Being Watched
Chapter 13
Lying on my bed Saturday afternoon, my thoughts drift to the events of the week. It was a pretty eventful week.
After calling Andy on Monday right after school, I went home and waited for him to text me like he usually did on afternoons but he didn’t so the next day I called him again to make sure that we were okay.
He sounded better than he did on Monday but I could tell that he was still shocked and hurt. I felt extremely guilty the whole time I was talking to him but as the days passed, we started texting and things seemed to be back to normal.
Jeremy avoided me all week. He didn’t speak a word to me even though I’m sitting right next to him in class. What shocked me the most was that he didn’t even mention anything about the church meeting of Friday night. I was actually waiting for Friday to come so that he’ll talk to me at school and tell me something along the lines of ‘I’ll pick you up at seven’ but he didn’t.
Every time I tried to talk to him, he would either leave or ignore me. I was angry and hurt but I didn’t let it show.
Friday night, I got ready and waited till it was seven, hoping Jeremy would show up but he didn’t. So five minutes after seven, I decided to walk to church alone.
I was a bit scared because it was dark outside. And because I was scared, I walked a little faster so I made it to church on time.
Jeremy was already there and I could tell he was surprised when I showed up. I avoided him during the meeting and stayed with Andy instead.
When the meeting was over, I decided to man up and talk to Andy about what happened last week just to make sure that everything was okay. The conversation was a bit awkward but I didn’t expect otherwise.
“Um Andy,” I started. “We’re okay, right?”
He hesitated at first but then he smiled and said, “Yeah.”
I looked at him skeptically, wondering if he was being honest or no.
“If the roles were reversed, what would you have done?” He asked, catching me off guard. I didn’t know how to answer so I stayed quiet for a few moments, thinking it over.
“Would you have stopped talking to me or would you have forgiven me for breaking you heart?” He asked and I winced slightly at his choice of words. I didn’t mean to break his heart.
I thought about it and the answer that I came up with was that I would forgive him. We were friends before we started going out. If dating didn’t work out then it shouldn’t ruin the friendship we had before.
“I would have forgiven you,” I said then to lighten the mood, I added in a teasing tone, “After you buy me the world’s biggest cotton candy, of course.”
He laughed. “You like cotton candy?”
“It’s the most delicious thing ever created!”
He wrinkled his nose. “I think it’s disgusting.”
I gasped at him, shocked that he doesn’t like cotton candy.
“Anyway,” he carried on before I had the chance to say anything else. “I forgive you too and I think that I’m going to be your best friend forever!”
I laughed at the last part of his sentence and gave him a hug, relieved that we were still friends.
“Stephany,” My dad’s voice from downstairs cuts my thoughts.
I sit up on my bed and yell back, “What?”
“Someone’s here to see you!” He calls back and I frown. I’m not expecting anyone.
I get up and start walking downstairs while patting my hair to make sure it doesn’t look horrible.
My eyebrows shoot up when I see Andy talking to my parents downstairs.
“Hey,” he says when he sees me.
“Hey,” I reply, confused. “What are you doing here?”
“I have a surprise for you,” he replies.
“Surprise?” I echo, frowning.
He smiles mischievously and says, “Turn around.”
Still confused, I turn around so my back is facing him. Suddenly, something covers my eyes.
“Hey!” I exclaim as he blindfolds me.
I lift my hands to take it off but he slaps them away.
“Don’t touch that,” he says. “Let’s go,” he adds, putting his hands on my shoulders and pushing me forward.
“Go? Where?”
“It’s a surprise, remember?” He says and I can imagine him smirking.
“I don’t even have my shoes on!” I complain.
He is silent for a few seconds before he says, “Oh.”
“I’ll get her shoes,” I hear my mom’s voice then footsteps going up the stairs. Andy leads me to the couch and I sit down.
“Um can’t I take the blindfold off to put on my shoes then you can put it back on again?” I ask.
“Uh yeah,” he replies as if he hadn’t noticed that before.
He takes it off and I see a blush coloring his cheeks. I smile slightly and that’s when mom comes in with my black converse.
“Are my clothes okay?” I ask as I tie my shoelace. I’m wearing faded blue jeans and a black hoodie with the outline of a silver heart on it.
“Yeah,” he says and I shrug.
He blindfolds me again, leads me to his car, and starts driving to wherever he’s taking me.
He helps me get out of the car and puts his hands on my shoulders as he pushes me in the right direction.
“Where are we?” I ask when I start hearing some voices coming from everywhere.
“You’ll see,” he replies as the voice of people gets louder.
“Andy there are a lot of people! This is so embarrassing. At least take off the blindfold!” I hiss when we stop walking.
He laughs. “The looks people are giving you are amusing.”
“This is not funny! I’m taking it off,” I say and lift my hands to remove it but he holds my wrists, stopping me.
Before I can yell at him, I hear a familiar voice.
“Stephany?” The voice says and I try hard to think who it is.
