From the way that I was laying on the bed, I had to look up at him from an upside down position which I did in a blank way trying to register the fact that he was seriously in my room. Didn't this guy know when to quit? What if I had been changing?! He had probably hoped for as much. I thought of all the sharp remarks that I could throw at him but the only thing that came out of my mouth was, "Didn't I lock that door?".
He smiled and looked down at his feet that he was shuffling as if he were embarrassed. "I used to be a locksmith."
"Um…I locked the door for a reason." Come on brain, you can do better than this! What the hell was I talking about? I didn't even sound mad which I really wanted to be.
"Well, yeah, I kinda figured that when you slammed the door." His face turned a little red now which if I wasn't so aggravated by him, it would have been cute.
"Good, then you're not a complete idiot." Good girl! It's about freaking time!
He sat on my bed, careful not to sit on my hair that had sprawled out when I threw myself down, and sighed. "We got off on the wrong foot, I…"
"Did my grandma mention to you that I was staying with her before you went to the gas station?" I interrupted him.
"She might have done." He said, looking down at me nervously. "Why?"
"Then you must have had some idea of who I was, especially when I told you that there weren't any other young people around here." I sat up so that I was sitting on the opposite side of the bed from him. His eyes followed me and he started to look even more nervous which only fueled my growing anger.
"Look, I…"
"You knew." I was convinced now. "So why didn't you say anything? It would have made me way less aggravated…"
"Would you let me talk for a second?" He waited until he was sure that I wasn't going to say anything to interrupt. "It wasn't my place to say anything. I didn't know what to do so I started to leave but then you followed me. I thought for sure that you would figure out that something was off when you saw the van but you didn't. I suppose I could have given you the quarters since they were going to the same place but it was more fun this way." He smiled but then frowned when I didn't smile back. "What's a little harmless flirting?"
"Go away now. You've said what you needed to say and I'm not really in a socializing mood." He was doing good there until the end. Too bad, I was really starting to think that this would work out. It was bad enough that I would have to act civil to him at dinner, I was not about to suffer his presence until then. Maybe he would grow on me but for now I just wanted him out of my room.
He sighed as he stood and left the room, closing the door behind him. Only to open it again two seconds later for the last word. "I can't change who I am, you know, no matter how cute you are." Then he left for good. I could hear his footsteps as he descended the stairs. He's such a little booger! I fell back down on the bed and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. This sucked! I almost wished I hadn't told Chloe and Gavin to stay away…and where the hell was Tristan?! I let my eyes close. A little nap wouldn't hurt, after all, I think I deserve it after the day that I've had. Maybe everything would be back to normal when I woke up.
*
It became very clear that everything was not normal when I woke up because a hand was shaking my shoulder, which my grandma never did, and the voice that was calling my name was not even female. I don't wake up well…at least not when I am woken up. If I wake up on my own or if I have help from an alarm clock, I'm good but if someone wakes me up, I don't care who it is, they had better be prepared for the worst. My arm swung in the direction of the arm that was shaking me and I could feel it when my fist hit something solid because my knuckles felt like they had been crushed by a rock but I stopped myself from crying out or showing any amount of pain. Rowan, however, let out a grunt at impact and proceeded to unleash a stream of curse words when he regained his breath. This made me open my eyes because it was too humorous to miss. He was bent over me using the bed for support with one hand and clutching his stomach with the other.
"What did you do that for?!" He asked hoarsely as I fought not to laugh. Serves him right!
"Didn't my grandma warn you?" I asked innocently…or as innocently as one can when they are dying of internal laughter.
"Warn me that you would hit me? No, she asked if I would go wake you up." He looked at the door as if it had betrayed him and the inside laughter tried to pry it's way out, forcing my lips to twitch slightly.
"I don't wake up well." He gave me a look that said 'you're not kidding'. "Oh, you big baby. Now who's being dramatic?"
"I'm not, that really hurt. Where'd you learn to punch like that?" He fell over so that he was lying next to me, making the bed squeak and the mattress to bounce.
"I have a brother, enough said. Tammy's felt worse than you. She got the full force of the punch on her face. You just got a half asleep, hindered by the bed punch." Then I held up the injured hand that was now red and broken open around the knuckles. "It's not without its drawbacks but I'm not crying about it."
