|| Theo ||
I was sitting on my bed with my head buried in my knees when I heard my bedroom door creak.
"Theo, what are you doing in the dark with your lights off?" I heard Wyatt ask.
"Nothing," I replied solemnly.
Wyatt turned the lights on, yet I didn't raise my head. Then I felt the bed dip beside me. "Did something happen?" he asked.
"No."
"Why are you upset?"
"I'm not upset."
"I can see you are. Now spill it."
"You have to promise you won't laugh."
"Alright. Promise."
I didn't know how to start, so I ended up blurting, "I like Ara."
"Oh, cool."
I raised my head and looked at Wyatt in disbelief. "I told you not to laugh, not to not show any reaction."
He gave me a flat look. "And this is my reaction. Because I already knew, dumbass."
I blinked dumbly. "What? How? When? Was I obvious?"
"I wonder if a blind man wouldn't notice if the mean boy starts being nice to the girl he used to bully."
"I didn't bully her," I protested.
"Yes, you both bullied each other." He rolled his eyes. "Moving on, so what's the problem?"
I sighed, feeling the black clouds return over my head. "There's this guy from her work, he asked her out this afternoon."
"Did she accept?"
"No."
"Then, why are you upset?"
"Because she agreed to go on a date with that twerp after he kept pestering her to give him only one chance. And you won't believe how he asked her out. With a rose! Can you believe how outdated that is? Has he been living under a rock? And I know I shouldn't judge anyone based on their look, but he doesn't look good beside Ara at all. I look so much better. Also, am I not noticeable enough? He didn't give me any regard and continued to ask her out right in front of me. How dare he!" I ranted.
"Oh… okay. Wow." Wyatt sounded like he was blown off by a storm, but that definitely couldn't have been my fault. "That's a lot you were bottling up inside."
"Oh, I have a lot more going on inside." Ever since I got back home in the afternoon, I had been sulking in my room. I just felt so… ugh. I wanted to squish that Jack guy's head in between my car door.
"No, please. This is enough," Wyatt insisted. "So now, what do you want to do?"
"If I knew what to do, why would I be talking to you?" I scowled at him.
"You exhaust me," he sighed. "Okay, let's break it down first. How long have you liked Ara?"
I felt shy all of a sudden, so I buried my head on my knees again and mumbled, "For a while now."
I have liked Ara for a long time. I just didn't know. I only realized it in the car when we were tailing Wyatt and Coral, when Ara was saying that she would read my mom's book for me and we would gush over it together. That was the moment that I knew I liked her more than any other girl and I would do anything to protect that innocent smile of hers. Ever since then, my feelings for her only get deeper.
"I think I remembered something that could help you," Wyatt let out. I looked up at him with hopeful eyes. He grinned and repeated my own words, "If I were you, I would already be marking my territory around her."
I groaned. "That's not going to help."
"Why not?"
"Because she's not mine yet. I can't claim her. She doesn't like me," I whined.
"How are you so sure?"
"Then she wouldn't have agreed to go on a date with that twerp."
"You don't know her reasons behind it."
"There's no reason. She just wants to date a guy, and that guy clearly isn't me."
The two of us bickered for a long time until we heard the front door unlock. Wyatt went to greet Ara while I remained in my room. But I couldn't stay long as I craved to see her face.
I got out of my room to find Ara sprawled over the couch like a dying dog. Somehow, I even found this adorable.
Hearing my footsteps, she raised her head and smiled at me, lighting up my world and making my heart skip a beat. "Hey."
"Hey," I said, returning her smile. I was already in a better mood after seeing her. I sat on the couch as she raised her feet to make space for me, then she placed them on my thighs. "So how are you now?" I asked while turning on the TV.
"I'm fine. But why do you ask?" she asked.
I gave her a flat look. "You have periods, that's why."
"Oh, right. I do."
How does she keep forgetting that?
I put the TV as the background noise, making small talks to Ara until I rounded up to my point. "When is your date with tw— Jack guy?"
"Tomorrow night."
"Where?"
"McDonald's."
What the hell? This guy… Who the heck takes the girl to McDonald's on the first date?
"Well, if you're going, then bring some burgers for me and Wyatt. We will have a romantic date too," I responded with an eye roll, unable to hide my displeasure in my voice.
Ara scoffed. "Laugh all you want at me for getting such a not-so-amazing date. But hey, Jack is a nice guy. It's in the inside of a person that matters, not how much money you spend on a date."
I felt my gut twist in an uncomfortable way, a hollowness filling up my chest.
Why didn't she understand? She deserved better. So much better than some desperate cheapskate twerp who uses tacky medieval age flower-giving technique and takes her to McDonald's.
She deserved to be treated like a princess. I knew I would treat her like that.
"Sure. Go ahead. It's not like I care," I ended up saying.
"Even if you cared, I wouldn't."
That was it. We didn't say another word to each other that night. With each passing silent minute, my desire to stab Jack increased by ten-folds.
———
"When you said you were going to treat us, I thought you were taking us to some fancy restaurant," Coral said, fuming.
"What does it matter? Food is food," I responded plainly.
"Yes, but don't you think I'm a little overdressed for McDonald's?" Coral rebuked as she was wearing a knee-length purple dress.
"I didn't ask you to wear a dress," I pointed out.