“Uh hi,” I say awkwardly as I try to remove my wrists from Andy’s firm grip.
I hear him snicker and raise my leg and move it to the right to kick him. When I do, he bursts out laughing.
“Andy! Let go!” I say when his grip doesn’t loosen.
I hear several people laughing and I immediate know who was talking to me. It’s Amelia. And that’s when I find out where we are. We’re at that carnival they were talking about. And if Amelia’s here then Jeremy is with her right now. Oh God...
I feel my cheeks heat up as I desperately try to find a way to remove the blindfold.
“Just wait one second,” Andy says then he lets go of my hands. I immediately lift them to remove the blindfold.
The first thing I see is pink. A lot of pink.
“What the hell?” I say then I notice Andy’s grinning face behind the mass of pink. I blink to adjust my gaze and gasp when I notice the huge cotton candy he’s holding.
“I know it’s not the biggest cotton candy in the world but my friend told me that there would be big cotton candies so I had to get you one,” he explains.
“But you didn’t do anything wrong,” I say, remembering the conversation we had yesterday and he laughs.
“I know but I just thought you’ll like it,” He replies.
“Thank you!” I say, grinning brightly as I struggle to take the cotton candy from him.
He smiles as I start eating from the cotton candy.
“Aww how cute! Is he your boyfriend?” Amelia asks, surprising me because I had forgotten that she was here.
“Uh no,” I say awkwardly and Andy says, “We’re just friends.”
“Oh,” she replies then clears her throat.
I then look at the group of people behind her and smile at them. Henry, Laura, and Gavin smiled back but Jeremy scowls.
“I’m going to get some candies, I’ll be right back,” Andy says and I nod.
“Henry was screaming like a girl while we were riding the roller coaster,” Gavin says when I ask them what they have been up to.
“I wasn’t!” Henry replies, blushing.
“I’m gonna die! I’m gonna die!” Gavin says in an extremely high pitched voice and I burst out laughing.
Henry glares at him as he’s about to punch him but Gavin starts running away. Henry scowls and runs after Gavin who is laughing so hard, he can barely run.
We all laugh at them as they run around the kiosks and rides.
“We’re going to buy something to eat,” Amelia says as she grabs Laura’s arm.
“I’ll come with you,” Jeremy tells them quickly.
“No wait, I want to talk to you,” I say quickly, before they leave.
“Me?” All three of them say at the same time and I laugh.
“Jeremy,” I clarify, chuckling.
“Okay,” Amelia says, laughing. “We’ll be right back.”
Laura and Amelia walk away, leaving me alone with Jeremy.
That’s when I start to feel nervous. Why did I even say that I wanted to talk to him? What should I say?
He crosses his arms over his chest, waiting for me to speak.
“Why are you ignoring me?” I blurt out.
“I’m not,” he replies and I give him an incredulous look.
He then sighs and says, “Just go back to your date, Stephany, I’m not in the mood for this.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “First, he’s not my date. We’re just friends. And second—”
He cuts me off and says, “Just friends? You said you were dating him.”
“I went out with him on one date only!” I reply and he nods, looking surprised and a bit relieved.
“And second,” I continue. “Are you jealous?”
“I already told you I’m not jealous!” He says defensively.
“Then why are you acting like a jealous boyfriend?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.
“I’m not!” He says.
“Really? Then why did you start avoiding me ever since you heard that I went out on one date with Andy?” I say and watch him smugly as he scowls.
“Alright! I’m jealous. Happy?” He finally snaps at me.
My heart skips a beat and I smile.
“See? That wasn’t very hard to admit!” I reply, grinning.
He stares at me for a bit then frowns.
“That doesn’t change anything, you know,” he mutters.
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“I mean we’re friends and it’s going to stay that way. Only friends,” he says, confusing me even more.
“But you just admitted you’re jealous so that means you like me…” I trail off.
“Yeah but we can’t be together,” he says.
“Why not?” I question.
“I have my reasons,” he replies, looking away from me.
I raise my eyebrows at him. “Really? So you won’t even give me a reason?”
He shakes his head, looking just as confused as I am.
“What are you hiding from me?” I ask him, my voice rising a little.
“What are you hiding from me?” He replies with a question of his own.
I clench my jaw and glare at the floor because there’s no way I’m telling him my secret. I’m also pretty sure that he doesn’t want to know that I have been spying on him for years.
“I asked you first,” I reply.
He stares into my eyes and a staring competition begins.
He finally sighs and averts his gaze for a second.
“We both have secrets we’re not willing to share,” he says. “So we won’t share them.”
I ponder over what he said for a bit. I want to know his secret because it’s the reason behind his decision that we shouldn’t be together but I’m not willing to spill my secret.
I eventually nod. “Okay then, no sharing.”
He looks a bit disappointed but shrugs it off.
“I have to go,” he says, glancing back at his friends. “I’ll see you on Monday.”
Not waiting for my reply, he walks off to his friends. My heart breaks slightly when I see him walking away from me.
Why can’t we be together?
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