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C H A P T E R
F O U R
"Hey, Jo." She waved at me and smiled. That same angelic voice that I had always miss every day. I couldn't believe it!
"Ellis!"
I literally jumped and hugged her tightly, not caring if the both of us might've fall from the impact of my body. My eyes were wide with sheer bewilderment. Everything felt surreal.
Okay... So, maybe the higher power from above really was making things sure that I still could have the good blessings showering upon me. The little details God does to make me feel better was something I was grateful for. I was just over-stressing things when I said that I was probably having the worst day ever.
Because this ought to be the happiest thing that had ever happen to me this day.
Ellis giggled and enveloped me tighter in return. Our bodies were swaying side to side. Ellis brushed my hair with her long and thin fingers gradually like how she always did whenever she hugs me.
"Oh, I missed you so much! You're fat than the last time I saw you." Ellis drew her body away from me, holding both my forearms and stretching her lips for a smile. I looked at her in mock offended but still giggled it away.
"Shut it, you." I giggled and graciously bowed down, mocking courtesy. I took the compliment and felt the ball of my cheeks warm.
"Uhm, excuse me, babies. But where in hell should I put these?" Andee coughed, disturbing our girls-moment. Ellis turned to face Andee and smiled.
"Anywhere, darling." She looked behind me, where I assumed was my room, and pointed her skinny finger towards that direction.
"Thanks." She said, bit her well-done nails and smiled at me.
"Please tell me that whatever I'm thinking is really what it is." I said.
Ellis stared at me, smiling. "What do you think?"
I gasped. "No kidding."
She laughed softly. "I kid you not." She winked at me before tapping the tip of my nose.
"Oh my Gosh! This is... I'm surprised! Nobody ever mentioned to me you're going home." I shrieked.
I was really awestruck for the moment as I watched Andee move Ellis' stuffs inside my room in a leisure motion. I was not batting an eye, I tell you.
"Ha! Good! Andee and I were sort of planning on these behind you. I knew this would be great!" Ellis laughed, tucking some of her brown hair back. When I turned to look at her, she was already sitting comfortably on my couch.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She massaged her forehead and temples in a slow circular motion. "Ugh, bloody jetlag!" She complained. "Well, I hope you don't mind me staying here for awhile." She added, smiling as she opened an eye to look at me.
"My Gosh, heavens, absolutely not! I don't mind but I haven't clean my apartment!" I sat beside her. I saw her opening her eyes and sitting straight.
"I can see that." She gave the room a quick look. "I'll clean it with you. It doesn't matter, since I'll be sleeping here for a couple of days too." Ellis said, giddily. She clapped her hands twice and fast.
She stood up and roamed around my apartment as if she hadn't been inside before. She gave herself a quick room tour too.
"I guess, I'll be helping too." Andee exhaled, shook his head feebly as he made his way out of my room and leaned on the door frame. He crossed his arms in his chest and wiggled his nose in the cutest way.
"You bet you are, Andee." Ellis laughed.
Now that you'd mention it. They're talking to each other now. Did that meant they're friends again? They hadn't talked for a while back then, as far as I remembered. But I think they were cool now. How did they made up?
"Since when did you two started talking?" I asked. That was supposed to be just in my mind, but oh well.
"Oh, a year ago. Maybe? He's the one who asked me to come and visit. I have a break from my work for about a month. So, I decided why not? I also had the perfect timing, isn't it?"
"Yup. Actually you came in the most perfect timing." Andee remarked, which in returned he had earned a death glare from me. Andee could be a little nosy, but who cares. "Come on, let's just clean. I can't stand your room being like this." Andee grunted in disgust, walking his way to get the broom.
"When's the last time you even clean, you child?" Ellis asked, removing her old brown leather boots and snatching some house slippers from the drawer.
"I don't know. About a week ago?" I scratched my head, hiding the truth that I hadn't cleaned my apartment for a two weeks now.
"This doesn't look like a week ago to me." Andee muttered, but of course, it was loud enough for Ellis and I to hear him. "This looked like a year, to be honest."
Ellis chuckled. "Me either."
I blushed and felt guilty. "It looks clean to me."
Andee looked at me as if I just told him that the Earth is round. He rolled his eyes and said, "Let's just get this room done."
I slid my way into the kitchen and started looking for foods to cook. Ellis played some random EDM music and started kicking her feet to the beat. She even danced as she cleaned my room. Both Andee and Ellis were having a good time clearly. They didn't care if my neighbors knock like paranoid and worse, call for a swat team. And truth to be told, I didn't too.
I, too, recklessly jam to them and dumbly used the carrots as microphone. Stupid as that sound, but yes. Ellis laughed at me and Andee acted as a guitarist, assuming that the broom was a guitar. I was doing the head-bang while cooking whilst Ellis continued dancing as she wiped clean of my furnitures.
