This chap is dedicated to the awesome @shellylovesfood who has always been here to support me! Please read her book, 'Trouble'! It is so funny, and never fails to make me burst out laughing each time I read it!
Guys I need your opinion! Do you like the cover above? I have another one which I'm going to put on my previous chapter so can you check that out too :)
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You know how when people expect you to say something, but you say something else, and they look at you like you're an alien?
That's kind of what happened. Except that Hugo's face expression wouldn't exactly be described as weirded out, but more of disappointment. I hope he didn't really expect me to ask him out, because that was not something I, nor CC would ever do. I've never had a boyfriend before and didn't even know if I was ready now.
I waited for him to reply, but his face was still slack. Thinking for another mini second, I tried deciding whether I really wanted to repeat myself again. Shaking of CC, who would huff, and then walk away, I slowly repeated my question but in a more detailed way.
'When you said that you came to prom so that you could be with me...' I explained, taking a drink of the punch. I rested my elbow on my free hand, and looked up at him pursing my lips, 'Did you mean it?' The tension in the air was thick as he gave me a small coy smile, and answered slowly.
'Of course, you're a good friend of mine. I want to be with you.' I squinted my eyes at him, scrutinizing the words he'd used. He'd put connotations of being in a relationship and being just friends into the same sentence. Under my gaze, he seemed to writhe. 'What I mean is-'
I cut him off as I put my drink onto the food table, starting to turn away from him. I heard him sputter, and then a firm hand on my shoulder pulled me back to face him again, this time much closer. 'Did I upset you?' he asked, biting his lip with worry.
'No no... It's just' I put my hand on his chest, noticing that he was barely breathing under my fingertips. 'Just as friends?' I managed to catch him gulp, as he took my hand, and pulled it down to his side, not letting go. As he leaned forward, I panicked and quickly turned my head to the side, scared that he was about to kiss me.
He spoke in my ear, his words soft and shaky, making me have to strain to catch his words which was being masked by the soft music - or maybe my palpitating heart beat.
'Do you think we should be more than friends?' His words slammed into my chest, making me breathless as I struggled for words.
'H-honestly, I'm not sure but for some reason I-' I was interrupted by a vibration in my pocket. I took a step back from him and dug in my pocket, desperate to cease the vibration. It always got me panicking. As I looked at the tiny screen and saw that it was my father calling, I held up a finger to tell Hugo to wait and answered the phone. I put my hand up to my free ear, so that I could hear clearly.
'Hey Dad?'
'I'm downstairs, hurry down. We're going home now', he barked at me. I felt a rise of anger. He either refused to fetch me or forced me to go home.
'You have really bad timing you know' I snapped at him, hearing him growl in response. Shit, here comes a car ride in silence.
'Chloe, it's late. Have you not checked the time? It's past 11.' His reply was surprisingly calm, so I looked at the clock on the right wall of the glass hall, and noticed that it was already 11:25.
'If you don't hurry down, I won't be able to send Beatrice home.' he added on. His tenderness shocked me and I decided to hold my tongue down. Beatrice's dad was out of town and she desperately needed a ride.
'Okay then, can you give me like two minutes?' I asked in defeat. He moaned in annoyance, getting grumpy again. 'You're wasting my time. Just hurry up.' he said, hanging up. Ouch. I hated it whenever he said that - but better than taking the bus home any day. After I put my phone back into my pocket, my frown deepened as I realised that I had left Hugo hanging.
He looked at me expectantly. 'What' I asked him roughly. My dad's grumpiness was rubbing off on me.
A confused look embedded itself onto his face. 'Y-you were answering my question' he stammered. I stared at him for a while, trying to remember what we had been talking about but I kept thinking about how rude my father was to me sometimes.
His features relaxed as he groaned. 'It's okay. I'll text you?' He understood the sort of turmoil my father and I were constantly in.
But for the life of me, I couldn't remember what we had been talking about. Right now, I had less than one minute to find Beatrice so she could ride with me. I nodded in agreement at Hugo, and smiled a goodbye. He flashed me an understanding smile back.
Running off, my eyes searched the room for Beatrice or Selwin. I quickly spotted them outside, standing extremely close to each other. I inwardly 'Awwwwwed' and ran towards them. As I pushed the doors open, they immediately stopped holding hands and looked at me with wide eyes.
I stopped and gave Selwin a 'I'm not stupid' look and said 'Yeah I know everything. No point hiding.'
Snickering, I grabbed Beat by the arm, leading her towards the stairs. She tripped along and frantically waved at him. 'Bye Selwin, text me!' she called out as I steadily pulled her nearer to the stairs. I practically dragged her down the stairs with her confusedly followed along. When we finally got to the bottom, I let her go and started running towards the foyer, where I could already see the car and my father on his phone, the white screen light illuminating his face.
