|| Arabella ||
When I woke up this morning, my head felt like it would burst any moment and all the contents inside would spatter on my bed. My stomach felt funny as well.
I tried massaging my forehead, but the stickiness on it disgusted me. Next, as I tried to run my fingers through my hair, I found it to be stickier with a pungent smell. I blinked, trying to process who I was, on which planet I was on, whether I was dead or alive, and what year it was.
The hazy memories from last night started coming back to me bit by bit.
'Ugh, I got drunk. Stupid me."
Last evening, there was this restaurant I went to for an interview, but the manager offered to give me the job if I slept with him, which I blatantly declined, so he tried forcing himself on me, but I knew many self-defense moves, thanks to my mom. Therefore, I managed to protect myself, but I was humiliated badly after that by the people there.
Feeling completely hopeless and traumatized by the incident, I got myself drunk with some of the money that I got from selling my hair. Way to make the best use of it— note the sarcasm.
However, I couldn't remember anything after I got drunk. How did I even get home? And I was wearing someone's denim jacket over my camisole. Whose jacket was it, anyway?
There were vague images of Theo in my head, so I suppose I annoyed him a lot after I came back home. God, I must have made a clown out of myself. I wonder if Theo clicked any embarrassing photos of me.
But wait a minute, yesterday was Wednesday, which means, it was Thursday now. Thursday is a school day, and here I was sitting on my bed with a shitty hangover.
'Holy shit!" I sprang down from the bed, only to feel the room spinning. I dragged myself to the bathroom to wash up when I heard the front door unlock.
'Oh, the sleeping beast is finally up," I heard Theo comment dryly.
I looked at him to find him dressed up in his blue hoodie and jeans with his backpack slung over his shoulder. He must be on his way to school. 'Did you forget to take anything?" I asked.
'No. I'm coming back from school," he said flatly.
'What?" I shrieked.
'Yep. It's half past three right now if you didn't know," he mentioned casually, dropping his bag on the beanbag.
'I slept that long?" I asked, dumbfounded. He nodded. 'And I missed a whole day of classes?" He nodded once again. 'Why didn't you guys wake me up?"
'Oh, trust me, we tried. You slapped Wyatt in the face and kicked me in the knee for our valiant efforts," he informed, rubbing his left knee with exasperation.
My face heated up in shame. I didn't care about kicking Theo, but I had to apologize to Wyatt for slapping him. It was so embarrassing.
'You should've poured water on my face," I muttered.
'Believe me, I did suggest it. But Wyatt didn't want to do that and wanted to let you rest for the day."
I buried my face in my head, the headache increasing by ten folds, walking into the living room. 'I'll fall behind."
'No need to get all worked up. It's just one day. Besides, I told your friend Coral to take notes for you," Theo told me, but it wasn't enough.
I sat down on the couch and whined, 'You don't get it. I have already skipped too many classes this semester."
I heard him sigh. 'What's done is done. Even if you went to school today, you could have been puking all day due to nausea. Plus, I think you need a break, especially after what happened to you last night."
I looked at him with horror. 'How do you know?" I didn't want him or Wyatt to know about the restaurant incident. It was my baggage to deal with, and I didn't want to bother them with it. And I definitely didn't want more people knowing about it.
'You told me yourself," Theo simply said.
'Did you tell Wyatt about it?" I dreaded.
'No. It's not my story to tell. If you wanna tell him, you will."
That was… nice of him.
I felt a strange warmth in my chest at his words. 'Thanks," I said in a low voice.
Theo came to sit on the beanbag adjacent to me and looked at me in a weird way, as if he was trying to read me. I fidgeted under his intent gaze. 'Don't you want to do anything to that bastard?" he let out after a minute.
I would be lying if I say I didn't want to, but...
'No. It's too much trouble. Plus, I'm alright. Nothing happened," I said with a nervous chuckle.
'I'm sure it was scary," he stated, and the vivid images of the man trying to bite my neck flashed in front of me. I squeezed my eyes shut, forming my fists in a ball. 'Sorry. That was an insensitive thing to say."
'No, it's fine." I took a deep breath and opened my eyes, putting on a smile.
He hummed and poured himself a glass of water. After drinking it, he asked, 'Which restaurant was it again?"
'Karl's Kitchen, I guess. Why do you ask?" I raised an eyebrow.
'No reason," he said curtly. I was about to inquire more, but a smirk appeared on his face. 'You know, you were pretty crazy last night."
My eyes widened. 'Oh, no, what did I do?"
'Nothing much."
Thank goodness. I wasn't that drunk.
I was about to sigh in relief when he started to list, 'You flirted with a girl in the elevator, threw up on my hand, asked me weird sexual questions, danced with your top off, put mayonnaise on your face and thought it was face cream, and put sauce in your hair, thinking it was red hair dye."
God, kill me now.
'I can't believe I did all that," I breathed out.
'Wait, there's more," Theo quipped.
'What?" I clamored.
'You dragged me outside with you and went to the park. You started off singing very loudly before it transitioned to you yelling your lungs out. I had a good laugh until some people called the cops. They fined us for public nuisance."
'Who paid the fine?" I sweat-dropped.
'I did. As if you have got money for that." He rolled his eyes.
I know it was shameless of me to be relieved, but I really couldn't afford to pay the fine. And it was no sweat for Theo. C'mon, he drove an Aston Martin. He seemed to be loaded, though I had no idea what his parents did.
