Chapter 13- He Now Knows!
“Girls I gotta go now! Kisses!” Krishia hurriedly went out of the school and quickly headed to her home.
She already told her parents before she went out that they’ll be doing their research work in their house. Her mom already instructed Maria, their housemaid, to prepare snacks for the two. Krishia’s mom and dad were both busy persons. Well, they were very hardworking and effective entrepreneurs. But Krishia and her sister never complained. They knew that their parents were doing those things for their sake. And they were living comfortably because of their mom and dad’s effort. But it was not like their parents had no time for them, it was not like that all.
Krishia went upstairs to her bedroom. She changed her outfit; she thought she was in her house so she must not look overdressed in any way. She dressed herself with knit cream jumper, velvet skirt and plain black leggings. She looked adorable. She gathered the things she thought they'd need on her bed. She opted to let Nate decide whether they’d do their work in the living room or in the mini library when he arrives.
Well, yes the Red family had a mini library, but it was just because Mrs. Red loves reading, so Mr. Red made a room full of books as a 20th Anniversary gift to his most loved wife. But with Mrs. Red’s hectic schedule the library was not frequently visited.
As Krish looked at herself in the mirror her phone suddenly alerted.
Nate: On my way Krish. :)
Krishia just loved how Nate called her Krish. It made her feel so much close to him. And the smiley after her name was just too endearing. She rushed downstairs to wait for him in the front door. She settled herself on their Corner Modern Sabina sofa while she waited patiently for Nate.
She suddenly heard a car screeched and she knew that moment that it was him. Krishia wanted to open the door already but she stopped herself. She thought that she’d be too obvious, so she just waited for Nate to knock.
She already stood there behind the door. When Nate knocked already, she counted one to ten before she opened it with a smile.
“Hi there.” Nate greeted. As usual his look was just as breath-taking for her.
“Hello, please come in.” Krish said as she widely opened the door welcoming him.
“Nice house, it feels really homely.” Nate said as he rounded his eyes.
“Thank you.” Krish smiled. “So where do you want as to work on our research?” Krishia asked as she saw Nate holding a covered laptop.
“We can stay here or if you like we have a mini lib.?” Krishia continued asking.
“Nice, mini lib.?” Nate remarked.
“Yeah, but the books there are no good for our research. They’re mostly my mom’s type of books.” Krishia smiled as she stated the facts.
“Let’s work in the lib. I wanna see it.” Nate announced with a smile.
“Agreed.”
Krishia led him to the library. There were about four big shelves full of books, one table with two chairs, a huge maroon carpet, and a simple gray sofa in the room.
“Cool. Love the smell of old books.” Nate remarked.
“Thanks. I’ll just get my things in my room… make yourself comf’table.” Krish smiled at him as she left.
When Krish came back he saw Nate sitting on the sofa while using his 17” Mac Book. She really loved the view she was seeing in front of her. She stared at him for a while hoping that he’d be there forever.
“Hey.” Nate said as he noticed Krish was there already.
“Oh hey.” Krishia got startled and dropped some paper and a pen.
Nate then placed his laptop on the sofa and went towards her.
“Let me get that.” He said as he bent to get her things.
“Thanks. Sorry.” Krish said as she placed her pink Sony Vaio Netbook on the table.
“There you go.” Nate announced as he positioned the things he had picked beside her laptop.
“Let’s start.” He said.
“Oh, right…yes…” She replied unwieldy.
“Well we need a topic about business… since it’s a business research after all.” Krishia said while holding up her pen thinking.
Nate suddenly stood up from the sofa and walked over to sit on the empty chair. He placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his palm. He looked at her and Krish felt his gaze. She felt a bit tense but tried to act normal anyway.
“Um, well, I already had an idea before but maybe you won’t like it?” She said trying to make a conversation with him.
“What’s it about?” He asked still looking at her.
“Consumer credit… consumer spending… about credit cards.” Krish said with a bit pauses.
“That’s great idea. Exel’s a little offhand with his cards, Lexy too, Adrian’s girl…” Nate remarked with interest apparent on his face.
“Yes. And the whole state now is currently facing billions of dollars of delinquent credits. And most of those are from unpaid credit card debts.” Krishia engrossed him even more.
“Really?” Nate asked.
