Allure

10 confronted

I nodded dumbly, unable to speak. It was only when we came to halt in the rearmost corner of the sports ground I recovered. "Wait- what are we doing outside? How did you know I was your partner?"

Leaning against a tree, he crossed his arms over his chest, making those muscles popped up under his sweatshirt.

"Your horrified face. Seeing with me must be really awful, hm?" He said with a hint of mockery.

"No," I uttered, bemused, "why would you think that?"

He remained silent for a long time. His eyes boring into mine. Finally, he enlightened me: "You've been avoiding me since you kissed me."

My clasp around the folder grew tighter. The least thing I was keen on being confronted with eventually caught up with me.

"I didn't." At least not in the last three days in which I lay on my bed because of the damn flu.

"I was sick," I added carefully, afraid of his reaction.

"But Monday. Monday you ran away from me as if I was infected with the plague," he said, the resentment in his voice not to overhear.

I swallowed. "Right. I ... I got a lot to do, y' know? It wasn't at all intentional", I stammered. God, even me myself wouldn't believe what I said.

"Susannah, do me a favour: I detest girls playing hard to get. So, if that's what you're doing right now, it won't impress me but turn me off."

"I beg your pardon?" I responded in disbelief.

He threw me a glance full of disdain before pulling out his phone and handing it to me. "Don't you dare play with me," he warned.

His phone showed various pictures of Raphael and me. Raphael and me on that party when Raphael touched my arm, Raphael and me on Monday when he asked me out, Raphael and me earlier in biology class when he stood a way too close to me, having one arm wrapped around my shoulders while whispering something in my ear.

"Where did you get those pictures?" I asked, completely taken aback because I couldn't remember that there was bad blood between me and someone else.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "They were sent from an unknown number. Are you and Raphael an item?"

"It's none of your business. But no. Raphael and I are not an item. And you need to stop judging me based on rumours." Vexation flickered across my countenance.

I didn't care that I wasn't acting like usual. I hadn't been my usual self for a long time.

"Then you should fucking talk to me!" He yelled.

"About what, Phillip? The weather?" I yelled back.

"For God's sake, Susannah! Why do you need to be damn slow on the uptake?! The kiss, that's what we should talk about!"

"What do you want me to say? It was just a game!"

He stared at me in utter disbelief. "A game." He laughed humourlessly. "And the I-like-you part?" The  emphasis he put on the last syllable sent shivers down my spine.

"That-"

"Understood." He pushed off the stem he was leaning on. "I thought something might evolve between us. Turned out I'm wrong."

Then he left. And I slumped to my feet, tears welling up in my eyes. Phillip had activated the emotional part of my brain. I used to be so good at controlling my emotions.

Back in the class everyone was already packing up. The bell was going to ring in about thirty seconds. I barely heard what professor said.

On the way home I reflected the conversion between Phillip and me. Phillip was mad 1) because I refused to talk to him after or about the kiss, 2) about those pictures on which Raphael and I seemed to be intimate with each other, 3) about my confession that the kiss happened due to a game.

Judging from the last thing he said that he thought that "something might evolve between us", it could be concluded that he kind of developed romantic feelings for me, right?

O - my - God.

My feet came to halt in the middle of the street. Phillip Walkers liked me?