I Love You.....Just the Way You Are #Watty2018

Chapter 13: A Cold Heart

At the door, a black tuxedo-ed man stooped before me with a crooked posture. His face was wrinkled with dense lines that portrayed well his old age and his eyes squinted hard at the sight of me.

"You must be..." the old man's voice wavered hoarsely and ran his palm over his hairless head that the sun was reflecting on.

"I'm Lin...uh...Vicky's friend."

"Vicky..?"

"Victoria Carter, sir."

"Reginald!" Vicky yelled from behind. "What are you doing? Let him in already!"

"Oh Madam. I'm truly sorry." The Butler said and ushered me in. He then pulled my jack with a gentle tug of my sleeves and hung it on the nearby coat stand.

"The usual." Vicky said to him.

"What do you mean, Madam?" The Butler inquired.

"Tea! Tea!"

"Oh, yes. I'll be getting that for you two."

Reginald scampered to the kitchen while Vicky lead me up the spiraling staircase while the ceiling extended into a dome shape like the Cystine Chapel. Everything in this place screams luxury as the gargantuan mansion was decorated with products of glimmering gold with pristine-looking white marble floor.

"Sorry about that." She said. "That Butler has a bit of dementia. I told father to fire him and let the man retire, but my father is stubborn as always and values emotions over reality. Maybe that's why he's so bad at being a politician."

After being so close to her, her gentle touch around my arm gave my heart a lasting tingle. She was in a cloudy blue wool pajama and her hair dangled to one side as if she just risen from the bathtub since she still carried a strong scent of flowery shampoo. There was a window that gave a good glimpse at the vast outstretched property and everything, from the trees to the garden outside, accumulated a pleasant scenery as it can please any eye.

When she opened the door, it was literally like a girly toddler's room as if Vicky didn't grow out of her room preferences since the age of 8: the entire room was pink with unicorn mobiles that carousel-ed slowly in the air. Then there was a tall bed that was camouflaged partially by flowery bed curtains with lion pillars on all four ends of the bed.

She the sprawled her body to the bed and her body glided to the bed sheet like a gentle leaf landing on a sunny shade that glistened every curvature of her body and giving every part of her body high definition. There were more ponies and unicorns that dangled from the ceiling on the bed. When she sat up, she patted next to the empty spot next to her for me to occupy.

"Sit here". She insisted as I could feel my nostrils flare up with nerve-wrecking excitement while the butterflies within my stomach jittered sporadically. I slowly laid my butt next to her as she opened her newest MacBook model and began our project.

Her eyes didn't remove itself from the blinking fluorescent white screen. I completely lost myself in her beauty and then, before I daydreamed for eternity, something felt vacant every time I saw Vicky. I liked her.....but why do I like her? She is beautiful. She is cute. She's smart. Is that enough?

Something in my head didn't agree as if I were to coerce myself into liking her to a certain degree. I could stare at her for hours, but is that enough for a person to like someone? What is liking somebody anyway?

During my time with Kate, I never liked her at first. After she told me everything that day, I took a stroll outside after dinner—just me enjoying the solemn evening as the world looks much different under dark curtain in the sky. Once 6pm hits, the morning closes its curtains and different shades of color adapts to a new light that rules over them with a comforting moonlight. Cicadas began to sing a tune to compliment that evening.

As I kept walking, I came across Kate's house again and noticed that her light in the living room was still on. Through the light, a faint outline of her was withering to her desk in fatigue that I assumed was from schoolwork.

It gave me a smile honestly and I didn't know why, so I found the nearest pebble scattered on the sidewalk and threw it at her window. The small pebble bounced off with a loud thump, so loud that I became frightened that I might alert the neighbors so I ducked my head in reflex.

The window slid open and Kate's head popped out and scanned around. I waved my hand in the air as high as I can.

"Over here!" I blurted loudly as Kate put a index finger to her lips.

"What are you doing here?" She asked in a whispery voice, loud enough for it to be audible  from outside.

"Why are you still doing homework this late?"

She didn't respond as her body squirmed in embarrassment.

"Do you need help?" I then asked.

She was still thinking of the answer and before she did, I already began climbing the utility poles and pipes along her house like Spider-man and all I heard was a whispery hiss of: "Are you crazy?"

I squeezed myself through her window while I observed the desk and a pool of light cascaded onto the spiraled copybook with doodles all over the pages. They were pretty decent drawings and that was when I found out she was a decent artist.

"You can draw?" I asked her.

"Yeah."

"Well....no wonder you're not getting anything done here."

"I mean.....I just got...carried away."

So I cleared away her desk that had a mountainous supplies of drawing utensils and helped her complete some homework. Most of the homework was easy since I took those classes last year so it only came naturally effortless. I don't know why I'm doing these things for her, I guess I was just being a "Good Samaritan" like how the Christians call it.

"All done!" I cheered and only a snoring sound greeted me from behind. She laid in bed while her glasses were sliding off and halted by the bridge of her nose.

Something about it, I don't know....maybe the way she looked that day, made her look quite endearing as I couldn't help myself from being paralyzed in my position while being fixed on her. Something was drastically different from the way Kate lays in bed to the way Vicky lays in bed.

Kate's hair spiraled clumsily whole Vicky's didn't. She still wore her wrinkled school uniform while Vicky was cozy in her expensive pajama. I don't know why but something about Kate just made it a little bit special.

Thinking back, I did miss that part with Kate: after I saw her fall asleep, I put the blanket over her and took the glasses off. To my surprise, she looked totally different. It was as if she like Superman that protected her identity with these glasses to not show who she really is....

Because I still don't know who she really is.

I turned off the light and before leaving through the window, I looked back again at Kate one more time. And that's when I realized:

Kate's really pretty after all.

While I was reminiscing subconsciously, Reginald came into Vicky's room with two China cups and laid the tray on the bed. After he left, Vicky gawked at the cup with confusion.

"I swear, this old man needs some serious help." She hissed. "He got us coffee for crying out loud!"

"I'm fine with coffee.." I stuttered.

Without answering, she drew the cup to her lips and gently touched the brim of the cup.

"And it's cold." She said distastefully.