“Yes, I’ll show you.” Krishia then opened her laptop. She pressed the on button and waited…
As the screen turned on; the welcome note appeared and to her bombshell, Nate’s face came into view. She quickly shut the LCD. She forgot all about Nate being her wallpaper and she was just thankful that he wasn’t beside her or she’ll be totally dead.
Krishia thoughtlessly stood up and took a hold of her laptop.
“Hey what’s wrong?” Nate asked visibly with a shocked face.
“Nothing! Really… It’s already bat empty gotta go and get my charger.” Krish stammered.
“Here’s your charger Krish.” Nate said as he slid it across the table.
Oh ghad! There you go Krishia with your lame excuse! :( Think! I need to get out of here or my life is over!!!
“No, that’s not mine.” Krishia said as she turned around and walked out of the room. Not minding how stupid her excuse sounded.
Krishia locked herself in her room. Her hands were trembling when she opened her laptop. She changed her wallpaper into a scenic view of a place she didn’t even know and hid all traces of her obsessions with Nate. That was close she supposed. Now, she was thinking how she’d act normal around him when she obviously couldn’t explain why she got suddenly all jumpy.
“Hi, I’m back.” Krish smiled trying to make him not asked about what had happened.
“So you are.” He smiled sweetly to her.
“I guess you don’t want me to ask, right. So I wouldn’t.” Nate smiled again.
Ghad! He can actually read my mind! Woaah, tell me do you know that I like you soooo much??
Krishia just smiled at him and felt all shy with his words. She then slowly opened her laptop and she showed Nate a PDF file she downloaded. The two decided to stick with that topic and they divided the load between them. They then started working; Krishia was now doing the intro part while Nate was doing the statement of the problem.
“Hey Nate.” Krish called out.
Nate looked up to see her face.
“Let’s eat. My stomach’s kinda churning already.” Krish smiled.
“Mine too.” He smiled.
The two went downstairs and headed to the dining area.
“Woah, yummy!” Nate exclaimed.
“This is too much.” Krishia sighed in disbelief as she saw a large pizza, a bowl of spaghetti, and about ten pieces of fried chicken.
“I’m sorry this is kinda embarrassing… My mom, well… can get exaggerated at times.” Krishia felt mortified.
“That’s ok. Although, it’s kind of funny. But I like your mom already.” Nate chuckled.
“Anyway, let’s eat.” Krishia invited him over the dining table.
They really had a fun conversation when they were eating. Krishia giggled a lot at Nate’s stories about their craziest experiences with their fans, about the mannerism of his mates, like how Exel needs to poo before every performance, and particularly everything about him and the boys. Krishia felt like she was already at ease with Nate. Well, he was easy to get along with, maybe that was the reason, she thought.
After finishing their heavy snack the two walked their way back to the library. They were about to climb the stairs when suddenly the front door opened. It was her sister Rica. She’s Krishia’s only sibling, well as far as Krishia knew. Rica was ten years old. And the two Red sisters pretty much looked alike.
“Hi baby.” Krish greeted her sister, while she kissed her left cheek.
“This is my sister, Rica. And I must say I don’t need to say your name.” Krish joked as she introduced her sis to Nate.
“Yah, I pretty much know you and my sister preeeettty muuuch knows you too.” Rica backfired at her. Nate chuckled.
“Can we have a picture? My friends would really be so jealous.” Rica asked with a blank expression.
“Sure.” He smiled at her. Rica reached for her phone in her bag and handed it to Krish without even saying a word. She then positioned herself next to Nate and smiled letting all her teeth out.
“She’s cute.” He commented while he grinned.
“Well, thank you but I prefer hearing that from Drake.” Rica announced arrogantly.
Some people would say that Rica was a ten year old girl possessed by a 30 year old woman. It might be an overstatement but they got a point with their observation.
“Don’t mind her. She has a huge crush on Drake.” Krishia smiled at Nate.
“Yah, like you having a huge crush on Nate. Sweet!” Rica ran as fast as she could to get to her room. She knew that her sister was going to kill her with what she just blurted out.
The two was left there standing. Nate found Rica really cute and funny; he chuckled hard while Krish was stunned and tongue-tied. Krishia’s face was tomato red already. She just wished to disappear at that moment, vanish into thin air and never to be seen again. She swore she was gonna strangle her sister and make her pay.
“So you like me eh?” Nate broke Krishia’s silence.
