Won Over

C

When I came to, I saw nine pairs of eyes peering intently at me, their faces too close for comfort. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something on Blue's face which I hadn't noticed when he introduced himself.

I noticed his chubby cheeks. His cheeks were exactly like Garfield's own. Maybe even bigger.

When they realized I was awake, I expected them to move back to give me some breathing space. Instead they moved closer still, till we were all breathing in each others' carbon dioxide.

"Okay. This is weird." I drawled out.

"What is weird?" Blue asked as they finally moved away.

As he spoke, his chubby cheeks jiggled, causing me to giggle and the others fiddled.

Feel my rhyme? Okay, it probably didn't make sense but... whatever.

I stretched my hands towards his cheeks and shook them, grinning in satisfaction as they jiggled once again. I didn't even bother to observe his facial expression whether he liked it or not.

I'm so gonna enjoy my stay here.

"Are you feeling better now?" Someone asked beside me.

I turned to look at him, all the emotions I had kept bottled up now rising up to the surface, threatening to spill over.

"I'm fine." I answered in a clipped tone, looking away from him as I did so.

From the corner of my eye, I saw him nod. "I'm glad you are."

We didn't say anything to each other for a while, while the others began doing whatever it is they were doing.

"I'm- " he started but I cut him short.

"Don't." I whispered but I knew he heard me because he stopped talking. I interrupted him because I knew what he was going to say.

I'm sorry.

I didn't want him to say those words because I knew myself. I couldn't stay angry for too long and if he said those words, they would succeed in quickly dissipating any anger I might have felt towards him. It was better if he didn't say it, so that I could imagine that he wasn't actually sorry and still try to stay angry at him.

"Je- " He began but once again, I cut him short.

"It's Peaches." I coldly said, my heart wrenching as I refused to look at him.

He probably noticed too, which was why he said, "Look at me."

"No."

"Look at me." He said gently, afraid to anger me more.

"No."

"Look at me Jen- Peaches."

"No."

"Just look at him!" Race interrupted exasperatedly.

That was when I noticed that they were all listening to us even though they were pretending not too. I decided to milk this a little.

"Are you guys eavesdropping?" I raised an eyebrow. Or at least I tried too. When it still couldn't go up by itself, I used my finger to push it up, making me look like I had an eye problem.

"Nope. You guys weren't exactly being low-key about it. We are all in the same room, so we can hear you even if we don't want to." Maho pointed out.

But I waved him off. "Whatever you say, Bamboo. I'm sure you guys were eavesdropping."

"It's Mahogany." he hissed. "And besides, we had no choice but to listen because you guys were speaking loudly and as I pointed earlier, we are all in the same room so we can hear you clearly."