"Don't go on a date with anyone."
I just stare at him for a while to let him rethink what he said and not let me misunderstand yet again.
"I mean, uh... you know like, what I mean is... well," he starts to stutter to which I just sigh. Is he doing this on purpose or is he just like this, flirt by mistake and regret?
"Austin, if you don't tell me what you meant by that in ten seconds, I'm gonna start misunderstanding."
"I didn't mean it that way." He chuckles nervously. "Dating is so unpredictable and it's not really that safe and see, now, by dating, I'm such a mess and you were such a mess. Like I happened to date my sister. You happened to date an asshole. That's so unpredictable, right?" He lets these words out in a breath and I just stare at him with my eyebrows raised up.
"I was a mess?" I ask him and he blinks for a few odd silent seconds looking at me and then decides to shake his head as a denial.
"I meant broken. You were broken and I'm broken now. That's what I mean." I try not to smile at how nervous he looks right now.
"Whatever." I leave his hands and start walking further.
"I'm sorry." He follows me and holds my hand to comfort me even though he was right. I was a mess.
"So, you don't want me to date ever?" I raise my eyebrows and look at him.
"No, I didn't mean it that way. I mean..." He sighs and looks away. "Do you have to do this to me when I'm sad?!" He asks with frustration.
"Do what?" I chuckle unintentionally.
"This interrogation stuffs?" His expressions makes me burst into laughter, which I was trying to hold it in, because of how adorable he is being right now.
"It wasn't interrogation. Stop exaggerating." I tell in between my laughs.
"I'm not! Why are you laughing? What is funny here, Iris?" He says and starts to laugh too, being contrary to his statement.
"So, why are you laughing?"
"Because you are! Stop laughing." He raises his voice slightly, loud enough for the silent streets.
We both are laughing like idiots in the middle of the empty street and I am just glad that he is laughing.
"Fine fine. I'll stop." I say but no, we both couldn't. We keep laughing just by looking at each other even though nothing was actually funny. Just beautiful moments.
Not long after our silly moment, we stop laughing and fall silent while walking down the street.
"Iris?" He speaks, breaking the silence. I look up at him as a response. "I'm scared and annoyed that we might run into each other again. I don't want that to happen."
"Austin, I'm not sure if I'm right but I think it's better if you face him and make things clear between you both." Before he could speak, I continue, "I'm not trying to say that you shouldn't have ran away.", to make sure he doesn't blame himself again. "I'm trying to say that you can't keep running away all the time."
He looks at me with a sad expression but nods. "I know you are right and I know I should one day confront him no matter how long I try to avoid him but it just seems uneasy for me to meet him. It's either I'm gonna hurt him very badly or I'm gonna get hurt by him very badly and neither of them do I wish."
"I get it. You don't have to, until you're ready. Run away until you can. But, when the time comes, when you are too tired of running away, don't think twice and just let your heart handle the situation."
He smiles at me after a while and I return the smile. "You're making me feel so much better that it's starting to scare me." I smile wider at his words and look away.
"Do you have any plans tomorrow?" He raises a question before the silence engulfs us.
"Company." I shrug.
"It's sunday, Iris." He drags his voice.
"I know, Austin." I imitate his tone. "But I have some pending works to be done."
"Fine." He sulks.
"But, why are you sad?"
"I wanted to hang out with you."
"Aren't you getting too comfortable with me? I'm starting to misunderstand, Austin." I tease him.
"I thought we are friends. Friends hang out too, Iris. Aren't you being too narrow minded?" He raises his eyebrows, teasing me back. Him, calling me as his friend takes me by surprise but I like that he is getting comfortable enough with me to think of me as a friend.
"Fine." I chuckle. "I promise to return back home early tomorrow like I did today. So, we could probably hang out later in the evening."
"Great then," he claps his hands loudly, once, in the dark silence and that startles me which goes unnoticed by him as he continues to walk while I just stand still processing the loud sound before running towards him to walk with him. "Where do you wanna go tomorrow? I'll take you anywhere you want to go."
"Oh my god, you're being too cheesy with your words. I swear, stop it." I should stop him.
"Honestly speaking, I'm very good at it and not gonna lie, women like it when I'm cheesy." He starts bragging.
"I guess I'm not a woman." I tease him again.
"I guess so." I get teased back again as he chuckles at my offended expression. "So, honestly speaking, where do you wanna go?"
"You can take me anywhere and I'll follow you." I tell him to show him how it feels to hear cheesy words.
"You know what? You suck at being cheesy. What do you mean by I'll follow you anywhere? You're gonna follow me to the bathroom too, if I take you there?"
I fall silent after hearing his words. It's definitely because I was embarrassed, but mostly because I was flustered at his example.
"Hey, I was just kidding." He looks at me with a concerned look, noticing I was awkwardly silent.
"Well, I hope." We both laugh it off.
We return back to our house late at midnight and go straight to bed after freshening ourselves up.
"Thank you." He looks at me and I smile at him.
"Not gonna say welcome because that would mean you would have to get sad again."
"Hey, that worked! It was cheesy." He widens his eyes in surprise and I do the same.
"It worked?" He nods. "Look, I don't really suck at being cheesy."
"Well, I'm not really sure about that one." He looks at the ceiling breaking the eye contact.
"What?!" I get agitated.
"Just because you could do it once, doesn't mean you're not bad at it, Iris."
"Fine, I'll prove it to you that I'm not really bad at being cheesy and you're gonna get embarrassed, then." I wonder what's making me this childish.
He smirks and looks away. "Let's see."
YOU ARE READING
AGAPI
General Fiction"If I said that I can't really avoid you anymore, if I said that I want to express my feelings openly from now on, if I said that I need you, then... would you accept me, Iris?" Maybe I hated that we were forced to be together, but now, no matter h...
