Worth The Fight ✓

Chapter Twelve

QUOTE OF THE CHAPTER:

"Is it possible for home to be a person and not a place?"

― Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss

Dedication: @republicans (because I fangirl whenever she comments and she has dibs on Cal. well, she's Anha basically, that's why.)

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CHAPTER TWELVE

We are descending the stairs, the sound of our feet escorting us, and step by step, I get more nervous. I should've have been mad at him at his room, why did I act like it was nothing? Why do I even meet his mother? I sigh and he looks at me with the look asking what's wrong and I just sigh again.

"You don't have to," he says, pausing at a step and staring directly at me. "I have been telling a lot about you and she wanted to meet. But of course, if you are comfortable with it. I'm not going to force you into something you aren't willing."

When he says it like I am not comfortable - yes, I am not - it makes me feel like a coward. However I'm not a coward. Therefore, I need to prove it. I take a deep breath, then casting my eyes on his worried ones, my lips unconsciously quirk up with a smile. "I'm not comfortable. It's just - you could tell me beforehand." I look down at my outfit as if I do care. "I would wear something nicer." Wait, this sounded so wrong.

But it is too late to take my words back. He looks at me with an amused grin, "Are you afraid if she won't like you?"

"She will like me," I spit out nervously, "I - I know it. Gilmore family is attracted to me."

He chuckles, "Good determination." Then, he starts to descend again.

"Wait, did you just confess that you are attracted to me?" I smile sardonically.

He looks at me, right in the eyes, and there, his look buries deep holes inside my body - my stomach. It doesn't feel like butterflies as people say, it is indeed someone burying holes into my body. It hurts - it is the worst feeling I've ever felt. But the thing is I don't want it to stop. Not until it reaches my heart. I wonder what his next words are going to be, if the look is sufficient to make me regret what I've just said. "I don't know," - he grins back - "did I?"

"Probably not," I blurt out, turning my gaze on the ground and walking towards the living room. I feel him coming behind me and that uncomfortable feeling keeps coming back whenever he is closer.

This is the thing I don't get about Calvin Gilmore.

He looks like a shy, funny and weird boy. He is as soft as a pillow, at least his soul, and he cares about people. He is so nice, and he is far from bad. He is the inverse definition of Richard. Or any bad livings. Or me. But at times like this, I can't help thinking he has that bad hint in his soul as well as us. The way he looks at me - it is like he knows how to capture my feelings inside my stomach and make me crazy. It is like he found the spell of my heart - he knows how to control me. There are a dozen of emotions and thoughts I try to push back but they keep coming at me whenever he gazes at me like he's just done. And I feel so scared.

I, Jack Pierce, feel so scared not to be able to push them back wherever they belong to.

"Jack," Calvin interrupts my thoughts which I'm so glad for. If he knew what I am thinking, it would be scandalous. "Are you okay?"

"I am," I mutter absentmindedly, then I turn at him, grasping his upper arm and stopping him before he enters into living room. "Why are you asking if I'm okay?"