I stopped in front of the car and watched Beat chase after me, already panting from the exercise she hadn't even been doing. As she got closer, she slowed to a walk, rubbing her arm. 'Geez woman! How hard did you have to grab me?' she frowned and showed me the red marks on her arm from my rough grip.
'Sorry...' I apologised sincerely, and thought back to the red marks I had gotten from Adrian, when he had dragged me away from Leo on my first day of school. It seemed like so long ago, when I thought he was my hero, as he saved me from Leo who had been a complete creep. I frowned as a sudden rush of guilt gripped my heart, especially when I realised that I was standing in exactly the same place that Adrian had saved me from.
Adrian had been nothing but nice to me since we became friends, and how had I treated him? I felt a knot in my throat as the guilt sunk deeper in my stomach.
Beat had already hopped into the back of the car, and called out to me. 'Chloeeee' She sing-songed, jolting me out of the daydream. I shook my head, and gulped, trying to get rid of the knot in my throat. I had to apologise to Adrian, and soon.
I greeted my dad and buckled myself in, and was met with a grinning Beatrice. Her smile was contagious, and the sides of my mouth twitched as I remembered that she was finally with Selwin. I raised an eyebrow at her, 'How did it go?' I slurred at her, trying not to be too obvious or my father would notice something was off. 'Goood' she slurred back, grinning so wide, she seemed happier than she'd ever been.
I put my arm around her and whispered, 'I'm super happy for you'
She leaned in to my shoulder and replied, 'Thanks Chlo.' We stayed like that for a while, until she abruptly shot off my shoulder and looked at me with eager eyes.
'Did anything happen with Hugo and you?' It was funny how she knew that I hadn't apologised to Adrian yet and didn't ask about it. Suddenly it all hit me. Hugo and I were talking about 'us'. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten.
I nodded my head at Beat, but loudly said 'No, what are you even talking about?', in case my father got any ideas. I shot her a glare, telling her to be more subtle. She raised her hands slightly in apology. I opened my mouth to tell her what had happened, but then realised that I hadn't even finished talking to Hugo about it. I held up my hand at her to tell her to wait, whipping out my phone.
I texted Hugo, and bobbed my foot while waiting for him to reply. My phone finally vibrated, signalling that Hugo had replied. I tapped the open key frantically to cut off the buzzing sound before it caught my father's attention, and peered at the messages, smiling in response.
Hugo: I see you finally remember~ You have the memory of a fish - as usual.
Me: Hahaha Sorry about that! Btw, I think this conversation would be better in person.
Hugo: See you in Physics tomorrow.
Me: Okay.
His texts were quite fast but by the time we finished texting, we were already pulling into Beatrice's street.
I turned to her and saw her giving me a lazy glare. 'Yeah It's been 5 minutes', she drawled. I gave her an apologetic grin. 'I'll call you later', and to this she nodded in agreement.
After thanking my father profusely for dropping her off, (She's a polite one), she hopped out of the car. I grinned at her retreating figure and the slight hop in her steps. The elation in her was so obvious.
I was really happy for her.
Maybe I could be that happy again.
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The next day, I woke up groggily to my mother shaking me awake. 'Chloe! Remember you have a dental appointment at 1 today. I'll meet you there, and I've already emailed your teachers to allow you to leave during lunch.'
I slowly opened my eyes to see the blurry figure of my mother looking down at me from where she sat. It was still dark outside, and thankfully, she hadn't switched on the room lights. The last time she did that, I had woken up horribly and was grumpy the whole day.
'Do I have to go back to school after that?' I asked, to which she nodded in response. I groaned long and loud, until her hand cupped itself over my mouth, cutting me short.
I mumbled 'Fine' into her hand, and somehow she understood what I said. She let go, and jumped off the bed, pacing out of the room to make sure Marc was ready for school. That booger got to go to play-school, where they sang songs and played all day. I inwardly groaned as I compared it to the torture of school that I went through. I slowly got off the bed and got ready for school, mumbling to myself the whole time and glaring at everything around me. I was not a morning person.
Chanel and Dolce had already left for school on their school bus by the time I left the house, and before I knew it, the day passed before me, and I was on the way back to school from the doctor's place. I hated the dentist, and had thought it was a complete waste of time ever since I was young. According to many people, my teeth were more perfect than they needed to be, and I had never had a cavity in my life. So when my mother makes a big deal about having teeth check ups, guess who groans the loudest in my family.
As I walked up the dreadful slope from the bus stop to get to the school entrance, my mind wandered to Hugo. But this time, instead of smiling like I always did when thinking of him, I frowned as I realised how nervous I was. My hands were shaking, my breath was unsteady, and I couldn't get any plan into my head on what I was going to do or say to him.
