledgment of his words.
Simply because of their brief interaction, the tension between them was even thicker than last week. She sat up way too straight in her seat, wound up too tight to pay attention to a single word coming out of Mr. Martin's mouth.
That is until he said something that drew the attention of every single person in the entire room and that included even Rhea.
"Remember," he said, his voice carrying through the classroom, "your assignments are due Wednesday. It'll count as thirty percent of your grade so you better turn them in."
"Crap," Rhea hissed under her breath, apparently a little bit too loudly because a couple of the students around her snickered at the same time Mr. Martin looked up from the papers in his hands and at her.
"Did you have a question, Ms. Myers?" he asked, daring her to say something.
"No, sir," she mumbled, averting her gaze from the middle aged man's.
The assignment was one of the first things Mr. Martin had discussed in class and now that Rhea thought about it, it was also written on top of the class syllabus with bold letters. However, anything related to Chemistry was too closely linked to Caleb in her mind, so she'd chosen to block it altogether. Big mistake. Apparently Caleb wasn't paying any more attention in class than she did, because when she turned to face him, deliberately making eye contact with him for the first time in a long time, she saw that he looked just as panicked as she felt. It was the ultimate assignment that everyone was supposed to complete with their lab partners and to complete it by Wednesday, they'd have to put in hours and hours of work.
She'd have to pull the brakes on the cold shoulder for a couple of hours and the notion of having to be near him with her defenses down made her apprehensive.
When the bell rang and the class let out, she schooled her features into the expressionless stone-face she used on him these days whenever they had to interact and turned to Caleb.
"I'm guessing you forgot about the assignment too?"
"Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck, looking guilty.
Having expected his answer, she let out a sigh. "So, what do we do?"
"We could do our parts separately and put it together afterwards if you want..." She could tell he was saying that for her benefit.
"No, that would take ages. Our best bet is if we do it together."
"I just thought—"
"Yeah, you thought right, I'd rather not be around you but I have no choice and it's partly my fault so I'll suck it up for a couple hours."
"Alright, fine. Where should we do it?"
She thought about his question for a little while. "Do you still look after Caroline after school?"
"Yeah, but that's fine. We'll get a sitter for a couple hours, I mean I don't remember when the last time we did that was but this is sort of an emergency and—"
"Or we could just do the assignment at your house," she said, cutting him off midsentence. She wasn't sure if this was her brightest idea but despite being upset with him, she told herself it was the right thing to do.
"You don't mind?" he asked, caution clear in his voice.
She shrugged, doubting the truth in her statement as she said, "It doesn't really make a difference to me."
"Okay. When?"
"Is it okay if I come over around four? I need to go home to get my laptop and stuff."
"Yeah, that's okay," he answered. The atmosphere was still tense between them and she couldn't begin to imagine how she'd survive hours with him at his house of all places.
"Good. I'll see you then." With that, she left without waiting for a response.
Back in Willa's car, she spent the entirety of the ride home complaining to Willa about how she really didn't want to spend time with Caleb and her friend appeased her even though they both knew the truth. The truth was, a treacherous part of her was going crazy with excitement over this excuse to be around Caleb after a long time.
When she made her way inside the house the first thing she did was to go looking for her parents. She found her mom sitting on the living room couch with a cup of tea in her hands, going through what she assumed to be work related papers.
She explained to her that she'd be out at Caleb's to get a project done and watched her mom practically having to bite her tongue to keep the teasing words in. As much as she adored having "fun" parents, sometimes they could be a bit too much. After giving one last warning look to her mom, she left the room, knowing full well her parents would be talking about her and Caleb at the first change they got like a bunch of gossiping teenagers. Well, there was no helping that.
Quickly climbing up the stairs to her room, she located her laptop and tucked it into her already crowded backpack. She contemplated changing into something different or putting in a bit of effort into her appearance otherwise and decided against it, not wanting to appear as though she was trying to look good for him. Well, almost. At the last minute, she grabbed the wand of mascara off her nightstand and applied a single coat with even strokes and then ran a brush through her hair for good measure, letting it hand over her shoulders in its usual waves.
Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she felt satisfied with what she saw. She looked a little bit refreshed and nothing more. She was pretty sure he wouldn't even be able to tell the difference, what with him being a guy and all.
She bundled herself in her coat and a matching set of purple scarf and beanie and made her way out the door, mentally giving herself a pat on the back for managing to be in and out the door in under thirty minutes. The weather was cold outside and the wind slapped against her skin mercilessly, sending her hair flying every which way.
Finding the way to Caleb's house proved to be a bigger challenge than she was hoping for. After all, her navigation skills were mediocre on a good day and the last time she'd been here hadn't been one. After a while of aimlessly looking down similar looking streets of what she hoped was the right side of the town, she relented and texted him asking for his address. His reply came within the minute.
