"What Are You Waiting For?" || ORIGINAL STORY.

Chapter Fourteen.

Tanya's POV.

The very next morning, Darren came just in time to pick me up.

"Morning." I mumbled, still half asleep.

"Morning." He replied.

He was in the school uniform, his hair quite messy.. and, again, with the tie not being tied properly.

"Looks like you didn't even try to fix your hair." I commented, trying not to pay too much attention to how attractive he looked in the morning.

"Why bother?" He shrugged, running his fingers through his hair in an effortless manner. "It's just gonna get messed up again anyway."

I laughed softly.

I approached him, grabbing his tie and tying it properly.

"Seems like you don't know how to tie a tie.." I softly said

He stayed still as I fixed his tie, his eyes on my face.

"Yeah, I never bothered learning." He admitted, a small smirk on his face. "Why learn how to do something when you can have someone else do it for you, right?"

I looked up at him as the smirk never left his face.

He looked so attractive with that smirk..

I quickly finished tying his tie and stepped back, trying to act unbothered by his presence.

"There." I said, "Now you won't look like a messy idiot for the whole day."

"Hey, I always look good, even when I'm messy." He said, rolling his eyes.

But his smirk remained, as if amused by my comment.

I really wanted to tell him, 'Yes, you always looked goddamn hot.. in anything, really.' But I held my tongue.

"Ehh, sure." I replied instead.

He chuckled at my response, that infuriating smirk still on his lips.

"Damn, you don't even try to compliment my look?" He slowly said.

"Why would I compliment you when you're already full of yourself?" I shot back, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Oh, come on." He said, a hint of playfulness in his voice. "You know I'm still fishing for compliments. You gotta give me some ego boost, you know."

I rolled my eyes, resisting the urge to smile at his words.

"Why do you need me to do that when your ego is inflated enough?" I retorted, crossing my arms.

He took a step towards me, his lips portraying a hidden smile that I noticed.

"But if you complimented me, it'd be different. Your compliments are different." He said, his voice slightly lower. "They would actually mean something to me."

The closeness between us was starting to make my heart beat faster, but I tried to act unaffected.

"Why do you think so?" I asked, my voice steady despite the butterflies in my stomach.

"I don't know.. probably a hunch." He replied.

I raised an eyebrow at his response, not quite believing it.

"Well, then.." I muttered, "You're pretty attractive.."

His smirk grew wider at my words, his eyes locked on mine.

"Only 'pretty attractive'?" He asked, taking another step closer.

At this point, he was just a few inches away from me.