"Good eveni- oh."
I dragged myself back to my barstool as I noticed it wasn't a customer that had walked in; it was only Briana.
"What are you doing here?" I said through a sigh, my hand under my chin as I doodled on a napkin. I was drawing Ruby; an ugly, alien-like version of her, that is.
"Wow, hello to you to," She said, her palm placed over her chest. I rolled my eyes and continued drawing Ruby's hair. Someone needs to go to a hairstylist.
"What is wrong with you?" I winced as Bri threw her bag in front of me, and sat across from me. "You've been in a shitty mood today at school, so I thought I'd visit you. What's wrong?"
I sighed again, and wished she hadn't come at all. "Nothing."
"Something happened at that dinner last night," She said quickly. "What was it?"
"Nothing," I repeated stubbornly. "Nothing good, anyway."
"What was that?" My best friend's face was suddenly an inch away from mine. "Come on, tell me! Is the woman mean? Are they rich? Do they have a hot son?"
Briana slowly sat back in her stool, confused, as I started laughing. If only you knew, I thought to myself.
"I'll take that as a yes?" When I looked up at her, she was smirking, probably knowing she'd guessed that last one.
With another sigh, I crumpled up the napkin and threw it in the bin, and turned to Briana, knowing she wouldn't leave me alone until I told her everything. "It's Liam," I said with no emotion in my voice.
As expected, her eyes went wide at first, but then she started looking at me with a cautious look in her eyes. "What? Liam who?" She asked, probably not realizing how stupid her question is.
I sighed. "Their son. It's Liam," I said again. If she had any brains, she'd know whom I was talking about. Luckily, when I looked up at her, she was looking at me as if I'd fell from Mars. As if I was an alien. As if I looked like Ruby on the drawing I just threw out.
"No," She said, her eyes almost as wide as her legs when she does a split in P.E. I only closed mine and nodded slowly, images of the previous evening making me shiver. Ugh.
I abruptly opened my eyes and winced when I felt Bri slap my hand. "Well what are you waiting for?" She said impatiently. "Tell me everything that happened, oh my God!"
I blinked a few times, looking around as I tried to remember everything from last night. Which wasn't that much of a problem; I don't think a few particular events would leave my mind ever. "Well... We went there and had dinner-"
"Details!" Briana interjected, making me sigh again, a little frustrated by now.
"Nothing happened during dinner! We just-"
"What happened later?" She cut me off again, and I looked at the table in front of me. To tell or not?
"Then... The parents wanted to talk about something serious, and made Liam and I go to the living room." To tell.
"Ooh," Bri sat up, a devious look in her eyes. "I'm sensing some 50 Shades action going on, yeah?"
I frowned. "Do you even know what 50 Shades is about?"
"No," She responded immediately, her smile disappearing just as quickly as she started shaking her head. "I just know there's a lot of sex in it... Anyways, what happened then?" There's the excited tone again.
"Then..." I had to pause and gulp when I remembered the next few things. "He started, um, making fun of my name. And... You know how I get when-"
"You tried to suffocate him, didn't you?" I nodded uneasily at Briana's suggestion; my intention wasn't to kill him... Kind of.
"Let's say I did. And then, um, my back started screwing with me and-and he actually gave me a massage..." I watched as the shock on my best friend's face increased, but she stayed quiet. Shocker. "And then..." I paused again, to take a deep breath. "Oh my God."
"What? What?!" Bri almost climbed up on the counter. "Sally Erica Dustin, if you don't tell me what happened, I swear to God, I will break into your-"
"He kissed me," I said loudly, managing not to vomit at the memory.
My answer did a good job at calming Briana down; she sat back on her chair, not sure whether she should just sit there and gape at me, or start fangirling. "Oh my God," She said in an overly stunned voice. "Oh my God!" She repeated, her voice squeaky as she waved her hands in the air. Fangirling it is, then. "Oh my fucking God, are you kidding me?!"
"No, unfortunately." I said the other word to myself, but of course, Briana heard me.
"Unfortunately?! Sweetheart, nothing about that situation is unfortunate," She said through a laugh, but then stopped all of a sudden. "Did your parents see you?"
"No," I said, staring into space, imagining the looks on my parents' faces if they saw me kissing Liam. Oh boy.
