Mr. Wallis

Part 42

Dale kept texting me non-stop after the date we had. Some wouldn't even need me to reply, the guy would respond himself. I felt it would even be rude to reply and break his one-man conversation.

"Heyyy, what are you up to?"

"Good moring, sunshine."

"Were you busy today?"

"Busy at all?"

"Just found a party to go to, you can tag along, it'll be fun."

"Night-night!"

As pesty as he could come off, I still did like him. Probably because I thought it adorable at some point. He had never once did anthing to try and purposely get to me. Part of me was just thinking that maybe I was just the problem. This is probably how all relationships started out as; pesty, never-ending texts and calls from the one who wanted your attention.

Kicking myself in the head for being too harsh on the idea of Dale's way of showing affection, I sigh out how hard actual love must be.

Felicia, and Hank eye me while my body droops over their dinner table. They had requested my presence as they sorted out Lulu's old clothes. Trying to see what to keep for the new baby, and what to donate must have been too difficult for those two to figure out alone.

"Stop leaning over the table before you crack it!" Felicia threw me a set a pajamas, and as if I had not hear, I let it fall over my face.

Good, hide my shame.

"Lani, come on, join us over here." Hank stood up, then dragged me by the hands to the living room. He was always a big brother to me when we were in school, and even though he had married my little sister, I would always be tossed like a rag doll around by his giant ass.

"Let me go." I protest as he drops my hands flat on the clothes.

Felicia giggles, then removes the pajamas from my face. "So, it's been like three days since you went on your little date, and you're still on about it. Get over it, it happened, hurray."

"Hurray?" I repeated slowly.

"Yeah, now you can just go on more. You have broken down the first layer, finally." Felica then rolled her eyes and muttered, "I thought you'd forever crush on him from afar as if he was your Juliet."

I wanted to state that those two love birds died in the end anyway, but she kept bugging me about congratulating myself for the miracle my little English helpers had accomplished.

In all truth, they had a lot to do with it, they had helped me so much that I felt I had been in a handful of relationships already; one was with a sweetheart who wouldn't speak above the humming of a bird. The other was a funny, playful man that would always find time for me, and the last...

He is cold, calculating, confusing, annoying, egotistical, harsh, honest, straight-forward...soft...

"Did you hear anything of what I said?" Felicia's voice snapped my thought bubble.

Yawning I nod, "Yesss."

In all honesty, no, I have no idea what you were going on about.

"And when are you going on your next real date? Will it be with Dale?"

"Who else would it be with?" I raise a brow as she smiles.

"Well, it could be anyone now, who knows, even one a certain Mr. Wallis...wink, wink."

"Wait, which one?" Hank butts in trying to keep up with his wife.

"Exactly," she points her finger up, then presses her lips together.

Narowing my eyes, I mentally send her messages to keep her mouth shut before I stuff her throat and nostrils with baby socks.

When I wasn't with one of the guys, I was with her. We would talk about the lessons, or dates that I had been with each Wallis, and she'd swoon over how smooth each one was. I had not mentioned the fact that out of the three, only Mathew had kissed me. She'd lose it if she knew.

"We're just friends...I do care for them..." I slowly say as I fold up a pair of shirts. "I am not in love with them."

"Not even one?" Hank question my tone. I eye him, then Felicia. She better had not told him anything about how Mathew made me feel. As if reading my face, Hank scooted away into focusing on separating clothing. Smart boy. I wouldn't want to turn my wrath on you.

Looking back down, I bite my cheek, quickly nodding, "Nope, not one."

Right? I only cared for them, that was just it. As if we were family almost. But when Mathew shows up, his freaking face ruins all my thoughts, and destroys the walls I mentally stack to place everything in order. Why did he have to cause a different feeling unlike his brothers? Was it becasue I met him first? No, I would have battled it out with him regardless, leading to our odd, little friendship. Was it just because he and I were fond of our arguements? That couldn't be healthy.

"Ugh, well, stick with Dale then since you're such a hopeless case about trying someone new." Felicia spun her neck from side to side while her hand became a wave of sass. "Did he ask you out this time, or did you have to set the date?"

Quietly I muttered my answer.

Both Hank, and Felicia leaned in, "huh?"

"I said, he invited me out to a bar tomorrow night, Betty's."

If her face was ever not expressing some form of disgust, then I wouldn't know. Felicia gagged as she looked over to her husband. "Ugh, that one is such a cheap hole. The only reason its popular is because teens get away with alchohol."

I hadn't thought about it. Dale is still under the legal drinking age, a year or so, but still not alowed to publically intoxicate himself. Ugh, I do sound like a kill joy. Mathew is getting to me. Great.

Trying to defend my raven, sweetheart crush, I puff up my chest. "Well, you didn't exactlly wait till you were twenty-one, none of you did. You started at seventeen."

Raising her brows, my sister let her mouth hang as she smiled. "Oh, look at you, running to your little boyfriend's rescue." Before I could say anything, she takes the last word. "Wait, have you even been inside a bar before?"

No. Those loud, stinky, coated in bounds of grime and filth, with every ince of the floor coated in sweat, as the air smells of sex...whatever that smells like. Staring to the wall behind her, I couldn't find the strength to admit it. Oh, come on, she was my sister. She had to have known I never had a reason to go for a drink, no matter how bad the day was, alchohol wasn't my problem solver.

"Oh, Lani, really? Ha, ha, ha." She fall back on Hank. He quickly takes her swollen belly, and gently lifts her back up right. "Okay, okay, well then you should go. Keep this whole Trying-New-Things Train going!"

Hank laughed as I groaned over on Felicia's lap. "Hopefully it doesn't crash like everything else in my life tends to do...I really like him."

I really want to show it, too. A simple holding of the hands even, that would be my goal for Dale, to hold his hand just enough for him to know I do like him in return. Yet why can't I shake the thought of running away. The person I liked was not the person my body wanted to be next to.

My phone buzzes, and as if he had heard us discussing his existence, Dale texted me saying he couldn't wait to see me again. Rubbing my feet till the carpet began to burn, my body became electric. The problem was I knew I couldn't do it alone, I still needed one of my, uh, teachers to guide me through a real date.

Should I ask Mathew again? The answer came out of nowhere: no. But why? Why didn't I want him on my mind when I was with Dale? Pausing, my brows dipped as I wet my lips. I wonder if it hurts him?

A burst of laughter shook my head. The hell, was that the universe's answer?

Sitting back up, Felicia's high-pitched roars smacked me wave after wave. Hank had her by the arm pits, and she lightly slapped him around.

Children having children, honestly.