My weekend has been dreadful because every time I tried to focus on reading the book I had in my hands, I'd get a text. And the text was from someone annoying, whose name starts with a C.
I read the text that she sent me just a second ago.
"Do you like movies? ^.^"-Claire.
I unconsciously rolled my eyes. I don't know why but because of Claire I do things unconsciously. It's hard to describe what is happening to me, but the only logical answer I think fits my situation is that I'm opening up to people now.
It's like this girl came from only God knows where, and she starts to drill a whole in the walls I built so high and strong. She's slowly making me feel things I forgot to feel a long time ago.
She's making me feel vulnerable again.
I sighed and typed an answer for the girl.
"Yes."- Hayden.
I sent the message and again tried to concentrate on the book in my hands.
A beep made me close the book frustratingly. What's the use of reading a book when I'm just gonna get disturbed over and over again.
I got off my bed and placed the book on the shelf next to my bedroom window. I picked my phone off my bed and read the text she sent me.
"Do you like animated movies? :)"- Claire.
This girl is so annoying. Since the party, Claire has been texting me continuously. She sends me texts of good morning and good night. She asks about my likes and dislikes and it seems like she's trying to get to know me.
"Just pick a stupid movie and I'll come over at your house to watch it at 7." -Hayden.
I tossed the phone on my bed and went downstairs to get something to drink.
I walked into the kitchen to see aunt Carrie talking on the phone. I silently made my way to the fridge and got a bottle of juice. I looked over at aunt Carrie to see her staring at me intently.
I ignored her stare and made my way out of the kitchen. Once I got back in my room, I saw my phone flashing before it went black.
I picked it up to see the last text sent to me.
"Don't be late, my hero. ;)" -Claire.
Ugh!!! so annoying.
I fell face first on my bed.
........................
I parked my car in front of Claire's house and waited for my heart to stop beating so loud.
It's just two friends watching a stupid movie.
When did we become friends?
No, no. It's just two class mates watching a stupid movie.
I sighed heavily and got the courage to get out of my car. I was wearing simple clothing since we were gonna stay in. Aunt Carrie always use to say that whenever going to someone's house for the first time, bring something over. So i brought some donuts before I came to Claire's house.
I walked up to the front door while trying to control my hands from getting sweaty. I got up to the porch and rang the bell lightly.
Just a second later the door opened revealing a woman in her mid thirties. The first thing I noticed about her was her eye colour. The same colour I was starting to like. Grayish green.
She smiled at me," You must be Hayden, correct?"
I nodded as an answer to which she opened the door wide. I entered cautiously looking around the house. The house was decorated beautifully with nice cream coloured walls.
"Claire always talks about you and I mean always." Mrs. Brown guided me towards the living room and gestured for me to sit on the couch.
"You don't talk much , do you?" She asked raising an eye brow.
I looked at her and nodded as an answer once again.
She sighed and continued," This is the first time Claire has talked about someone this much. She seems genuinely interested in you."
She smiled over at me again and looked towards the staircase.
"She also told me about what happened, Thursday night." I couldn't help but to widen my eyes at that. In most cases, girls don't tell their parents about something like this. But Claire just told her mother about what happened.
"Thank you for saving my daughter." She smiled warmly at me and I just nodded lamely, which caused her to laugh.
"You seriously don't talk, at all."
Someone descending from the stairs snapped both of our attention towards the staircase. A man just as old as Mrs. Brown came in the living room and his eyes found mine.
"Oh, whose this?" His question was directed towards Mrs. Brown, who smiled at him.
"This, honey, is Claire's friend. The one she talks about a lot." Mr. Brown's eyes widened from the information he had just been given.
He stretched out his hand for me to shake while introducing himself properly.
"I'm Eric brown, but to you I'm sir." I took his big hand in mine and he had a tight grip. We kept shaking hands for about a minute.
Mr. Brown slowly let go of my hand and sat beside his wife who was glaring at him, for whatever reason.
Mr. Brown ignored his wife's glare and looked towards me with a serious expression.
"Hayden, I've been told that you're a nice person but I still need to know you to think that way. So, I would like to know right now what you're intentions for my daughter are?" When Mr. Brown finished, Mrs. Brown had her mouth hanging open. She quickly closed her mouth and hit Mr. Brown on his arm.
