"Ok, we're here." Adam says stopping the car.
"Finally. This constant smell of burgers you have in the back has left me extremely..." I replied taking off the headband when the sudden cloud of disappointment came over me. "... hungry."
I stood there, jaw opened as if I couldn't believe my eyes. Right in front of me was a big flat building with glass doors and a neon lights above them.
"Uhmmmm... Earth of Caroline!" Adam called waving his hand in front of my face as if to wake me up.
When I was finally able to sort of get myself back together, I looked at Adam deadly in the eye. "Adam Johnson, for how long have you known me?" I asked him.
"Four very weird months, why?" He replied sounding kind of scared.
"Do you consider knowing my tastes and what I like to do and all, then?"
"Yeah... sort of..."
"Then, why in the six infinity stones..." That was the exact moment when all of my range came up and I started acting like a mad woman. "...DID YOU BRING ME TO A SPORTS STORE?!"
Without noticing I was now grabbing him by the collar of his hoodie and pushing him against the door of his car making us about 5 inches from each other's face.
He looked at me blankly and started getting redder and redder, until he slowly reached out from the back seat and grabbed a plastic bag showing it to me.
"Burgers?" He said almost out of breath.
I looked at it and still outraged, released him, but still managed to grab the burger bag first.
I opened it and stared at it. Inside there were two burgers rapped in a paper with bright blue letters and each with a single letter written in black marker, a C and an A, and a small box of French fries.
"You went to Cup O'Joe?" I asked him surprised looking back at him.
"Yeah. Joe has the best burgers so, as I knew you'd be mad at me for bringing you here at first, I thought that at least you wouldn't slap me for bringing a burger instead of just a cheese sandwich." He responded smiling awkardly.
I glared at him for a while, looked back at the precious burgers in the bag and then back at him.
After that, I sighed grabbing a burger with the A and handing it out to him. "I'm still mad at you."
I took out the other burger and the French fries... and started devouring it in a very non-polite way.
What? I was hungry, I was mad at the person right next to me, I would have to pass an entire evening in a place that I hated with all my heart with the said person... and I didn't have Patty next to me telling me not to, so who cares about acting like the lady that I'm not?
I was almost about to finish the burger when I noticed that Adam was blankly staring at me only half way through his burger.
"What?" I asked giving another bite on the burger.
"Caroline, are you really that mad I brought you here?" He asked with a smirk on his face.
I looked at him. "Well, yeah. You know I hate sports or any physical exercise for the matter. So why literal hell out of all places? It's like me forcing you to go to a library." I response finishing my burger.
"Oh c'mon it's not that bad!" He said almost finishing his burger.. "You can do anything here! Run, try on stuff, play dodgeball on the hallways, skateboarding-"
"Die of heart exhaustion..." I murmured to myself midway through his speach.
With that, he stopped and looked at me with that usual annoying smirk of his while I just glared at him.
He laughed at my face and then the smirk turned into a true smile. "You don't come here very often, do you?"
"I don't come here at all!" I responded.
He laughed at my answer and then opened the dor of the car. "Let's change that then."
I looked at him leaving the car with the urge of slapping him in the face getting stronger and stronger.
For a moment, I stood there in my seat thinking of what to do next. I didn't really want to go to a sports store with him or even with anyone for the matter. But I did trust him before, why shouldn't I now?
I was about to open the door when he came from the other side and opened it for me. I looked at him surprised and he just smiled at me. "My dad and brother taught me to be a gentleman. So... just for training, my lady." And then he winked at me.
I kept on staring at him for a while trying to figure out what to do next. Should I thank him? Should I also act like a lady? Should I smile and be polite?
Nah! Too much pretending.
So I just slightly smiled at him while leaving my seat not breaking eye contact. "Once again, I'm neither yours, nor a lady. And please don't keep the whole gentleman act during the rest of the night. It sort of freaks me out."
"Ok." He got his face a little closer to my ear. "To be frank, it sort of feels weird to me too. Specially doing it to you."
