Love Is...

Chapter Three

It was that guy from the mall. He’s with his family. They definitely looked rich and realized they were the special guests.

I sat down on our dining table and joined them, “Hi, Claire. I’m Mrs. Howell. I heard you’ve met my son, Fabian in the mall a while ago” said the woman, taking another bite from her crumpet, “Yes, I have. How’s your knee?” I asked as I picked up my fork, “It’s fine, thank you” he smiled. While both mine and Fabian’s parents have some ‘adult conversation’, he and I kept silent. Mr. Howell must’ve noticed both of us just awkwardly sitting there because he asked me if Fabian can come up to my room and have some ‘teenage conversation’ with one another. I was trying my best to be polite since they were special guests so I agreed.

We climbed upstairs and into my room. My room wasn’t all girly like what you see in movies where the girl’s bedroom is all pink and fluffy and filled with stuffed toys and all other girly stuff like make-up on the drawer. He was pretty surprised it wasn’t like that. He was looking through my One Direction posters and sat down on my bed, “So, you like One Direction, don’t you?”, “I don’t like them, I love them” I said. He smiled and looked around the room.

“So, you’re name is Fabian Howell. Am I correct?” I asked, trying to break the silence

“Yeah, Fabian James Howell, actually.” He joked, “And you are?”

“Claire, Claire Demetria Jones. So, you’re our important guest. You must be filthy rich” I said, elbowing his side

“Yeah, probably. I heard that one of the reasons why we ended up here because your dad was my dad’s best friend since 4th grade and they lost contact with each other after university.”

“Well that’s interesting. So, what else is the reason why you’re here in our peaceful town?”

“We’re gonna be staying here for a while since our mansion back in Manchester was destroyed by an earthquake,”

“What? Well I’m sorry to hear that.”

“What? I’m just kidding” he said laughing

I feel like a fool, I thought. I rolled my eyes on him and went through my window. “Hey, come back here! What are you doing?” He asked as I went out of the window. I had a special place above my room which is a part of our roof. It’s where I usually hang out alone. I climbed the ladder and sat down on the small flat surface on the roof that has the space of a baby’s crib. Since I often go there, I already put a blanket there and some pillows so at night, I can lie down there and look at the stars comfortably.

Fabian joined me as I sat down. “What’s this secret place you’ve got here? You bring your boyfriend here, don’t you?” He joked as he sat beside me, “This secret place is where I hang out alone and no, I don’t bring my boyfriend here. Since I never had one” I whispered, “What? You never had any boyfriend?” he said, not believing what I just said, “Yup. Got a problem with that?” I asked, folding my arms as the cold wind passed us, “No, actually I never had a girlfriend too. I just can’t believe you’ve never had a boyfriend yet, you’re really pretty” he said. What did he just say?

There was silence after that. A long period of silence. It was so awkward that I just had to break it,

“So…”

“So…” he repeated

“What’s so special about you that made you and your family important guests in this town?” I asked

“Well, our family owns this huge fitness company in England and we wanted to sell fresh bottled water and we decided to use Mayflower’s water and mum and dad is paying big money for your town’s water.”

“So, you’ll inherit the company when you grow up?”

“Not really. I don’t want to; it seems pretty much boring if you ask me.” He said as he lays down in the pillow on the roof

“Yeah, I guess it does sound pretty boring.” I said, lying down beside him, “Tell me about you. I feel like I’ve seen you before. I just can’t put my finger on it,”

“Well, when I was living in Manchester, I was the city’s heartthrob. Every girl I meet on the street follows me around and starts to get flirty, especially in clubs and I promise that I am telling the truth.”

“What ever would they like about you?” I joked

“What do you mean? I’m rich, cute, smart, has a good figure, kind, sweet, brave, what more can a girl want? They say I’m every girl’s dream.” He laughed

“Sure you are.” I said sarcastically.

Fabian’s POV

Here I am. My wishes really came true. I am with Claire Jones. I’ve been having a crush on her since we were in kindergarten. Yes, we were in the same school before we moved to Manchester. I guess she didn’t remember me since she didn’t know my name and because she was always bullied by the other kids. I felt like I should’ve defended her especially that one time where she was being teased and thrown crayons at, I just sat there in the corner watching her get bullied doing nothing. Until now, I felt guilty about it.

Can you believe it? That shy guy from kindergarten turns into the heartthrob of Manchester and is now with his ultimate crush, seven years straight. Everything feels right.