He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

The House

Around 3 in the afternoon, I got a text from Marc.

From: 975-631-1038
To: Nina

Hi its Marc. My address is 489 Westwood Drive. See ya!

Westwood Drive is just a couple of minutes from my house. Since my parents were coming home late, I invited Sherry to come and babysit my sister and brother.

"What are you going to be wearing to his house?" asked Sherry.

"I'm not sure. Should I wear a sweatshirt?"

"Oh no Nina Thorpen. Nina you will release yourself from those sweatshirts. You will wear a really nice shirt with no sweatshirt hiding you."

She walked over to my closet and started to shuffle through my clothes. She took out a purple shirt which was simple but pretty. She took out my blue jeans.

"There you go. Simple but sweet," she said.

I went into my bathroom and started to change. Once done, I walked over to the mirror and looked at myself. Not to show off or anything, I looked amazing.

I entered my bedroom and immediately Sherry put her hands onto her mouth.

"Oh my god. My little girl has grown up. You look so nice Nina. Now all we got to do is do your hair."

She grabbed me from my shoulders and guided me to my mirror. She took a comb and started playing around with my hair. She pulled my hair up in a ponytail.

"See, now you don't look too fancy or too simple. Just perfect."

And she wasn't lying. I liked the way I was looking. I got up and found my research binder and stuffed it into my backpack. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 5:56 pm. I knew his house was only five minutes away, so I threw my backpack over my shoulder and left the room.

Before I could leave, I heard Sherry scream good luck to me. In return, I screamed thanks and closed my front door.

It only took me only two minutes to reach Marc's house. My clock read 5:58 pm. I started to walk around the block and wait for it to be 6:05. I didn't want to look so punctual that it would be wierd. So I started to kill time.

Mentally, I started having a countdown.

100, 99, 98...

50, 49, 48...

Now, the clock read 6:01. But I continued to walk.

36, 35, 34...

I decided that it was better to just go to his house because I also had to go back home and finish my homework.

From outside, his house looked grand. It was a giant, white and red Victorian house. There were roses, chrysanthemums, and tulips decorated alongside the steps to enter the house. This part of town was very rich and famous so I knew that from inside his house would be even bigger.

I walked up the steps and finally rang the doorbell.

At first, no one came up to open the door.

Is this even the right address? I thought to myself.

To double check, I opened up my phone and went to my messages. Just as I was going to read his message, the door swung open.

An old woman opened the door. She had dark bags under her eyes and looked very old. Like 85-90 old. She looked weak and feeble like she would drop.

"Are you Sir Marcus' guest?" she asked.

Sir Marcus?

"Yes, yes. I'm Nina."

"Oh Marcus was waiting for you. Come inside child."

I entered the house and I was awestruck. Their living room was gigantic. On one side of the living room, there were big grand sofas, red in color with the gold embroidment. They looked like those you would imagine in a king's living room or something. Behind the sofa was a showcase filled with baby pictures of Marc and his sisters. It was easy to tell which one was Marc because he looked just the way he does now. On the opposite side, a 60" inch Samsung T.V. was plaqued onto the wall. On the sides of the wall, there were more pictures of Marc and his sisters.

"Wow. Marc's got an amazing house," I said.

"Don't I?"

The voice was of Marc's.

I searched for him and found him on the stairsteps which were far in the back of his house. He wore a plain black T-shirt with gray fleece pants.

"Sorry I look like this. I was just doing my homework. I didn't have the energy to get up and change," he said giving a clarification about his appearance.

"Oh. It's totally fine. How about we start that project?" I said.

"Yup. We'll go into the study room. Come with me," he said.