What if he really does like me? What if I'm not ready for something like this?
I took a deep breath as I walked into school, and shakily scrawled my name onto the 'Late Students' clipboard. When I walked into physics class, I completely ignored Mr Diordram, and plopped myself down on my usual seat, next to Young and Beatrice. I could tell that Hugo and Adrian, who both sat on the table to the left of mine, were looking at me curiously.
Beatrice nudged me, 'Hey you missed lunch. Hugo was looking for you'
'I know - that idiot must have forgotten that I had a dentist's appointment' I whispered back. She could probably sense that something was wrong so she leaned over closer. 'Are you nervous?'
I sighed, feeling heat rise up to my face. 'Yeah...' Although Beat had given me a pep talk on what sort of responses I should have the night before, I was still unsure of what I wanted to do.
She sighed then launched into her pep talk again. 'Remember what I said. Whatever he says, you have to remain calm and if-'
Her jumble of words got cut off by Mr Diordram's deep booming voice. 'Ms Dior, come over here and tell me why you were late.'
I groaned loudly and slowly pushed my lab stool back, making a screeching noise. Young whispered, 'Your father wants you' under his breath, which made me clench my jaw in irritation. His Diordram joke always got on my nerves. Apparently Mr Diordram was my 'father' since my surname was Dior.
That rascal was so lame.
I threw a deadly glare at him and stomped to the front of the class, hearing many snickers from my classmates, one of which was Adrian. I could recognise that snicker anywhere. Everyone knew that I hated Mr Diordram to bits so they watched our exchange in silence and with anticipation on their faces.
When I was about one metre away from him, I stopped and put one hand on my hip. We stared at each other for around 10 seconds before he cleared his voice, obviously unnerved by the way I was looking at him.
'Ms Dior, explain why you came to class so late that there are only 5 minutes left.' he demanded, trying to be fierce. I glanced at the clock, and realised there were actually 10 minutes of class left.
He doesn't know how to read the time. I laughed inwardly and then replied, pointing to his open laptop in front of him. 'If you check your emails, you'll be able to see that my mother has notified all my teachers that I had an appointment during lunch.'
Mr Diordram tutted, and fiddled with his computer for abit. The entire class stared at him in silence while he did so.
Finally, he said, 'Oh yes. I see. You may go back to your seat now.'
I went back to my seat muttering 'amateur' under my breath. Somehow, most of the class caught it and burst out laughing but Mr Diordram didn't. Thank god for that.
Until the end of the lesson, I was busy begging a reluctant Beat to stay with me while Hugo and I talked. She said she was supposed to have a date with Selwin, but I didn't think I would be able to do it without her.
When I finally approached Hugo after class, he was busy throwing all his books into his bag. Seeing me, he flashed a shaky smile which showed that he was as nervous as I was. 'Should we go to the canteen?' he asked.
'Nooo!' a part of my brain screamed. 'Sure' I replied, after a while.
We walked into the canteen with Beatrice on our heels.
Hugo turned around to her, biting his lip. 'Beat can you go somewhere else?' he asked earnestly. Beat didn't need to be asked twice. She started walking away immediately but I yelped and pulled her back. 'Beat, don't leave me' I harshly whispered.
She rolled her eyes and groaned.
'Fine' she let out, taking out her phone to play a Pokemon game. Reassured, I turned back to Hugo who gestured for me to sit at the table he was standing next to.
I sat down and let out a large breath, looking at him expectantly. My heart beat fast and I could hear it pounding in my ears. My whole body got really warm as Hugo continued looking at me with an intensity that was left unshattered by our silence.
Finally, after what felt like forever, he opened his mouth and spoke. My eyes were wide with anticipation as I listened intently to what he was saying.
'Chloe, it's taken me a lot of courage to do this today.' he paused, and I nodded, unable to speak. If I tried, a whimper would probably come out of my mouth.
'I think you're so smart and so kind, and honestly. I've really wanted to ask you this since I met you.' My heart softened at his words but I still felt on edge, almost as if I was about to have a panic attack.
Finally, he asked. 'Will you be my girlfriend?'
My whole body erupted with goosebumps and I felt like my face was on fire. I shook my head trying to get rid of the horrible feeling, at the same time confusing Hugo and making him think I didn't want to.
'You don't want to?' He looked at me with those puppy eyes, frowning.
'I-i I'm not sure' I stuttered, almost unable to hear my own voice.
'Chloe...' He sighed, prompting me to make my decision. I pressed my eyes shut and tried to push the arising buzz of a headache down.
After a while, I looked up at him giving me a one sided smile. 'Just say yes Chloe' he said softly.
