Intoxication

Chapter 3

Jiggle, Jiggle.

Ring, Ring.

The sound and feeling of my, oh, so familiar music chip chimes in at exact 7:45am.. time to wake up.. as I sluggishly remove myself from the couch, I head to the kitchen singing along to song that mymind has chosen to wake me up to.

"Called you for the first time yesterday

Finally found the missing part of me

Felt so close but you were far away

Left me without anything to say"

“Well, that’s an oldie you’re singing there.” I spilled the orange juice at the sight of seeing TJ’s hand pop out of nowhere on my shoulder.

“You like spilling things, don’t you?” He smirked.

“I.. I.. I.. I’m so sorry.” I stuttered out.

“It’s no problem, Jenny...”

“No really, sorry for being such a klutz... I guess its one of the things that you have to get used to from me.” He chuckled in reply, “You say that as if our relationship is going to be very long.”

That caught me. That one definitely caught me. Now I’m speechless. I forgot to turn off the music chip and with the perfect timing that my father set it with, that stupid line starts playing. If I didn’t look at the clock when TJ scared me, I wouldn’t have seen that 20 minutes had gone by, most of which I was looking at my feet. It’d been somewhere well over 10 minutes and I still didn’t have a comeback. Damn, this isn’t like me... I usually have something right then and there. Then it hit me, he’s threatening a possible relationship... so finish the job for him.

“Guess I’ll be going then... It was nice meeting you..” I paused for dramatic effect, and to top it all off, with the most puzzled look on my face I said, “Uhm...... TJ? Yeah, nice meeting you!”

I gathered my stuff and started out the hallway, telling myself not to look back and to keep going... this would have to work.

Step, step, step... only 2 more steps until I got to the door... Where the hell was he?

Step...

Don’t look back Jenny, don’t look back.

Step...

I opened the door and walked outside, past the rocking chair on the patio, and onto the sidewalk down the busy road to an even busier London. I let myself walk until the corner and turn the corner, to only, turn right back around and look to see if TJ even came outside to see where I was going. I couldn’t see the cottage patio from the corner, so I decided to walk back.

What are you doing?

You can’t chase a boy.

Let the boy chase you.

My mind instantly turned into a giant bowl of ecstatic thoughts about how I shouldn’t be going back to the house, how I was defying everything that I said I would stand by. As I got back to the steps of the cottage, there he was. Situated on the rocking chair as if he was statue.

“Again with the smirk... seriously?”

“I knew you’d come back.” TJ said fearlessly.

“Don’t get too cocky now.”

“Too late.” I could feel his smirk as I re-entered the cottage. And sure enough when I went in the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water, there he was in the doorway; smirking. Again.