"Good then," Briana said, and within a second, her face was close to mine again, and she had a wicked look in her eyes. "So how was it?"
"Bad," I replied in less than a heartbeat, shocking her, of course.
"What do you mean?" She stammered, confused. "The timing, or... Or the kiss?"
"Both," I said, staring into space again.
"Wha- both? Liam's a bad kisser, then?" She tried suppressing a laugh.
"That's what it looks like."
"Oh my God! What did he do?"
I pulled the sleeves of my sweater over my hands, feeling a little cold after shivering so many times. "Well... Our faces were like, an inch apart. And the idiot flings his face at mine, like, he almost knocked my teeth out."
I couldn't continue talking, as Briana started laughing loudly. Should've expected that. "Well, give the boy a break." She grinned. "He has been chasing you for like, two months."
"Shut up," I said, almost through gritted teeth. "That's not an excuse to literally slam his lips against mine."
"Okay, okay," Bri said, the subject probably not as interesting to her. "But... What happened when he kissed you? Did you pull away immediately, or did you..." She wiggled her eyebrows in the end. Perv.
"He didn't pull away," I said quietly. "He just... Kept going at it, you know. It wasn't gentle and romantic, as first kisses should be. This one was..." I sat up in my chair, making weird, violent gestures in the air. "Fast. Rushed. But not a passionate kind, the kind that... Requires daily visits to the dentist."
"Aw, you poor soul." Bri pouted, but it soon turned into a smirk. "I never took him as a bad kisser type. I don't know, I guess it's because he looks so perfect and all..." There she goes, daydreaming again.
"I don't even know," I said, my voice a little desperate. "Literally... Five seconds after he'd kissed me, we heard chairs creaking in the other room, and... I just jumped away from him. So... I guess we'll never know if he's a bad kisser or was that kiss just... Bad."
"Oh, no," My best friend shook her head. "No. Nope. Listen Sal, you are going to kiss him... As soon as you can!" She had to pause because I started waving my hands in her face. She should have expected that, though.
"No, are you fucking crazy?! I can't even look him in the eyes anymore!" I hissed, but it didn't stop her.
"Please, aren't your parents like best friends with his or something?" She gave me a skeptical look, and I kept quiet, because I knew she was right. The relationship between my parents and Liam's? Indescribable.
"Well then, on the next dinner date or however the hell you want to call it, you two kiss. That's it." I knew there was no point in arguing with her; she'd always win. So I let her this time too, which in no way meant that I would kiss Liam again. No. Nope. Just... No.
"Aw." Briana interrupted my thoughts, and I looked up at her grinning face, a little confused. "You kissed!" She squeaked when she noticed the look on my face. Oh God.
She jumped off her chair, knowing I was about to say something, and the door of the shop opened as she did. Great.
"Ugh... Good evening, what can I- dad?"
Briana and I both stood there, a little shocked, and stared at my father. What in the world...?
"Hi girls," He smiled at us as he walked down to the counter. Briana and I exchanged confused looks, but when my dad sat down on her previous seat, she walked away, pretending to be interested in the drinks in the fridge.
"How was your day?" I looked away from my best friend and looked at my dad, who was still wearing that smile that confused the hell out of me.
"Um, it was good," I said, nodding slowly. "What are you, uh, doing here, dad?"
He huffed and looked down for a second, as if thinking about what to say. "I wanted to see you. And since you don't have a car... I thought I'd give you a ride home."
"Briana's here," I said quickly. "She could drive me home."
He sighed and turned to Briana, and by the look in his eyes, I knew she wouldn't be driving me home.
"Well I guess Briana would have to go home by herself, then, right?" He said with a smile that, for some reason, looked genuine.
"Um, of course, Mr. Dustin," Bri stuttered.
"Please, call me Shane. We've known each other for too long."
Bri nodded with a forced smile, and gave me a freaked out glance, to which I replied with a shrug.
I wouldn't say my dad is strict, or anything. It's quite the opposite, actually; I'd never had arguments with him about school, or friends, or whom I date. It's usually mum that's overly worried and does all the criticizing.