"Gee! Thanks! Totally feeling like a special girl!" I responded sarcastically while we both started walking towards the main door
"Although, if you don't mind me saying..." This time he made me stop by grabbing my arm and pulling me closer. Wait what was he doing again? My face started burning with both rage and confusion. "... I do think you look beautiful." He got his hand behind my neck and suddenly my anxiety got the best of me from him being so close and I couldn't move a single muscle. Why now anxiety? Why now?!
"Although..." And in that moment he just did the unthinkable. He grabbed the scrunchie that was holding my mess of a bun all together and suddenly pulled it letting my hair down and then quickly taking a step back holding it high in his hand. "... I prefer it this way."
And with that I just went full mad Donald Duck mode.
"You freaking son of a biscuit! GIVE ME MY SCRUNCHIE BACK!" I was about to throw myself at him like football players do in the games. My brother taught me how to do it when I was little (without my mother's consent of course), so that when boys would try to pick on me I'd be able to fight back and not be the helpless girl type. But it also turned out as a curse and made me attack a kid when I was in 2nd grade. My mom got really mad and she told me never to do it again.
And so I didn't. Until now. I just couldn't control myself and unfortunately, I ended up almost falling. But so did he so it was worth it.
After that very lady like act of mine, Adam looked at me both amazed and confused. "Since when do you know how to do that?"
I got myself back up and looked at him in the face. "Since I was five. Perks of having an older brother obsessed with sports. Now... GIVE ME MY SCRUNCHIE BACK!" I screamed at him.
"Ha ha!" He sarcastically laughed. "Come and get it!" And then he started slowly walking to the sports store with the scrunchie in his hand.
And that was when I just went blind by rage and started chasing him down like a mad woman. Noticing my sudden act of madness, he started running away from me leading me right into the sports store. That little bastard...
When I noticed what had just happened, I stopped right in the middle of the hallway and looked at the ground to think of my situation. I was in a sports store, a place that might as well be described as a huge building to any type of sport or game you could play in PE.
I looked around and reevaluated my situation. The store was not empty, yet it didn't have that many people inside besides the few employees. On the hallway to my right, I had the tennis section, on the one to my left, the water sports section, behind me the bicycles, roller skates and all those things with wheels, camping, and clothing hallways and then hidden in one of the hallways ahead of me was the reason I was inside this insane taste of hell in the first place. So, let's make it count.
I walked to the things with wheels hallway and grabbed a lettuce green helmet, sky blue shoulders protectors and bright yellow knees protectors (for preventing any possible injuries) and a put on a pair of black and purple roller skates (for faster movement), then onto the tennis area to grab the biggest racquet I was able to find (for aiming) and finally made my way to the water sports to grab a big red rubber ball (for hitting the target with ease). And just to make sure, no one would steal my shoes, I tied the shoelaces to my jeans in the place where the belt is supposed to go.
After properly preparing myself for the head to head with Adam, I started slowly strolling through the hallways hoping to catch a glimpse of that rebellious and annoying dark brown haired boy. Hallway through hallway, I kept my guard up, waiting for the right moment to strike. To get my revenge. To make him pay for what he'd done.
And then, hidden behind a box full of basketballs, I noticed a pair of trainers. And oh boy, did I know those!
Now, all I needed to do was figure out a way to make him show his face. Just one quick sentence that could make my plan work.
And that's when it occurred to me. I smirked to myself and then took a silent deep breath.
"Oh, my god! Is that that famous football player?" I said in a very high pitched voice but still making it look normal and different than mine. At least that's what I thought it sounded like.
"Yes! OMG let me take a picture!" I replied to myself making another high pitched voice but making it sound slightly different. I guess that in the end Sasha and Penelope did get me to do something good.
With that, Adam's face just went straight up, as if I had just hit a button that made him tick.
But then he only saw me in the whole hallway and suddenly realised what had happened. And only a second after that did he realise that I wasn't in my normal attire.
"Why are you-"
But he didn't even had the time to finish the question because out of nowhere I shouted. "PAY BACK!" And threw the rubber ball into the air, hitting it with the racquet making it hit right on his nose. This was the one time in my life when my aim hasn't failed me.
"OUCH!" He shouted. I smirked at him as a symbol of victory.
But I immediately regretted it, because he immediately grabbed the ball and smirked back. "If you wanted to play the game, then you should have at least asked."
