The Other Girl (#Wattys2016)

Chapter Twenty-One

No more words were exchanged between the two of us last night. All I know was that Julius was with me until sunrise. He never left me, not even let go of me. He let me sleep there, in his arms, even though he’s in the most uncomfortable position ever. And he never woke me up.

But at that morning, when I opened my eyes and scanned my surroundings, I didn’t care that Julius wasn’t there with me anymore. I didn’t even care that there’s a bag of food lying beside me. In fact, I didn’t even look at it! And that’s saying something. Only one thing remained clear in my mind—I’m late. I am the secretary of the Student Supreme Government of Starland High. I am the one who gave clear instructions that we have to be at school today by 6 am sharp. I am late. Really, really late.

I groaned, then stood up and a jacket fell from my body. I looked at it quizzically. I don’t remember bringing a jacket with me last night…

I heard a chuckle coming from the entrance of the tree house. “You’re cute when you’re confused.”

I turned my head instinctively at the source of the voice and saw Julius emerging from the square door that serves as the entrance and exit of the tree house. He stood up straight as the door closed and walked to where I am, then he sat really, really close beside me. As in move-one-more-inch-and-I-swear-we-can-kiss-right-there-and-then close. And that thought made me blush.

“Aww…” Julius cooed, his hands rising up to pinch my cheeks. “You’re even cute when you’re blushing!”

I swat his hand away. “Stop that,” I snapped, but I was too red to be taken seriously so he just laughed harder. I glared at him.

“Jerk.”

He smirked. “I get that a lot, babe.”

And just like that, he managed to make me melt like a puddle on the floor once again. I have no idea why this thing only happens when I’m in contact with Julius but I’m pretty sure that I’m not enjoying it as time goes by. Because as time flies, the feeling highs. Julius moved to grab the bag of food and he handed it to me.

“Here,” he said, a smile still plastered on his face.

I looked at him. “What’s this?”

“A dog food placed on a Styrofoam from McDonalds so I can fool you and take a picture of you eating Hatchi’s food,” he answered sarcastically.

I gave him a crazy look, and then sighed when he returned the same look I have. “Okay, so I’ll rephrase my question—why are you giving me this?” I held the bag of food for him to see.

He leaned back at the wall, his hands placed just behind his head. “So you can eat dinner, because it’s night and breakfast is intended to be eaten when the moon’s up.”

I suddenly became frustrated, “Seriously, Julius! Could you stop being sarcastic?!”

He looked at me in the eye. “Could you stop asking stupid questions with obvious answers?” I shut up. We remained silent for a while, him leaning back with his eyes closed and I staring at him, watching him. He popped his left eye open to peek and when he didn’t saw the thing he wants to see, he sighed and straighten up then he grabbed the bag from me and pulled the contents of it one by one before placing them in front of me.

When he’s done, he handed me the fork. “Eat,” he ordered.

I just stared at him.

“Seriously? You’re going to be difficult now?” He asked disbelief clear in his voice. I still remained silent.

That seemed to stir something inside him a bit. “Saab I swear if you don’t get this fork out of my hand and not dig in I am going to shove this food into your system the hard way,” he warned. And the look in his eyes seemed to tell me that he was serious.