Chapter 16 - Distracted
I was startled by the sound of my phone alerting me to a text message. I slowly opened my eyes, realising that it was dark outside, and that I'd wasted my entire day asleep on the couch whilst attempting to watch day time soapies. It seemed that I was sleeping a hell of a lot lately. I put it down to the fact that I was just so exhausted and overwhelmed with everything that was happening in my life at present.
I picked up my phone and my heart jumped the moment that I saw Joel's name there on the screen.
'Hey Miranda, I just wanted to apologise for Thursday. I don't want to jeopardise our friendship so I'm hoping you can forgive me. Hope everything's ok, didn't see you in class today? J'.
His message was pretty sweet, and created a warm and fuzzy feeling inside of me. He really was such a genuine guy. I could now tick that item off of the impending list of issues that I was dreading to attempt. I had a vibe that things would go back to normal with Joel next week, making it just that slight bit easier to drag myself to college on Monday.
'Hey Joel. No dramas, sorry I had to leave so suddenly. Wasn't feeling the best today, but I'll see ya Monday :)'.
After I hit send, memories of the whole library incident with Joel came flashing back to me; when Joel had seen me kissing Will in the car park. I suddenly felt anxious again and decided that this item would have to regrettably remain on my list.
I decided I wasn't even going to think about the Will thing until the end of the weekend. I needed a boy free weekend, so I picked up the phone and dialled Summer.
"Hey Miranda!" She chirped, a little bit too loudly for my currently miserable and withdrawn state, making my ears ache.
"Hey Sum. So, what are you up to this weekend? Wanna go shopping tomorrow? Maybe see a movie?" I questioned, anticipating a yes.
"Yeah I'm awesome babe. Tomorrow sounds good! Hey guess what?! I'm going on a kind-of-date tonight with Ashton. He is so sweet Miranda, he's taking me out to dinner to some fancy restaurant." She replied enthusiastically, as she proceeded to go on and on about Ashton and her new found crush.
After chatting away with Summer and organising our girls day tomorrow, then watching some more TV, it was already 10:00pm and I was yet again ready to retreat to my forever and always trusty bed. Although it did occur to me that I'd spent probably a good percentage of the previous twenty-four hours asleep, I still knew that I would have no trouble at all falling into a deep, and hopefully dreamless slumber.
~
I woke Saturday morning thankful that the nightmare that had been regularly haunting my dreams, only seemingly when I was in the presence of Will, continued to stay buried deep down within my subconscious. For now, at least. I felt somewhat refreshed today and was looking forward to a day of the girly pleasures in life.
Summer had gotten to mine around 11:00am, and we spent about three to four hours down at the local discount factory direct mall. Shopping always seemed to cure whatever troubles I had in life. I'd always get a kick out of buying something new as it would give me a momentary adrenaline rush I suppose you could say, kind of like an addiction.
Summer and I chatted about Ashton mainly, and she'd probed me some more about Will and Joel, in which both cases I denied all truth to the matter. I just wasn't ready to tell her about Joel trying to kiss me; she'd totally judge me for turning him down. And how I'd been secretly seeing Will, who rejected me, and who was a freaking vampire. Well that was one thing that Summer would never find out about. I promised Will that I would never tell a living soul about it, and I highly doubted that even if I did say anything, anyone would actually believe me.
After shopping we went and saw a movie, which by the way happened to be Summer's pick, and also happened to be a teenage vampire romance. It was just my luck that she had picked the latest Twilight movie. I basically cringed the entire way through, not being able to block out thoughts and images of Will for long, mainly due to the fact that there were so many similarities in the movie to Will and I.
Once the movie was over we said our goodbyes and I headed home, straight for bed. The rest of the weekend was quite a drag. My grandma had called me on Sunday to see how I was going, telling me that she was planning to come by in a few weeks to visit, to check out my new place and check up on me. Apparently she also had something 'very important' to tell me, and that she would rather do it in person. This kind of freaked me out a little but I decided I didn't need any more dramas in my life at that moment so I'd deal with it later when the time came.
~
I woke up early on Monday morning, feeling quite anxious. The second reality hit me, I realised that today was the day I had to deal with these stupid dramas. I dragged myself out of bed and proceeded with my usual morning routine. I chose my black denim skinny leg high-waisted ripped jeans, and an off the shoulder white top which showed off a small portion of my midriff. I rushed out the door, in hope of arriving to the lecture early, so that I didn't have to make a decision about, out of the two conflicting dramas in my life, which one I was going to face first.
Luckily for me, neither of the two boys had arrived yet. I chose a seat right up the back left-hand corner of the room. I just sat there in anticipation that neither of them would rock up so that I could hurriedly leave and escape the confrontation that I was dreading...
