Monique's POV
"Good morning sunshine," I smile at Ellie who is rubbing her sleepy eyes as she stretches out her body lazily.
"Wh-whaaat mhhfff," she utters some incoherent words and I just watch her. She is so adorable.
After a few seconds, she opens her eyes and looks around. "Where am I?"
"Ellie~~" I coo. She turns her head to the side, following my voice.
"Monique?" She asks with her confused face as she sits up her body.
I move myself close in front of her to snap her back to reality, "You took a nap on my bed, silly."
"I did?" She says, pointing to herself with another confused face. "Hmm, that's refreshing. Your bed is so soft."
I cover my mouth as I let out a few giggles, then I run my fingers through her messy fringe to fix it. "You slept for 2 hours or so. And... I like watching you sleep."
"You what? No way! My mouth is half open when I sleep though. It's so embarrasing!" She buries her face on my pillow.
"It's okay. You look so cute when you drool anyway." I let out a laugh upon seeing her digging her face on the pillow even more while shaking her head. "Hey, I'm just kidding. Stop crying."
"I'm not crying." She stops whining and puts down the pillow. I smile at her, studying how cute her face is when it's flushed, for a few seconds.
"Are you hungry?" I ask after seeing the clock hits 4pm.
"After eating 7 pieces of pancakes? Ahmm, nope." She shakes her head, pressing her lips together.
"Heeyy, I made those for you!" I pout and look down to my fingers.
How dare her complain about my pancakes. They taste good though. I have never cooked for anyone my entire life. I can't even fry an egg. I made an effort to cook for her but it seems like it's nothing to her. This is way painful than I thought.
"Ayy, I was just kidding. Don't feel bad. I'm sorry." She takes my hands in hers and looks at me apologetically.
I keep quiet and continue to stare at our hands.
"Monique?"
"Hey.."
"I'm sorry."
"Pls, talk to me?"
I can hear her but I decide to just ignore her. I'm really upset about it.
"Monique~" she calls out softly once again and I hold my gaze up to look at her.
She throws me a smile when our eyes met, "I'm really sorry? I promise I won't joke about it anymore. Can you please forgive me?" When you see her doing the puppy style, I swear you could melt.
I am melting.
"You better be." I say, still trying to act sour as I take my hands out from her grip.
We stay like that for a while, just looking at each other. What does she see? Does she see my flaws? Will she still want me after knowing me?
I feel insecure all of a sudden. I have never loved before and here I am, trying to figure out what the girl that I'm in love with is thinking about.
"Oh, your hoodie," I say as I suddenly remember that. It's also a good chance to escape away from all these crazy thoughts.
Before I could jump out of bed, she grabs my wrist and pulls me back on the bed. "You can do that later. I want to watch you." She says with her eyes looking at me affectionately.
I can feel my blood gushing all over my neck.
Ellie's POV
"You can do that later. I want to watch you." I blurt out when she was about to leave the bed.
I don't know what takes over me but my hand seems to have control of itself. She sits back quietly and I move to her side.
"I am afraid that once you are gone, you are gone forever." I say truthfully.
She looks at me with a pair of puzzled eyes. "I won't go away, silly."
"You just love calling me silly, don't you?" I tease and encircle her waist from the side to pull her closer to me.
"Because you're silly, Ellie." She sticks out her tongue and snuggles close to me.
We fall into silence once again. This silence is comfortable now. I listen to her soft breathing and allow myself to relax my tensed body.
"Isn't it magical?" She suddenly says.
"What's magical?"
"We were once complete strangers and now, we are hugging each other." She explains, feeling a bit shy. I can feel her nuzzling my neck.
I nod along and smile blissfully as I think back. "It is all fate."
"It is scary though." She adds.
"Why?"
"Because strangers can fall in love with each other. What if the stranger you are falling in love with is not me?" She sighs.
"You're the silly one now. I don't just fall in love with any stranger. Honestly, I have never loved before." I confess.
She quickly looks at me, "Really? Me too! But now, I'm in love."
I let out a soft chuckle and shake my head at her cuteness. "I'm in love too."
"Really? With who?" She asks as if she doesn't know.
"With a girl who stole my heart on a bus?" I say and wiggle my eyebrows.
"Do you know her name?" She probes and continues to pretend clueless about it.
"Yeap. She's a Williams. Monique Williams is her name." I smile and she snuggles close to me once again.
"I'm in love with a Carlson. Ellie Carlson is her name." She mumbles against my neck.
I grin from ear to ear and hug her dearly. I don't ever want to let her go now.
"Keep the hoodie. In case you miss me, you can wear it."
"I will," She nods. "But now you're with me, so I don't need a hoodie."
I chuckle under my breath and sigh blissfully. Have I ever expected all these? No. I never thought that someone like her would fall in love with me. I don't even know what have I done right in my previous life to deserve her.