Good thing I was wearing roller skates, because the next thing I knew I was running away from the school biggest athlete in a series of large hallways. And boy, did he run fast!
"You can't run forever Caroline!" He said laughing maliciously. We were passing through some people and me being the clumsy human that I am, was constantly apologising for almost bumping into them.
By the time I had reached the water sports area once again, Adam was a little bit far away since he just bumped into a tent and the employee was screaming at him. So I took some time off the crazy maze I was in and tried to find something that could possibly make a shield.
I was almost reaching the end of the hallway when I found just what I needed. A bodyboard board. Not too small, not too heavy. Just perfect.
"Caroline! Where are you?" I heard Adam whispering loudly enough for me to hear. I took a deep breath, grabbed a white board and positioned myself.
Once he turned around the corner he had the ball on his hands and that annoying smirk on his face. In an attempt to make a truce, I raised my fist slightly above my head. "I'd call it a truce for tonight, if you give me back my scrunchie." I said in a very wavy voice. And he, of course, just burst into laughter. I'll admit, this wasn't my most graceful night of my life, but at least show some dignity towards others!
"You look ridiculous!"
"In the name of Scrooge McDuck, could you stop laughing at everything I do?!" I shouted back to him.
When he finally stopped laughing he looked up to me with a wide smile on his face, took the scrunchie out of his hoodie pocket and threw it at me. I dropped the board and (for once in a lifetime) was able to catch it.
I looked up at Adam willing to say thank you but noticed that he was strongly holding the ball on his two hands. "You called it a truce. I didn't." And he just threw the ball straight to my face hitting it right on the center of my nose. And I gotta say, it actually did hurt.
But, was it enough to be hit in the nose? Nope! Apparently the universe hates me so much That I sliped with the roller skates and then fall right into the ground.
And Adam, of course, just stood there laughing at me. "Now, I call it a truce." He said between laughs. The little pig...
Since I had already called it a truce and was no longer in the mood to go around running in roller skates again, I just took the helmet off, grabbed my scrunchie and put my hair back the way it should be: a horribly made bun.
"Help me get up." I said raising my head towards him.
He looked at me with a sort of happily surprised look. "You want me to help you up?" He asked still half laughing.
I sighted and then glared at him intensely. "Look, I'm sitting on the floor in roller skates because you made me fall. So, just so that I don't fall again or hurt myself anymore, please help me up ok?" I responded in a really no-nonsense way.
"Fine, fine. I'll help you." He said walking towards me keeping the slight smile.
He grabbed my hand and just pulled me up. Problem was, me being in roller skates only made it harder to get up and a little unstable too. Which means that once I got up I let loose the rollerskates wheels which made my face bump into Adam's chest.
Once I noticed what had happened, I looked up and saw him looking down at me with probably the same expression: pure embarrassment.
As soon as I noticed the whole situation, I pushed away and looked at the ground. "I should probably just take these off." I said rolling my way out of the awkard situation (literally).
Adam followed me and we kept an awkard silence until we arrived at the rollerskates hallway. I sat on one of the benches in the hallway and started pulling them out. I pulled the left one first and was about to pull the other when Adam looked down at my foot and commented. "Nice socks."
I looked up at him and then down to my socks and noticed that I was wearing dark blue socks... with little Yellow Submarines on them.
I loomed up at him. "They're a cool band and the socks are amazing, for your information." I said smirking back at him.
He laughed at my response and I just rolled my eyes at him and pulled out the other rollerskate.
After I took the shoulders and knees protectors and was in the middle of untying my left shoe from my pants, an employee came to us. "Sorry kids but the store is about to close. You need to leave." He said to then leave us standing there.
"Let's get going then." I sighted taking fully concentrated with the shoe.
"Sure." Adam responded... to then grab me by the waist and making my feet jump from the ground. I hold my arms against my chest and closed my eyes in fear.
Once he stopped running, my brain managed to finally make my eyes open and I saw Adam staring down at me with the usual annoying smirk.
"C-could you p-put me d-down please?" I stuttered. Why was I stuttering? Because I WAS NERVOUS! I like to have my feet on the ground and I most certainly don't like being carried around like a damsel in distress since I'm no damsel and I'm certainly not in distress.
