Love Maze

Chapter 9

The sun was sinking in the sky by the time Anya shut the front door of her house behind her, completely exhausted after her shopping spree with Faith. She could hear the sounds of the table being set for dinner, plates rattling and her parents talking in low voices.

"Hey, mum," she said, dropping her bag to the floor and slumping onto a chair. Tiredness washed over her.

"Don't hunch like that, An," her mother scolded. "Sit like a lady."

Anya rolled her eyes and sat up straighter.

"How was your day, kiddo?" Her father asked.

"Good," she replied, yawning.

"You look like you've just run the marathon," he said worriedly. "You alright?"

"Yep, don't worry," Anya replied, forcing a smile. "Oh, by the way, I have plans after school tomorrow."

Her parents exchanged a look.

"Would this plan involve a date with a good-looking boy, by any chance?"

Anya stared at them as if they were inhabitants of another planet who had just said they were going to invade the Earth. "Where did you hear that?"

"Faith filled us in," her mother replied, smiling slightly. "So, who's the lucky guy?"

Anya groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Nobody."

"Oh, come on," her father coaxed. "We have the right to know who our daughter is dating, don't we?"

"I'm not dating him!" Anya said defensively. "Aiden's just a friend; we're going to have some ice cream together tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes from there. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be with him now."

"Aha! So his name his Aiden," her mother sounded smug.

"Damn it," Anya swore under her breath, then quickly glanced up to see if her parents had heard her. When she realized they hadn't, she breathed a sigh of relief.

The rest of dinner was relatively quiet; her father occasionally broke the silence when told them about his day, but none of them mentioned Anya's date again by the time they were done.

She trudged upstairs, and sat down wearily at the edge of her bed. Her eyelids drooped, but before she could fall asleep right there, her phone buzzed to indicated that she had a text message.

She jolted wide awake, rubbing at her eyes in annoyance. The text was from Faith.

Get some sleep, An. Big day tomorrow! Have fun and give me every detail later xx

Anya smiled at the screen, before typing out a quick reply and putting her phone down on her nightstand. She picked up the garment bag containing her new dress and hung it carefully, laying out all the other accessories as well.

After quickly brushing and putting on her pajamas, she collapsed under the covers. The last thing she thought before she fell asleep was, I hope Aiden's type is 'awkward' because if it's not then tomorrow isn't exactly going to be a piece of cake for him.

The next morning, Anya was up with the sun- and nobody was more surprised about it than her. She wasn't a morning person, and she usually spent a good twenty minutes in the morning trying- and failing- to get out of bed.

Blaming it on first date jitters, she slowly began to get dressed. Her morning routines consisted of her sluggishly stumbling around her room, trying to atleast look presentable, so it came as even more of a shock to her when she found herself standing before her open closet in dismay, trying to figure out what to wear.