I did not really regret that I was having fun that night. And somehow, that made me forgot what my troubles earlier were. Even if it was just a couple of hours.
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They finished cleaning my house for about hour and a half. The food was also ready and Andee's face was contorted in disgust as he smell his shirt and dust the dirt away from his shirt. I rolled my eyes at him and chuckled. He flipped a finger at me and said, "I was sweaty and dear lord, the dirt! The dirt!"
Ellis had thankfully changed her clothes to some loose girly-boxer shorts and black spaghetti top. Ellis stopped the music and Andee jogged his way to the table and sat down hastily, bringing the wine bottle down in the middle.
"Not yet!" I slapped Andee's hand away. He winced and frowned. He rubbed the back of his hand and rolled his eyes.
"Ellis! Let's eat!" He yelled directing to Ellis, too eager to start digging in to the foods. I was laughing at myself while grabbing the corkscrew.
Ellis sat down and moaned, bending her neck a little bit. "Ugh! This smells good." Andee sniffed and groaned, rubbing his two palms together.
"I think I might forgot my diet tonight." Ellis joked, grabbing her fork and laughing.
"You really should." Andee teased. Ellis gave him a death glare. And I did too. He looked side to side and his face reeked perplexity.
"What?" He asked.
Ellis rolled her eyes. "You can't just say that to a girl."
Andee placed his spoon down and looked at her nonchalantly. "I just did. And what's with it anyway?"
I answered for Ellis' part. "Because, girls assume something worse than what you really meant. Take what you said as an example, you sounded like she has to work onto her body – that makes girls conscious with their body."
Ellis nodded her head. "Exactly."
Andee rolled his eyes and stabbed a cauliflower with his fork. "And because that's only what guys is trying to say. That's their simple way of saying things and you said it yourself, girls tend to make simple words turn complicated." He stopped. "And I'm telling the truth, Ellis you look like a fucking skeleton."
I laughed. "Shut up. She looks fit to me."
Ellis kicked Andee to the shin and shrugged. "Whatever. I'm just eating healthy these past few months. I can cook anything I want to cook."
Andee hissed but grinned. "Right, see? Ellis doesn't care anyway. So relax your wild títs and just savor the food."
I rolled my eyes. A pause. "Thanks for cleaning my flat." I started.
"Never knew you know gratitude." Andee teased, not bothering to look at me. His arrogant grin made me want to lunge at him and choke him.
"Actually I do know. I just don't say that often especially to ones who doesn't deserve it." I blurted.
Ellis choked. She fought the urge to laugh with her mouth full of food. I offered her wine and she drank it. After a couple more coughs and pound on the chest, she laughed. "Oh." She waggled her brows at Andee. "Arsewipe just got burned."
Andee frowned and threw his napkin at Ellis' face. She gladly took it with one hand and laughed more. Andee looked really frustrated but instead of bickering more, he resumed to finishing his plate.
Ellis chuckled and glanced down to her plate. Few seconds after she turned to look at me and I looked at her. "Andee told me what happened earlier. But he didn't actually know the whole details, and I was dying of curiosity until now."
"What do you mean?" I feigned innocence.
Andee glanced at me. A new emotion was taking place at his face. "About you and Kirk."
I sucked in a harsh breath and felt my head thump. I felt dizzy and I suddenly lost my appetite. I exhaled. "Oh."
Ellis shifted on her seat and held my hand within hers. "Don't 'oh' me, Lerman. I need to know what the fucker really did."
I glared at Andee but he probably didn't noticed it since he was too busy stabbing and scooping at his food and eat it. "There are just some things that cannot work out." I started, feeling the unbeknownst pressure on my chest again.
"If you force it more, it just won't get any better. Nevertheless, it will only make the situation a lot more worse than it has already been. And when you know that things aren't the same as before, someone has to quit. It's not called cowardice. It's actually bravery."
"But the way he broke things up aren't really exactly what bravery meant to me." Andee muttered but I chose to ignore him.
"Though I had felt that somehow the love was running out, I didn't listen to myself and instead just consistently threw myself at him. See what it had got me now?"
Ellis drew her chair closer to mine and said, "You're making things sound like it was all your fault."
I looked at her. "Wasn't it? If only I hadn't stupidly ignored what my guts had been yelling at, things would probably be different."
Andee was staring at me now. "Different in what way?"
I sighed. "I don't know." I shrugged. "I could've prepared myself to the break-up. Or, me just ending up things between us that has already ended long before this whole situation ever even happened."
Andee narrowed his eyes and nobody talked.
"Now that was easy to say, wasn't it?" Andee stated unexpectedly. "I do reckon that I kept on insisting you to break up with him. But someone was too head-over-heels to this bad arse dude, who knows nothing but to break random girls' heart."
I retorted. "It was a month ago!"