Coral was about to scold me more, but Wyatt wrapped an arm over her shoulder and said, "It's okay. You still look gorgeous."
Coral smiled at him while I rolled my eyes and got out of Wyatt's car, leaving those two to romance in the backseat for a minute before coming out.
The three of us walked into the restaurant while I whipped my head around looking for the familiar light-brown-haired girl.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of her familiar laughter and found her sitting at the corner table. I smiled looking at her happy face, but the next moment, jealousy clawed up my heart as I realized the reason behind her laughter.
I took a sharp breath and turned to Wyatt and Coral. "You guys remember the plan, right?"
They both nodded confidently. I had joined Coral in the plan because she just happened to drop by when I was having an anxious breakdown at the thought of Ara dating someone else. Excuse me for not knowing how to react when the girl I liked was going on a date with another guy.
"Oh, my God, Ara!" Coral's squeal brought me out of my trance as I saw her waving enthusiastically at her unbest friend.
Ara's face lit up as she saw us, motioning us to come over. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We were just hanging out at the arcade until we got hungry and came here," Wyatt answered.
"No one told me you guys were going to the arcade." Ara pouted.
"You had a date, so we didn't tell you. Sorry, I forgot that your date was here," I said, trying my best to suppress my bitterness.
Ara forced a smile and said, "I see."
"Now that we are here, why don't we eat together?" Coral suggested excitedly.
"Um, we are kinda having a date here—" Jack started to say, but I had already sat down beside Ara.
"Oh, c'mon, you should get to know her close people, Mark," I insisted.
"My name is Jack," the twerp said.
"Yes, I get it, Clark." I flashed him an unpleasant smile.
"Please don't mind him. He just likes to mess with people's names," Ara spoke on behalf of me.
"Oh, but he is?" Jack asked her.
"I'm her roommate, Theo," I introduced myself.
"You live with a guy?"
I was going to reply that why does it matter if her roommate is a guy, but Ara decided to speak up, "He's my roommate, not my boyfriend. No need to worry."
"That's right." I smiled, even though my heart felt like Ara just ran it over a bulldozer.
After a minute, a waiter came to ask us for our orders. Everyone was ordering something spicy as it was the spicy special tonight, but I wasn't because I couldn't tolerate its taste.
"You can't eat spicy food? That's so unmanly." Jack laughed as if it was that funniest thing in the world.
Though I didn't know how it was unmanly, my pride was bruised now. "It's not that I can't eat it, I usually don't prefer to. But you know what? I'll try it today."
Wyatt shook his head, mouthing ‘no'.
"Don't be stubborn," Ara whispered in my ear.
"It's okay. I got this," I assured her and placed my order.
Ara sighed and turned to converse with Jack. As we waited for the food, I cursed Wyatt and Coral for getting into their conversation, leaving me out. I had to steel myself against the gales of laughter that escaped from Ara and Jack, occasionally throwing in a few sarcastic comments.
I knew without even listening to the words that Jack was telling some lame story about how he screwed up in the kitchen when he first started working. His face was brighter than a toothpaste commercial. It made me want to hurl, and at the same time, feel ashamed for my selfish actions.
After what felt like an eternity, our orders arrived. My tongue already started to burn at the sight of the spicy burger.
God, I'm going to need to be hospitalized after this.
But I was still stubborn to prove Jack wrong. Just as I was about to pick up the burger, Ara took away the tray from me. 'You're not eating anything spicy," she simply said.
'Then what am I going to ea—" I paused when she placed her tray of food in front of me. I blinked at it in confusion until the realization dawned on me.
I couldn't help but smile. These small little gestures of hers were the ones that made me feel attracted to her. It felt nice to be cared for after being neglected for the first ten years of my life.
For the sake of courtesy, I put up a weak protest, 'Hey, I could eat that."
'Then why don't you swap with me?" Jack quipped.
Oh, for fuck's sake, I'm going to punch this guy!
'Jack, when I said that Theo is not going to eat anything spicy, I'm sure I was very clear unless you have some hearing issues," Ara asserted, plastering a displeased smile on her face.
I almost let myself grin so hard that I had to press my palm over my mouth.
'Oh, I'm sorry, Arabella. I didn't know you would be so offended," Jack said and tried to touch her hand, but she swatted it away. I saw something flash in her eyes—some sort of realization.
'Excuse me. I need to use the restroom," she said urgently and got up. Coral followed her. I wondered if Ara was feeling sick due to her periods.
'Um," Jack started, pulling out my attention from Ara, 'Theo, do you hate me?"
'Oh, my. What gave you that impression?" I feigned innocently.
'No, it's just written all over your face."
'It's not that I hate you, but I would unplug your life support to charge my phone," I responded, dropping my act completely. Wyatt motioned me not to go overboard with the insults that I had ready.
Jack smiled. 'If you like her, then you should confess to her, instead of getting jealous like a demon."
'I—" I lost my vocal cords after that.
He then got up and said, 'Tell Arabella that it was a pleasant evening and that I had an emergency."
As Jack left, Ara and Coral came back. Wyatt informed them about Jack's reason for leaving. I remained quiet for the rest of the dinner, lost in my own world as the three of them gossiped. Ara would nudge me frequently to join in until Wyatt lied that I had a headache.
Indeed, it was a headache. A headache to decide whether to confess my feelings right now or wait until I was sure of her feelings for me.