'But y-you want to study in Spain!' I burst out. We'd discussed our university plans before, and I wanted to study in Asia since I was already learning Chinese. He then told me that his parents planned to move back to their home town for his university studies.
A look of surprise passed his face before he put his hand over mine and intertwined our fingers. He softly chuckled. 'Don't think so far Chloe'
'But what if my parents find out' I stammered.
'If you don't tell them, then they won't know' he reasoned.
I furrowed my eyebrows. This was so stressful. I felt like the ceiling of the canteen was getting closer by the second, and as if I would be crushed under the pressure of the situation.
'Chloe... Don't think so much' he moaned.
I blinked my eyes, pursed my lips and shook my head. How could I not think? I couldn't jump into a doomed relationship! I wouldn't put myself through that sort of emotional pain.
He tried to give me his puppy eyes again which started to piss me off. No way he was going to beg me to be his girlfriend.
I removed my hand from the table, leaving his lonely hand stranded. I couldn't think clearly, and I couldn't come to a decision so fast.
Hugo looked at me with a tinge of impatience on his face but waited for a while. Afterwards, he looked at his brown watch and said 'Soccer started 20 minutes ago.'
What? My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as I looked at the time and realised that it had been half an hour since he had asked me. I've been freaking out in front of Hugo - for half an hour.
'Will your coach kill you?' I asked, to which Hugo responded with a shake of his head. I looked around to see Selwin sitting next to Beat who was pointing at us and narrowing her eyes, probably complaining about what a burden I was being.
Selwin looked over, his face spreading into a goofy grin. He let go of Beatrice's hand and walked over. When he reached us, he enthusiastically quipped, 'Whatchu guys doing?' I looked up at him and just stared, wanting him to get the message and leave us alone, but Hugo then spoke for me.
'Selwin, can you go back to Beat please' It came out more like a demand than a question. Selwin pretended to sulk before he turned on his heels and skipped back to an amused looking Beat. Seeing my gaze in her direction, she waved her hand about with an urgent look on her face to tell me to hurry up.
I turned back to Hugo as a large bang was heard as the canteen doors swung open and hit the wall. I jolted in shock and was greeted with familiar rowdy chatter, as a sweating Leo, Yosef, and Balram ran into the canteen in their soccer kit.
Spotting us, they ran over and threw Hugo's red sports bag down onto the table. 'Hu you are so late, Coach told us to fetch you.'
Hugo moaned and looked up at them, 'Why didn't you just tell him that I wasn't feeling well?'. Balram and Yosef frowned, scratching their heads while Leo grinned and pointed to his watch.
'Tick tock' was all he said before turning to me, seeing my constipated look. His amused look transformed into one of pure curiosity.
'Wait what are you guys talking about?' He asked loudly.
Selwin heard him from a few tables away and replied, 'Oh Hugo's just asking Chloe if she'll- Ouch!'
He got cut off by a whack on the arm. He pouted and rubbed his arm at Beat who was putting her fingers to her lips, telling him to be quiet.
Unfortunately, the boys got the message. Their faces turned playful again as they leaned their elbows onto the table and pretended to be completely interested in our conversation.
Hugo tried to swat them away but it didn't work. They refused to budge. I gnawed at my lip, looking at all their expectant faces. Hugo actually looked like he was about to die out of anxiety.
If he got rejected, he'd be rejected in front of his Bros... And that'd be humiliating.
I didn't even know why I was thinking so much for him... After around one minute of silence, Leo sighed then stood up, starting to tug a resistant Hugo out of his chair. Balram and Yosef just looked at me with strange expressions on their faces.
Hugo was resisting Leo very well, so he stopped trying physically, but verbally. 'Come on man, I told you she's still got feelings for- ' he was interrupted by Balram shushing him. My eyebrows knit together as I realised what idea they had just planted into Hugo's head.
I started feeling angry. The mention of Adrian in this conversation irked me, and Yosef put his hand on my arm, squeezing comfortingly when he realised I was getting pissed.
As Hugo slowly stood up and started to oblige to the boys, I quickly pushed back my chair and spoke, forcing the tremble out of my voice.
'You know what Hugo?' He looked up with a look of astonishment on his face. The boys took a step back, leaving the two of us 'alone'.
I licked my lips and stared into Hugo's eyes.
It felt like the whole canteen was staring at me in anticipation, as I mentally prepared myself for what I was getting into.
I nervously licked my lips again, put on a small smile, and finally said it.
'Yes'
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Hey guys!
So as you can see, I've mentioned CC and Mr Diordram again, I hope ya'll can still remember what all that hubba hubba was about xD
Thanks for reading, and I'll do my best to update every 1-2 weeks!
Stay tuned,
Colleen
P.S Comment loads! I love hearing your thoughts <3