Andee yelled back. "Now what's the difference it make, huh? You were always had been blind when you were with him. You couldn't even think straight. You couldn't even manage your time right anymore. You barely had time with anyone but him. Now where did your love go?"
I felt my eyes stung. My heart was beating so hard, pounding on my chest, wanting to get out of the small space.
"Don't fck with me, Moran." I said through gritted teeth.
He shook his head, neither of us taking our eyes off of each other. "It's not called fucking things up with you, it's called reminding you. I know you know your mistakes by now but don't you think venturing more of what bullshíts had happen could make this subject more interesting than it could be?"
"You're sick." I said, a tear escaped from my eye. I wiped it instantly. He looked as if someone slapped him and he blinked. "I didn't mean to fall so hard to him. So, yeah, fine. I screwed up. I'm sorry that I didn't listen to your fucking genius words of advise and I'm the it. Fck it, is that it all you want me to admit?"
Ellis finally stepped in to our conversation. "Cut it out. It's nobody else's mistake but that jerk. You know your mistakes, Joey, and I do think there's nothing more to venture into her craps, Andee." Ellis glared at him.
Andee looked away. "Okay. So, what do you want to do now?" Ellis asked, directing the inevitable question that neither I knew what the answer to was.
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That whole night, we spent the remaining hours conversing about evil plans to either terminate Kirk or just some tips on "moving on". I tried changing the topic for my sake but Ellis was just quite persistent.
Andee and I avoided the subjects that might result to us bickering at each other once again. And Ellis made a good job in carefully trying to prolong our random topics to avoid any reason for us to arrive in a certain point of silence.
"Yeah. Now, that you mention it, his name also rhymes with the word 'Jerk' – Kirk the jerk." Ellis spat the words.
I laughed. "That was mean but okay."
Ellis made a face, "Don't you think he deserve all the hate he's getting?"
I shrugged. "Of course he does. But you know, everyone deserves a chance and --"
"Uh, no, sweetie. Zero chances for Kirk now, alright?" Andee drank his wine. "I had enough of this guy fucking you up."
"Going back to the topic, what ways do you want to annihilate this guy?" Ellis emphasized. I laughed.
"No termination, El." I smiled. "Just -- I want to leave him alone so I can start fresh."
Andee looked bored. "I told you, we can hire some dudes to get him done."
I looked at him. "Stop being a douche, princess. No one's killing anyone."
"Or, we can set him up somehow. You know, play around with him. Prank him." Andee suggested.
"Yeah, prank sounds cool to me." Ellis shrugged.
"What do you think? We went through a pile list and this is all I got." Andee yawned.
I yawned too. And we sat there thinking once again. I stood wordlessly as I grabbed their plates and headed towards the sink.
I suddenly heard a loud clap and when I turned around, I found Ellis at her feet, dancing. And by the looks of it, Andee seemed scandalized too.
"I know now! I know what to do! I have a plan." Ellis sang, climbing to her chair and looking tall on top of it.
"What?" Andee narrowed his eyes straight towards Ellis. I smiled after seeing Ellis in such image and kid like personality. Ellis cleared her throat and pointed her forefinger straight towards Andee.
"Well, how about Andee, our dearest friend, do a favor for us here?" Her eyebrows going up and down with delight and excitement.
Andee and I exchange looks. "Uhm, sister? We're lost."
Oh no. This had better not be a rubbish idea, I thought.
"What do you want me to do now, Ellis?" Andee asked, crossing his leg and his arm around his chest.
"Simple," She smiled. "You have to pretend as Joey's boyfriend to get that jack-arse jealous."
I blinked. "What?"
"No." He said. We both said in unison.
Ellis laughed. "Of course, you will!" Ellis insisted.
"No, bitch! How do you even do--- That's impossible."
"Remember that short theatrical play you two had at 5th grade?" She asked. I nodded.
"I do not like where you're getting at this." Andee muttered, but Ellis ignored him.
"Remember then, you and Andee pretended to be lovers in that play? Ah, Romie And Julie was just perfect, don't you think?"
Romie and Julie was our little children play at 5th grade. It was just as you thought, it was a short rip-off kiddie version of the infamous classic love story, Romeo and Juliet.
Unfortunately, the lead role for Julie had a flu the whole remaining week, so no one else could be perfect as a substitute for her than me since I somehow was familiar to the lines of Julie since I gave Andee some warm up practices to the play. I did enjoyed the wonders of being a temporary props-girl – a flower bearer. But, being Julie wasn't that bad at all either.
Andee exhaled, his huge hands found their ways to his hair. "I don't think we could pull the same thing before again."
I frowned. "Why's that?"
Andee looked at me unexpectedly. "Because," he said slowly. "we aren't in 5th grade anymore! We aren't in movies, we're dealing some great shíts here, hoe."
