Wrong Side Of The Bed

22 | the last fake date.

CHRISTIAN'S P.O.V 

I WAS COMPLETELY and utterly screwed, and nobody else didn't have to even point that fact out to me. I knew it in my bones, in every blink.

"I am this close to jumping out of the window," I said, pacing in my room, my airpods in my ears. "Mate, I can't stop thinking about her. It's like since the moment I realized that I do like her, something awakened inside me and now my subconscious is actively trying to pursue her! Do you know what I did the day she came over? Do you have any idea?"

"No, tell me," Lucas replied even though I had repeated the chain of events to him till three a.m. that night.

"I bloody flirted with her! I flirted with her shamelessly, like a minging plonker!" I sighed. "My life is in shambles. In complete shambles."

"Liking a girl who is smart, pretty, and kind isn't the worst thing in the world, you know," He pointed out.

"Have you gone completely mental?" I wheezed. "This can't happen! I need to resist. Of course I need to fucking resist. We have been rivals for years — do you think everything will turn around only because I got some itty bitty feelings for her?"

"Basically," He said. "Yeah." I ignored his words. Basically, yeah. What a twat.

"She probably doesn't even think we are proper friends yet, and I am out here buying plushies for her because they reminded me of her. Can't even take a bloody stroll through the market without thinking of her."

"...You did what?"

"I bought a plushie," I said, blowing out a little breath. "Yesterday, I was taking a stroll through the market and saw a vendor selling these octopus plushies that are angry, and then when you turn it over, the octopus only gets angrier — but this time, with fire in its eyes. It was so cute, and it reminded me of Walter. So I bought it. Now, how barking mad is that? All these girls in the world, and I like the one who has violence issues and years of long rivalry with me."

"And yet you bought a plushie for her."

"Of course I did," I sighed. "How could I see an angry octopus and not instantly think of her and buy it for her? It's impossible."

"I would have asked you to confess your feelings to her," Lucas admitted. "But the constant rivalry between you two does complicate things a little bit. So, I'd suggest waiting and strengthening your friendship a little before you two take any step."

"Friendship?" I repeated his words back to him. "I'm not entirely sure she thinks that, Lucas."

"You're fucking blind then," He replied swiftly. "Because I don't take my non-friends out on bookstore dates with a customized atmosphere to make my non-friend feel better."

"But—"

"You worry and talk too much," Lucas replied. "For once, don't think ten times before you say anything to her and just say it. Hang out with her, show her your genuine self, not the self you carefully craft to make her like you. Do it once, you'll see that the results are astonishing. Be yourself."

"Be myself? What kind of garbage advice is that?"

"A piece of advice not as garbage as your plan of resisting your feelings for a girl who might even like you back."

"Yes, you're right," I hummed in agreement. "Your advice is definitely not equally excellent to mine. Yours is more garbage."

"You say it as if you've got some concrete plan for your train of thoughts."