He laughed at my request. "Sure." He responded and then gently dropped me on the ground. The thing is... instead of feeling solid ground, I felt wet dirt and grass.
I looked around and noticed that we were right at the back of the store where a lot of the bigger tents were. No one was there so it was just the two of us. Weird...
I looked up at him with my arms still against my chest. "Adam, why aren't we next to the car?" I asked confused.
He laughed once again and then looked down at me. "What, you really thought I was cruel enough to simply bring you to a sports store knowing you'd hate it?" He said.
"Well... yeah." I responded.
I placed his hand on the left side of his chest and made what I like to call: the diva face. "Caroline, I'm hurt you think so low of me." He looked up at the sky. "There's a small meteor shower today. And since, you're the type of girl who wears a NASA t-shirt because you actually like Astronomy and not because it suddenly became fashionable, I thought you'd like it. The whole sports store part was just a way to pass time instead of just laying around in the car doing nothing."
I stared at him through out all of his explanation. I was... amazed. His eyes were shining with the moonlight and he had such a huge amount of joy in them.
"Thank you." I managed to say.
"You're welcome." He responded looking back at me. "It's about to start any moment now. Might as well sit down."
And so we did. We stayed there quietly looking at the sky for a while. When it suddenly came up to me. "Adam?"
"Yes?" He said looking back at me.
"Did we only come here because you thought I'd like it, or because you actually like this whole thing too?"
He stared at me for a moment and then chucked looking at the grass. "You don't let anything escape your eye, don't you?"
I looked at him confused. What was he trying to say with that?
He looked back at the sky and sighted. "I wanna become a Physics Engineer one day."
And then the bomb hit. Adam Johnson, the school's sports guy, the most popular person in school, the quarterback, Mr. Smirky Guy himself, wanted to become a Physics Engineer. No dreamy football scholarship. Nothing related to sports, actually. An Physics Engineer.
"Sounds pretty lame, uh?" He said looking down again.
Without previously thinking, I placed my hand on his shoulder and looked at him in the eye.
"Not to me." I said firmly. "Just because you like being in the football team and have a whole reputation with it, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't dream beyond what everybody expects. Just do what you want and if somebody doesn't think you should become a Physics Engineer, well then... screw them!"
He looked at me surprised and then slightly smiled. "Thank you." He said.
"You're welcome." I replied smiling back.
And then his look turned from surprised to quirky. "You know..." He stared making that goddamn smirk come back and I knew that I would be about to hit him at any moment. "... you're pretty cute when you smile."
So, in response I turned back to my usual glare. "Ok, now you're going a bit too far."
Suddenly we turned out to be in the middle of a staring contest, until we both started laughing our hearts out.
Once I managed to control myself a little, I looked up at the sky and saw a sudden flash of light moving. I straighten myself and pointed at where I'd seen it with a wide smile on my face and my eyes almost bumping out of my face. "There! Did you see it?" I shouted.
He looked back at where I was pointing and then punched the ground. "Damn it! I was too slow!" He straighted himself and put both of his hands on the side of his face. "Maximum focus now!" And then he looked at the sky with such a deep expression that it made me chuckle.
I looked back at the sky with a slight smile on my face.
We stayed like that for the rest of the night. I spotted like 10 more of them than Adam and every time I did, he'd have the same reaction.
So... I guess that Valentine's day didn't turn out as bad as I thought. And all thanks to Adam.
Is it me, or is my world just getting weirder and weirder with this guy around?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's a fun little trivia for you: I actually planned the release of the first chapters and the rest, just so this chapter would actually come out on Valentine's Day...
Yup, I'm one of those overly organized nerds. Surprise!
I also checked it later and there are meteor showers in Ferbruary. They're called the Alpha Centaurid showers. Thodse who understand the reference will know what I'm saying with this.
So yeah, hope you enjoyed the chapter and don't worry, there's a lot more to come. We've only reached half of the storyline.
If you have anything you would like to ask, you can message me to my Wattpad account or email me to theoneandonlyowlface@gmail.com and I'll see you in the next one.
Owl Face out!
"TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL FOLKS!"