Attraction

(5) | .Aaliyah.

"I see it," Autumn says, her voice loud enough to pull my lips away from the coffee cup I held in my hand. 

We sat in the café down the road, finally catching up with our rain-check coffee date we had to reschedule after I stood her up. 

"I see the smile on your face," she clarifies and I roll my eyes before peeling my lips to my coffee cup again. 

She smirks. Her elbows rested on the table in front of her with her chin resting above her knuckles. She bites down on her lower lip and I stare at her, crossing my eyes slightly as I look past the end of the cup. "I know you stood me up for him, Aaliyah." 

"Him?" I inquire, shaking my head, pretending to be at a loss. I knew exactly who she was talking about and I knew she knew. That didn't mean I was about to humour her though. 

"Him." She smiles and I set my cup down, waiting for her to begin making her guesses. Even if she was to mention Caleb, I wouldn't confirm it. I'd just say the same thing I would say about any of her other guesses. 

Finally setting her arms down, she pushes her cup towards me and I look at it sceptically, not understanding what she wanted me to do. 

"Mind getting me a refill?" she asks. There was a playfulness in her tone. 

She was still smiling. It was more than a smile though, it was a grin. She was biting down on her lip to suppress the smirk but I could see it. The glint was in her icy blue eyes, like crystals.

Why was she smirking? Was this part of some new ploy of hers? 

I knew my best friend more than anyone else did and she only ever grinned so much when we were speaking boy-talk. She knows how withdrawn I am from that sort of thing but when she suspects me to finally be interested in a guy, she gets way too excited for my liking. 

"Milk and two sugars." 

She was still smiling as I scraped my chair back. She was still grinning when I stood up. She was still smirking when I peered over my shoulder while I was walking straight but then it turned into a simper. A laugh. A giggle.

I'm about to ask her what was going on but before I had the chance to do so, I bump into someone and the left-over coffee in my own cup spills everywhere. 

It splatters onto my white button-up blouse which I had tucked into my grey jeans. When I look ahead of me, I see it had also splattered all over the maroon t-shirt of the body towering above me. 

"I'm so sorry." I reach out to the nearest table and snatch the stack of tissues on the lovely old couple's table. They didn't seem to mind. 

I don't dab at my blouse but I begin to dab at his shirt. My eyes wander all over his abs where the fabric began to stick to his torso. I hold the tissue on the part where the most coffee had been absorbed and I look up. 

Caleb. 

That's why Autumn was smiling, grinning and smirking. She knew. Of course she knew. 

"I swear I really didn't mean to," I say to him. I didn't know what else to say. 

He had pushed me out of his room so briskly last week. I wanted to ask him why. Besides us barely knowing each other and only having interacted for a couple of days, what was the problem? Why didn't he want us to kiss? 

I wanted us to kiss. I didn't want the kiss to stop. I wanted to kiss his lips, his cheek, his temple, his neck, his collarbone. 

Why didn't he want to kiss me? 

"It's alright, A," he says. 

I keep dabbing at his chest in an automatic motion. I didn't realise I was still doing it until he twitches a little. Had I hurt him? I was invading his privacy, he didn't want that.