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Chris's POV :
"Nice picture"
"God! How embarrassing!!" She yelled covering her red face "stop looking at my photos Chris!"
"But you were cute!"
"Um.. Thanks?"
It's a normal day. Well, not that normal because there's no school!! Today is Thursday, the first day of the snow storm. The streets are covered with snow so we're locked in. Emily, Val's mom, is off to work for another couple of days. Its really an unfair job, but, according to what she told us yesterday, she messed up some important files and stuff so working today is kind of her punishment. Valerie told me that she's used to her mother's absence, she's like living alone but she's okay with it.
We started our school-free day with our usual breakfast : cereal, since cooking other kind of breakfast has never worked for us so cereal is now our thing. Now, Valerie is watching TV while yelling at me for looking at her baby pictures that her mom placed in the living room. I have no idea how I didn't notice these pictures before but I'm glad I finally did cause they're kind of cute and funny.
"Who's this?" I wondered, holding a picture of her with a strange man.
Val's eyes shifted from the Tv and looked at the picture I was holding. Her face fell and her expression changed immediately. "Its.. " she chocked "it's my dad"
"You're dad?" She nodded "I never saw him before" I thought "well, not until now. Actually I've been meaning to ask you about him. Where exactly is he?"
"He's- He's dead" tears gathered in her eyes as soon as the words flew out of her mouth.
"Oh Val- I'm really sorry!! I'm- I mean I didn't.. I didn't know" I said nervously. Why am I that stupid?? Where exactly is he? What a stupid question I asked!!
"Its okay" she whispered.
I nodded, trying hardly not to ask her that dreadful question but finally failed "um- How did he.. you know, died?"
"H-he had.." Her voice cracked and tears start washing her pale face "H-he was s-sick"
It wasn't the real answer that I was looking for, but I couldn't push her anymore. I could see the pain in her eyes when the word dad came out of her mouth.
I hugged her small body which made her cry harder. I started rubbing her back trying to comfort her.
"I'm sorry.." I whispered "I should've know not to ask"
"No.. Its not your fault." She sniffed "I-I just m-miss him, alot"
"It's okay to miss him, Val" I said, knowing exactly what she felt. I pulled away from her to look into her ocean blue eyes that were now red and puffy. "I bet he was a great man, and I know, even if he's... not here," I tried avoiding the death word cause it's always hard to hear it "..he'll always be with you"
Valerie looked into my eyes for a moment before hugging me again "thank you, Chris"
After her breathing calmed down and feeling her tensed body relax, I pulled away from our hug "come on, lets do something fun" I was trying to get her mind off of her father. I shouldn't have brought that up..
"I think I'm going to take a nap" she said starting to walk to her room.
I felt bad after seeing her depressed body walk away from me. Its all my fault, and now she hates me. Why am I so stupid!! I always ruin everything.
"Wait" I called. Val stopped and looked at me questioningly "I'm sorry for bringing that up.." I scratched the back of my neck nervously. "I-I just-"
"Don't worry Chris, its okay" she cuts me "I'm not mad at you. Really, I'm fine. I'm just gonna take a nap cause I'm exhausted and I didn't get much of sleep last night"
"Oh. Okay" I know she's lying but I don't want to push her. She really seemed pained and depressed, but who wouldn't! Its her father we're talking about. Every girl is a daddy's princess and this princess lost the man that made her life a living heaven. It's a sensitive subject that I shouldn't push her to dicuss. I can wait until she's prepared to talk about that. But for now, I'll just try not to bring up her dad's death again. That's why I left her to rest and maybe forget about what happened, if its possible..
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Valerie's POV :
I woke up from my nap to see that its already noon. I looked at the picture sleeping beside me.. I really miss him.
"I wish you're still here" I whispered, hugging the framed picture. "I miss you daddy. You'll always stay in my heart" hugging it one last time before replacing it on its usual place on my disk.
