Talia Hearts Who?!

Chapter 6

I giggled. I’d just rung Keira’s doorbell, and I could hear her stumbling and lurching up to the door, muttering the whole time. She really hated being woken up, and she especially hated the sing-song taunting of the doorbell. So, naturally, I always rung it, and tried to visit as early in the morning as possible. 

Of course, I loved my sleep too, so it was actually well into the afternoon by the time I decided that Keira deserved a wee visit from her best friend in the whole entire world (it had been more than two days after all). She needed catching up on all the goss - the biggest, of course, being that mysterious caller...

“Talia, I swear to the Lord Almighty, if you are not here with cookies and bacon I will strangle you, mince your body, then feed it to your family as Christmas pies.” Keira grumbled, letting me in then lurching back to the stairway that dominated the entryway to her house. 

“I suppose this means you aren’t going to be offering me any lunch? Because I’m actually really hungry…” I trailed off, deciding to just go to the kitchen anyway as I watched Keira’s back retreat up the stairs. 

“You know where the kitchen is, I’m not your slave anymore. Feed your lazy self,” came the mutinous reply.

I grinned. Keira was a terrible hostess, but I was practically family by now, so it hardly mattered. I wandered through the huge house, before eventually reaching the open-plan kitchen and dining room. Bee-lining straight to the fridge, it didn’t immediately register that I wasn’t exactly alone. 

“Nice to know you’ve made yourself at home.” 

I nearly fell over, I got such a fright. 

“OHMIGOSH don’t DO that!!” I shrieked, clutching my heart and trying to avoid the orange juice I’d spilled pretty much everywhere. Including all down my shirt and jeans. Great. 

“Sorry,” replied Drew, who was clearly not at all sorry as he was laughing pretty dang hard. 

“This is soooo not funny…” I growled, starting to get pretty angry at him. I mean, it wasn’t completely his fault that I’d spilt the juice, but this was the second time I’d felt completely and utterly humiliated because of him. And he was laughing. 

I may be a nerdy weakling, but when I get mad enough, I can punch quite forcefully. So, when Drew started laughing at me, I launched myself at him and started screeching and pummeling every inch of his perfectly abbed chest that I could reach.

“Argh! Get off me woman! What is your problem!?” shouted Drew, attempting to shield himself from my attack. 

“You. Were. Laughing!” I shrieked, near tears by now. “You. Are. Such. A. JERK!” By now I was punctuating each word with a blow to his chest, although I wasn’t nearly as terrifying as before having lost the element of surprise. That, and I was sobbing so hard I’d lost all the strength in my arms… 

“Okay. Okay, chill. Chill. Calm. Focus. STOP!” Drew yelled, finally grabbing my wrists and clasping them together, holding me back at arm’s length. “What on Earth has gotten into you Talia? I’m sorry for laughing, but that was a complete freak out!” 

I hung my head, suddenly realizing what it was exactly, that I had just done. “I’m sorry Drew, I just… Lost it, I guess. I’ll just clean this up and go, I’m really sorry for going nuts like that on you.” I muttered, turning to get a cloth to wipe up the spilled juice that was all over the tiled floor. 

“No, don’t worry about it, you go upstairs and get cleaned up. I’ve got this, okay? You might need to lie down, I’ve got pretty hard abs you know…” Drew trailed off, grinning at me crookedly, then winking as I rolled my eyes. 

I was standing in the doorway before I turned to him and nodded my head once in thanks. He just nodded back, then turned away. I sighed internally. Why did Drew have to be such a nice guy, but a complete player? He would be the ultimate boyfriend if he had any concept of commitment. Not that I cared. I wouldn’t date Drew if he was the only boy left on the planet. Right? 

Hey, thanks for reading! I really, really appreciate comments and votes, but especially comments -  they make me want to keep on writing this story. I'd kind of given up for a while there, but thanks to Talia_Renee, who this chapter is dedicated to, and her comment on the previous chapter, I've decided to keep going with it for now (there are about 20 more chapters planned until the end though, which is kind of scary since that's quite a lot of writing!). 

Thanks again, Tamy xoxox