Three is better than one.

Chapter 5: Observation

“Why is he here?” Priya shout-whispered.

“He’s obviously here to hunt elephants, what do you think?” Kelly replied sarcastically.

“Don’t sass me. Let’s just get out of here before he harasses me again!” Priya said getting ready to jet off back to her house.

“No! Stay here, I wanna see what he does.”

“What? I am not going to spy on him with you,” Priya said with disbelief “I feel unsafe just looking at him.

“It isn’t spying…it’s just…observing.” Kelly reasoned.

*Priya’s POV*

I couldn’t resist the urge to join Kelly. Even though I was genuinely scared of being harassed by him again, there was an odd feeling that made me want to stay. It was a feeling of fluttering in my stomach and chest every time I was with him. And the times when I wasn’t with him, that fluttering would turn into an uncomfortable pain. What is this feeling?

I grudgingly stayed with Kelly to “observe”. He didn’t do anything out of the usual. He simply walked through the door and waited in line. At first there was really nothing to see, but just looking at him standing around idly still gave me that feeling.

“This is getting pretty boring,” I said in attempt to get us to leave since I was afraid he would spot us through the clear glass, “wanna come to my house instead? We could watch movies!”

“No, wait. Look at that.” She pointed at him.

I glanced over and saw Jack walking towards a little boy who was crying. It seemed like the boy had dropped cookie while his mom was elsewhere. Jack approached him and squatted to be at eye level with the boy. He began to say something and then got up, held the boy’s hand and led him to the register. The line was finally cleared and they began to order. By now, a smile had appeared on both their faces. The cashier smiled back as she handed them a few small cookie bags and a smoothie. Did he buy that for him? Jack doesn’t seem like the kind of person that would do that, why? A woman in her thirties emerged from the washroom with her baby. The little boy ran to hug her legs.

*Jack’s POV*

I always did things like this, I just loved doing things for little kids.  When I saw the boy happily run to his mother, I had a warm, tingly feeling of delight in my stomach.

“Where did you get this from?” his mother asked, confused.

“I got it from that nice man over there! He bought it for me when I dropped my cookie!” the kid shouted happily as he pointed at me.

The mother looked up and smiled at me,

“Thank you, you didn’t have to. Let me pay you back.” She said as she began to reach into her purse.

“No, no, no. It’s fine. You don’t need to worry about it, I bought it for him because I wanted to.” I reassured her as I smiled.

She smiled warmly back, “Say thank you to the nice boy.” She said to her son.

“Thank you!” he exclaimed as he looked up at me and saluted.

I squatted and ruffled his hair, “No problem, kid.”

*Priya’s POV*

I was beyond stunned. My mouth was agape and I was at an utter loss for words, I never imagined Jack to be such a kind and caring person. Kelly was in just as much shock as I was. Who would’ve known that ‘Mr. Playboy’ would ever turn out to be so…nice. It got both me and Kelly questioning if it was really him, but there was no doubt since I felt that fluttering feeling again. We both got out from under the table and rushed to our homes before he could spot us.

 I plopped myself onto my couch, dumbfounded. Soon enough, I began to think about why I was getting these feelings when I noticed the fluttering had suddenly turned to pain. I sat there for about a good thirty minutes, just pondering. I began to have flashbacks of all that had happened in the past couple weeks; the day we first met, the moment when I first looked into his big brown eyes, the time he opened up to me about his secrets at the park, the feeling of freedom and youth when we played in the rain, the kiss that “didn’t” happen, the kiss that he stole, the times he teased me, his kindness towards the little boy, the butterflies, the nervousness, the shyness. I’ve finally come to a conclusion.

I really like him.