"Well?"
"Well what?"
"You can't just say that and expect me not to want to know more."
Kate and I were in her room after having had one of her "stretching" sessions to which I was just a spectator. It looked easy but after what had happened last time. I knew better.
"Kate, I already told you all there is. I'm not saying more."
"Fine. Be that way. I don't care."
"Sure you don't."
Not even a second later Kate began to plead for more information.
"Lyra, can you please please please tell me more? Just a little bit more."
"Fine. But just a little."
"That's all I ask for."
"I think I like a guy but he..." I paused looking for the right word. "He's different. No, not that. Well he is but that's not the problem." I stared down at my fingers that were playing with a loose thread on my jeans. "The problem is he doesn't seem to be a guy who's interested in such things. Commitment."
"Have you told him how you feel?" I looked up at her alarmingly.
"Are you crazy?"
"Well how else do you expect him to know you like him?"
I didn't have an answer to that.
"You should at least tell him how you feel. Maybe he likes you back and the only thing that's keeping you apart is your pride."
"Kate, that's the thing. He doesn't like me. At all. But for some reason beyond me I can't stop thinking about him and the more I think about him the more my feelings increase."
"Do you want to be with him? Or you want to get over him."
"I don't know." I groaned throwing myself on the bed, staring at the ceiling as if an answer might arise from there.
Kate joined me and said, "I know who the guy is."
"Yeah I figured."
"I don't think there's anything better for you to do other than tell him how you feel."
"But what if I get rejected?"
"I know rejection is the worst experience but Lyra, that's the only way you'll know how he feels about you and that way you won't die asking it would have been if you'd told him in the first place."
When I got back from Kate's I decided to abandon telling Owen how I felt and put it off for another date.
"Lyra?" I immediately stilled at the familiar voice.
Slowly, I turned around and tried to smile but I'm sure it looked more like a grimace.
"Dustin, hey. What are you doing here?"
"I came here to talk to Owen. What are you doing here?" He said a little puzzled.
"I uhm...I was just." I sighed trying to come up with a lie. "Mum asked me to bring something over. We are neighbours." I gave myself a mental pat on the back for my accomplishment.
"Well good luck 'cause I don't think anyone's home. I've been knocking for a while now."
"Oh. Thanks. I'll just head back home."
"See you later."
"See yah." I gave him a slight wave and after I was sure he had left I let myself in the house with the spare key.
○☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆○
Owen and I were seated in his car and I was literally counting down the minutes to when we would reach school.
I felt him spare glances every once in a while to which I tried to act oblivious but my acting skills were almost non existent. Probably looked like one of those time when you try to hold a cough in.
"Are you okay?"
"Who? Me?"
"I don't see anyone else here besides you and myself."
"Well, yeah. It's just hot."
"Then you should probably take that sweater off it's like Twenty Five degree Celsius."
"I'm good."
For some unknown reason Owen was chatty throughout the drive. Owen and chatty did not go together but I found myself being fired with random questions and the only think I got a "yes" or "no" and sometimes a "maybe".
I was so relieved when we reached school that I tried to make run for it only to shot right back in my seat, slightly winded.
"They're called seat belts for a reason. You don't see people carrying them around." He said with cheeky grin that made me feel like hitting his face with my bag but then remembered how heavy my bag was and completely abandon the idea.
After unfastening the seatbelt, I got out of the car with my self-esteem slightly wounded.
"Lyra, I mean it when I say his not a guy you want to get involved with."
"He's not a bad guy."
"You don't know that."
"No you don't know that. And if you did you wouldn't speak of him that way."
"Are we both talking about the same Owen? Because of I remember clearly he's never treated you with respect. From the first day."
"I really don't need any of this." I was about to walk away when he placed his on my elbow as a way to stop.
"I'm only trying to help you. You don't want to get attached to him." With that he walked away, leaving me confused.
I seem to have an unending case of writers block. It's kind of frustrating to be honest. But I managed to this up thanks to @musonda2. You guys should totally check out her book.
Until next time,
lafelicia.