Shaking my head, I pushed myself from bed before dwindling downstairs. My ears strained to hear any sound, and as I got closer, the faint buzz of television grew louder and louder.
Is there a party that I don't know about?!
I walked through the doorway and into the living room; the intense loud sound of tv hit me with an unsuspected force. It was the music channel, the bass thudding and pounding, people on screen dancing around and waving their hands to the beat. Slapping my hands over my ears, I looked around only to find Chris in the kitchen area...dancing !
There he was, with the kitchen mop of all things, dancing around the mop in his arms. He was really into it, grinding up and down, running his hands through the shaggy end of the mop. He even bent his head closer as the song reached its climax, and at that point, I couldn't just help myself.
I bursted out into uncontrollable laughter, without even taking a breath. At first, the pounding bass covered the sound, but as the song faded, my laughter was in full range of Chris' hearing.
Oh, the look on his face!!
The combination of shock, surprise, horror, and embarrassment all morphed into one completley unique expression.
Chris' eyes widened, his cheeks flushed crimson, and the poor mop dropped from his grasp, clattering to the floor with thud. We stared at each other for few seconds, my laughter fading slowly but hardly. Chris stood there lifeless until another little giggle escaped my lips unwillingly.
Chris then sprang to life, his hands scrambling and darting around the kitchen counter until he landed his hand on the remote of the tv. After hitting a few wrong buttons with nervous, fumbling hands, the tv was turned off and a sharp of silence falling over us.
"Well.." I drawled, breaking through the silence as I leaned against the refrigerator, "that was certainly.. an eye opening little sight?" another little laugh escaped and I covered my mouth with my hand in an attempt to mask it.
Chris flushed as red as a tomato, and from the way his eyes were darting around the room nervously, anywhere away from me, he couldn't seem to bring himself to look at me straight in the eyes. "I... can explain?"
"Okay, then, do explain" I replied, smiling wryly.
He sighed through his nose sharply, "shit" he cursed in a strong, drawled out accent. I waited impatiently to hear his explanation, but instead of doing that, he just concentrated at the counter, with forrowed eyebrows, thinking hardly about something that I guess is the debation of explaining or not.
"So, care to explain why you were raving around the kitchen with a mop?"
Chris flushed again "well, I was really bored, and nobody was around. You were having your nap and your mom is busy working and haven't return yet.. So I turned the tv on for something to do, and was clicking through the channels. When the music channel came up.. Well, I liked the song and I sort of got a bit carried away." He finished with a nervous laugh, raking a hand through his hair. I let out a few hearty laughs "awe, you're so cute sometimes" I said jokingly, before a bright idea hit me, "come on then, what are you waiting for? Put the tv back on!!"
Chris looked puzzled but followed my command nonetheless, the irreplaceable sound of music started to belt out of the tv. I recognized the song immediately as one of my favorites : Dynamite. Grinning, I cupped my hands and shouted over the music to Chris "I love this song. Come on, who needs an old mop!?" As if to demonstrate my point, I kicked the poor mop away to the corner. Then, I boldly grabbed Chris' hands and began dancing while singing the lyrics of the familiar song .
"I throw my hands up in the air sometimes,
saying Ayoo! Gotta let Go!
I wanna celebrate and live my life,
Saying Ayoo! Baby let's go.."
After a few awkward seconds of me moving my body and singing while Chris just standing there, he suddenly clicked to life and started singing as well.
"Cause we gonna rock this club,
We gonna go all night..
We gonna light it up,
Like a dynamite" he sang amazingly.
We throw our hands in the air waving around while we sang-shouted together.
"Cause I told you once,
Now I told you twice..
We gonna light it up,
Like its dynamite!!"
We were singing and laughing at the same time manically, throwing out smiles until our jaws ached, catching each other's eyes and beaming to each other, dancing madly like lunatics all around the kitchen, without a single care in the world. All my worries, the depression I felt, and even sadness toward my father, vanished..
