Complicated

Chapter 10: Part 2

"Hey Ave!" Tom cheerfully says as my lips quiver. "H-Hey!" I answer, trying to look as cheerful and as happy-go-lucky as I can be. "Hi" a small whisper behind Tom said. Tom moved aside and there stood Patrick, an inch smaller than Tom. He had darker hair than Tom, and deeper green eyes. Yet... handsome, for that matter.

 "Hi" I finally say, for the sake of breaking the silence between the 3 of us. "I'm just going to call Astrid. You guys just sit in the couch, talk, whatever." I say. They both nod their heads in unison. I nod my head as a reply, and walk towards the stairs.  

 I walk stiffly to the stairs. I encounter our fat dog, Jellybean, on my way to the latter. I kneel down to him, then pet his tubby head. It cup his fat cheeks in my hands, and he pants. I smile. I feel as if Jellybean's like me at times. Lazy, weird, yet unique and sweet at some point. I continue to walk to the stairs.

I reach the stairs and climb it ever so slowly. I didn't want to trip in front of them and lose my dignity. I've messed up too much to bare something like that.  I reach the top of the stairs and sigh. Awesome. I didn't trip.

 And in my moment of victory and bliss, I step forward. And slip on a banana peel. Thanks, Jellybean. 

 My head finds itself airborne. The sudden moments of superhero-ness end as my body nestles in somebody's arms. There was sudden warmth in my cheeks, even though I was uninformed on who was carrying me. I open my eyes and see Tom's emerald green eyes. Inside my mind, I smile like an idiot. But outside, I'm blushing like a tomato.

 I squirm in his hands and he puts me down. Only the word "Thanks" escape my mouth, and I continue my trip to Astrid's room. I climbed the stairs gentler than before, and I succeed. I walk to her room and sigh. I always fail to succeed at times I must. Proof, is how I never confessed to Tom, even though I planned to several years ago. 

 It was New Year's Eve, Tom's family and mine spent it together. We were on the balcony, and the wind blew strongly against my frigid and almost blue cheeks. "Hey Ave, what's up?" Tom said behind me. I turn to him and smiled. "Happy New Year, Tom!" I told him, my cheeks colored red. "Thanks" he said. "Tom... I-- I just want to tell you something. Something.... Important... Significant, I mean." I told him. I pushed my glasses to the bridge of my nose and I started to feel cold. "What is it?" he asked. "I--I...."  said. The words were stuck in my throat, they were on the tip of my tongue. I was choking on them. "Tom, you're a special person for me, and I-- I will always remember you. I--I love you." I said then I smile. "I love you too. Ave!" he said as he hugged me. And again, I blush like a tomato. "Y-You do?" I asked. "Yeah. We're practically family! You're the best sister I never had. That's why I love you." he said as he continued to hug me tightly. I froze. He loved me. But as family. I, again, failed.

I shake myself off of my trance. I twist astrid's door. "Let's go." I say as  smile at her. "Yup!" she answers. We walk down the stairs with a few of our books and hurry to the living room. I lay the books unto the table. I sit down next to Tom. I suddenly become struck with nervousness, and my heart beats faster and faster. "So, what did you want to start with?" I ask to start off the conversation and break the awkwardness. "I want to start with Algebra." he says cheerfully. "O-Okay" I say as my hands fumble to find my Algebra book. I'm not so sure why Tom chose Algebra, he's ridiculously good at it. For the first few hours, it started out fine. Patrick and Astrid where getting along, and  saw Astrid blush a few times. Ah, young love.

It was 11:00 pm when  checked my watch. At this point, we've already studied Biology, Chemistry, Algebra, English, and such. It was now starting to get creepy. Half way through Biology, Jellybean started barking at a corner of our house. I checked a few times why,  but it seems that Jellybean's misunderstanding what walls are for again. I sigh. "What's taking them so long?" I ask myself, referring to our parents. "Maybe  they decided to have some "fun"" Tom says with a sneer smeared all over his face. I hear Astrid silently giggle and I saw Patrick smile. "This room is overwhelmed with awkwardness and expliciltness at the same time. Your thoughts are swirling in and out of your heads." Astrid says with a smile. "That's an editor-in-chief for you." Patrick says, smiling for the first time, well, at Astrid. Her face turns into a ripe strawberry, red in every way possible. Turns out she's like me in some point.

