Date with a Stranger

3:00 pm Saturday

3:00 pm

After dropping off Veronica, I head straight home. The whole drive home, my thoughts were stuck on Marcel. A part of me is hurt by what I had witnesses, but my brain keeps drifting off to spending time with Marcel at dawn.

When I arrived home, I immediately went to the bathroom to shower. I subconsciously took a longer shower than usual, due to my brain replaying thew events of today.

I then go to bed try to to take a nap, but my brain remains in battle. A voice in my head is telling me that maybe that wasn't his girlfriend, maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions. Another voice tells me to be logical and just forget him. I try to listen to the second voice, but I just can't stop thinking about him.

It is 3:00 pm now, but I am still here laying awake. My eyes are exhausted, but my brain won't shut up.

I soon find myself drifting off to sleep, but before my eyelids fall closed, my phone rings on my bedside table. I reach for it and see that it says 'Unknown' on my screen. I don't know who it is, so I just ignore it.

About ten minutes later, it rings again, still 'Unknown' on the screen. I answer it, curious who I could be.

"Hello?" I say confused.

"Hey, Heather?" A familiar voice says.

It sounds like Marcel, but I'm not exactly sure. I hope I'm not starting to hallucinate.

The voice begins talking again, due to my silence. "It's Marcel. Don't freak out and think I'm a creeper or anything. I asked Michael to ask your friend for me to get your number." I roll my eyes. Veronica. "Well anyways, I was looking for you, but Michael told me you left with your friend already. Why didn't you say bye?" Why didn't you say you had a girlfriend? I think to myself, but don't say out loud.

"My friend wanted to go home already," is all I say. I don't want to seem crazy, ranting to him about what I saw.

"Is something wrong?" He asks. He has apparently noticed my change in mood.

"No, I'm just tired. I was taking a nap," I half lie.

"Oh," he says, seeming to not believe me. "Anyways, I wanted to call you to see if you wanted to go out again sometime. I really enjoyed spending time with you today.

What? Is he serious? How could he think I would agree to go out with him again? "Don't you have a girlfriend?" I ask calmly, opposite of what's going on in my head.

"Girlfriend?" He asks, surprised.

"That girl, you were with when we got back to your house."

"What? No. That's my cousin," he says with amusement in his voice. "Is that why you're acting so weird?"

Wow, I feel incredibly idiotic. I bring the palm of my hand to my forehead, cringing at myself.

"Heather, I promise you, I don't have a girlfriend. Today meant a lot to me. And do you think I would take just anyone to my special place if I," he pauses. "If I didn't like you."

Did he just say what I think he said? I find myself blushing from cheek to cheek and grinning ear to ear.

"Are you still there? Hello?"

I try to compose myself, "No, Yeah, I heard you."

"So?" Marcel says, dragging out the word.

"I guess I like you too," I tease.

Marcel doesn't say anything, but I can practically hear him smiling on the other end of the line.

"You want to go out tonight then? On an official date."

"Tonight?" I ask.

"Yeah. Come on, you owe it to me for leaving me in the dust earlier."

At this time, my brother Matthew bursts into my room panicked.

"Heather! I need your help. I left the brownies too long in the oven and now--" The fire alarm then screeches and I immediately run out of my room.

I walk into the kitchen and find the kitchen completely engulfed in smoke. I cough, swatting the smoke away from my face. I reach the open oven and luckily I find that the brownies Matthew was trying to bake were just way too overcooked.

I open all the doors and windows to try to let the smoke out.

"Why are you doing this alone and where is Sherry?" I ask about my other sister.

"I think she's asleep in the living room."

Just like he mentioned, she is sprawled across the couch snoring. I roll my eyes.

I turn on some fans then go back into my room.

I hastily search for my phone when I remember that I was talking to Marcel on the phone before Matthew barged into my room.

I look for my phone under my blanket, then my pillows, then under my bed. I can't find it though. I pull my blanket off my bed, but I still can't find it. I then see my kitten in the corner of my room laying on my phone.

I retrive my phone, but am immediately disappointed when I realized that Marcel called me with a blocked number. Now, I have no way of getting a hold of him.

I groan and fall back onto my bed.