Shoving one hand inside her coat pocket and holding onto her phone with the other, she started walking down the street—this time with purpose—and cursed herself for never remembering to put on gloves.
Ten minutes later, she was knocking on his door. As if he was waiting by it, the door swung open almost immediately.
His eyes grew wide when he took in her appearance. She could guess she looked a state, her hair plastered across her face and her nose bright red like a one of Santa's reindeers.
"You walked here?" he asked incredulously.
"You know I can't drive," came her irritated answer. "What was I supposed to do?"
"I don't know, you could—wait a second. How did you come to Last Call if you can't drive?"
Suddenly embarrassed, she looked down at her feet as she mumbled, "I don't know what you're talking about."
He fixed her with a no-nonsense look. "Answer the question, please."
"I biked."
"Are you serious? It was freezing that night. And you went back on your own without even a scarf. For Christ's sake, Rhea, what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking you needed me, so I came. Can you drop it?" His expression softened at her words and just like that, her irritation melted away. As neutrally as she could, she said, "Can I come in now?"
"I'm sorry, yes. Come in."
As soon as she stepped inside, the same homey atmosphere greeted her. This was the second time she ever set foot inside Caleb's house and this time she was in a better condition to pay attention to details.
The first thing she noticed was the numerous picture frames hung right next to the coat hanger. She stepped a little closer to them and the first one she saw immediately brought a smile to her face. It was a fairly new one—no older than a year—of Caleb and Caroline, where he was giving her a piggyback ride. The smiles on both their faces were huge and genuine and it made her heart swell to know they'd had good days among the bad ones.
The next one had clearly been taken during Christmas and was older than the one before. In this one, Caleb was wearing a Santa hat, holding baby Caroline in his arms whose hand was clamped over Caleb's mouth for some reason while her mother was standing next to him, smiling at the two of them.
The first word that came to her mind when she saw Caleb's mother was beautiful and she could tell Caleb had gotten his smile from her and it somehow made her feel relieved—relieved that the smile she loved so much came from someone good. She was nearly as furious with Caleb's father as Caleb himself and she didn't want to associate anything of the boy she loved with the man that brought him so much unhappiness.
Now that she thought about it, there wasn't a single picture that included Caleb's father in it and she thought it was for the better, she really didn't want to put a face to the despicable picture she'd painted in her mind.
She snapped out of her reverie a minute later when she felt Caleb take a step closer to her and come to a halt behind her to look at the pictures with her. He was keeping a reasonable distance but she could still hear his quiet breaths and inhale the mixture of cologne and fresh mint that she'd come to associate with him. She thought perhaps she wasn't the only one freshening up a little bit since they'd last seen each other. The thought brought a smile to her face.
A moment later, she wiped the smile off her face and turned around to face him. His eyes snapped to hers almost immediately and he gestured towards the living room wordlessly.
"So, we don't have a proper dining room table or something like that. I do have a desk in my room but if you prefer the kitchen counter, that's fine too."
"Yeah, the kitchen is fine," she said walking through the living room toward the white kitchen counter that, as always, didn't have a speck of dust on it.
Once again, she paid attention to her surroundings, recognizing almost everything around herself from either a snippet or from the only other time she'd been here. Suddenly, she was filled with a strong urge to see his room too and regretted not jumping at the opportunity. She'd have loved to see the glow in the dark stickers that she couldn't help but remember every time she went to sleep in her own bed these days. It would have hardly been appropriate and that thought was what held her back from changing her mind.
As they sat down, Caroline came into the living room oblivious to the two of them sitting by the kitchen counter and plopped down on the couch. She reached for the remote but Caleb called out to her and said, "Hey Care, we're gonna study here, can you play in your room for a couple hours?"
"No, that's okay," Rhea cut in, "I don't mind the sound."
"Ree-uh!" Caroline squealed, jumping off the couch and padding towards the kitchen. "You're back."
"Yes"—she smiled—"your brother and I need to study for a little while. You can watch TV if you want." Then she remembered something and added, "But only if you watch the Princess Bride. Though I heard only real princesses like that movie, so..."
"I love the Princess Bride!" Caroline interrupted excitedly, her eyes lighting up.
"Then watch away, princess," she said, giving her a soft smile and a bop on the nose.
As Caroline settled on the couch, Caleb leaned toward her and whispered, "I'm pretty sure you're her new favorite person. That's the second Archer whose heart you stole."
At that statement, Rhea's eyes snapped from Caroline's small form on the couch to Caleb but his attention was on his laptop screen as if he hadn't said something that had hit Rhea right in the chest. When he didn't acknowledge her looks even after she stared at him intently for long seconds, she sighed and turned her attention to her own laptop, getting started on what she knew would be a long task.
