7

You must know that I'm the sort of person that doesn't assume anything about anyone, ever. And even if I'm told directly and the assumption is not an assumption anymore, I still have a hard time believing what I'm told. So it wouldn't surprise you that when someone started texting me regularly (and with regularly I mean everyday) out of the blue, I was definitely taken aback. What did this person want? Why was she texting me of all people? What did she need from me?

I was, am, confused. But I did reply, albeit coldly. I just have a hard time warming up to people, especially to someone that I'd seen, what, at school from a distance and with whom I'd talked to a couple of times in the span of a year? And it's not like we talked about anything important. I remember the first time she approached me. I'd been waiting for the bus for almost an hour, it was raining heavily and I was the only person at the bus stop, I was sighing every 3.5 seconds and cursing in every language I knew in my head (English only actually, but I know some curses in Spanish and French, you know, the basics). So as I was doing that, she came out from behind me and scared the shit out of me. Then it went like this:

Her "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Me "I wasn- you didn't- uhm yeah don't worry."

Her (probably laughing at how stupid I was) "Are you waiting for the bus?"

Me "Yeah."

Her "Oh, me too."

At this point I was mentally praying (in English, I don't know prayers in Spanish or French sadly) that she would stop talking to me, I wasn't interested in small talk with anyone. Why hadn't I put on my headphones, I wondered.

Her "It's raining so heavily, hopefully the bus will come on time."

Me, thinking "Oh God, please no, I don't want to talk about the weather." And I wanted to tell her that the bus was in fact late since it wad supposed to be here twenty minutes ago but instead I stayed silent. I probably just grunted in response.

Her "Sorry, I have to make a call."

And that was it.

The second time wasn't much better. It was in the school's restroom.

It went like this:

Her, entering the restroom and seeing me, doing a double take, finally recognizing me. "Oh, you are the girl from the bus, hi!"

Me, sincerely wanting to share her enthusiasm but I just couldn't. "Hi."

Her "I've seen you around school a couple times."

Me "Yeah, I study here."

Her "Well, I have to go to the bathroom, it was nice seeing you."

And that was it.

See? See? What was she doing texting me so suddenly, in the summer when we didn't even see each other randomly at school? How did she find me, I didn't even know her name.

Of course I knew it now. Rachel. As soon as she told me her name I was reminded of this girl called Rachel that I knew when I was 6 years old. God, I hated her. And they both had the same blonde hair, and both were short, well, shorter than me. Coincidence? I think not. It seemed like Rachels weren't my kind of people.

But I still replied to what she texted me. I tried being short, cold, unenthusiastic (it wasn't that hard) hoping that she would get the hint. She didn't.

I wondered if there was a hidden motive behind her befriending me and then I thought, maybe she just felt lonely. And so I started to be more friendly, at least I tried.

That was until she invited me out, to the cinema. I was not going. I told her I was busy. But she insisted for another time. Then I told her that I was on vacation somewhere exotic. But she didn't believe me. Shit. I was trapped. And completely anxious, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Shit shit shit.

Boing. (That's the sound my phone makes when there's a new message)

I expected it to be Rachel but instead I saw Ann's name on the display. I sat up. This was the first time she's texted me since we exchanged numbers. I took a deep breath and opened it.

'Change of plans, my sister's coming over tonight. Hope you don't mind having dinner with the both of us. Dress nicely (don't come in your PJs). See you at 8.'

And at the end a smiley emoji.

Woah. Okay.

As if I wasn't nervous enough about going to the cinema with Rachel tomorrow, I now had to prepare myself to meet Ann's sister. Nice.

***

I rang the doorbell and waited. I did not dress exceptionally well, a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt, but I did wash my hair. As the door opened I was greeted by Ann who smiled at me and invited me in. "Cam! Come in."

"Hi." Okay, I was nervous about meeting her sister who suddenly appeared on the kitchen's door.

The first thing I thought was 'Wow, they don't look alike at all' and the second thing I thought was 'Wow, their family must carry some pretty good genes.'

She was taller than Ann, more or less my height, had her hair cut short to the chin, she wore glasses and had on a bright red lipstick. She was dressed in a tight dress and was wearing a pair of slippers (but I had no doubt she'd come with heels on).

"Hey, you must be Cam." She came towards me and extended her hand. "I'm Kaylee, Annie here has told me a lot about you."

I shook her hand and shot a questioning look towards Ann who just shrugged. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah yeah yeah. Now that we're done with these formalities we can finally eat."

She walked back towards the kitchen and I actually wondered how she could walk in that tight dress that accentuated, by the way, the very nice body and especially behind she had.

I felt an elbow hit me on the side and I turned to look at Ann. "What?"

"Nothing, let's go eat."

I soon learned that Kaylee was nothing like her sister. She worked at a law firm, was engaged to some, guess what, lawyer, and was planning to marry him and adopt a couple of kids. I was relieved that she was talkative so that I didn't have to contribute much to the conversation although Ann was checking on me, trying to include me in.

"So, Cam. Are you studying?"

"Yeah, I go to the local college here in town."

"Ohh. I went to college on the other side of the country, couldn't wait to finally be free, if you know what I mean." She laughed, I forced a smile. "What are you studying?"

"Biology." I replied. I felt a kick on my leg and looked up to see Ann who was sitting next to me on the table, trying to communicate telepathically with me. I didn't understand her though so I shot her what I hoped seemed like a question mark.

"Wow, I actually hated biology when I was in high school and well, obviously I choose something completely unrelated."

Ann raised her eyebrows and gave me another little kick on the leg. Okay, I got it. I should be more talkative and act like I was interested in the conversation. "I would make a shitty lawyer so.." I smiled and she laughed.

