|| Arabella ||
After a few days and one more date with each other, Coral finally worked up the courage to talk to Wyatt about her commitment issues.
Theo and I were anxiously eating our lunch at the cafeteria while Coral and Wyatt were talking in the school garden. We weren't this nervous even when Wyatt's SAT results were coming out. Like he wanted, he scored 1510, by the way.
I chewed on the straw of my chocolate shake and mumbled, "Wyatt will be cool with it, right?"
"How do I know?" Theo asserted.
"He's your cousin. You should know," I hissed.
"Well, he's your roommate too—"
"What's going on? Why are those two sitting together?"
"Must be a dare, otherwise, they can't even tolerate each other."
A few students gossiped right behind us, as if magically expecting us not to hear. But as always, rumors never bothered me, and the same goes for Theo.
Still, Theo and I usually didn't sit together at lunch, but today, due to our combined mission, we were waiting out together, instead of our regular friends' group table. We couldn't blame people for being surprised.
After a few minutes, Wyatt entered the cafeteria with Coral behind him. Coral went straight to our girl friends' while Wyatt came to us and slumped on the chair beside me.
He was silent for a whole minute, which had got me and Theo twitching in our seats.
As Wyatt continued to be quiet, Theo finally broke out, "Wyatt, if you didn't notice, we are waiting for you to speak."
Wyatt chugged down Theo's coke in response.
"Hey!" Theo protested. I laughed shortly, rubbing Wyatt's back. His throat must have been parched.
Taking a deep breath, Wyatt finally started, "I just— I'm just so flattered. Coral likes me back."
I clapped excitedly as if I already didn't know that.
"But—"
"Ugh, I hate this 'but'," Theo groaned.
"She told me about her commitment issues just now, and the reasons behind it," Wyatt shared.
Theo and I exchanged looks, urging Wyatt to continue.
He let out a sigh in defeat. "I like her, I like her a lot. I honestly can't believe that she likes me back. But I don't know what to do about this issue. I mean, of course, I'm not judging her. But how can I make it better? How can I help her with it? I don't know."
I smiled and gave his shoulder a squeeze. "You're very nice, you know that?"
Wyatt gave me a small smile.
Theo leaned back on his chair and casually said, "Bro, if I were you, I would already be marking my territory around her."
Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "How do I do that?"
"You know the trick, man. Just make everyone see that you are hers," Theo simplified, and Wyatt nodded his head.
"I think I understand now." With that, Wyatt got up.
"I still don't understand," I murmured once he left.
Theo smirked. "You will see."
I rolled my eyes and nonchalantly started eating fries from his tray. He glared at me but didn't slap away my hand, letting me finish his leftovers.
"You have work today, right?" Theo asked when I was getting up from my seat, and I gave a nod.
He was being weird lately. I was being a little too, ever since our little date. But his strangeness stood out. After all, he wasn't as mean to me as before. I couldn't put my finger on it, but being around him made me feel strange too, but in a good way.
Gosh, I wasn't making sense.
I shoved away my thoughts and went to my friends' table and asked Coral, "Let's go. We have the next class together."
Coral nodded at our friends and got up. We were chatting on our way, mostly about Wyatt. I heard the story from her perspective. She was slightly scared about Wyatt's reaction.
We were almost near our classroom when we saw Wyatt approaching us. I thought he was just going to say hi, but what he did next took me by surprise.
Oh, so this is what Theo was talking about, that was my first thought.
Wyatt came and kissed Coral's cheek, making everyone in the hallway gasp.
A cheek kiss wasn't usually a big deal, but Wyatt wasn't the type of person who did that often, so everyone already started connecting the dots in their heads.
I grinned like a child who was getting her favorite dolls married.
Coral was obviously surprised, but in a good way. She gave him an impressed smile and said, "Wow, that's one way to reply to my confession."
Wyatt smiled back and took her hand in his, saying sincerely, "Because it's alright. I don't need a title or a committed relationship. I like you and you like me. That's enough for now."
Even I blushed at the way Wyatt said it. Where was this confident man all this time?
"Good. Because I like that," Coral replied, smiling.
All of a sudden, I felt like I was standing in between them, so I moved to the side to admire them. Really, they looked so cute together.
I was glad that Theo and my meddling worked.
I hope everything goes well for Wyatt and Coral now. Fingers crossed.
———
I just got out of my part-time job around nine when I got a text from Coral, asking me to get her a peach nail polish which she ran out of and needed urgently for her date with Wyatt tomorrow.
I frowned and went to the cosmetics store nearby. I was purchasing the nail polish when I got a call from Theo.
"What do you want?" I grumbled, sounding annoyed.
"Are you still at work?" Theo asked casually.
"No. I just got out."
"I'm in the neighborhood. Do you want me to pick you up?"
Although I wanted to decline his offer, I was tired without a doubt. "Sure. I'm at the cosmetics store at the left head of the block."
"Okay." With that, he hung up.
There was that being nice again. It made my chest feel weird.
Maybe I should do something to make him go back to being a jerk to me. That's when a certain product caught my attention. I examined it for a moment before a devilish idea popped up in my head.
Its effect would last one day. It was perfect. Not too harmful, but enough to make him go back to the way he was.
