Another Chance
“How much time until you… leave?” I asked Ash as I peered into the driver’s window.
“A month after graduation so that gives us three more months,” He smiled at me while touching his hand to my lips.
“Would that be enough time for… us?” I asked as I leaned in closer to him. I didn’t know what I was expecting but my body felt weird and tense.
“We’ll make it more than enough. We still have prom.” He leaned closer to me too. His breathing was heavy and so was mine. His breath was hot and was quicker.
He sighed as he stared into my eyes and kissed me on the cheek. Like he always did.
“Bye.” He bid.
“Bye.”I said as I returned the kiss and stepped away from the car. I watched it sped up and disappear from sight.
“Ash…” And all the tears started pouring again.
“So you’re sure he’s really leaving?” Sadie asked. I knocked on the door after I decided that I was good enough to speak clearly. But the moment Sadie opened the door for me, I lost it.
“When did Ash ever lie to me?” I asked as she helped me get in and sat me down on the sofa.
“You’re right. I feel like this is a really bad time for me to give you a surprise. Wait here. I’ll cancel.” She trotted into the kitchen.
I didn’t even hear what she was saying. I was too upset. Part of me thought that I was being selfish and the other part, the one that’s practically shouting, was grieving over Ash.
“Oh God, you look like shit.” Nadine commented while she sat on the foot of their stairs. “Sadie was right. No way will he talk to you, not when you look like that. Aw crap, so much for a life saver and a date with Dylan Carson.” She slapped her forehead.
The mention of Hunter’s brother had me looking at her. “Dylan? Wha… What are you talking about?”
“The surprise we had, well…” Nadine began when Sadie ran in and whispered something that made Nadine curse like crazy.
“He can’t. Not when she’s feeling like this. She’ll scare the crap outta him.”Nadine said quickly.
“Well, damn, the guy won’t let me stop him. He just wanted to talk to her.” Sadie looked worried.
“Talking will have a new meaning when Trish finds out what we were planning. She’ll go mad and then the guy would probably be in the hospital until college. She won’t forgive him.”
I was trying to make sense with they were saying. None of it made sense.
The doorbell rang and Nadine probably ran to open the door.
“Hey hot stuff, why are you here?” Nadine asked coolly.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“It’s no one. Come on Trish, I’ll take you to my room, then we’ll talk.” Sadie said, pulling my elbow.
I nodded and followed her.
“I just need to talk to her.” The visitor insisted. Nadine was doing a really good job making up excuses but whatever she did, the person at the door wasn’t having any of it.
“Mind telling me what’s going on?” I asked as I peeked over Sadie’s shoulder. It felt like it took me forever to register the name of the person standing outside the twins’ house.
My moment of weakness was forgotten as I crossed my arms over my chest. “What are you doing here?” Hunter stood there looking way hotter in his jeans and hoodie.
“Surprise?” The twins semi-yelled in uncertain tones.
“This is not funny.” I tell them as they led Hunter into the living room.
Hunter just stared at me the whole time. I was aware that this wasn’t the best I looked in his presence but I didn’t care. I wasn’t exactly here to meet him. I was here to discuss about Ash with the twins.
I looked at Nadine and Sadie who were both busy ogling Hunter.
I cleared my throat and caught their attention.
“In the kitchen please.” I said with as much control as I could.
The twins followed me. They were quiet, something I never expected from them.
“What were you two thinking? You know how much other issues are affecting me right now and you bring Hunter here too?” I couldn’t keep my voice in a calmer tone.
They couldn’t look at me.
“Tell him to go. I can’t talk to him like this. Not right now at least,” I stared at Sadie, knowing that she was mostly the one to blame for this.
“Trish I didn’t know that you’d be feeling like this. I just wanted you guys to talk about what happened yesterday. That’s it. I didn’t know Ash would be dropping a bomb on you like that.” She told me earnestly.
I bit my lip as I stared at her.
I sighed as I uncrossed my arms and leaned on the marbled counter.
“No. It’s fine. I’m just a bit hung up on what Ash told me a while ago.” I’ll probably regret saying this in the long run but right now I have no time to argue with the twins. They were, after all, just trying to help make things better for me.
“I’ll go talk to Hunter.” I told them.
Sadie squealed. Nadine stepped closer to me and looked at my face from different angles. “Not like that you’re not,” She said as she pulled me into the bathroom they had near the kitchen. She applied a thin layer of powder on my cheeks and a more than enough amount of gloss on my lips.
“Easy on the gloss Nadine!” I half-screamed. She stepped back a bit.
Sadie was at the doorway, watching us. “Boys don’t like kissing girls when they have unattractive lips Trish.”
I felt my cheeks go warm. “Well, we don’t want to drown him in gloss now, do we?” I asked which only fueled more talking and gushing from the two.
“Somebody’s expecting a kiss,” Sadie teased.
“Am not!” I could feel my face turn into a darker shade of red.
“Guilty,” Nadine smiled.
“Yep,” Sadie patted more powder on my cheeks. “Now quit blushing and give the man what he wants.”
“Pucker up those smackers before you talk to him and that might just give him enough reason to cool down if he ever gets mad while you talk.” Nadine Teased.
“Warm up is more like it, sis.” Sadie chimed in.
“Quiet both of you or I won’t be spilling any details after.” I warned them and they both made actions of zipping up their lips.
I took one last look in the mirror before inhaling and exhaling deeply and finally heading to where Hunter was.
He was sitting on the couch, just where I last saw him. But this time, instead of finding him there doing nothing, he was holding a picture frame in his hands.
“What’s that?” I asked, trying to sound calm.
“It’s nothing.” He said and swiftly put the frame back on the coffee table.
I sat beside him, very aware of his presence. His body was just a mere inches away from mine.
“So,” I began.