After an hour of research and minimal back and forth conversation, they reconvened for an evaluation of the progress they'd made. Caleb leaned toward her to look at her laptop screen and the scent of him invaded her senses once again. She couldn't decide if she wanted to hold her breath to avoid it or jump out of her seat to bury her face in his neck and engulf herself completely in it. She decided on a middle ground and stood stock still as he took a slightly-longer-than-necessary look at the contents of her screen. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought Caleb was trying to get under her skin.
"I found this website that has amazing information on the topic," he said, not making any effort to put distance between them. His warm breath hit the side of her face with each syllable that came out of his mouth, riling her up even more. "I'll send you the link so you can check it out."
"O-Okay," she said. "Are you about done?"
"Not even close," he whispered, leaving her to wonder if there was a double entendre in his words.
After a beat of silence he reclined to his seat and all the air that had left her lungs at his proximity came back in full force with a whoosh. She gripped the edge of her chair with one hand until her knuckles turned white, trying to ground herself to this moment right here, all the while taking deep, inaudible breaths.
The project took hours of their time, just like they'd predicted. For four long hours they sat bent over the kitchen counter with numerous books and their laptops open, guiding each other to useful sources and trading laptops every now and then to inspect each other's progress.
Just as they were wrapping it up by combining both their efforts, the doorbell rang. Caroline abandoned her coloring books that she'd been working on for the past hour and ran toward the door. She heard it swing open and then Caroline call out "Mommy!"
Moments later, a woman in green scrubs entered the living room. Her eyebrows rose ever so slightly at the sight of Rhea. Caleb leapt out of his seat almost immediately and walked up to her mom, giving her kisses on both cheeks. She observed them from the distance and could easily see the easy, loving bond between mother and son.
The first thing that captured Rhea's attention when she looked at Caleb's mother was that she looked much older than the photo she'd seen in the hallway. The photo was maybe three years old but the woman that stood before her looked like she'd aged ten years in that time. The next thing she noticed was that she looked beautiful still.
"Hey mom," he said. "This is Rhea. From school. We have a project due this week."
"The Rhea?" his mother asked, her eyes now twinkling with interest.
Caleb suddenly looked flustered. "I don't know what you're talking about," he mumbled. "Why don't you go take a shower and we'll finish up the project in the meantime."
"Okay, okay." She let out a soft laugh but then turned to Rhea. "It's nice to meet you, Rhea."
"You too, Mrs. Ar—Ms.—" Not knowing how to address her, she looked at Caleb with wide, helpless eyes but instead of offering help, he just grinned at her and in that moment, she questioned what it was she even liked about him.
Luckily, his mother was a lot more merciful than him. She smiled at her softly as she said, "Call me Deborah, sweetie. Would you like to stay for dinner?"
"Oh, I wouldn't...I wouldn't want to impose."
"You wouldn't. I insist."
She felt a bright red flush make its way to her cheeks. "Um, okay, I'd love to stay for dinner."
An hour later, they'd finished up the project, helped Deborah prepare the meal and settled around the kitchen counter to eat dinner. Rhea sat next to Caleb while Caroline and Deborah took seats opposite from them.
"Thank you so much for the invitation, uh, Deborah," she said after taking a large gulp from her water.
"You're welcome Rhea, I've heard a lot about you and it's so great to finally meet the girl my son hasn't shut up about in the past few weeks."
Rhea's head whipped toward Caleb so fast at Deborah's words that she managed to catch the horror stricken expression on his face before he dropped his head and said, "Thanks a lot, mom."
She snickered quietly at his discomfort, finding relief in the fact that she didn't seem to be the only one who spent a great deal of time thinking and talking about the interest of their fancy.
"So, Rhea," Deborah said with a twinkle still present in her eyes. "What are your plans after graduation?"
The grin on Rhea's face dropped slightly at the question that was dreaded by every high school student, more so by the ones like Rhea who didn't have everything planned out. Or more like anything. She knew that at this point she was expected to have it all figured out but the reality of it was, she didn't know what she wanted to do after high school. She didn't know what she wanted to study, or what sort of a career she wanted to have after college.
"I honestly don't know," she said. "I applied to some colleges but that's as far as I got."
She waited for the disapproving look that usually followed her statement to come, but it didn't. Instead, Deborah smiled at her and said, "That's okay. You're young. You have plenty of time to think about it."
Rhea smiled back at her and knew in that instant that she really liked Caleb's mother.
"Dinner was delicious," she said to Deborah, all the while helping Caleb gather the dirty dishes. "Thank you again."
"You're welcome." She smiled. "I'm glad you liked it."
"I did." She took out her phone from her back pocket to check the time, realizing with a shock that it was already past ten o'clock. "It's getting late. I should get going."