Ellis jumped off of the chair and walked towards him, "That's the point. We're dealing with our best friend's ex. You're a big bomb in your school and I bet that that Kirk douche is dámn jealous of you."
Andee huffed. "He better be, honey."
I nodded enthusiastically. "He was! Oh my God, this might totally work!"
They were looking at me. "How were you sure?" They said simultaneously.
I looked at Andee and grinned. "Remember last Christmas? He asked me to come over his house and celebrate with him. But I already had some plans with your family and I chose you over him."
Ellis suddenly smiled. I continued talking. "So, that same night, while we were walking out on the road, he suddenly asked about our relationship. He said he got really jealous as shít whenever you were around. He didn't even like the thought of you coming into my house every day when he can't."
Andee groaned and his huge hand found their way to his forehead. "No, no, no."
Ellis looked at him. She dropped down, just close to his level and leaned to his ear.
After a split second, I realized that Ellis whispered something to Andee. Andee blushed red as a tomato and shooed her away while cursing at Ellis.
"Don't ever -- fucking ever say that to me again." Andee stuttered. I wondered what Ellis said to Andee that made him blush like that. I never made Andee that red before. I suddenly felt a pang of jealousy.
"What did you tell him Ellis?" I asked, walking closer. Ellis held my shoulders and whispered at my ears, teasing me.
"Just giving a little push." Ellis teased and shrugged.
I looked at Andee – he was looking away. "Hey, bud?"
He looked at me. "Can you please, please, help me out with this. I think this idea might work but it could work more if it's with someone who's close to me, who knows me. We could pull this off, you know? We could try."
"And if we fail?"
I answered him. "We fail trying."
I stared deeply to his blue eyes. His blue, oceanic eyes. And smiled. "We can pull this off just like in 5th grade."
He stared at me for a little more minutes before closing his eyes. "What do I get in return?"
I looked back at Ellis for help. He was right. What could this idea benefit Andee?
"She could do your home works?" Ellis suggested.
I stared horribly at her. "No way. I even make him do mine."
Andee stood up and I watched him. "Then this deal's off."
Ellis walked towards the door and tried to use her body to block his way. "No one's going out until we fix this."
"Then tell me what I get to do this?"
I walked towards the living room. "I know."
They looked at me. "What if I pay you?"
"You mean..." Andee looked at me incredulously.
"Like if we hug, I'll give you 20$. For holding hands, 15$."
"You're making me sound like the biggest whore ever."
"Come on, Andee. Again... What do you have to lose?" I crossed my arms into my chest and I glanced at him.
He stared at me. His blue eyes striking and very provoking, much more now when he was looking tired and pale at night.
"I –" He paused and sighed.
Just a little more push.
"Please... Just help me here? Just this one? I'll pay you. I'll cook for you. I'll be your servant. Name it. Name whatever you want me to do for you."
"Oh my God, I can't believe I'm saying this but -- Fine." He finally said. I exhaled in comfort. He groaned in frustration.
"Thank you so much, Andee." I said, walking towards him and hugged him.
"Yeah, this better be worth it." He scratched his head and pocketed his hand.
Ellis giggled. Andee checked the time and yawned for the last time. "I guess I should leave now." He said, grabbing his bag in my room.
"When will you be starting?" Ellis pouted.
Andee and I looked at each other and I blushed. "Er— Tomorrow?" I suggested quickly.
"Wow, so slutty. But okay, tomorrow, it is." He placed in his shoes and waved us goodbye before shutting the door behind him.
"Good night, love!" Ellis shouted before it fully close. Ellis hummed all her way to the bedroom.
"Joey! I'll get the shower first, is that okay?" Her British accent was clear when she shouted. I almost forgot that she was from Britain.
Ellis and her mom decided to go migrate in here because of her father's work. They transferred pretty much in a small town at first – A little far from here. But sooner or later, her parents decided to let her study here. And that was how Andee and I met her. She was a little immature for her age, as you could tell. Since ever, Ellis' family was a living migrant. She doesn't have a real "long-lasting-friendship" with every people she played with.
She just always stayed in her house, watched TV or even read books as her past time especially when she got bored. But that changed when she met us. She even admitted that she had never shown anyone her real personality asides from us. It just really meant that she was comfortable around us and she really trusted us. I felt so delighted that I was one of her friends the she truly trusts.
"It's been a long day now, you know." She continued, waving her shampoo before closing the door. I was proud actually that I had these two awesome people in my life.
I couldn't wish for something more than this.
Ellis, Beth, Mel and even Andee. Oh, how I owe Andee a lot. Because of him, I did not gave up just yet. Because of him I had Ellis with me right now. Because of him, I could stand for myself.
I didn't think my world was about to crumble. And I didn't think I'd give up. Not just yet.
Not now. Not still that I had Andee, Ellis and the plan in my hands.
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EDITED!