heyy guys, thanks for all the comments and such!
also this has been edited by Kate Dimka ---- check out her work too :)
***
“Holly,” I greeted with a drawl, turning around. “W-what are you doing here?” She smirked smugly at my stutter.
“Oh, I’m just shopping for a few things.” In her overpriced, manicured hands she held several packets of mascara and lipstick. Go figure!
“Oh, okay. Well um, I’m going this way now.” I awkwardly tried to part with her by going to grab a shopping cart, but I could feel her presence behind me, following. When I turned, I saw the mischievous glint in her eyes. Oh shit! Here it comes.
“So, you and Matt, huh?” She asked confidently and I tripped on a magazine lying on the floor. Holly held out her free hand to keep me balanced and I bit my lip to prevent my self from saying something stupid, instead choosing to smile at her weakly, keeping the peace, if you could even call it that.
“Uh, well you see… Matt and I aren’t going out or anything. He just...” Okay, think woman. Come up with a quick excuse to get Holly thinking otherwise about what she saw. “...um, well, how do I put this?” I asked myself as I grabbed a shopping cart, Holly following like a lost puppy. She looked at me expectantly and I had the sudden urge to run in the opposite direction.
“Well?” She prompted, looking a little irate that she wasn’t going to get the gossip she was after. If there was one thing I knew about Holly, it was that she loved to gossip.
“Okay, here’s the deal.” I started down the aisles, grabbing items from the shelves and placing them in the shopping cart as I attempted to put my artificial thoughts into words. “There’s this guy that’s stalking me.” I looked at Holly whose eyes were wide open in surprise so I knew I had to play this out carefully. “So I asked Matt to take me shopping, though in the process, he had to play the part of my ‘over protective boyfriend’. You know, just in case my stalker was watching.” Holly nodded her head with a no-shit-duh expression on her face and I breathed in a sigh of a relief. Maybe this would work after all. “But you can’t tell anybody, Holly. If this gets out, I don’t know what the stalker will do with me.” I whispered the last part to her and she bit her lip as she struggled to take in what I said.
“Well what if he’s here now? He might start stalking me now. I mean, look at me. I’m fricken hot.” I took in a deep and ragged breath, struggling with myself not to say something that could potentially kill her and me in the process. I opted for a sympathetic look.
“That’s why you can’t say anything to anyone.” I looked straight into her glistening eyes and she nodded her head.
“Okay, does Joe know? Why isn’t he here instead?” She prompted, looking at me with curiosity as I took another item from the shelf.
“No, Joe doesn’t know and it has to stay that way. I mean, he could be in danger as well and I don’t want to put him through all that.” I saw her calculating what I said in her pretty little head while I swallowed some built up saliva in my throat. God help me but I think she knew I was lying.
“Well, I just broke up with this guy who had an older brother on the police forc—”
“No, Holly. Don’t tell anyone. I mean it,” I interrupted, looking at her levelly. She held my gaze but then bit into her lip. “Please!” I all but begged.
“Oh alright, I’m just trying to help but whatever. I’ll keep it a secret if you give me something, or rather someone, in return.” I raised my right eyebrow expectantly and she smiled wickedly. “I want Matt.” I wasn’t paying attention to the person in front of me, so my shopping cart collided with theirs as I played out Holly’s words in my head. She wanted Matt!
“S-sorry,” I stuttered an apology as I moved along the aisle and into the next one.
“So what do you reckon? Think you can put in a few good words to him for me?” I kept my face neutral as I looked at the shelves directly to my left.
“I guess,” I said in a strained voice, a voice I didn’t recognise as my own and I saw Holly smirking from my side. “But I don’t know if he will take me seriously,” I told her eventually. I knew I was jealous. I didn’t want Matt with anyone, especially Holly. Gosh, she was the sleep-around type, the type to get pregnant and not know who the father is. She’d probably pin it on Matt, too. I took a deep breath, trying to vanquish those filthy thoughts from my mind as I looked at a bag of pretzels. No one knew about Matt’s obsession with them so I got him two packets, putting them in the shopping cart, away from my own items.
