Chapter 18
The following week went by in the blink of the eye.
I hadn't talked to Mason much, but that's probably because he was mourning over the death of his sister. During that week, her anniversary came up and of course, I decided to visit her as well as our other friends. I refrained from asking him how she died, mostly because I didn't want to seem ignorant or inquisitive.
As for Delina, we now and then spoke, but she was very busy with school and all. I hadn't seen much of Jasmine either, to be honest. After visiting Mason's sister, Mariah, we didn't see each other for the rest of the week.
And as for Adam, I'm not going to lie by saying that I brought the topic up again, but as usual, he ignored me. I was going to speak to him about it today. I'm not willing to give up. In all honestly, he's acting mildly petty.
The beneficial thing is that Christopher wasn't acting as apoplectic as usual. In fact, he managed to tone down on his incessant sarcasm and acerbic wit. But then again, there was still a trace of annoyance lingering in his tone every time I'd address him. Old habits die hard, right?
"Do you think Mason's okay?" I had asked him yesterday.
His action of texting faltered, and he had blinked. "I hope."
Today, I had been feeling exhausted since we went to a few points of interests in Melbourne. Of course, it gave me the chance to revive the loss of my pictures. "What's the date?" I asked Christopher, who was causally laying on the couch. His legs were too long to fit, so he concluded to place them atop of the couch's arm.
With a sigh, he went to fish his phone out of his pocket, his tongue slightly poking out of his mouth. "It's the first of July," he responded after a moment of him attempting to squeeze his fingers in the pocket of his skinny jeans. "Why?"
"I can't believe we've been here for a month." I couldn't grasp the fact that meeting Christopher and his family; him losing my camera, going to the bonfire; visiting the amusement park and losing his brother; meeting Mason; catching a cold; going to Sydney; and attending Mason's birthday party all happened in the span of a month.
"Yeah, I'm just happy about the fact that you're going to leave in a month or more," Christopher muttered under his breath.
Ignoring his pungent comment, I crossed my legs. "My birthday's in a two weeks or less."
"Congratulations," he muttered with an eye roll.
"Are you going to get me anything?"
"Nope."
"Why not? That's what friends do."
"Yeah, but you see, we're not friends." He spoke in a tone that indicated I was stupid.
That was the end of our lovely conversation.
+ + +
"What are you planning on doing in your summer holiday?" I inquired, lifting the spoon to my mouth.
Delina made a face. "Sleep until four in the afternoon."
I simply nodded and offered a smile. "How productive."
She flicked her hair. "I know; I'm such a role model."
Jasmine was oddly quiet the whole time, and when I'd asked her, she'd just wave a hand around in a frivolous manner. "Daniella, honestly tell me, what did Adam say?"
I squeezed my lips into a thin line as I recalled our conversation we had earlier on in the day. "I don't think I should tell you..." I trailed off.
"Oh, come on. Sisters before misters, am I right?" She provided me a huge grin.
"The correct saying is fries before guys," Delina chimed in with her eyes glued to the T.V. She was lying on her stomach with a tub of vanilla ice cream in front of her.
"Fat arse," Jasmine shoved her, causing Delina to chuckle and shove her harder.
"Okay, well he said that he doesn't want to hurt you. I didn't really understand, but he said he'd already hurt someone before, and he still feels guilty about it to this day," I confessed, watching as Jasmine furrowed her eyebrows.
"Hurt me?" she iterated.
"Yeah, he says that he already hurt you by kissing another girl, and he doesn't want to put you through that again."
"So why did he do it then?" she huffed.
"He tried to show you that he wasn't ready. And plus, he's leaving to study in Queensland, am I right? He doesn't want to leave you here; long distance relationships hardly ever work out. He still feels guilty about kissing another girl."
Jasmine slumped down and stared at the pillow in her lap. "Oh."
"I think you should forgive him. Come on, you're really going to let one kiss ruin your friendship? He's leaving, Jasmine, give him a chance," Delina spoke up.