That could be because I hardly ever get to see my dad. He's what you'd call a workaholic; leaves the house at 8 in the morning, and when he comes back at 10pm he goes straight to bed. He rarely ever has days off, only when he asks for one, or two. I bet he even has dreams about paperwork.
So that must have been why I was so shocked to see him at my workplace, and hour before he was supposed to be done with his own work.
"So..." He started. "When are you closing this place?"
"Um... In ten minutes."
"Good," He said through a sigh and stood up, walking to the door. "Your mum's making lasagna for dinner, I don't wanna eat it cold."
I nodded, even though only Briana could see me, as we both tried not to laugh at my dad, who was staring out the door.
"You know what, um," I started as I stood up slowly. "I'm gonna close now. Ten minutes won't make a difference."
My dad turned around, a pleased smile on his face. "That'd be great, sweetheart. Won't the owners be angry, though?"
You have no idea. "Uh, no, they're good people, they'll understand." I gave Briana a warning glance, knowing she'd start laughing. Luckily, she only managed to smile.
"Good. For how long have you been working here, again?" Wow, amazing. My own father didn't know the basic things about me.
"Since February," I said through a sigh as I closed the pay-desk, and looked at the bucket filled with water next to me. The floor will have to wait for Jesse in the morning, I thought as I put on my coat, checked if I'd locked and turned off everything again, and within a minute, I was saying goodbye to my best friend.
"I'll call you later, alright?" She said with a hopeful look in her eyes.
I sighed, thinking about how tired I was, and all the homework that I had, and that damned Economy test on Wednesday... "Sure," I smiled, and after waving at her one final time, I turned around to follow my dad to our family car.
"So..." I started as I stepped into the car. "What made you want to pick me up?"
He sighed as he buckled his seatbelt, while I did the same. Only, he did it a lot slower. "You're my little girl, is it a crime that I wanted to pick you up?"
"Well, the last time I asked you to do that, you said you had a lot of work to do."
"And I did!" He said, a little too quickly.
"Then why was I hearing Jim Nantz in the background?" I asked loudly, before he could continue defending himself. It was a lost battle. "Tell me, are you going to become a sportscaster too, dad?"
When he didn't say anything for a few seconds, I continued talking. "So yeah, I guess it is a crime that you wanted to pick up your little girl from work."
I wasn't complaining or anything; it was a rather entertaining situation. My dad was left with no defense, but the funny part was how nervous he looked; he kept making weird stuttering noises, and making weird shapes with his lips. Hm, I guess this is why mum does all the hard work.
A minute passed before my dad finally sighed, and shrugged. "I, um... I actually wanted to talk to you about that boy."
"What boy?"
"Liam, you know? That family's son."
"Oh," I said, sitting back in my seat. This should be as fun as a funeral. "What about him?"
"Well... I'm guessing you've noticed how much your mum likes him. I mean, you know, like your friend, not-"
"I know what you're trying to say," I said slowly and loudly.
"Yes, well. Don't get me wrong, he's a good kid, I liked him too. Probably not as much as your mother... But that's not the point, the point is..." Finally, we're getting to the point. "I-I, um, I don't really want you around him that much."
I frowned, and looked away from the road to look at the side of my dad's face. "What? Why?"
"Well, princess, everything was going great last night... Until I saw him looking at you, the way he was looking at you. I just... The look in his eyes gave me a little hint of what he's actually like, and, believe me, he's not all sunshine and daisies, as your mum thinks."
"Dad," I said with a nervous smile. "He's... When we went to the living room, he-he didn't do anything. He's really not like that."
Why the hell was I lying to my father? And defending Liam?!
"I don't know," He quickly said. "I really don't know. Just... Don't spend too much time around him, okay? Your mum spoke to Karen today, and they're coming over for dinner, next Friday. Remember what I told you when they get there."
"Alright," I muttered after a few seconds, and kept quiet for the rest of the ride, thinking about everything that he'd just told me. And for some reason, not liking it.
So my dad wasn't letting me see Liam, while my mum was basically encouraging that. And speaking of the devil, he was going to find out where I live in a few days. Not to mention that we went together to school. And that his parents promised me they'd ask me to come over after school sometimes.
I am never going to jump on a stranger's back again.
*******
~A/N~
What do you think will happen in the future? mwahaha c: love you! xx