“Rain, come on. Everybody knows that Matt listens to whatever you say. He is like your own personal puppet,” she said as she looked at her nails, pouting.
“What are you talking about?” I asked as I finished rounding up the aisle. I took out my phone and saw that the fifteen minutes were nearly up.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about,” she said sarcastically.
“I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. Sorry Holly, but I have to go,” I told her as I turned around, pushing the shopping cart towards the direction of the meeting point.
“Rain, you better hold your end of the bargain,” She threatened and I stopped dead in my tracks. If Matt doesn’t go out with her because I failed to live up to her ‘bargain,’ she might very well tell Joe about my fake stalker story and Matt pretending to be my boyfriend. Both situations had their downsides and I didn’t know which was worse. Matt might want to go out with Holly, again. There was no denying that option. He slept with her once; he might want to sleep with her again. But if Joe found out about my bogus stalker story and Matt, he might get really angry and possessive. He was too protective and it was really starting to bug the hell out of me.
“I’ll put in a good word for you but don’t get your hopes up,” I told her as I turned around, facing her challenging glare.
“Just get me Matt,” she demanded and then with a flick of her hair, she whirled around and stalked off. Oh god. That was so cliché.
Walking towards the ‘meeting point,’ I noticed Matt waiting in line so I stood behind him, shopping cart next to me. “Hey,” I whispered in his ear, smiling when he shuddered slightly.
“Hey you,” he responded huskily, turning his head around to face me. I bit my lip as I took in his features. I loved his dark eyes and contradictory lips. I mean, sometimes his lips were hard, set in a grim when he was angry or upset. Other times, they were soft and caring, say, when he was kissing me.
“Next in line!” I heard the cashier announce. Breaking our gaze, Matt let out a strangled chuckle, forcing his way to his cart and putting the items on the bagging table. I just stood behind him, watching as he placed item after item onto the table until he paid for his groceries. He waited until I paid for my groceries and together, with our shopping carts, made our way to his car.
“So...” Matt started, dragging the ‘o’ out until I looked at him.
“So... what?” I repeated, placing my items in his car. He did the same until the last of our items were set snugly. I placed all my items on the right side of the boot and he placed his on the left side. That way we wouldn’t get confused later on.
“So what did you get me?” he asked, a slight smirk planted on his face.
“I’ll give it to you when you drop me off,” I said, opening the passenger door and buckling myself in.
I watched as he did the same, that smirk still planted on his face and I knew it was going to stay there.
“What’s with the smirk?” I asked as he drove out of the car park.
“What smirk?” He asked, widening it to show that he was enjoying himself.
“Oh Matt, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I owe it to you, and everyone else for that matter. Your smirk is extremely horrible to watch.” I pretended to look horrified and I watched as Matt laughed aloud.
“Oh Rain, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re an extremely bad liar. And besides, I know I look good when I smirk,” he teased back, laughing a little at our bantering conversation.
“You look better when you’re laughing,” I told him truthfully but then my face heated up when he stopped laughing and looked at me. “Ay, watch the road,” I advised quickly and he averted his gaze back to the front windscreen.
My face was still heated, I could feel it, and Matt held a thoughtful expression on his. I didn’t want to say anything, for fear of embarrassing myself or interrupting his train of thought, so I moved my hand towards the radio dial, hoping a good tune would fill the slight awkwardness. However, when my hand reached the dial, Matt’s hand met mine and I quickly pulled back. “Ah s-sorry,” I stuttered like an idiot. “Put the station you want,” I told him, feeling my face heat up more so as my hands tingled slightly where he touched me.
“Okay,” he mumbled strangely. As soon as he put on the station that he liked, I turned around, facing the window until he pulled up in my driveway. Joe’s car was half in the garage. Great!
Looking at Matt, I saw that he came to the same realisation that I had, so neither of us said a word as Joe came outside, giving us suspicious looks.
“What’s going on here?” he asked us both, though he was glaring at Matt the whole time. Oh shit! Did Holly call Joe and tell him about tonight?
Matt looked at Joe with a glare of his own and I knew something bad was about to go down. Oh shit!
***
so what do you thinks going to happen ??? lol
remember to comment, fan and vote