She nodded, biting her lip. "I-I don't know."
"My job is done here," I stated, lying on my stomach as the door knocked. With a groan, I dragged myself up and tramped to the door. I opened it and found Christopher standing on the other side with his hands in his sweatpants pockets. "Uhm, hi?"
He rolled his eyes. "I swear, you hang out with my friends more than I do."
I shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "I can't help that they like me more than they like you."
He narrowed his eyes at me. "Get out of here."
I leaned against the doorframe and quirked an eyebrow. "So, what'd you want?"
"Your mother wants you," he muttered as Delina popped up from behind the door.
"Guys, I'm trying to watch. Tone down on the flirting, okay?"
I smiled wryly to myself. "Who needs logic, anyway?"
She indiscreetly winked at us before prancing off. Christopher gave a perplexed stare. "What's she talking about?"
"I-I don't know," I hastily replied, closing the door. He granted me another confused stare before slowly backing away.
"Okay, then." Pushing past him, I climbed down the stairs and walked into the kitchen.
"Yes, mother?" I demanded after downing a cup of water.
"Can you grab me that pencil over there?" she pointed to the pencil beside her and I wanted to smack my head against the fridge.
"Seriously?" I muttered under my breath, grabbing the pencil and handing it to her. Before I could take a step, her voice stopped me.
"Oh, and call Chris. His mother wants him." With a nod, I walked out of the kitchen and clambered up the steps. Feeling nervous for some reason, I knocked on his door and waited around for a few minutes.
Christopher didn't even bother opening the door for me, and instead, resolved to voice out a quiet, "Come in." I slowly turned the doorknob and crept in, spotting Christopher sitting in front of the T.V with his tongue slightly poking out his his mouth. Evidently, he was concentrated on whatever game he was playing.
I brought it upon myself to study his room, as I haven't been in it often. To think that the last time I entered his room was about a month ago. As I shut the door, I noticed the word 'Dumble' sprawled across the back of the door and my eyebrows furrowed. It took me about ten seconds to figure out what it meant. "Oh," I quietly muttered to myself. "Dumbledore."
"I stole that off Twitter," Christopher told me proudly.
"You're so unoriginal," I muttered, wiping my hands on my leggings.
"What are you doing here?" he ignored my previous comment with his eyes still glued to the T.V. As anticipated, he couldn't pause the game.
"Your mother wants you."
"Well, tell her that I can't pause the game," he stated indignantly.
"Hey, can I ask you a question?"
"Depends on whether I want to answer it or not," he reasoned, lifting his shoulders in a somewhat shrug.
"Did you mean what you said the other day?" He removed his eyes off the T.V for a mere millisecond, looking confused. "Do you really hate me?" I clarified.
He took a moment to reply. "I don't hate you, Daniella."
"Oh, okay," I replied cheerily.
"That doesn't mean I like you," he appended.
I nodded, assent. "I know. I just wanted to make sure you didn't hate me."
"Why do you care so much?" he muttered to himself.
"Because I like you," I told him. I almost wanted to slap myself as Christopher's eyes snapped to mine; he almost looked panicked.
"N-no, I didn't mean it like that," I hastily attempted to fix my mistake. "I meant it in a platonic way."
Christopher almost looked relieved as he slowly nodded with his eyes trained on me. "Right." When he peeked back at the T.V, he quietly swore under his breath as he realized he lost. "Thanks a lot, Daniella."
"No problem," I smiled. I closed the door behind me and walked back to my room. He doesn't hate me. Score! I almost wanted to dance, but I stopped myself in the last second. I can't dance, so I won't embarrass myself by flailing my limbs around.
"Done making out?" Delina asked as I shut the door behind me. I groaned lightly as I fell flat down on my bed.
A grin lit up my face. "Christopher doesn't hate me."
Delina scoffed, "Who said he did?" I ignored her and rested my chin atop of my knees. "Why do you care so much?" she simpered.