"Monique?" I call out. She hums in response and I smile,"Wait for me. I will ask you to be my official girlfriend one day. Don't let other guys steal your heart away."
She giggles and nods firmly. "My heart is with you now, silly!"
"Really? Where? Why can't I see it? Monique's heart, where are you~" I pretend to search around as she pulls away from my embrace.
Our bodies part away and she looks at me assuredly. Her hand reaches out for mine and she places my hand on her chest. "Take it with you and take care of it."
I stare at my hand as I am quite stunned by her action. I can feel her heart beating. It is actually nice to feel it.
"Then I shall give you mine in return." I pull her hand to my chest as well. Her face turns red after feeling my heartbeat. "I know this sounds cheesy but, my heart beats for you."
She nods and slowly pulls her hand away. I let go and gently cup her face with my hands.
"I love you," I whisper.
I receive a shy nod. I slowly lean in to close up the gap in between our lips.
Does she know that her lips are so tempting? Does she know that I'm drowning each time I stare into her eyes? Does she know that I still love her even though she's not perfect?
She slowly closes her eyes as we move in closer and closer. I shut my eyes after feeling her warm breath brushing my lips.
This is it.
"Sister."
The door barges open, revealing a stunned looking Violet.
We jerk away almost immediately and look away from each other. Well, this is awkward.
Fortunately, we were not in the midst of kissing, or else Violet would be even more shocked.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she mumbles and closes the door slowly. "Please continue."
Monique stands up from the bed and walks towards the door before Violet could close it. "It's okay. What's the matter?"
Violet looks at me and I avoid her gaze. This is so awkward. "The John guy calls you."
"Alright, tell him to wait a minute." says Monique then she closes the door hastily.
"John calls you?" I ask. I'm not jealous at all since I know he's gay.
"Yeap. Do you mind?" she asks me. Her back is against the door and we are a distant away.
I shake my head and say with a smile,"Go on."
She nods obediently and leaves the room.
The room is left with me now. We almost had our first kiss. I am not blaming Violet though, she didn't know it. I chuckle to myself as I think back about the kiss. At least I know that she was anticipating it like how I was craving for her lips as well.
I stand up and look around her room. She's quite clean, just that her study table is a little messy.
Something catches my attention. It is a calendar with ticks and crosses. As I try to figure out what it is, she returns back to the room again.
"He is annoying." She complains, sitting down on the bed.
"Why?" I turn around to look at her as I lean against the table.
"He just called to tell me that the lecturer emailed him about our assignment being well done." She rolls her eyes.
"Isn't that good?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"He could have just told me about it tomorrow. I really don't know what is he thinking about."
"Don't get so worked up, alright?" I smile and recall something. "By the way, what's this?" I point to the calendar.
She peers over and seems a little surprised. "Erm.. just something stupid."
"Tell me. I think I have an idea about what it is." I say and join her on the bed.
"You do??" She sounds surprised again. I nod with a grin, making her face flushed.
"Alright, I'll tell you. The ticks are the days when I see you and crosses are.. you know." She mumbles and diverts her gaze on the floor.
"Aww. I am right. Anyway, you can see me now whenever you want to." I ruffle her fringe.
"Don't mess my hair!" She whines and hits my hand. I pull it away and rub on the spot where she hit though it doesn't hurt at all.
"I need to go to the toilet," I say after awhile.
She nods and I leave the room.
Monique's POV
I check Ellie's phone as it vibrates on my table. It's a message from Kim. I leave it unseen to respect Ellie's privacy and place the phone down on my bed.
I start to wonder why Ellie's taking so long in the toilet. Is she having a stomachache? Because of my pancakes? Poor her.
Okay, I don't know why but her phone seems calling me. Will she get mad if I check out her phone? I won't read the messages though. I just wanna see her wallpaper and know how much selfies does she take a day.
I unlock her phone to look at her wallpaper. It's a picture of a girl. Wait, this girl is me. When did she take this? It seems like I'm reading my notes.
After a while, the door flings open and Ellie strolls in. "Is that my phone?" She asks with a skeptical tone.
She dashes her feet towards me to steal her phone away from my grip, "Sweet potatoes! You didn't see it, did you?"
"I saw everything. When did you take it?" I ask.
She tries to hide her tomato-looking face but it was too late while slipping her phone into her pocket. "I...didn't take it."
"Then?" I prompt.
"Kim took it on the bus that day.. It was the day when I knew about your name." She explains meekly.
I nod with my lips forming an 'o' shape. "Such a stalker." I tease her and her face becomes even redder.
"Shall we take a photo again?" I suggest. She looks at me with her head tilting to the right.
"You don't have to snap pictures of me secretly anymore. You can just say it whenever you want." I wink and copy her words earlier on.
"Heyy," She groans softly after realizing that I was teasing her.
"C'mon, Ellie!" I chirp.