"Honey!!" Mr. Brown held his arm and grinned sheepishly. He slowly muttered a 'sorry' and then looked back at me.
"I still want to know if you have bad intentions for my daughter." He said with again a serious expression.
"Dad!!" This time the voice came from the staircase and I turned around to see the girl with the beautiful eyes.
Seriously?
She came over to me and grabbed my arm to make me get off the couch. She glared at her parents," And you ask me why I don't bring friends over?"
Her parents looked at the carpeted floor. It felt comical really, it was like a parent was scolding her children.
"You people didn't even have the decency to tell me that Hayden was already here." She continued scolding her parents.
Mr. Brown looked up at her maybe in an attempt to say something in his explanation. But Claire raised her right hand as to stop him before he even talked. "No, you don't get to explain yourselves. I already heard what you were asking her. Her intentions for me?"
She was glaring at her parents so hard and I would've laughed if she didn't have turned towards me so suddenly.
"And you, you couldn't text a simple 'hey, I'm here' to me." She poked my chest and to be honest it hurt a lot.
I didn't know that she was bossy as well as annoying and irritating. She directed her glare towards me and from the corner of my eyes, I saw Mr. Brown smirking.
Oh, so that's where she got all the smirking from.
Claire sighed, " come on, lets just go up to my room." She then turned towards her parents.
"Call us when dinner's ready." She then took my arm and dragged me up the stairs to her room.
Seeing Claire with her parents reminded me of my parents.
.............................
"Mom, this is Amanda." A teenage Hayden introduced her friend to her parents who were sitting in the living room watching reruns of Grey's anatomy .
"Oh, so this is the Amanda you often talk about." Hayden's mother had a glint of mischief in her eyes while Hayden's father shook his head at his wife.
"Mom!" Hayden had a light blush spreading across her cheeks because of her mother.
"It's nice to meet you Mr. And Mrs. White." Amanda shook hands with both of Hayden's parents before playfully staring at Hayden.
"Oh please, call me Bethany and my husband George." Hayden's mother or Bethany smiled towards Amanda, who smiled back at the woman.
"Well mom, we are gonna go upstairs and watch movies." Hayden announced to her parents who still had their attention on Hayden's lady friend.
"Awe, but I want to spend time with my daughter and her girlfriend." Bethany spoke with again mischief in her eyes which caused Hayden to blush yet again.
"Not yet, Mrs. W." Amanda smirked and looked towards a blushing Hayden.
Bethany smiled at her Nick name ," Oh, why not?"
"Because Hayden here wants to take things slow." Amanda looked over at a blushing Hayden again.
"That's a good decision from my intelligent daughter." Mr. White or George said for the first time.
Hayden smiled towards her father as for backing her up to which he winked at her.
"Now, can we go mom?" Hayden whined at her mother who chuckled at her daughter's antics.
"Yes, go ahead now." Hayden's mother gave permission for the two teenagers to go.
As Hayden and Amanda were making their way upstairs, Bethany yelled from the living room.
"Use protection." Amanda burst out laughing while Hayden felt really embarrassed.
"You have great parents." Amanda said while laying on her back on the bed.
"I know." Hayden replied while finding a movie DVD from her shelf.
Hayden smiled to herself because she knew that she had great parents. The greatest if being honest, and she didn't want to ever lose them.
....................................
"Hayden."
I looked at Claire who was looking at me worried. I felt my eyes stinging but I didn't feel tears on my face. My vision wasn't blurry either.
"I kept calling your name but you were just looking at the wall so deep in thought." Claire had gently placed her hand on my arm, as in to comfort me.
I didn't know what to do, seriously. I had just remembered the time I introduced my first ever to be girlfriend to my parents. Everything was so much better before, I even had Amanda.
Now i don't even know where she is. After my parents passed away, I distanced myself from Amanda, and she wasn't too happy about it. She kept telling me that she could make the pain go away but I just didn't want to let her know how much my heart had fallen to even get back up again.
She was the first girl I had a crush on, but she wasn't my first love. If I think about it now, I never fell in love with anyone and I was grateful for that. The only love I had was for my parents which is now only reserved for my aunt.
Claire sighed heavily, "I'm guessing we should just watch the movie."
I nodded, to which she pressed the button play on the remote. I didn't know which movie she had played and I didn't want to find out. Whatever movie she had played, I was bound to watch without any objections.