"Because I don't want him hating me. We're going to be stuck with each other for another month or so; might as well get used to it," I elucidated.
Delina's eyebrows rose in question. "Keep lying to yourself. You so want his dick." I gasped aloud, choking in the process. Jasmine beside me patted my back as I began spluttering out incoherent words.
"I-I don't!" I gave up on shaping a sentence altogether as I willed my face to cool down. "You have no filter," I finally replied after my face cooled down.
"Sure," she simply shrugged. I groaned and buried my face in my pillow. She needs some serious help. Jasmine, on the other hand, was laughing at my expense, causing Delina to chuckle along with her. Within seconds, laughter rippled within the room and I peeked at them with one eye.
"Shut up. The both of you, shut up," I insisted.
"She's blushing," Delina cooed, finally sobering up. She endured a serious expression on her face as she spoke her next sentence. "Daniella, do you like Chris or not?"
I took a few seconds to reply. "No." Delina scrutinized my face before shrugging. I was surprised she let it go so easily, but also relieved at the same time. I didn't want to have a crush on Christopher; the thought scared me. No, you don't like him.
Looks like this will be my new mantra for the next month.
+ + +
"You're so plain," I muttered as Adam slid into the seat beside me with a bowl of vanilla ice cream in front of him.
"And you're dumb," he rejoined lamely as he lifted a mouthful of ice cream to his mouth. Rolling my eyes, I delved into my mango flavored ice cream despite the fact that it was winter. Who cares?
"You're going to wait for me tomorrow, right?" Christopher asked Adam from the seat in front of him. Adam held up a finger in response as he clutched his head with his other hand. Once he recovered, a low sigh escaped his lips.
"Worst brain freeze ever. And yes, I'll wait for you," he told him with a nod. I kicked Jasmine from under the table and she hissed as she keeled over and clutched her knee.
"What was that for?" she rasped, shooting me a glare. Instead of emitting a verbal response, I nodded my head towards Adam beside me and she only sighed in response. "Later," she mouthed. Shrugging, I continued scarfing my ice cream down and glancing around the ice cream shop.
"Can I have this for free?" I asked Christopher.
He furrowed his eyebrows. "Why would I give it to you for free?"
"Because you work here," I replied. "So give it to me for free." Christopher simply arched an eyebrow in response and then shook his head. I hope he knew that I was joking; I didn't want to seem like a gold digger. I remember asking him about his job while we were in Sydney; he said his boss was understanding enough about his condition to render him a week off.
A brief silence encased us until Jasmine spoke up. "Adam, can I talk to you?" Adam looked up from his bowl, surprised. Then, he nodded and gestured for me to scoot over. I strained to contain my grin as I got up from my seat and watched Jasmine and Adam walk off.
"Why do you have that creepy look on your face?" Christopher motioned to the grin that lined my lips. I shook the grin off and smiled.
"They're finally going to talk it out," I replied, and Christopher had a thoughtful look on his face. My heart thudded against my chest as I realized we were left alone. Technically, we were in an ice cream store full of other people, but that still didn't keep my heart rate down. If anything, it sped it up.
You don't like him, I firmly repeated my mantra. You don't like him. I made sure not to voice my mantra aloud. I don't know how I would be able to explain to Christopher that I might have a teeny tiny crush on him. The thing is, I didn't know myself. Did I like him?
Nah.
That's preposterous.
Shovelling a few scoops of ice cream into my mouth, I busied myself by checking out an attractive guy in front of us. "He's hot," I mentioned, pointing to him with the end of my spoon. With furrowed eyebrows, Christopher spun in his seat to peek at the said guy. He bent back to face me with a blank look on his face.
"He works with me. Want me to tell him?"
I shook my head back and forth quickly. "No! Are you demented?"
Christopher looked stunned by my sudden outburst. "Chill," he muttered under his breath as he began texting somebody on his phone. His spoon was hanging out of his mouth and his eyes were slightly narrowed at the phones screen.