"Hey pretty." My heart had practically leapt out of my chest and started beating a million miles an hour, leaving me breathless. I snapped my head around to my right, only to see Joel taking a seat next to me. He was smiling at me, just as he always did, with a genuine, heart-warming, butterfly-inducing smile. I loved that about Joel; no matter what had happened, he always somehow had a way of making me feel completely at ease around him.
"Hey Joel." I replied, not being able to contain the smile that had now spread itself across my startled face. I felt so relieved that the most daunting part of seeing Joel was now over.
We hadn't spoken a word about Thursday, yet somehow I felt that it was all behind us and we could go back to how things were before. Instead, we had spent the remainder of the lecture giggling, and drawing silly pictures of the stereotypical lecturer on our notepads.
Once class was over, I felt on top of the world again. All thoughts of dread and anxiousness put behind me, all thoughts of Will...hold on.
Will. I didn't see him in the lecture. I almost felt relieved at that fact. Ok, so now I wasn't going to see him until tomorrow's lab practical, I realised. Well at least I had another whole day to ponder over what I was going to say.
Joel and I made our way to the tutorial, and again spent most of it chatting and giggling away, like the best of friends. Once class was over, we grabbed our bags, and headed out the class room.
"So, what are you up to tonight?" Joel questioned.
"Um, nothing much at all. I kind of just feel like relaxing. I'm completely exhausted, although I spent most of the weekend in bed. You know how when sometimes you oversleep, you end up feeling ten times worse?" I explained, as he smiled and nodded his head at me in agreeance.
"That's cool, I was going to see if you wanted to come around and watch a movie with me, but if you're not up to it I totally understand." He replied, his puppy dog eyes emphasising the most adorable, irresistible, heart-broken look on his face. How could I say no to that?
"You know what Joel, I'm totally up for it. How much energy can one use while watching a movie anyway? I'll most likely fall asleep during it anyway." I giggled, as his disappointed look turned into a large grin.
"Awesome. I'll drive. But only under one condition – there's no way I'm letting you walk home alone this time." He stated, as I giggled once more.
"Deal."
We made our way towards his flawless shiny car, and he drove us to his place in no time. I quite enjoyed hanging out with Joel, having completely put Thursday's events behind me. I had then decided that I wasn't going to bring up the whole 'so, you saw me kissing your enemy right after you declared your feelings for me' conversation. I didn't feel the least bit awkward around Joel, and bringing that up would probably change that.
I slumped down on his couch, as he went to fetch us some popcorn and a cup of tea for me. He really was so sweet. If it weren't for these intoxicating feelings that I had developed for Will, I would probably say that Joel would make the ideal boyfriend.
After only a few minutes, he came back with the popcorn and tea. I smiled as I took it from him, taking a large gulp, "Yum. How did you make it so perfect?" I asked, also wondering just how he was so perfect all of the time, so spot on and knowledgeable about everything. In particular, all of my favourite things...
"I've told you before and I'll tell you again; I'm just super smart Miranda. You'll have to get used to it, because I do enjoy pampering you." He chuckled, flashing me that gorgeously dimpled smile.
Joel had put on Superbad - one of my favourite movies. It was kind of uncanny and freaky that we had so much in common. That he managed to know what all of my favourite things were; my favourite mixed berry cider, my favourite BBQ supreme pizza, my favourite movies, my favourite cup of tea, he also loved white wine, he also chose to study chemistry...
I was lost in thought and intrigued by Joel and I's uncanny compatibleness, that I and hadn't even realised that Joel had put his arm around me. I felt so relaxed and comfortable with him, that I casually sunk into his side, nestling my head into hs shoulder. He was so warm and comforting and it felt so right to be in his arms like this.
My eye lids became heavy only about a half an hour into the movie, just minutes after hysterically laughing at the silly one-liners. I didn't know how I did it, but I could fall asleep whilst skydiving if I really wanted to. And then my eyelids grew even heavier and heavier, and I couldn't do anything but succumb to the soothing darkness...
~
I woke up with my arms somehow wrapped around Joel's waist quite tightly, and his wrapped around me. This instantly brought back memories of the night when I first invited Will around, how I'd woken up in his embrace, and how we had almost kissed...damn it!
Why was it that just about every thought would ultimately somehow always end up being focussed on Will? Probably something to do with the way he was built as an intoxicating predator that I was so incredibly drawn to...
"You're hilarious Miranda, you were literally asleep within the first half an hour." He chuckled, as I looked up into his adoring eyes. I smacked him on the chest and giggled back. I regrettably slowly unwrapped my arms from around his waist, subconsciously wishing that I didn't have to, as my conscious mind fought back at the irrational thought.