We moved to the beat, although both of us clearly weren't exactly born dancers. My moves were random and messy with Chris' moves being just plain wild, even worse now that he ditched the mop and had full use of his hands to wave around.
We did all the moves we could think of, the under the sea, scissor hands, the cat daddy, disco dance, robot.. Anything and everything that popped into our heads, we tried it out. The dancing didn't exactly fit in with the songs but we didn't care.
Chris started twirling me round and round, and I laughed blissfully, reveling in the moment. He began spinning me faster and faster, before letting me go. I spread my arms out, spinning around still, my laughter is so loud it could be heard above the music. Swaying, I came out of my spin, giggling when I nearly fell.
The feeling was amazing!
Chris held me upright by my arms, and soon we were off dancing again, a sweeter song beginning to play. For a second, the song was innocent, our dancing slower and we started moving closer. Then, out of nowhere, a thudding bass began to pound, the song warped into a dance track, and Chris and I's movements frantic and jerky so we could keep up.
Without any warning, a pair of hands gripped tightly onto my waist, hoisting me up onto the kitchen counter. Chris stood there, beaming, a sparkle in his pure green eyes. He leant in, closer and closer, before whispering in my ear
"Hop aboard" he whispered, a smirk was upon his face, as he turned around so his back was facing me, hunching down slightly. He held his arms behind him, and turned his head to give me a quick, cheeky little wink.
Grinning happily, my stomach fluttered and my hands shook slightly as I took Chris' invitation and slowly slid off the counter and edged my way precariously onto Chris' back, wrapping my legs, before taking a few steps forward. Once he adjusted to my sudden weight, he began to twirl.
Oh My!! I'm flying!
My hands were feeling the air. My eyes were shut close feeling every second of this unique flying sensation. After a few more twirls, Chris set me down gently, and I clung to him, giggling and dizzy, the world spinning around and around before my eyes, despite the fact we were no longer spinning.
I went up onto my tip toes, leaning towards Chris' ear.
"That was amazing" I murmured in his ears softly. "This... is amazing. Absolutely, undeniably amazing. I didn't even know it was possible to feel so free, so carelessly happy. Thank you so much.. I really needed that.." I clung to him, wrapping my arms around his neck and giving him a gentle hug.
Chris wrapped his arms around my waist. He smiled down at me. "You want to know what else is amazing?"
"What is?" I replied happily, smiling right back, still clinging onto him in this perfect embrace.
Chris leaned down so that our noses were inches apart. We locked gazes as I stared into his murky green eyes.
I waited patiently for his reply. Chris graced me with a soft smile, before leaning in closer, his hair tickling my face.
"You, Valerie.."
I was shocked by his answer. I felt a strange undescribable feeling in my stomach, but I soon forgot it as he started leaning closer. Our faces were inches apart and our noses touching and he-
Ding.. Ding.. Ding..
The stupid door bell suddenly rang loudly.
We jumped braking our trance, I flushed all red and I was sure he was red as well but I couldn't get myself to look at him.
What just happened!?!
Were we going to-
DING..
Stupid door bell!!
"I-I should.. Um, g-get that" I stuttered nervously. I finally dared to look at Chris to find him trying to hide his blushed face. His eyes were wide and looking at nothing particular. I felt the weirdness surrounding us and the urge of just slapping myself to get this memory out of my head. But.. Do I really want to erase it from my mind? and why I feel a little disappointed that our little moment was interrupted?!
Do I L- DING
Oh right, I almost forgot to see who was this annoying visitor..
I walked quickly to the door, not even glancing at Chris who was still frozen.
I was opening the door when this visitor yelled "Chris, open th-" once he realized that it was not Chris, his eyes widened. "Oh, um.. Hi"
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Longest Chapter EVER : Done (finally!!)
It took me like a week or more to finish it!!
I really hope you like it ^_^
I hope it earn your VOTES ;)
C YA LATER
~~Angel~~