Jellybean howls. We don't actually know where she is, but I can hear her howling. "What was that?" Tom asks. A second passes, and she stops howling, and a little amount of blood seeps through the front door. A tear goes down my cheek. 'Is she dead?'  I think. I let the thought slip away. I wipe off my tears as I ponder every memory I shared with her from the day of her birth, and to the day I wept with her. "Hey ave, what's wro--" Tom asks, but gets cut off by the blood. He pulls me in to a hug and I pour my tears all over his shirt. 

 I hear a noise. The noise that Jellybean's entrance makes. I turn to the door and see Jellybean, my ever so stout Jellybean, biting a huge mouse between her sharp teeth. "Jellybean!" I shout as I kneel down to her height and start cuddling her instead of my 7 year crush. She drops the grotesque looking creature to the floor and barks and licks my arm, and I don't mind.

 "Hey, what's going on?" Astrid asks as she enters the scenery. I'm pretty sure that the surroundings are simply revolting and creepy in such a way that one would vomit, but she refrains from doing so. As Tom explained to the 2 what happened, I play with Jellybean. 'No matter how weird you are, i''l always admire you for that exact reason.'  I say to myself. Jellybean barks at me as a response, and I smile at the animal in front of me. The animal that I have been caring for since I found her under the sheets of her mother's bed. The animal that perfectly describes myself.  And then I notice that what I just said to myself also applied to my relationship with Tom. No matter how weird it is, we'll always be friends.

 After an hour, I noticed how much time has gone by. Shoot.  "It's 12:00 pm." I announce. "Already?" Tom asks as he yawned. "How will we go home?" Patrick asks. He blinks a few times and stares off into the distance. sometimes, he's just like his older brother. Chill. Just go with the flow. Coincidentally, Astrid's like me in some way. Hm. I guess they are made for each other, after all. 

 Almost unceremoniously, our parents walk into the door, my dad looking as drunk as possible. "I told you, sweetheart, there's nothing wrong about a little champagne with some good 'ol chaps from America, right young padawans?" my father says with an unsteady body. With the words he used and the accent, I guess dad has gone back to his English roots and his Star Wars addiction. Tom's parents walk in, his father clearly, as well, drunk. I bet the food they ate was costly, especially with champagne as beverage. Gourmet, I bet. I could've liked some foie gras, but someday, Tom will take me to a 5-star restaurant.

 "Well, we better get going, dear 'ol chap. Might we go drinking anytime soon?" Tom's father says, and I reckon that he's not kidding. "Get going, 'ye little prick. See you soon." Father says as he exchanges hands and gestures with Tom's father. Tom's mother gasps at the word "prick" and its explicit definition. I laugh inside, and by the look on Tom's face, he's thinking the same thing as I am. My mother and his exchange kisses and the cheek and my mother whispers something in her ear, prolly about either Tom and I or Patrick and Astrid. It's that, or something about their evening that i wouldn't want to know of. Tom and I hug and Patrick and Astrid shake hands. I sigh for her. How could she endure from only a touch of Patrick's hand? 

"See you in school. You better swoop in when I'm trapped in a crowd of girls again." he says to me. "Sure. I'll come to the rescue." I answer. "He moves away and I miss his presence near me. He waves his hand before exiting the door, and he goes. I see their silhouettes from a distance, and observe how successful this night is. I look at Astrid as she gestures to the stairs, and I follow her to the latter.

I enter her room once more, and discover her bouncing up and down her bed. "He actually talked to me! He actually TALKED to me!" she kept exclaiming. "Calm down. That's only the first one. I'll arrange a few more gatherings like this one in the near future." I tell her. "That's awesome!" she says. She stops bouncing and lays on her bed. "So, how was the night?" I ask. "Absolutely surreal and magical." she answers. "I saw you blush several times. You have to keep it casual and lengthy. And not obvious." I advise her. "Fine, fine. Tom's pretty getting closer to... you" she says as she yawns. "Yeah. it seems so." I say. I was supposed to ask another question, but as I notice that she has drifted into la-la land, I stop myself. I cover her with her blanket, and reminisce how I used to that when she was still 5.

I exit her room and stumble upon Jellybean. i pick her up and held her tight, as I continued walking to my bedroom. As I reached it, she jumps of off my arms and runs to my bed, and sleeps. I walk to my bed, take my glasses off, and laid down on the soft bed. I ruminate odd thoughts, the entering and retreating of the ideas in and out of my brain. I suddenly discern how this night has gone terribly perfect, as I thought it should be. I should keep moving forward with my evil plot, I guess. As I drifted off into oblivion, I conspire how mission 2 should go. 1 down, millions of tasks to go.

Mission 1: Accomplished.