'Anyways, after that, I brought you home while you kept waving at every lamppost on the way as if they were actual people."
I sighed. 'That's the end of it, right?"
'Mostly."
I slapped my palm on my forehead. 'What else did I do?"
'I don't think I should tell you. You might want to jump off the balcony after this," he said, mischief plastered on his face.
'C'mon, tell me," I insisted.
'You don't wanna know this."
I shot him a glare. 'But your face is screaming that you want to tell."
'Since you insist so much," he grinned, pausing a little bit to create suspense, 'You took advantage of me."
'What?" I hollered at the top of my lungs, standing up abruptly.
'Yes. You kissed me," he said smugly.
'No, no, I didn't. I remember no such thing!"
'Yes, yes, you did. You kissed me. That means you broke our pact."
I put my hands on my ears not to listen to any of his filthy lies. 'You're lying."
Theo was definitely lying. I didn't remember kissing him. Not at all. He was obviously teasing me to get a reaction out of me.
'It's alright, Annabelle. I understand why you would want to deny," he expressed with fake sympathy.
'No, it's not true. You're only teasing me. I'm not going to fall for it. I'm not that stupid," I announced firmly. I was confident that I didn't dump my pride and go ahead to kiss him out of all the people on earth.
He chuckled and stood up. 'Alright, alright. I won't drag the matter because you clearly don't remember."
I snickered in victory. 'Hah. I knew it. You're giving up because you know you were lying."
'Well, I have nothing to prove. I know what happened, and it doesn't matter to me, anyway."
Now, I was offended. 'So you are saying that I kissed you and it doesn't matter to you?"
'Should it?" He raised an eyebrow in question.
It should.
'No," I lied.
'Great then. I'm going to my room." He started walking towards his room, only stopping midway to say, 'By the way, return my jacket after it's cleaned."
I looked down at the denim jacket I was still wearing. 'It's your jacket?"
'No, it belongs to the beggar from the next block. I need to return it to him," he deadpanned.
'Wow, what a coincidence. You and the beggar have the same fashion sense," I responded.
He rolled his eyes and went into his room while my mind went haywire.
Did I really kiss Theo? It's not that I doubted myself, but he sounded so confident. If he was lying, he would argue more. Then again, if he wasn't lying, that would mean—
Ugh, I'm overthinking.
I freshened up to cool my head down. Boy, I had a hard time getting the dried-up sauce cleaned from my hair.
After getting dressed up, I went into the kitchen to find some supplementary pills and a plate covered with a lid. When I uncovered the plate, I found it was breakfast with bacon, toast, and scrambled eggs with a little note in Wyatt's handwriting that said, 'Theo made extra breakfast, so eat it. Then, take the supplementary pills. Drink plenty of water."
I smiled at the note. At the same time, I felt bad because I didn't even wake up for breakfast. However, I wasn't going to let it go to waste. Plus, I was starving.
After finishing my late breakfast, I was washing the dishes from this morning when Theo came into the kitchen.
'I forgot to mention. I'm taking you to a job interview next Saturday," he informed me while opening the fridge.
'What?"
'Yeah, I promised you that I would," he said, taking out a bottle of juice.
'You promised me? When?" I looked at him incredulously as if he had grown two heads.
'Last night. But I guess you don't remember that, either."
'What job interview and what promise?" I asked as he poured some juice into a glass.
'You were whining about not getting a job anywhere, so I told you about a friend of my uncle. Then, you begged me to get you an interview there, making me a pinky promise that I would take you there myself," he narrated.
I finished washing the dishes and started drying them as he started to drink juice from the bottle, leaning against the counter. 'You don't have to. I don't want to owe you," I told him in a meek voice. Even though I really needed a job, I would hate to rely on Theo for it.
'But I promised."
'A drunk promise," I added. 'It doesn't count."
'A promise is a promise, drunk or not," he insisted firmly, leaving no space to argue any further.
I sighed. 'Alright, fine." I dried my hands on the apron and glanced at the glass of juice. He was drinking from the bottle, so why did he pour some into a glass? 'Is it for me?" I asked, pointing at the glass.
He frowned and retorted, 'No, it's for the resident ghost."
I chuckled lightly and took the glass to drink from the counter. While I was drinking, I decided to ask something before any uncomfortable silence fell over, 'So it's a friend of your uncle? Ian's friend?"
'No, it's my other uncle. Uncle Albert. He's also from my mother's side," he said.
'I see." I nodded in understanding. However, curiosity bubbled up inside me. I agonized for a whole minute before finally putting the question out on the table, 'I have heard you talk about your uncles a lot. What about your parents? Where do they live?"
The grip on his bottle tightened and his shoulders tensed up. He lowered the bottle from his lips and murmured almost inaudibly, 'Nowhere…"
'Sorry?"
He took a deep breath and looked towards me with a half-smile. My heart squeezed at the sight. Behind his smile, I saw an attempt to cover up the pain. Not only that. In his eyes, I saw a reflection of myself. 'I have no parents. My mom passed away when I was nine, and my dad abandoned me shortly after that."
'Oh," I let out, not knowing what else to say.
However, I didn't want to show him pity. Because that's what I had been shown since my mom died as well. And trust me, it didn't feel amazing.
'I understand," I said in a quiet voice, hoping he would get what I was trying to convey.
And he did understand. Because for the first time, he gave me a genuine smile—a soft, gentle smile.