"Yes well I did tell you that I'd probably fall asleep." I giggled some more. I was still melting into Joel's side, and he didn't bother, not in the slightest, to remove his grip from me. He too, was probably enjoying the closeness between us on the couch. I kind of enjoyed it too, so didn't bother at that moment to completely wriggle out from his embrace.
The movie was nearing an end, and I couldn't help but yawn again, fighting back the urge to fall asleep once more, in fear that the next time I'd wake up it would be Tuesday morning. I pulled away from Joel's embrace and slowly stood up, stretching my arms out in the air.
"I'm just going to go grab a glass of water, then are you able to please take me home?" I asked, using my big pleading puppy dog eyes which I knew that not a single person on this entire earth would be able to resist.
"No probs. You know you don't have to use those eyes on me Miranda, I'd do anything for you anyway." He said with a stunningly handsome smirk pulling at the sides of his lips. I just poked my tongue out at him cheekily, and skipped off towards the kitchen.
I was in such a fantastic mood, knowing that I was able to distract myself from all of the dramas at Joel's expense. I just hoped that I wasn't leading him on in any way, that he wouldn't try to pull what he did in the library on Thursday on me again anytime soon. I was also worried that if he did, I wouldn't have the strength to pull away.
I pulled a glass out of the cupboard and filled it up using the water from the sink, gulping it down efficiently in hope of relieving my dry mouth as if I'd just come from being lost in the desert.
"You know you look adorable when you sleep." Joel chuckled from behind me, startling me slightly. I placed the glass on the table and turned around to face him, my hands on my hips and the cheekiest smirk planted on my face, ready to react to his mocking.
"Is that so? Well maybe if you weren't so obsessed with me you wouldn't have been staring at me the entire time." I defiantly replied, still holding my smirk. He couldn't help but smile back either, as he made his way even closer towards me, invading in on my personal space just a little bit too much.
He was suddenly right in front of me, and had placed both of his hands to either side of my waist, smiling down at me as if I were the most anticipated present that he'd been waiting for on Christmas day as a boy. I suppose it was flattering...
"Well maybe if you weren't so damn adorable I would be able to keep my eyes off of you." He cheekily replied back. I couldn't help the butterflies fluttering around in my stomach, threatening to escape, as he said those words. I just looked up into his amazing green eyes, and placed my palms on his chest.
"Yeah, that's what all the boys say." I smirked, as I pushed his chest away from me, causing his hands to leave the grip on my waist. I grabbed my bag from the bench top and spun around, "Now take me home stalker, before I call the cops." I said while still smirking.
He then leaped at me, causing my heart to jump, not realising what he was doing. Then suddenly he had tackled me, spun me around, wrapped his arms around me trapping my arms beneath his, and was tickling me!
"Ahh! Joel! Stop...it!" I pleaded, whilst giggling, trying to push him out of my grip. He had somehow cornered me to the bench so that my butt was leaning on it and both of his arms either side of me, trapping me once more. I was still giggling, trying to get my breath back.
"Sorry I just thought you needed some punishment, you were being too cheeky for my liking." He whispered with that stunning smile.
He just hovered over me there for a minute longer, as we studied each other's eyes and lips. His face was so close to mine that I could feel his warm tickling breath on my nose. Oh shit.
I felt the butterflies again as he stared into my eyes, wondering between them and my lips. I knew that if I allowed him to hover there any longer, he'd probably try and kiss me and I probably wouldn't have the strength to push his gorgeous, heavenly body, away from me this time. I decided to end it then before it got too intense.
I lifted my arms and pushed his chest away with my palms. "Come on, take me home before I collapse and you'd have to carry me upstairs to the spare room." I giggled, grabbing my bag off of the bench once more.
"Ok, fine. But you deserved that tickle you know." He smiled at me, grabbing his keys from the bench top. We both made our way out the door, and jumped in his car.
It wasn't long before we pulled up to mine. "Thanks for a fun night Joel. See ya tomorrow." I smiled, as I jumped out of the car, catching his dazzling smile back.
"See ya Miranda." He said, as I gently closed the door, and he drove off.
I froze. I had a sudden vibe that someone was there. I wasn't sure if I was in danger, but I sensed that someone was watching me, almost as if they were waiting for me to get home. I instantly trusted my vibe and ran straight for the stairs, straight to my door, fumbling around to find my keys.
My vibe grew more and more anxious, until I finally opened my door and slammed it shut behind me, locking it straight away. I took in a deep breath, and headed for the bedroom, shutting the door behind.
I had no idea who, or what, for that matter, could have been there. All I knew was that it had made me exceptionally anxious. But not anxious enough to avert me from falling asleep. I changed into my PJ's and was instantly taken by my subconscious and the darkness, the second that my head had hit the pillow.