"Do you really drink tea?" I asked, looking at the tea cup she had just given me.
My head still hurt and everytime I tried to move a bit, it would make me moan of pain. I hated that. It happened to me so many times because I was really careless and I always hit my head on things but this time it was different, because I was running for my life —which wasn't apparently even in danger.
"No", she giggled and took a bottle of orange juice from a shelf.
She served both of us in our tiny cup teas and put it down on the carpet. The carpet was flowery, it was cute, but it was ripped everywhere and it looked so old. How could she live here —if she really did?
"Why don't you just serve it in normal glasses?"
"Why would I? Tea cups are way more sophisticated, my dear", she said in a British accent before taking a sip of it, with her pinky put up.
I couldn't believe I was actually drinking orange juice in a tea cup, in an abandoned house, in the middle of some terrifying woods, because of my own girlfriend. I admit that sometimes she was more terrifying than these woods and she didn't even try.
"So", she resumed, putting her cup down and arranging her messy hair. She didn't look dirty at all, she even looked cleaner than me. "Tell me more about yourself, Calum Hood."
I sighed and took another sip of the lukewarm juice, "You stole my identity card so I guess you already know enough about me." I hated lukewarm juice.
"I didn't steal it", she laughed, "I gave it back to you right after."
"Weren't you even planning on running away with it?"
No matter how crazy it sounded, it was a scenario in my head. So many people could be able to steal someone's identity card, even though it wasn't their face on the picture, or their name, and it was really stupid. More stupid than my question.
"No way", she took something from behind her and handed it to me, "I forgot to give you your phone back."
She smiled and started bursting out of laughter. I didn't know why, she was just laughing. It made me question about her sanity. Maybe I should've run away, it was obvious that I ran faster than her. I mean, she was a girl. But I didn't, and I regret it. I was just staring at her until she calmed down and wiped away the tears in her eyes. What was so funny about my phone?
"What-ever", she sighed and looked back at me. "I was not talking about that, Calum Hood nineteen Australian. I was talking about you, the real you."
I didn't know what she meant. Calum Hood nineteen Australian was the real me. And I had never really tried to understand myself, even if sometimes I had needs, or envies, I would've never tried to understand them. Why did I need Abbie Bayle so much? Why was I addicted to Abbie Bayle? Why did I let her treat me like this? It was the first time these questions were going in my head.
"What do you like?" she asked, seeing I was confused. She was still looking at me, with so much curiosity in her eyes. Why did she want to know so much about me?
What did I like? Easy. "I like playing video games."
She furrowed her eyebrows. What was wrong about my answer? Didn't she like video games? But even if she didn't, it wasn't a reason for her to be mad. She stood up and went to a wall. She showed me a painting and I joined her.
"Look", she retraced the drawing, while I tried figuring out what it was. I even had to rotate my head. "I love drawing even if I'm bad at it, because it makes me feel like an artist. What is it?"
I had no clue what her drawing was. How did she want me to guess? She said herself that she was bad at it. "Is it an elephant?"
"It's a bird."
No way. It wasn't a bird. A bird didn't have big ears and.. oh, it was the wings. The more I looked at it, the more I could see the resemblance to a bird. But it still wasn't exactly a bird. She was an awful painter.
"My point is", she resumed, sighing, "I like drawing because it makes me feel something different than usual, even if I'm awful at it, because my goal is not to be the best and beat everyone. And drawing is nothing like playing video games. Video games are cool, I get it. It's distracting but all you do is try to beat other people and try to be the best. You don't like them. You just enjoy playing video games."
What was the difference? I liked video games probably as much as she loved drawing. She couldn't understand from her point of view, just like I couldn't understand her love for drawing. Everyone could draw, not everyone was a boss at Fifa.
"What do you like, Calum?" she repeated the same question as earlier, but this time insisting on the word 'like'. I sure liked a lot of things, like I liked eating, playing soccer with my friends, playing Just Dance with Abbie.
"I don't get what you mean."
"Okay", she laughed. "I'll show you one day. I'll help you discover who you are, Calum Hood nineteen Australian."
She opened a drawer and pulled a packet of cigarettes out of it. She handed it to me but I refused. I didn't smoke. I had tried once because I was curious, but I almost choked on it, and my mother found out. My parents were against smoking so much, if I ever started smoking, they would kill me without hesitating. She put it back in the drawer.
"Do you smoke?" I asked her. I still believe she didn't smoke because no matter how dry her lips looked, she didn't have the lips of a smoker.
"No."
"So why do you keep this?"
"In case someone who comes smokes, it's always good to have some hospitality, then I smoke with them."
"You do smoke then."
"I don't." I didn't feel like insisting. She was the kind of stubborn girl, even if I was already used to Abbie. But when I talked to her, when I looked at her, when I heard her talk, it was different. She was different from Abbie. "Oh Calum Hood, it's getting late now, isn't it?"
I looked out the window and it was already so dark. My watch showed me it was nine. I was worried. It was Wednesday and I had to go to uni tomorrow, and I was kind of far from it, and even further from my house.
"I should probably call my-"
"How?" she cut me off.
"With my-"
"Good luck to find some network."
Right. For a few minutes I had forgotten. I had to go home, it wasn't an envy, it was a need. I felt dirty and most of all I needed to see Abbie as soon as possible to apologize. I was wondering if she had kept my car or if she had parked it in front of my house. Hopefully she had kept it, so I had an excuse to go check on her.
_ _
Calum Hood Nineteen Australian haha I liked it. I'm so not used to writing romance that I don't know how to do this, but there are firsts to everything, right?
