"Goddamn coffee loving pastry eating dumb energetic Dane!" I scream, slamming the door to my room just as Ella gets through.
"What kind of crush is this?" She asks with a slight chuckle.
"A horrible one." I collapse onto my bed, burying my face in the sheets for closure.
"If you hate him why do you like him?"
"What?"
"You like him but you hate him!" She pulls me up from my depressive state and I sit beside her, noticing her phone turning on every few moments.
"Expecting something?" I ask her, the pattern becoming more persistent and desperate.
"A text." She blankly replies.
"Oh~ from who?" I question even though I know who it is already. Ryo: her one true crush and I'm right.
"What are you expecting him to say?"
"I don't know but I gave him my number today-"
"You what?!?" I nearly jump off the bed in surprise. Well, I almost did. I fell off the bed with a loud thud.
"I gave him my number."
"Why the hell would you do that?" I ask her, the irony of how I'm surprised she likes someone when hypocritically, I fell for that stupid Danish bastard.
"Because now we can talk after school!" I pace around my room, her words repeating in my mind before something strikes in my mind. A missing puzzle piece.
"Didn't he call you just the other day?" I question, causing her to stiffen with the realisation she's been caught out. "What's going on?"
"Fine, I got Hikaru's number." She confesses. Hikaru Takagawa is Ryo's brother; I can't even remember which one!
"Why do you need Hikaru's number?" I wonder. Here eyes avert to the ground, avoiding mine.
"No reason I guess." From a recent experience, I know that suspicious look so I see through her as easy as glass.
"Tell me." I demand and that's all it takes to shatter that glass.
"Fine! If I can get close to any of the Takagawa brothers maybe I can get closer to Ryo."
"Duh, logic!" I answer back to her, going and gazing out my window. A cat leaps into my garden and sniffs around, sneezing at the prickling feeling of grass tickling its nose. "Ella you know what would happen if this works, don't you?" I enquire, turning to face her while she stares at her home screen, the light illuminating her face.
"What?" She asks in response.
"You'd get a boyfriend and what would that make me? A third wheel!" I complain with a slice of humour. Deep down I don't want her to leave me but she's liked Ryo for as long as I can remember. I whisper an apology and sigh, returning to her side on the bed. "Sorry I just can't handle seeing you heartbroken." It's the truth. I can't stand and watch while my lifelong best friend gets her heart shredded to pieces like some unnecessary spam mail.
"Who said anything about broken hearts?"
"Ella, love always ends in broken hearts."
Ella and I loved fairytales as kids. Especially, of course, the happy endings they all had. But growing up we realised it was rarely like that and we had to expect the villains were going to win at one point and we even know that at one point we would be the villains.
"I'm just trying to protect you," I start, taking the phone from her hand and placing it amongst the sea of white bed sheets.
"Protect me? Isn't that what people say as an excuse to stop them from doing something?" I know from Ella's reaction I'm being the villain now. But what is said is said and now it's out there.
"Ryo might like someone else."
"Ryo can like who he likes and I'll like who I like, Kaia. When is that going to jam itself in your brain with all your other idiotic and stupid thoughts!" She yells, clearly offended by my words. Honestly, it stings. Tears in her eyes; tears in mine. Both of us now standing at each end of the room, facing each other with pain spread on our faces. We've hurt each other so bad we might as well stab each other now and end it.
"My stupid thoughts? Is that how you've seen me for sixteen - no, seventeen years?" I say barely above a whisper. She shakes her head but deep down I know there's an alternative answer.
"No," she mumbles, her voice trembling with sadness. "I just thought you didn't have the brightest ideas is all." She explains but it doesn't help.
"We both just need to get a grip, alright?" I suggest but she turns away, heading to the door.
"No, Kaia. Just you." My bedroom door shuts behind her with a click.
I didn't fully realise what was to come after that click.
More importantly, I wasn't ready.
YOU ARE READING
All Mixed Up
Humor"I have something to tell you..." Those words can never mean anything good can they? Class B student Kaia Jackson has broken her number one rule in life. DO NOT FALL IN LOVE. She concluded that it always ends in disaster, right? Right???
