Beginnings and Endings [complete]

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I raced out the door of my house to meet Jean; it was my birthday party, held almost exactly a month after my actual birthday due to the much anticipated government exam. She was the first here, and as she gave me this huge-ass bear hug, I was about to walk her inside when I saw a familiar silver car.

My heart skipped a beat - just once, mind you - as I saw Lennox roll his eyes with a heavy sigh and painfully opened the door to step out.

I rolled my eyes - seriously.

I stared at him intensely as he walked casually towards me, hands in his pockets - damn, what does he think, I'd be impressed with how nonchalant he's being? I hate that it's working, damn you - and stopped in front of me.

"You were here early," I commented before he could say anything.

He shrugged. "I didn't wanna be the early one - at your place."

"What's wrong with my place?" I protested. Okay, yes, I was stalling to have some alone time with him - don't judge me, this is rare - and walked him in.

He raised an eyebrow. "It's your place, Adrianne."

I was about to retort when a whole entourage of friends arrived at the same time. Sighing - and skipping inwardly at the playful, albeit not particularly attractive grin he so easily tossed at me - I went out to greet them.

It was probably a good thing that I was smart enough to get some alone time with him when he first arrived because after that, through all the rounds of Tekken 5 on the PS2, I didn't get much time with him. Don't get me wrong, friends are friends, but hell, he was my best friend and crush. And that, sweetie, was just complicated.

The next time I got even remotely near him was just before dinner when we were all crowded around my small laptop, watching videos on YouTube. He was behind me, almost pressing against my back with like 15 other people behind him - admittedly, I enjoyed the closeness.

But, umm, enough about that.

He was laughing along with the rest of us at stupid, ridiculous Key of Awesome parodies, until we reached Love the Way You Lie. The first line was I can't tell her that I like her and I laughed at the irony of the video when the boy was shooting spitballs at his supposed crush, and I felt him still behind me, stiffen, become nervous. In that year, no one knew him like I did, and I could tell something was wrong. But when I asked about it, he answered with a dry, "nothing".

He cheered up towards a fantastic dinner of spaghetti, but the look on his face, his mannerism at that line, it was weird and it both scared me and gave me unwanted - okay, not really - hope.

After a dinner where Nash decided to test his chilli intake level and ended up ten minutes under the sink tap, we sat down to discuss the movie to end the night. I pulled out a small address book which I used to list down the hundreds of DVDs I had, when Lily asked, "What's that?"

"Address book with all the movies I have," I replied shortly, spinning the book across the wooden table to, of course, Lennox. Duh, who else?

"So...what do you do when you get new movies?" she asked, face contorted in confusion.

I stared at her - that had to be the stupidest question I've heard. "I add them in?" I said slowly, raising an eyebrow.

Before she could laugh at her own silliness, Lennox grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him, and simultaneously sending electric shocks down my body, to point with an incredulous look on his face at an entry. "You have Austin Powers?" he asked, like he couldn't believe his eyes.