"You're crazy!" He said as he took my hand to get a closer look. His hands were calloused and warm and I was pretty sure that they could envelope my hand or at least come close. I thought about taking it away but I wasn't sure if I minded. This was obviously because I was still only half awake. "What did your hand look like after Tammy?" He asked, pulling my out of my observation.
"Worse." I said simply as I sat up and ran the fingers of my other hand, the one that wasn't held captive, through my hair. "Is dinner ready or something?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot." He stood up, pulling me with him since he still had a hold of my hand. "I was distracted by pain and whatnot." Whatnot? "That's why you're grandma asked me to come up here and wake you up. She said that either you came down now while the food was still hot or you would have to warm it up yourself because she was going shopping with one of your aunts tonight."
"Well, I'm up now so mission accomplished." I said stupidly. "Um…can I have my hand back now?"
"Oh! Sorry." He dropped my hand as if it was on fire and turned red again. "I was…"
"Distracted by whatnot?" I supplied.
"Yeah, something like that." He started down the stairs but stopped mid-step, turning back to face me. "Oh and somebody named Tristan called earlier."
"What?!" I was completely shocked and a little worried though I wasn't really sure why other than the fact that he could be mad at me. "What did he say? Did you answer the phone?"
"Uh, no your grandma did. I mean, it's her house and there isn't really anybody that would be calling for me anyway. She just said to tell you that he wants you to call him back as soon as you can."
"She should have woken me up sooner…or had you do it which is the wiser choice on her part."
"Nice." He said dryly.
"It's true. Crap!" I shoved past him and down the stairs like I hadn't almost died on them so that I could get to the phone. Unfortunately, grandma already had it and was right in the middle of what I could tell was going to be one of her really long phone calls. I spun on my heels and ran back up the stairs so that I could get to my cell phone and punched in the number. Then paced back and forth as I waited for him to pick up. I noticed Rowan was leaning against the doorframe as he watched me freak out. "How long ago did he call?"
"Half hour tops." He shrugged. "Is he your boyfriend or something?" He looked a little hesitant as he said the last bit.
"Yeah…at least I think so." Just then Tristan's voice came over the phone and I about died in relief. "It's me."
"I know, I'm on my cell phone." He sounded a little annoyed but I might have been imagining it.
"So, you called? I just got the message because I decided to take a little bit of a nap before dinner. Did you get my myspace bulletin?" I sounded like a rambling idiot but I was to nervous to do anything about it. Why do I have to work myself up by thinking the worst all the time?
He laughed, which I think is a good sign. "Yeah, I got the bulletin. It sounded like a party over there so I thought I'd drop in. I'll be there in an hour and don't try to talk me out of it because I know that's what you're thinking of doing in the pretty little head of yours. I just want to make sure that things are going to be alright over there, especially since you're grandma's going out tonight."
"You know about that?" My heart sank, I couldn't decided whether I wanted him to come or not but I had a really bad feeling about it.
"Yeah, she told me when I asked if it was alright if I came over for a little while. She wasn't going to let me but decided that it would be alright since we wouldn't exactly be alone." Even over the phone I could here the suggestiveness in his voice and rolled my eyes.
"You're dumb." I laughed. "Alright but you can't be here for very long because we do have class tomorrow." I looked over at Rowan who was being more than obvious in his eavesdropping. "And you have to promise to behave yourself. That means keeping your temper in check amongst other things."
"Yeah, yeah, see you soon, babe." Then he hung up. I sighed, that wasn't really a promise and I really didn't want him to be in trouble with my grandma if he happened to throw a punch. I looked at Rowan again as I slid my phone into my pocket. "Please don't do anything to make him mad."
"Why not?" He asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Because I don't want the two of you to get into a fight over something that could have been avoided. Please don't. I'll try to be nicer to you if you don't." What was I saying?!
"I like it when you're mean to me." He did a weird eyebrow wiggling thing which made me fight not to laugh.
"You're an idiot." I said instead. "Please."
"Well, since you called me an idiot." He sighed. "I guess I can maybe keep my mouth shut."
"Thanks, I guess."
"Mia, Rowan!!! Are you two coming down for dinner?!" My grandma called up the stairs. This time I sighed and he moved so that I could go down first.