Arabella Academy: Perfectly Imperfect

23. Double Date: Part Two

The brain is the most outstanding organ. It works 24/7, 365 from birth until you fall in love.

~Sophie Monroe

***

Luis arrived at Jeff's place exactly at the time they had agreed on. Luis was an advent timekeeper, and he didn't like getting late, especially for important things. He rang the doorbell at Jeff's place and patiently waited. Jeff's mom was the one who answered.

"Hi, are you Luis?" she greeted him warmly and he nodded, "Welcome, Jefferson says he will be with you in a few minutes."

Luis was shown into the house and waited for Jeff at the lounge. It did not take long for Jeff to come down. He had already heard Luis ringing the doorbell and did not want to keep him waiting. He had worn a pair of skinny jeans, a slim fit pullover and hair that had been visibly applied too much blowout. Luis stared at him for a second before commenting.

"You appear prepared for the occasion."

Jeff flushed a shade of red and replied, "Thank you, I like to dress according to the activity involved."

"I didn't know the library needed such an outrageous outfit. You look like a gay man who's desperate for sex." It was Winnie, Jeff's older sister. She had a mission of making Jeff's life miserable and wasn't hesitant to do so when the chance came. Although she was really smart, Jeff tended to call her stupid whenever she interfered with his life.

"Well this gay man might just snatch your boyfriend so watch out," Jeff retorted. Fortunately for him, his loud mouth usually had just the right answer for her whenever she was overboard. Seeing that she was defeated, she stuck her tongue out at him and went ahead to the kitchen to prepare a snack. Jeff called out to his mom to tell her that they were leaving. Jeff was about to open the door when his mother appeared and called them back.

"Don't tell me you are leaving and yet I haven't prayed for you," she excused herself.

"Mom! No!" Jeff hissed at her. His mom, on seeing that, was clearly hurt but she didn't let it show for long. Instead, she kissed them both goodbye, much to the shock of Luis, and led them outside. Luis waited until they were out of earshot.

"Why didn't you want your mom praying for us?"

"Trust me. Her prayers are long enough for us to go to the library and back in the evening. She would probably have started even asking for forgiveness for the sins of the cattle you keep in your ranch," Jeff answered lightly.

"How did you know we had a ranch?" asked Luis, surprised that Jeff knew and yet he didn't tell him.

"Ummm..." Jeff stalled, looking for an excuse. "Michelle told me. She said that all the girls that were mad about you actually did research on you."

Luis halted. All of a sudden he started laughing so hard that Jeff wondered whether he had said something wrong.

"When you find a better excuse please come and lie to me again," he told Jeff, tears in his eyes. "Everyone in school knows that I'm gay."

Jeff felt like killing himself. He had just been caught lying. Lacking another answer to give him, he shrugged his shoulders and continued the journey with his head down, too ashamed to look at Luis.

They finally arrived at the library. They entered and went ahead to the reception to pay for the entrance fee. However, they found that the secretary was not yet at her station and had to wait until she came back from wherever she was. Finally, she arrived and greeted the boys asking what she could do for them.