"It's not that difficult but I guess to each their own." She smiled again and took a sip from her glass of wine. You could actually see her confidence in just that simple gesture, then she looked at me. "Say, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Uhh..." I hesitated, "nope."

She smiled sweetly as if she was pitying me. Then she glanced at Ann and smirked. "What about a girlfriend?"

I would have spit out my drink if I had taken a sip of it. Kaylee was still staring at her sister. What was going on here? I turned around to look at Ann only to see her blushing.

Shit. I was probably flushing as well. I swallowed. Before I could say anything Kaylee threw her head back and laughed. "Why do you look so panicked?"

"Eh?" I said surprised. "I... I don't have a girlfriend either."

"Hey, I didn't want to embarrass you."

"You didn't." I tried to reassure her pretty unconvincingly.

She smiled and glanced at her sister again, her sister who hadn't said a word for like five minutes.

"What about you Annie?"

"What about me?" She asked.

"Any new dates?" Kaylee raised her eyebrows. I watched the interaction attentively, I still couldn't figure out their dynamic.

"I have a new date next week, nothing serious though."

"Uhmm... And who's this date?"

"You don't know him."

They stared at each other for a few moments and I kept on having no idea about what was going on.

"I figured as much." Kaylee glanced back at me and smiled. "Well, it was nice getting to know you but I sadly have to take my leave." She glanced at the wall clock and stood up from the table. I looked at Ann who didn't say anything but stood up as well.

I just stood there awkwardly.

"Cam," Kaylee said and leaned in for a quick hug, "hopefully we'll meet again." She smiled warmly and turned towards her sister.

"Bye Annie." They hugged and it seemed like the tension between them, whatever it was, was gone.

"Bye Kay. See you next week."

***

I probably shouldn't have, but I heaved a sigh of relief.

I saw Ann walking towards me from the front door where she'd just said goodbye to her sister, a smile gracing her beautiful face.

"She doesn't like me." I said and flopped down on a chair.

When she reached me, I felt her hands touching my hair from behind, caressing it. "She does like you."

"Really?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, believe me, you would have known if she didn't."

I turned my head back to look at her face. "I just washed my hair." I then said and sighed.

"So?" I could hear the playfulness in her voice.

"So..." I reached back with my hands to grab hers, "you're dirtying it."

I grabbed her hands pulling them out of my hair.

"Dirtying it?"

"Yep. Keep your filthy hands out of my hair."

She escaped my grip and I soon found her filthy, unusually cold hands on my cheeks. "Here should be fine then." God, I wanted to turn around and kiss her smirk off her face.

I grabbed her hands again. "Ok. Keep your filthy hands off my hair and face."

I probably should have expected that the next place she put her hands on were my shoulders, and not on my t-shirt covered shoulders but on my bare shoulders, underneath my t-shirt's collar. She was barely touching my collarbones with the tip of her fingers and yet I shivered. "What?" She asked, probably noticing the way I jumped at the contact.

"Your hands are cold." I said and I had no clue about what she'd do next.

"This is not your face right?"

"No. So let's rephrase that again. Keep your hands off my hair, face and shoulders." I would have said 'body' instead of shoulders but I was weirdly enjoing this more than I should have.

Her hands slid lower from my collarbones to my upper chest. I was afraid she would hear my heart beating like crazy and my breath catching in my throath but before realizing it, she removed her hands from my skin.

I couldn't help but start laughing.

"What are you laughing about?" Ann asked as she now stood in front of me, behind the counter.

I looked her straight in the eyes and with the most serious expression I could muster I said: "I actually thought you were going to touch my boobs."

1, 2... her eyes got wide... 3... and her cheeks flushed. Perfect. Then she glared at me. "Yeah, you wish."

I do, actually.

"Hey, if I wanted someone to touch my boobs I wouldn't be here."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"What, would you? If I asked you to?"

I could see her getting frustrated and I loved it. "Would I what?"

"Touch..." I looked down at my modest breasts just to emphasise the point. "You know."

"Of course not!" She almost shouted. I didn't expect her to say yes, but she looked appalled at the idea.

"Hey, don't act so disgusted." I pouted.

"I'm not."

"Yeah?"

"But I won't touch your boobs."

"It's not like I asked you to." I winked.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Ugh." She turned around to take something from the fridge leaving me smiling like an idiot. "What do you say we order some pizza tomorrow? We didn't eat it tonight because Kaylee doesn't like pizza and..." She turned back around to look at me and maybe catching me staring at her back, uhm, side as she'd bent down to pick what I now saw was an apple. She stopped talking and raised an eyebrow at me. "What?"

I played dumb. "What what?"

"What you know what?"

"I do? I know nothing."

"What do you say about pizza tomorrow?"

"Okay, I guess." I said and saw her coming to sit next to me with a knife in her hand. We stayed silent as she started peeling her apple and then it dawned on me. Oh. Tomorrow was Friday and... I... Had to go out with Rachel. Great. Perfect.

"Uhm Ann, I just remembered I can't come over tomorrow."

She kept peeling her apple. "Oh, okay. No big deal."

"Yeah, sorry."

Another moment of silence passed before she spoke, not looking up from her apple. "Got a date?"

Yeah, sure. As if. "Maybe." I said, just to see her reaction.

She did look up from her apple now, giving me a questioning look. "Maybe?"

I smirked. "Nah."

She laughed. "Nah?"

"Nah, nope, no. Just meeting a- uhm..." How do you call someone that you're meeting for the first time? "Someone for a movie."

"Hmm... If you say so. Hope your date goes well." Shit. It is not a date. I might have looked like I just saw a ghost because Ann laughed and patted me on the back. "You may want to relax first, though."