She looked at Nate and said “You know what? It’s silly to even listen to my sister.”
Krishia tried to smile when she uttered that line. Krishia climbed the stairs hastily, not wanting to let her troubled face be seen. Nate then unconsciously grew a smile on his face as he followed Krishia to the library.
Krishia and Nate went back to what they were doing. And Mr. Silence was clearly an occupant in the room too. Krishia felt really uncomfortable about the fact that her annoying, irritating, and bothersome little sister spilled out right before her eyes her gushiness over Nate. She felt really disturbed. She couldn’t even do her work properly. Her mind was full of so many floating questions. If Nate believed her sister… If he thinks she really has a huge crush on him… If he thinks she’s just some crazy fun of his… She felt her mind is gonna crack into pieces.
“Hey, I’m bored.” Nate smiled.
Krishia wondered why even his not so good sentiment sounded so good to her. Clearly, she knew it wasn’t a good thing that Nate was bored but the way he said it, it was just different.
“Let’s play.” He exclaimed.
“Play? Play what?” Krishia asked a bit baffled.
“Let’s ask each other questions… ten questions.” Nate suggested.
“Anything?” Krish asked.
“Yup, anything you like and anything I like.” He smiled at her. Krishia loved the idea of her being able to ask him whatever things… but she didn’t like the idea of him asking fairly anything he liked.
“What? You’re not up for it?” Nate smiled as if he was teasing her.
Krish just couldn’t say no. Not because she wanted to know stuffs about him but because he didn’t want to bore Nate anymore.
“Who’s gonna be first to ask?” Krishia smiled at him telling her that she was ready.
“Me. What’s your favourite color?” Nate started.
“Um, yellow... yah, yellow. What’s your favourite food?”
“Hot thick crust pizza with lots of mozzarella. What’s yours?” He asked the same.
“Italian spaghetti with pizza bread. Yum! What’s your real name?” Krishia asked as her left eyebrow rose.
“Nathaniel Kyle Zee. What’s your dream when you were still a child?”
“Hi Nathaniel. I dreamed to become like Britney. To sing Oops I did it again, I played with your heart… lalala…” She chuckled. Well, that was her dream before there was nothing she could do about that.
“Hahaha, that’s cute!” Nate interrupted.
“Thanks. What was yours?"
“I wanted to become an astronaut. I wanted to go to Jupiter.”
“Awww, take me with you!” Krishia giggled.
“Sure, as soon as I get my license… and my space rocket.” Nate winked at her.
“Who’s your first kiss?” He added.
“My mom… probably?”
“Not that kinda kiss…” Nate laughed while he shook his head.
“Oh well, you really wanna know?” Krish smiled at him.
“Yeah, and that would be your fourth question.” He teased and chuckled.
“No fair! Hmp.” Krishia snapped.
“My question please.” He said in a very irresistible way.
“You have to ask properly.” Krishia said while sticking out her tongue.
“Ok then. Who’s your first romantic kiss?” Nate laughed in between his words.
“That would be well… my first… oh… romantic? Well, Drake was my first boy kiss but I don’t think its romantic and all.” She honestly said.
Krishia didn’t ask who was his because she didn’t want to hate that girl forever. “How many girlfriends did you have?”
“Well, three serious relationship and three not so serious.” He laughed. “How about you?”
“Two serious. What season do you love?”
“I love autumn.” Nice answer, she thought. Krishia blushed with the idea of both of them loving autumn.
“What are your hobbies?” He asked with a smile.
“I love to write poems when I’m sad, love to sing when I’m in the bath, love to read and love to hang out with my besties. Who’s your closest among your four mates?”
“That would be Exel and Drake. I’m down to my last three.” He remarked.
“I know.” She assured him with her sweet smile.
“Can I trust your sister?”
“Yah, you can. She’s a good girl.” Krishia smiled. “Do you really hate clowns?”
“You’ve heard about that too…” Nate chuckled.
“Everybody knows that.” She reasoned out.
“I guess it’s all over the news. I don’t hate, just not a big fan.” He smiled. “Can I trust you?”
“Well, of course.Why?” Krish said a bit confused. She kinda got the feeling that it would lead to something undesirable.
“So tell me, do you like me?” Nate smiled playfully at her.
Oh ghad Nate… don’t wanna answer that! Somebody help!!!