Hated, Dated, Fated

Chapter 3- Hated

Chapter 3- Hated

 Jessica Hale>> Anna Kendrick

Chapter 3- Hated

-ALEXA POV-

The week had been really hectic. Caleb and I were running around everywhere, trying to collect the right information for the celebration. The information we needed was so scattered it was really annoying to hunt down every last drop of detail. By the time the week was over I was near pulling my hair out.

“Relax Alexa, we’ll get it done in time,” Caleb assured me, and I calmed down a little.

It was really strange how he had managed to calm me down so quickly, without even trying. I shrugged, blowing it off as nothing before I turned back to my work. Just as I was getting into my work, a knock on the classroom door broke my focus. I groaned but my face lit up when I saw it was the deliveryman from the sushi bar.

“Um… two plates of sashimi, one udon, one cha-soba set, one tempura, and one hamachi cheek?” he asked, holding two bags stacked neatly with food.

“Yes. How much would that be?” I asked, grabbing my wallet from the desk.

“Um… sixty-five,” he said, boredom evident in his eyes.

Before I could open my wallet, Caleb had taken out seventy dollars and had given it to the deliveryman.

“Keep the change,” he said, taking the bags from the man.

“Why did you pay for my lunch?” I asked pouting, unhappy I couldn’t pay for my own food.

“This is all yours?” he asked, his eyes going wide with shock.

“Uhh… yeah? So?” I asked flippantly, taking the bags from him.

He just gaped in shock.

Fine. Let him. I can finish this on my own, I thought, mentally gulping, wondering if I’d over ordered.

-CALEB POV-

I stared at her, completely in shock, unable to register what she was saying as she continued shovelling food into her mouth, yet still look so amazing. I vaguely heard her say something about the anniversary celebration, but all my attention was focused on the grotesque amount of food she had, which was already half gone. Slowly, she noticed I wasn’t paying any attention to her.

“Hey Evans, have you dripped enough saliva on my carpet?” she asked haughtily, waving her chopsticks in front of me.

I snapped out of my daze and looked at Alexa, who was raising her eyebrow at me.

“Well… Sexy, Sassy, Classy Miss Alexa…” I drifted off, looking her in the eyes, watching them widen with confusion. “turns out to be a pig!” 

I burst put laughing as her pink lips formed an ‘o’, her cheeks colouring a deep shade of red.

“S-Shut up! You don’t- I mean– argh!” her stammering words just made me laugh even harder.

Speechless and totally flabbergasted her next move was to throw her hands up in frustration and storm out of the office. Again.

My laughter instantly died when the door slammed loudly, the sound ringing in my ears.

“Damn it that girl needs to stop running from me!” I hurriedly got up and chased after Alexa, catching up with her easily.

“Lexa! Wait!” I called, effortlessly catching her arm, pulling her to a gentle stop.

Roughly, she tore her arm from my grip and turned, glaring furiously into my eyes. I flinched slightly, knowing I had gone way too far.

“Okay okay I’m sorry Lexa, I shouldn’t have made fun of you,” I raised my hands in surrender, hoping she’d forgive me.

“Good. Now hurry up you don’t want to eat cold Japanese food now do you?” She winked cheekily, flouncing off into her cosy little office.

I stared at her, open-mouthed. Did she just…?

She is so going down, I thought evilly.

-ALEXA POV-

 I laughed as I made my way back into the office. He totally fell for it! Looking back, I frowned when I noticed Caleb wasn’t following. Sighing resignedly, I turned back to look for him. A week ago I’d told him that I could handle the entire thing alone, but looking back I realized it was a stupid thing to say. Caleb, as annoying as he was, had proven himself very useful, worming his way so deep into the project he was now indispensible. I walked back down the hallway and turned to the right–

“Boo!” Caleb jumped out from the corner of the wall, causing me to stumble in shock and trip on my heels.

I could see the ground rushing up to my face and winced as I prepared for the impact when I felt an arm go around my waist, supporting me, his face just mere inches from mine as he held me firmly, pulling me back up, setting me back on my feet.

“That’s twice now Ryan’s. Let’s not try for a third aye?” he smirked triumphantly.

I stared at him for a full minute, unable to form a coherent thought from the shock I’d just received. When I regained my composure I could feel the anger building in me, like a raging fire burning everything in sight.

“Are. You. Insane,” I spat out, my eyes blazing with anger.

Deep down I was wondering why I kept getting mad at Caleb, why my reactions were always so strong. The brief thought that I actually had a crush on him flitted through my mind but I pushed it far away, not even wanting to consider it.

Caleb cocked an eyebrow and shrugged, “Fight fire with fire Lexa,” he smirked again.

“You arrogant asshole!” I snapped, my feisty demeanour coming at him full force, resisting the urge to slap him hard as I stormed back into the classroom for the third time this week.

I seethed in the classroom, picking up random pieces of stationary and throwing it at the floor, knowing they wouldn’t break.

The door opened as I was holding a penknife, and I turned my aim to the head of the thickheaded pig.

“Whoa, relax Alexa. I’m sorry okay? I didn’t mean to scare you so badly,” he said, sounding truly sincere this time.

Miraculously, my anger melted instantly, and I huffed, faking a glare at him before continuing stuffing my face with the food.

“Is the itty bitty Alexa still mad at Caleb?” he asked in the cartoon voice of his, using the teddy bear he’d bought for me to nudge me.

“Tell him that he is forgiven but he is still an idiot for trying to scare the life out of his partner,” I replied the bear, then facepalmed myself.

“I just talked to a bear. I must be going crazy,” I muttered, then batted Caleb away, picking up the collated information of the other sections that were helping out with the celebrations this year.  

“Look, Caleb, no one would ever want to truthfully answer a survey on how they want their celebration, but we need the information ASAP. But how do we get it?” I added the last part as an afterthought, my eyes glazing over as I wracked my brains.

“Interviews,” Caleb replied simply, giving me a grin as he picked up the sushi, popping it into his mouth.

Interviews. Huh.