I quickly bought that product and nail polish and got out to find Theo's car waiting. I got inside and put the small shopping bag in the backseat.
"What did you buy?" he asked.
"Just some nail polish and shampoo for Coral," I replied and fastened my seatbelt. "What were you here for?"
"Just at a friend's house," he said and started driving.
I nodded in response and made myself comfortable. That was when I realized how much I craved to relax. But I couldn't find a good place to rest my head.
I was shifting frequently until Theo asked, "Why are you fidgeting like a monkey?"
I frowned. "I can't find a good position to rest my head on."
"You can try resting it on my shoulder if you want to," he suggested.
I gave him a look of disbelief. "Tell me, what's with you today? You are being extra nice."
"I'm just in a good mood."
"Still, it's suspicious."
"You have a problem with me being nice and not being nice. What should I do?"
I chuckled lightly. 'Just don't do anything."
He hummed, and I shifted in my seat to place my head on his shoulder. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it felt good.
Suddenly, he placed his hand on my cheek, patting it gently. It was reassuring, like a reward after a day of hard work. It started to lull me to sleep.
The last thing I remember before dozing out was Theo's faint smile in the rearview mirror.
After a while, I woke up due to Theo poking my cheek.
"Get up. We are home," he informed.
I nodded and stretched my arms. I took my backpack and the shopping bag.
Once we were inside our apartment, he asked, "Do you want to take a bath first?"
I was going to reply yes but stopped when I remembered my plan. "No, I'm going to make dinner first. You can go in."
He nodded and went to his bedroom to grab his clothes. I hurried up to the bathroom and quickly started working on the shampoo bottles.
I got out to find Theo waiting. I grinned at him wolfishly and said, "Have a good bath."
He gave me a weird look and went inside.
I couldn't contain my excitement as I started preparing dinner. I literally couldn't wait to see Theo.
I checked the time and started counting down. Three. Two. One—
"Annabelle!"
And there he appeared in front of me, just in his towels.
But my eyes didn't go down his bare chest, rather up to his hair, and I burst out laughing.
"What have you done?" Theo shouted, turning green from anger, and it looked beyond perfect.
Turquoise green eyes. Face green from anger. And neon green hair.
"So much green— ahahaha!" I couldn't speak due to my laughter.
"I want to kill you!" He stretched out his hand to strangle, but I jumped back. I ran out of the kitchen as he chased after me.
Just then Wyatt came home. I hid behind his back and exclaimed, "Wyatt, save me from the angry green-haired half-naked man!"
"What are— pfft, what the fuck?" Wyatt also burst out laughing seeing Theo.
"I'm gonna kill you both!" Theo growled.
"Sure, greeny," I quipped.
Theo frowned and went back inside the bathroom while Wyatt and I laughed for another five minutes.
This felt normal and natural. I didn't want any weirdness tugging at my heart.
When my stomach started to hurt from laughing, I went back to the kitchen to complete the dinner. I put the food on low heat and decided to take my bath in the meantime, knowing Theo would take care of it if I take too much time.
I did my usual bath routine and washed my hair.
I wrapped the towel around my head and got dressed. Just as I took off the towel, something bright green flashed on the mirror.
I froze as if I had seen a ghost.
I reluctantly looked back in the mirror to find my hair was neon green.
I screamed and leaned over the counter to make sure I was seeing write. 'How—" I was sure that I poured the hair dye shampoo in Theo's shampoo bottle, but—
Shit, he must have swapped them up.
I fumed with anger and stumped out of the bathroom to find Theo serving dinner.
Before I could even shout his name, he glanced at me and started cackling with laughter. My anger melted away.
Because what was there to be angry about? I did that to him first, and this was my karma.
Now, we were both greenheads.
But if we were going to be all greeny, how could our other roommate be spared?
It was as if Theo had the same idea, so we both smirked at each other.
"Wyatt, dinner's ready," I announced.
Wyatt came out of his room and started laughing at me. I gave him a tight-lipped smile and sat on my chair while Theo sneaked behind Wyatt into his room.
Theo gave me an okay signal after coming out of Wyatt's room. I was having a hard time controlling my laughter, knowing what was coming. Wyatt always took a bath before bed, so we had to wait a while to see him.
But it was worth it.
Theo and I were doing homework in the living room after dinner while watching TV when Wyatt came out like a hulk, water still dripping from his blinding green hair.
"You fucking gremlins!"
Wyatt started hitting the two of us with cushions as we rolled on the couch, laughing.
"How. Many. Times. Have. I. Told. You. Not. To. Drag. Me. Into. Your. Silly. Games?" he punctuated each word with every hit. "I have a date with Coral tomorrow!"
"But it's only gonna last one day!" I said.
"Which hair dye lasts one day?" Wyatt yelled.
"This one does," I told him proudly and stopped Wyatt from pummeling me to grab the hair dye shampoo packet that was first poured into Theo's bottle. I pointed at the label and started saying, "See? This says one week."
Theo and Wyatt looked at me blankly.
I blinked, analyzing what I just said. I read the label again. My eyes widened.
"Oh, my God! We are gonna be greenheads for a whole week!"
