Hope Bound

Chapter 5

Hope unwantedly drags herself out of her bed. She usually wakes up late, but today she doesn't even feel like waking up, thinking of the "so called date" with Theo. She is supposed to meet him for lunch at 1 PM and it's already 11. She lazily goes to take bath and after bath she is confused what to wear, probably not confused, she knows that she doesn't want to go, so obviously there is no point in dressing up. But unwantedly she pulls out a pair of shorts and a T-shirt with "okay-okay!" written on it. She is a big fan of "Fault in our stars", so the T-shirt.
            
Theo is already there at the Mexican restaurant which Hope deliberately chose as it is close to her house so that Theo doesn't offer her a pickup. I know it's harsh on Theo, but seeing the situation she is in, Hope can't help it. Theo with the grin on his face is looking cool in a light blue T-shirt, ripped jeans and a cap. After settling down and ordering food, Hope picks up her phone and starts fiddling with it not knowing what else to do.Theo after staring at her for a few minutes with his infectious smile, which is unfortunately isn't infectious enough to make Hope smile, says, "Hey... so?" Hope looking up from her phone with a confused or rather forceful smile replies, "Emm...so? You tell me?"

"Am I simply lucky or what?", says Theo.

"Sorry?", Hope says confused.

"This date! what made you change your mind? Well..whatever it is I don't complain", smiles Theo.
Hope not knowing what to say just puts the loose strand of her hair behind her ears and bites her lips.

"Emm.. I just..ehh..it's nothing actually.." changing the topic "So how are you doing ? Long time actually."

Theo just smiles, which he often does, at least when Hope is with him. He can't hide his feelings which is quite evident for Hope too. That's why every time he smiles, Hope gets nervous because she feels guilty of giving some or any kind of hope to Theo.

Theo says very confidently, "I like you, you know that right? But it's okay if you don't reciprocate my
feelings, I mean right now..obviously I hope that one day you will like me too. But for now this is more than enough. We can start with being friends, like really good friends you know.."

That twirling and twisting happens in her stomach again. She can actually feel her bile rising up in her throat, she feels guilty. She has this thing with guilt. She feels guilty quite often. She doesn't know what to say. She finds words and tries to make a sentence, a meaningful one and then comes up with, "I just emmm..." biting her lips "yeah I too want to be friends with you and know you more." Phewww!! She relaxes, but feels guilty at the same time..

She is glad that finally the awkward date is over and she is back home. Before leaving, Theo made her promise that she would see him often. Well, what can she do. She agreed because this is the only way to keep herself away from Ronny.

Two weeks passed by. Theo and Hope went for few more awkward dates. Hope always avoided Ronny's call and instead, texted her back saying that she was busy or was with Theo and yeah, a few times she did pick up Ronny's call just to find out how she is doing, but she just talked casually and pretended to be busy.

Ronny definitely knows that everything ain't normal anymore between Hope and her. She tried her best to communicate with Hope, but she understood that Hope is avoiding her and somehow she seems to know the reason, but still she is confused about whether she is being avoided because of the kiss or because Hope is actually getting close to Theo romantically. Thinking of that she feels jealous and restless. Many a times she thinks of going over to Hope's house and talk it out but she can't gather the courage of hearing anything that she doesn't want to hear.

One day Ronny bumps into her mom while her mom takes a walk with her half brother in the neighbourhood. Anxiety hits her right away. She doesn't want to face her mom and her mom's new family. She wants to pretend that her dad is her only parent.. So she starts walking back towards her house. But her mom stops her, "Hey honey, wait I need to talk to you."