heart strings♥

chapter sixteen: Date...

After Steven Carter changed into Alex' shirt, he pulled out his phone to text his cousin as a favor to help his old friend Raysa Faye. He sighed when there wasn't an immediate reply. His mind wondered if his cousin was asleep, but after five minutes, his phone rang and he answered.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I thought you were in class?" he asked.

"I went to the lady's room, so what's up?" she asked.

"Naomi, did you see someone by the locker across from yours earlier?" he asked.

"Um, yeah, a bunch of girls, why?" she asked.

"Well, can you find out who they were?" he asked.

"Why? Was one of them yours?" she teased.

He gave a chuckle before saying, "Nah, I'm asking you because of a friend."

"Okay, I'll try. I'll tell you once I found something out," she said cheerfully before hanging up.

As usual, Raysa was at Alex' house. Her eyes stared at the ceiling as she lied on his bed. Watching her, Alex strummed his guitar quietly. His eyes wandering to her lips that had turned into a thoughtful frown. He knew what she was thinking about, she told him about it after he lent his shirt to her old friend. He gritted his teeth at the thought of her being bullied. Anger filled him as his mind thought of what other possible pranks those wretched people would try to pull. He knew well about them, and how females can be so cruel to their own kind. Even though he faced some bullying before, he knew being a guy, it was different with girls. Guys wil beat each other up, but girls don't strike each other so openly. They have more manipulation, backstabbing, and lies. His strumming messed up and that made the girl's attention turn to him.

Despite his annoyance at what prank they tried to pull on her, he smiled at the girl who lay so defenseless on his own bed. Her answering smile made him forget that he was ever pissed.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked. The soft tone in his voice surprised her. Raysa rolled over to her side to face her boyfriend, "I was just wondering if Becca could have been the one behind that paint bomb..."

"Becca?"

"You're last girlfriend," she informed him, she had already expected him to forget again.

"Oh, thought her name was Bea," he said with a shrug.

"Do you get all their names wrong on purpose or is it unintentional?" she asked curiously.

"The former," he grinned.

"You are so mean!" she said but there was a wide happy smile on her lovely face.

Alex smiled back, then his mind drifted into a different matter as he changed chords. When he lifted his eyes to meet her, he said, "Let's go on a date tomorrow."

The girl blinked, and blushed, "Where'd that come from all of a sudden?"

Alex shrugged and stood up. He left his guitar by the chair and sat next to her. He suddenly leaned tiredly on her shoulder, but the girl giggled, breaking the mood.

"Your hair's tickles," she said and scooted away from him. That piece of information made Alex grin from ear to ear and he launched an attack on the poor girl. His hands tickled her and tickled her until she was screaming for help and laughing at the same time. When she begged for mercy, he stopped to let her catch her breath. The pillows that were once neatly arranged on his bed were now all on the floor. The sheets were also messed up from their battle, or more like Alex' ambush.