“So,” He repeated.
I quickly glanced elsewhere while waiting for him to start talking again.
“About yesterday,” He started.
I turned to look back at him. I smiled reassuringly and he stopped talking.
“I wish you didn’t have to make it so hard for me.” He sighed.
“How am I making it hard for you exactly?” I asked. His cheeks were colored with the faintest of pinks.
He surprised me taking a lock of my hair and tucking it behind my ear. “You’re very pretty today. It’s distracting me.”
It was my turn to blush. “How should I make it easier for you then?” I asked.
He eyed the carpeted floor for a while, thinking about something.
“Why don’t we sit on the floor?” He asked me.
This caught me by surprise. Did he usually do this with the other girls he’s dated? Or was the floor simultaneous to what he compared me to? Easy to walk over and held nothing of interest.
I nodded my head stiffly, not knowing where this conversation was heading.
He crossed his legs as he sat down. His back was to me.
Great. Now the guy won’t even stare at me in the face. I’m hopeless.
“Why are we sitting like this?” I asked. I felt offended.
“I’m giving you the wrong expression, aren’t I? Let me put it this way, we’ll be sitting like this because it’ll be easier for me to concentrate and because I like it more this way. You’ll see why.” He guided me to sit behind him. I crossed my own legs.
“What now?” I felt better after he explained why we were going to sit like this.
“Move closer to me.” He said.
I inched myself closer to him.
“A little bit more,” He whispered.
I moved and moved until I hit his back. “Sorry,”
“It’s ok. That’s it. Now lean on my back and try to relax.” He whispered again.
I found it very hard to relax now that I could feel his toned back against mine. I could feel his chest falling and rising. I could feel the warmth of his skin. If I focused enough, maybe I could even hear feel heart beating.
“Trish, I’m really sorry.” He began. “I know things weren’t easy for you when I started dating Avery. I’ll admit it was wrong for me to just leave you when we both know there was something going on between us back in middle school. I wanted to apologize but you were already distancing yourself away from me so I knew you were a lot angrier than I thought. There were a lot of times I could have talked to you but somehow I knew you wouldn’t listen. There was also the fact that Ash was hovering over you and guarding you like crazy back then. I don’t know. Maybe he knew I was only going to hurt you and thinking about it now, maybe I was just going to do exactly that. Believe me, it was never my intention to harm you or hurt you in any way. I liked you enough to be sensitive about how you were feeling.” He stopped a bit and let himself rest for a moment.
I couldn’t speak. Has he always been this sensitive about me? I thought he completely ignored me after he asked Avery out. Who knew Hunter felt this way?
I was in the middle of drawing out a few more theories of my own when he spoke again.
“It’s kind of hard to ignore you once you come into someone’s life. Believe me. I tried. I failed though and somehow, I never really got to liking Avery half as much as I liked you.” He admitted.
I raised my hand to stop him. He did even though I didn’t know how he saw my hand when his face was turned away from me.
“Then why did you date her for almost two years?” I asked.
“I knew you’d be asking me that. I couldn’t really explain it in words. Avery and I, we’re more than what meets the eye. We’re a couple and we’re not. We’re together and we’re not. We like each other and we don’t. It’s really confusing. In easier terms, Avery and I are comfortable with each other. Sure we do things that friends don’t do but other than the physical stuff, we were just in it for the good times.” He explained.
“That doesn’t exactly sound right coming from you.” I told him.
“Which loosely translates to you not believing me, right?” I should admit that the guy had to be more sensitive than I gave him credit for.
I nodded.
“It seems gibberish and sounds nothing like what someone with a quarterback rep like me should be saying but it is true. I don’t like Avery as much as all of you think I do.” He answered.
“Are you being completely honest with me?” I asked. My heart was suddenly frantic as it waited for his response.
I was suddenly not leaning on his back anymore. I turned around to see what he was doing when he suddenly grabbed my face with both his hands and stared at me with those blue eyes of his. They were warm and inviting and not at all as piercing as how others described them.
He inhaled deeply before speaking. His face was just inches from mine. “I am completely honest with you.”
I could feel blood rush to my cheeks.
Before I could get another word in, he spoke. “I like you so much Trish and sometimes I think it might even be more than just a simple crush.”
I was surprised at how bold and honest he was with me.
Actually, I remember how we used to be. We were exactly like this, comfortable with each other. This time though, he just told me how he felt. We couldn’t do that about two years ago. I still couldn’t until now but Hunter apparently could.
“If you say you’re comfortable with Avery and all that, then why did you break up with her?” I asked, trying not to notice how his face was suddenly getting closer and closer to mine.
“I broke up with her because of you. I got tired of Avery. I was never happy with her. I deserve to be happy too, don’t I? So here I am, hoping you’d give me—us, a chance.” He whispered.
“Hunter…” I said. It was barely a whisper.
Before I could answer him, a couple of squeals rang throughout the living room.
“Say yes to him already!” Sadie screamed.
“He’s being completely honest. Come on and say yes, Trish. The boy has already been waiting a long time for you. Say yes!” I have never see Nadine this giddy before. It was never part of her nature.
I turned my face back to Hunter who was smiling from ear to ear.
“Wipe that grin of your face quarterback. I haven’t said yes yet.” I playfully retorted.
Hunter turned to the girls. “She won’t say yes.” He put on a puppy dog face and the twins nearly dropped to their knees. I rolled my eyes. Oh come one, he’s not that hot. Ok. So he is. Big deal?
“Please say yes.” Sadie groveled.
“Yes. Please do.” Nadine pouted.
I stared at Hunter. He stared back at me.
Ok. What the heck. Let’s give the guy another chance.
“Ok. I’ll give us another chance.” I finally answered.
I could only faintly hear the twins squealing again because I was too busy hugging Hunter back.