TMI meets TID 3

21: James

That night, Matthew and I sat lazily in my room. It was about nine o'clock, and there was absolutely nothing to do. Matthew was sprawled on my bed, throwing a ball up and down, and I was sitting on my armchair.

"I can't believe Cordelia said she liked Charles." Matthew started chuckling. "As if I don't already know that she likes-" He stopped talking abruptly.

"Who does she like?" I asked him.

He turned to look at me, with a bit of a smirk. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm just asking." I said, and I felt myself blush a bit.

Wait, why was I blushing? I never blushed. I had only ever blushed about Grace, why was I suddenly blushing about Cordelia?

"You are as red as a tomato." Matthew said smirking. "Do you fancy her?"

"No." I said immediately. I didn't fancy Cordelia. But if I didn't, why was I blushing?

"Anyways, who does she like?" I asked again.

"I promised her I wouldn't tell." He said.

"Oh c'mon Welsh." I said, using my nickname for him.

"Sorry James." He said, as went back to throwing the ball and catching it again.

"I was under the impression, that she fancied you." I said to him.

Matthew burst out laughing. "And why would you think that?"

"She had told me that I knew the person very well." I said.

"She wasn't wrong about that." He said quietly. What? I thought confusedly.

Matthew then looked me with a mischievous look. By the angel, what did he have planned now?

"I'll make you a deal." He started. "If you go find Bridgette and go down and one knee and confess your love for her, and ask her to marry you, I will tell you who Cordelia likes."

I groaned. "Why Matthew, must you put me through this?"

"Do you want to know who Cordelia likes, or not?" He said with a smirk.

I groaned again. "Okay fine. Let's go."

Matthew and I went to the kitchen, where Bridgette was doing this dishes and singing one of her dreadful songs. I looked back at Matthew who pushed me into the kitchen.

Bridget saw me walk in. "James, what do you need?"

I looked back at Matthew, and he was smirking. I made a rude gesture at him, and turned back around to Bridget. Oh well, I've gotten this far, I thought. I got down on one knee dramatically, and looked up at her.

"My dear Bridgette, I can no longer hide my feelings. I have fallen completely in love with you. Your singing is one the most of the beautiful sounds I have ever heard." I heard Matthew trying to hold in his laughter from outside the kitchen.

I looked up at Bridget, who had a horrified expression her face. I then grabbed her hand dramatically.

"Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife, and making me the happiest man in the world?" I finished.

Bridgette stared at me, open-mouthed. Just as she was about to respond, I heard a voice.

"James, what in the world are you doing?" My mother said behind me.

Still holding Bridgette's hand, I turned around. My mother stood there, looking very confused and amused.

"I'm confessing my love, for our dear Bridgette here." I said and I heard Matthew howl with laughter.

"It seems though, that she does not return my feelings." I said while dropping her hand and standing back up.

My mother laughed. "You become more and more your father everyday." She then began to talk to Bridgette, who looked very shaken up.

I walked back to Matthew, who was almost in tears from laughing so hard. I glared at him.

"There are you happy? I made a fool out of myself." I said coldly.

"Everyone thought you were fool. Now you've confirmed it." He said in between laughs.

"I can't believe your mother walked in." Matthew said laughing.

"Yes yes I know, it was all very amusing for you." I said. "Now, who does Cordelia fancy?"

After he had finally recovered, he looked at me with a smirk.

"Eager to know are we?" He said with a smirk.

"Will you just tell me?" I said exasperated.

"It's you." Matthew said with the biggest smirk I had ever seen.

The wind was knocked out of me. Cordelia liked me? Cordelia who I had known all my life?

"What?" I said shocked.

"Yep. Ever since she was ten. You cannot tell her I told you." Matthew said.

"I won't." I said, but my mind was a million miles away.

Cordelia liked me. Of course, it made perfect sense now. How my father said she looked upset after I stopped dancing with her. How she would always stare at me. My mind then floated to our conversation, that we had earlier at Hyde park.

"I have a friend-he lives in Idris- and I have to tell him something terribly important, and I do not know how to tell him. I am also frightened of what he will say." Cordelia had said.

I now realized that there was no friend in Idris. That person was me. Cordelia wanted to tell me that she liked me.

"Matthew, she wants to tell me that she likes me." I told him. "What am I going to say?"

"Just say how you feel." He said simply.

I sighed. "I guess so. I'm going to go sleep, sad you tomorrow." And then I left.

As I walked through the corridors of the Institute, I thought of how I hadn't realized that Cordelia liked me before. It had been so obvious. I had been so lost in my thoughts that I had walked right into someone.

"Oh sorry!" A girl's voice exclaimed.

Cordelia. I stepped back and looked at her. Her red hair was falling gracefully down to her shoulders, and her brown eyes were steady.

"That's okay." I said to her.

"Have you decided when your going to tell your friend that thing you needed to?" I asked her.

She blushed immediately, and I knew that she had definitely been talking about me today at Hyde park.

"No I have not." Cordelia said." I do hope that I will soon, though."

"What do you need to tell him?" I asked her warily.

"Something, that I should have awhile ago." She said.

"Well, good luck then." I said with a smile and she blushed.

"Thanks." She said, and we both parted ways.

I felt very nervous, what was I going to say to her when she told me? I didn't feel tired anymore. I decided that I was going to go take a walk.