"Okay, spill," Anne demanded as soon as I had opened the door the next afternoon.
No-one dared barge into the house since Dobey arrived. Richard was the one to discover that as he spent a good two hours at the doctors. Dobey was only ten weeks old but little puppy teeth are very sharp.
Anne crossed her arms over her chest and I gave her a baffled look. "Spill what?"
This morning I had phoned her asking if she could bring the work I missed after school and sort out the jammed lock of my locker. I purposely didn't mention that Cole was involved or else I never would've gotten her off the phone and she'd run late. That and also I was extremely embarrassed by it.
Now that I am fully rested, I had spent most of the day hitting my head against the wall, sometimes literally. I don't know what possessed me. I let him hold me and I even sat on his lap! If I was in my right senses, I would never have let him do that or allow myself to be carried. I have German blood in me, so I am naturally stubborn and proud like that.
But now the problem is that I was home alone with nothing but Scooby-Doo to watch with Dobey, so my mind was really working over-time on remembering everything that happened yesterday.
Every. Single. Detail.
I remembered clearly how nice he smelled and how it felt to be carried in such strong, firm arms. Seriously, an eighteen year old shouldn't have muscle like that. Urgh, and there my thoughts go again.
Anne raised an eyebrow at me. "Why didn't you tell me about Cole?"
"Cole?" I immediately panicked. Richard couldn't have told her. He was still off sick, hence why I called her. "What about him?"
"Today he asked me in maths how you were doing. How does he know that you hurt your eye?"
An instant blush covered my cheeks at the memory and also the fact that he asked about me. It made my heart flutter. I looked up suddenly realising that Anne was still standing in the front threshold and Dobey stood next to me.
"Uh, you can come in."
"Don't avoid the question," Anne said and she readjusted the books in her arms as she entered the house.
She followed me to the living-room after I closed the door. It took me an excruciating moment to fall onto the couch. Let's say I'm more than a little stiff from the exercise yesterday. It took me more than half an hour to get out of bed and everything hurts.
I sighed and looked at Anne to see her sit opposite me and place my mountain of homework beside her while Dobey jumped onto the couch to sit next to me.
"Cole ... was the one who found me when I fell down the stairs," I began. "He carried me out to my mom's car and sat with me while she went to get me something to drink."
Anne nodded slowly. "Carried? As in ..."
"His arms, yes." I finished for her and had the urge to slam my head into the armrest of the couch - which I did.
I needed to get that image out of my head. It was not helping my eager imagination at all.
Anne smirked. "I don't know what you're so embarrassed about. Half the school would've died to be in his arms."
"I'm embarrassed because I looked so weak in front of him," I mumbled.
One of two things I hated people seeing: me weak and me crying. He saw both. The reason was I hated the looks of pity that came with it. They reminded me too much of him and that night.
Anne gave me a small smile instantly understanding. "I'm sure he didn't see you like that. He didn't mention the fact that you cried at all."
I looked at Anne. "What did you say to him?"
"I just explained what you told me this morning."
"And his response?"
"He just nodded and walked off," Anne said and looked at my injured eye. "Are you sure you can't fix it? What about a cornea transplant?'
I looked down at my hands. "You know my parents can't afford it."
If you look around the living-room, it would say enough. The couches were very tired. The framework had gone in the one that it had to lean against a wall to support it and we had an old, old box television set. One of the windows was even covered with cardboard.
Okay, that was actually just from lack of maintenance, but that is only a couple of eyesores in the eyesore room. Yes, we didn't have much money, but we never lacked in the essentials. However, it didn't stop me from feeling guilty about the medical bill. I should've been more careful.
"Medical aid?" Anne asked.
"Cancelled it."
Purely because we didn't have money for the monthly instalments. But no-one needed to know that. Money was something I kept lip-locked at all times. Not even Richard or Anne really knew much.
"Oh," Anne muttered.
It was quiet for a moment before she brightened and patted the mountain of books next to her.
"Ready to work?"
-
"Hey Lizard!" Richard greeted that Saturday.
The party was held at his house and, even though he was extremely popular at school, it was a small event only consisting of his family and close friends.
I turned and we smiled at each other. Only because he was the birthday boy did I decide to go with his wish and dressed as Captain Hook, and maybe also because it would disguised my injured eye. Everyone thought the eye patch was part of the costume. Richard had decided to be Peter Pan.
I laughed. "Never would've thought you were the kind to wear green tights."
He looked ridiculous. A massive football player such as himself in tights. It's a good thing it was a small gathering or else his fan-girls would've undoubtedly fainted at the sight of his strong build in such tight material.
Richard fake gasped. "You take that back, Cap'n or else I'll take away the peace offering," he said and presented to me a plate filled with vanilla cake topped with lots of icing and granadilla pulp.
My mouth watered at the sight and I immediately grabbed the plate from him.
"You know me too well," I said between mouthfuls.
Richard nodded. "And it's a good thing too or else I would be horribly repulsed right now."
I glared at him with cheeks as full as a chipmunk's. He laughed before he looked closely at my face. "Uh, you've got a little icing..." he didn't give me a chance to react as he stepped forward and stretched out his hand to rub the piece of icing off the side of my mouth with his thumb. The action paralysed me.
It's not the first time he's had to clean something off my face, but he's never done it with such a ... focused expression before, it made his brown eyes appear darker. But once he'd wiped the last bit off, his hand didn't move from my cheek and instead slowly trailed down to cup my neck.
"Richard?"
The sound of his sister's voice made me jump away from him so quickly I almost dropped my plate of cake, and that would have been a tragedy.
Richard gave a low sigh before turning around to look at his seventeen year old sister. He had three siblings all together: a younger brother aged fifteen and then another sister aged thirteen.
"Yes?" he asked and I detected a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Mom needs your help in the kitchen," she said and he nodded before giving me a quick glance and made his way to the kitchen.
I slowly looked back at, or more like up because of my short stature, at his sister only to see her smirking at me with a knowing look before walking off into the crowd.
I frowned. Why was everyone acting so weird?