"It's my favourite movie." Claire smiled looking towards the screen.
"The notebook." I don't know why but I knew that she would be the romantic types. She seemed like a girl who wanted to fall in love the way the two main actors would, in a cliché movie.
But strangely, I didn't mind her being a romantic because it suited her personality, her bossy and annoying personality.
I was staring at her the whole time and watched as her emotions kept changing from happy to sad and then in a second angry. I watched as she cried her eyes out just because of whatever tragedy took place in the movie. How she blew her nose with delicacy as if her nose would fall off, if she didn't.
I watched her the way only a creepy stalker would, yet I knew she didn't mind. I knew that she knew that I had watched her the whole time she watched the movie.
She held a warm and gentle smile to her lips when the movie ended and she looked at me.
"So, did you enjoy the movie?" Her warm gentle smile turned into a knowing smirk.
I nodded my head slowly and her smirk expanded even more than before.
"Claire, Hayden. It's dinner time, kids!!" A yell from downstairs snapped our attention towards the door to Claire's room.
Even though the door was closed we both looked at it as if her mother would just burst right through it.
"Well, its dinner time." Claire slowly stood and extended her hand to help me get up too.
I looked to her hand then her face, her smirk was long gone replaced by an expression I wasn't familiar with. I took her hand and she pulled me up.
We were just inches apart and I could feel her breath on my face. Her heart beat was loud, and I could hear it clearly.
I distanced myself from her and looked towards the door, she cleared her throat and walked to the door.
She had just opened the door halfway when she turned around and smiled, before she went out of her room.
I stood in her room confused from her actions, Oh how this girl annoys me and then confuses me.
After a moment of thinking, I went out of her room as well and headed downstairs to the dining room, where she and her parents were seated.
I sat beside Claire and felt all eyes on me. I had my head down looking into the empty plate which was in front of me.
"Do you need some lasagne, Hayden?" Mrs. Brown asked me from across the table to which I nodded.
She smiled and passed me the lasagne bowl. To be honest, the food smelt great and I was hungry as hell. I looked towards the clock to see the time to be near nine thirty.
"You still haven't answered my question?" Mr. Brown said while looking at me seriously with a spoon full of mashed potatoes going towards his mouth.
"Seriously dad?" An annoyed look was on her face and I just stopped myself from spitting my food.
This is gonna be an entertaining dinner.
....................................
"So I'll see you on Monday, right?" Claire said, standing outside her house.
I nodded and looked towards her house to see her parents spying on us from the window beside the front door.
I internally laughed at their behavior, I'm just her friend nothing more.
Friend?
I meant class mate.
Claire was about to come closer to me when the light bulb on the front porch began to Flicker.
"Typical move from an overprotective father." Claire mumbled.
"Their spying on us, aren't they?" Claire asked after a second. I nodded and then she looked back towards the window beside the front door to see her parents.
Both of her parents backed away quickly from the window as if it were on fire.
She turned back towards me," Parents are such a bother."
I don't think parents are a bother, they just want the best for their children which sometimes results in spying or other stuff. I couldn't help but to feel the stinging pain of my heart from knowing that I could never say stuff like that about my parents.
My parents were just like other parents, overprotective and huge spies. But I never thought of them as bothersome. They were anything but bothersome. The same were Claire's parents, they weren't bothersome either, they just wanted their daughter to know that they would always be there for her.
I just met her parents today but I began to admire them the way I admired my parents.
Parents don't bother you, they help you clear up the things that bother you.
I waved at her parents who had again came back to spying on us and then I waved at Claire, before turning around to get to my car.
Once I got to my car, I looked back at Claire to see her standing at the same place I left her. She had a soft and gentle smile on her face. She looked like a goddess standing under the dim light of the night. Her hair flowing in the chilly night air, her hands placed around herself as to keep her warm.
That was the first time my heart skipped a beat. The first time my heart pounded against my rib cage to escape. The very first time my heart forgot about everything in the world except the beautiful girl standing there watching me.
I didn't know what I was feeling about her, but now I did. I was slowly but deeply falling for her, like falling in an endless hole.
And the way she smiled towards me lovingly, I understood that she had an idea about it too.
I was falling, falling hard.
I fell in love the way you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once.
-The fault in our stars.