"Caleb will drive you. Won't you?" she asked to Caleb, who looked back in wide eyes.
"Of course," he said. "Just give me a minute to get my coat and stuff."
As she put her stuff back in her backpack, she felt a tug at the hem of her shirt and when she looked down, she came face to face with Caroline.
"Ree-uh, will you tuck me in?" she asked, looking up at her with big doe eyes.
"Me?" She was surprised that Caroline seemed to like her enough to ask something from her. She knew it was Caleb who tucked her in every night.
"Yes," she said in that sweetly demanding voice that only little girls were capable of pulling off. She looked to Deborah, who was watching the exchange between them with a wistful smile on her face. when they made eye contact, she gave Rhea a nod.
"Um, of course," she said. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Caroline grabbed her hand, leading her down the hallway to a room with Caroline written on the door in crafting papers. Caroline pushed the door open with her hand that wasn't holding Rhea's. What she saw once the door was open rooted Rhea to the spot.
The room was illuminated in a phosphorous glow. Lifting her head, she saw what she knew would be there.
Glow in the dark stickers scattered across the ceiling, bathing the room in their faint light.
Tears brimmed in her eyes at the sight.
She snapped out of her trance when she felt Caroline tug at her hand. She looked down and gave her a bright, watery smile.
Going ahead and lifting the covers of the bed, she watched Caroline slip under them and tucked them back down under her chin delicately.
"Ree-uh," Caroline said, "are you Caleb's girlfriend now?"
Her eyes grew wide at the question. "No, why would you think that?"
"It's just... You're the only girl he brought home other than Yasmine. She hasn't been here in weeks."
"No, Caroline, I'm his friend." Like an afterthought, she added in a whisper, "Just his friend."
"I think he wants you to be more," Caroline declared with a knowing expression on her face, making Rhea let out a startled laugh.
"You think?"
"Yes." She jutted her chin out. "Princesses know everything."
She couldn't help but grin at her words. "Well, your Highness, it's time for you to go to sleep."
"Good night, Ree-uh."
"Good night."
Just as it had been for weeks, now that they were alone without the distraction of Caroline and Deborah, the air inside the car was crackling with tension. Her hand itched to turn on the radio, even if they'd have to listen to overproduced, overplayed pop songs. Anything was better than the charged silence between them.
Just as these thoughts were roaming in Rhea's mind, Caleb broke the silence when he said, "Listen, I was thinking... Can we call a truce?"
Her eyebrows shot up at his direct words. "I didn't know we were fighting." She really didn't. All she knew was that the ball was in Caleb's court now and he seemed to be taking too long coming up with a game plan. Or maybe, even though it scared her to think of this alternative, he wasn't interested in playing anymore.
"It was more like a cold war," he said, taking his eyes off the road for a second to look at her and shrugging a shoulder.
"What would this...truce entail?" she asked, feeling unsure.
"Us. Going back to normal. The past week has been killing me Rhea. I want to be able to talk to you again."
"Back to being friends, you mean?" She had to try really hard not to spit the word friends out as if it had personally offended her. In a way, that's what it was doing right in that instant.
He paused for a second as they came to a halt at a stoplight. He turned to look into her eyes as he said, "Yes. I would love nothing more."
She'd thought after their fight, going back to being friends would be impossible for them. They'd crossed that line that night when they'd both acknowledged there were feelings involved and arrived at the all-or-nothing land but as she looked at Caleb and saw the way he was looking at her with utmost sincerity and pleading, she reconsidered herself.
She could be his friend. She used to be his friend and it was enough to make her happy. The hurt feelings that had made it feel unthinkable to be his friend disappeared as she acknowledged how much she missed being able to just talk to him. How her day used to brighten when he took a seat next to her in lunch and quietly joked with her. She longed to go back to that.
With these thoughts in mind, she realized she'd take him any way she could have him, be it a friend or something more.
"Okay," she said. "I'll take you up on that truce."
With a beaming smile, he held out his hand. "Let's shake on it."
As she held out her own hand and felt the way Caleb's big, warm hand enveloped it completely, Rhea felt the constricting feeling in her chest ease up for the first time in weeks, leaving in its wake a feeling of contentment and, dare she say, happiness.
All would be alright.
***
A/N: Hey guys! This chapter is the longest one I've ever written. Hope you like it.
So, I'm thinking about hosting a one shot competition when the story is over. That is if you guys want to join. Inline comment here if you'd write a one shot for Through His Eyes so I'll know if it's worth doing it?
Friend me on goodreads (felicitate), follow me on twitter (itsfelicitate) and talk to me on ask (felicitates) if you want to! (God, I really need to sort these usernames out...)
Thank you so much for reading and showing support to this story, love you all.<3
May we meet again,
-Safiye