Elle and the Exchange Student

Chapter 11

Elle's Point of View:

"Can we meet again tomorrow, here at the same time?"  he asked.

"Sure" I replied, not lifting my head. Could he just leave already, I want to be alone.

"I can take you home, so you don't have to take the bus." he offered. Does he really think I would agree to that?

"No thanks" still keeping my head down. Now that we were talking casually, all the anger and hatred I have towards him resurfaced.

"You sure?"

'Yes, I'm freaking sure, now get lost' is what I wanted to reply. Instead, I said "Yeah, I'm gonna stay here and do some homework" 

"Okay, see you tomorrow then" and he left.

Putting my headphones on, I started working on my homework.

It had been surprisingly pleasant to work with Dae. We were mostly quiet, occasionally discussing about the project. It wasn't awkward, I even enjoyed doing the project together. But the moment we stopped working, all my positive feelings about him were gone.

I sighed in relief, finally being alone. I was, too, very tired and hungry. It has been a long and stressful day, and all I wanted was to collapse onto my bed.

The reason I arrived late was because of my mom.

She had a day off, which meant obsessively deep cleaning the entire house, rearranging the furniture, or getting rid off half of our belongings. Sometimes, she would also go shopping and buy all kinds of shit we don't even need. Today it was a mix of the first three activities. Oh, and every single time, I was forced to help her.

I spent my morning vacuuming and mopping the entire house, rearranging kitchen cabinets, swapping the positions of two dressers, and sorting through seasonal decorations. It was surprising that I was only ten minutes late. By the time, I arrived to the cafe, I was exhausted. I don't know how I managed to work on project for over two hours.

Now I couldn't go home, because I was scared of all the chores she would make me do. So I am wasting my time here at the cafe, forcing myself to stay awake and focus on my homework. Mom usually goes to bed around 8:30 pm, so until then, I had to come up with something to do.

I knew both Fannie and Deli had other things to do, so they couldn't help me either.

After finishing my school work, I did some window shopping and ended up at the bus stop. I had to pinch myself every now and then so I wouldn't fall asleep on the bus.

At 8:47 pm I entered through the door and tiptoed to my room. After a long hot shower, I went to bed and fell asleep a minute later.

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Today I was the first one of us to be here. I took the liberty of getting us coffee, since Dae bought them yesterday. I was secretly grateful he had offered to buy coffee for me, because I don't think I could've done it myself. This morning there weren't too many people here, I was by myself and I took my time before ordering, so it was okay.

Yesterday, the cafe was packed with people, and with my severe social anxiety I wouldn't have been able to form understandable sentences. It stresses me out not knowing what the other person is going to say, and that was the worst part for me. That I couldn't predict how the conversation was going to go, therefore I couldn't practice every single word in advance. That's why the girls would always order for me, or we'd go to the drive-thrus. I was getting better at it, but the stress I've been on lately, made my anxiety worse.

Now I was eager to get to work. I hoped we could finish it up today. Not only that I wouldn't have to be with Dae anymore, but do you know how excruciating it is, to do the same project twice? And in French! It's killing me, that I have to do this. Literally, the stress and anxiety of this has taken at least fifteen years off my life.

Instead of sitting opposite to me, Dae slipped into the seat next to me. His black leather jacket paired with jeans and a plain white T-shirt, is giving off a casual Sunday bad-boy vibe. Taking his jacket off, the tattoos covering his arms are now showing. I can't help but to stare a little, they are so beautiful. He is beautiful.

Gosh. Why is he so beautiful? It makes hating him so much harder!

"Thanks for the coffee" is the first thing he said, with a somewhat genuine but beautiful smile. Stop it, Elle! You hate the guy, remember?

"No problem" I smiled back at him, but without looking into his eyes. "Let's get to work" And that's what we do.

"I'm hungry" he stated, shutting his laptop down.

"Go order something" I replied annoyed.

"Not here, I'm like a-real-food-hungry" he said, gathering his stuff as if he was actually about to leave.

"What? We haven't even worked for thirty minutes yet and you're already leaving ?" I asked in disbelief.

"We can continue later, but I need to get some food in to my system. Otherwise, I won't be at my best. And we don't want that, do we?" he said playfully.

"I don't care, Dae. I want to get this done" I argued.

"Come on, I wanna finish this as badly as you. Let's just grab something real quick" he stands up, waiting for me to do the same.

Argh, this guy is making me crazy. I want nothing more than to stay here and be quiet until the work is done. But on the other hand, I can't remember the last time I ate. So maybe grabbing something to eat wasn't such a bad idea.

"Fine, but you're paying!" I said.

"Of course, princess" he replied. And before I could look at his face, to see his expression after that kind of a comment, he stormed away towards the door.