Since he was too engaged with his phone, I found myself studying him, as creepy as that sounds. His hair was sticking up in different angles, resembling a messed up quiff. His brown eyes were narrowed at the screen, and his long eyelashes did a good job in framing them.
I never understood why guys had longer eyelashes than girls when they didn't even need them.
"Do you use mascara?"
Christopher looked up from his phone. "What?"
Crap. "I said do you enjoy Zara?"
"That's not what you said," he narrowed his eyes resolutely.
I narrowed my eyes, too. "How would you know?"
He looked annoyed as he huffed out a long breath. "Zara who?"
I racked my brain for celebrities that went by that particular name. "Zara Larsson," I eventually replied. Christopher slightly titled his head to the side for a second, and then nodded.
"Yeah, she's okay," he murmured, moving his spoon around. We're actually having a civil conversation; someone start a party.
"Did you know she was on The Voice?" Or was it the X-factor?
"Look, did we come here to reminisce the story of Zara's life or to eat? I don't know about you, but I came here to eat." And work, I wanted to add.
I slouched down in my seat, attempting to blend in with the chair. "I was just trying to start conversation."
He shrugged. "Then don't," he answered easily.
"Okay," I muttered, sighing. I lifted my gaze and my eyes fell on Adam and Jasmine, who were both approaching us. "How'd it go?" I asked Jasmine as soon as Christopher and Adam left the booth.
Jasmine frowned. "He says he wants some time away from me."
My hopeful expression fell. "Really?"
All of a sudden, she laughed out loud. "You should've seen your face!" I shot her an annoyed stare, but she just continued laughing. "Someone give me an Oscar for my fantastic acting."
I gave her a dirty look. "What really happened?" I listened carefully as Jasmine launched into a whole conversation about what happened, nodding at times. Once she finished, I leaned back in my seat and stared at my melted ice cream. "You guys are so cute."
Jasmine shot me a wide-eyed look. "Y-You can't say that."
"Why not?" I frowned, moving my spoon around.
"I'm trying to get over him," she admitted in a quieter voice.
"With who?" I inquired.
"Well, I mean...there's this cute guys in my Maths class," she confessed.
I smirked. "Is he hot?" She nodded shyly. "I see how it is, Jazzy."
She cringed. "You really need to work on your nicknames; they're horrible."
"Your mom is horrible," I muttered back and she shot me a stern look. I grinned sheepishly in response. Christopher and Adam returned back from the bathroom, and I refrained from making a sexual joke. Christopher would probably smash my head against the table if I dared to make a gay joke about them. Not that there's anything wrong with being gay.
"Come on, we have to go," Christopher announced, grabbing his jacket and putting it on. He headed in front of us to tell his boss as we waited outside for him. I stood to the side while Jasmine and Adam awkwardly stood beside each other. I knew things would go back to being normal in a matter of days, minutes even.
As soon as Christopher stepped out of the store, I followed him towards his car and smiled as Adam chose to go with Jasmine. "How's Katerina?" I found myself asking him as I buckled myself.
"She's good," he responded, nodding. I nodded, too.
"Do you guys attend the same school?" I asked him.
"Yeah."
"Oh."
An awkward silence settled upon us and I glimpsed at him from the corner of my eyes. Was I the only one who found it awkward? He seems to be fine, to be honest. Sighing quietly, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent a text to both Beckett and Charlotte, as well as my other friends that I hadn't spoken to in a long time. They probably don't know I'm here. Who cares?
Before long, we reached Christopher's house and I slowly put my phone back in my pocket and lumbered out of the car. "I need to visit my friends house," Christopher told me as he located his key in his pocket. He leaned against his car and beckoned me over. "Here." He dropped the keys in my hands and I clutched the cold metal.
"Oh, alright," I nodded as I took a few steps back. "Bye." He paid me a curt nod in return, which I'm assuming is his way of saying goodbye. Turning on my heels, I approached his house and unlocked the front door. I stepped in with a sigh.
You don't like him.