Acquaintance

Chapter 4 - The Plan

It was freezing outside. The wind blew the cold air together with the rain. My hands felt like they were frozen. I knocked the door again as I rolled down my sleeves of the jacket. I squinted my eyes as the wind was really drying my eyes. Just in time, the door opened and I looked up. It was Xavier. I breathed a sigh of relief. I studied his face, trying to decipher what his face expression means.

He was wearing a casual button up shirt that was collared and had pockets at both sides of the chest of the shirt. His sleeves were rolled up and his shirt was untucked. He wore a pair of loose black khaki pants. A dark and plain colored banglet was on his wrist.

"So do you want to come in?" He said, smiling.

I nodded my head and walked into his house. The house was really comfortable looking. Sofas were placed nicely on one part of the living room and a coffee table was placed in front of it. I turned my head to the left and there was a dining table and chairs. The floor was marble. Some drawings were in frames, hanging around the house. Before I can fully analyze the whole house, Xavier started to walk away from me and started to head towards the stairs, clearly signaling to go upstairs.

I followed him up the stairs and went into his room. The wall was cream white. There was a desk and a lamp at the left corner of the room. The desk was messed up full of papers, books, pencils, and other stationeries. In the other part of the bedroom, a bed with white sheets was put. The bed had a plain pillow and a black blanket. On the side of the bed was a shelf that had a sea of books and they were messily arranged. On the right side of the wall, there was a door to a bathroom. The whole smelled like him – vanilla. And I loved it. There was a kind of aura in the room that seemed to calm me down. I inhaled the scent of vanilla and closed my eyes.

As I opened my eyes, I caught him staring at me but he quickly looked away, trying to go back to his bag, probably finding the Chemistry textbook. The feeling of guilt hit me. I didn't bring anything at all. No pencil, no pen, no book, no nothing. I don't know why I didn't bring anything. I breathed in and out. It will be all alright.

Out of nowhere, I felt really tired. I want to go home. And sleep. But this won't distract me from doing the project. Hopefully.

"Do you want to get started?" I asked.

He whipped back and looked at me.

"Sure. Just let me find my book."

While waiting, I started to find a place to sit. There was a computer chair, but it was stacked with books. His bed wouldn't be an appropriate place to write or anything. I sat down on the floor and waited for him to find his Chemistry book.

When he finally found the book, he joined me on the floor. He flipped the book's pages to find Chapter Six. I studied him quietly and exhaled. Why do I like him? He's straight. I would never get a chance. Why would he even choose me anyway, even if he's gay? Heck, even if he's not gay, he has so many girls to look at. But what should I expect?

"So we are supposed to do Group 7 of the Periodic Table, the Halogens," he said.

"Alright,"

"So do you want to work on the manila card first?" he asked, softly.

"Sure. While I design the poster, you can research on the Halogens," I suggested.

"That sounds like a great idea."

He went out the door and came back in a second, holding a black manila card. He handed it to me and looked at me.

"Feel free to use whatever you can find in the room, and if you can't find anything that you want to you can just tell me and I'll find it for you."