IT MAY HAVE really started in Australia, but Skandar realized the build-up started years ago.
Thinking back on it now, he was glad of his stupidity on the matter because he didn't want to think of the awkwardness afterwards if he had realized then.
Not that he was that stupid. He had always known Anna was someone... different, not like the way Georgie was. Sometimes, he'd find himself ogling too long at her. Or getting slack-jawed as she practice her stunts with Allan. Or staring at her hands.
But he'd always attributed it to his raging hormones. And, anyway, it was not as if he was the only one doing so. Will does it most of the time and Ben knocked himself on a tree trunk once when a branch snagged off the shoulder of Anna's purple dress.
But there was that time (was it in New Zealand or Prague?) when, instead of focusing on his tutor and the textbook in front of him, he stared at her long, slender neck as she dried her hair (she had just finished taking a bath) that his tutor actually snapped her fingers right at his face.
Georgie, sitting beside him and a pencil in hand, followed his eyes and when she looked back at him, she was half-confused and half-amused.
That night, in his trailer, was the first time he really thought of her. And he may have dreamt a bit of her later when he finally got to sleep.
Again, he had thought, hormones. It wasn't easy being fifteen.
Skandar was grateful his Mum wasn't there that night.
--
Okay, it may have also started in his house four months before he left for Australia. And he might possibly have been really stupid that time.
It was raining and she appeared in his front door dripping wet with a bottle of red wine in hand. His parents were out and Soumaya, of course, was at uni. Anna showed up like clockwork.
"You couldn't bother grabbing an umbrella?" he remarked.
"I live next door, Skan," she said, as if it was an explanation enough, pushing her way to his living room.
He brought her up to his room, tossing her a shirt and a pair of trousers. He barely cleared the room when she peeled away her blue blouse, giving him a glimpse of the milky white skin of her back. He had to pause for a few seconds on the landing outside his room to pull himself together.
And then she was rummaging at the cupboards in his kitchen for glasses, feeling right at home. Her hair was still wet from the rain and wavy, cascading in curls around her shoulder. He leaned against the doorway, eyeing her. "What's the occasion?"
"Do I need one to spend time with you?" She gave him a look over her shoulder.
He swallowed.
They lounged casually in the sofa, eating leftover pizza. They watched a cheesy rom-com they had been watching since forever that they both could recite the lines with their eyes closed. As the bottle of wine slowly emptied, the movie was left forgotten. They chatted and laughed at nothing in particular. When it became dark outside and the deluge continued, Anna asked him to play the guitar.
She was red-faced, both from the wine and the excessive amount of laughing.
Normally, he'd refuse a request like that. Playing the guitar or the piano wasn't something he'd like to do with an audience. But everything was foggy now and all he could see was her.
He couldn't recall what song he played but he could remember the look in her face as she gazed at him.
She chose to stay there for the night because the deluge outside refused to stop and she was so sleepy anyway. He was glad she spoke first because he had the same thought but had no idea how to voice it out loud without tripping over his words. He offered her Soumaya's bedroom. His sister wouldn't mind anyway.
As he showered, he heard Anna doing the same in the room next to his.
--
"So?" Soumaya asked him, eyebrows raised.
"So, what?" He had just came back from Anna's, showing her the Dawn Treader script which arrived that morning. Michael had explicitly reminded everyone not to show anyone the script but she wasn't just anyone. And she was going to cameo anyway so, technically, she's part of the cast.
"Have you told her?"
"Told her what?" He frowned.
Soumaya stared long at him, searching his face. He frowned even more.
His sister shook her head then, chuckling. "Oh, I see." She left him in the living room, heading over to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of milk from the fridge. He followed her.
"See what?" Skandar was annoyed now. Had her sister left her head in uni?
"Exactly how thick could you get, Skandar Amin Casper Keynes?"
"Stop speaking in bloody riddles, then."
Soumaya shook her head again, amused. She poured another brimful of milk then put the box back in the fridge. She walked over to him and stopped, narrowing her eyes at his face as if looking for something.
Soumaya's expression changed. "My bed still smelled like her, you know."
Oh.
Again, what?
Eyebrows furrowed even more, he stood there resolute even as Soumaya left him and started for the stairs to her room, wondering what her sister meant.
He recalled Anna's delighted expression as she read the lines for her cameo scene. Skandar smiled.
--
When he left for the Dawn Treader filming, he pretended he wasn't disappointed that Anna didn't say goodbye because she was in rehearsal for a school drama.
With her boyfriend.
--
And then...
Then Australia.
=
A/N:
Other quick notes:
• Anna started in Oxford around September/October 2007.
• Allan as in Allan Poppleton, the stunt coordinator for the three films.
• Skandar and Georgie had tutors on set during the filming for Prince Caspian and they were both chaperoned by their mothers throughout the filming as they had both been underage.
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rains & mistletoes
Cerita PendekSomehow, it all started in Australia. Actually, it started long before Australia, but it was in Australia that it finally hits him right in the face. He's screwed.