Dating Mistakes

Chapter 7

Gemma

I'm still in bed. It's Saturday morning and I have no desire to wake up until 9. But, apparently, my luck seems to have run out.
There's a loud knock on my door. I try to block out the noise by burying my face further into the pillow. But it's constant and, somehow, keeps getting louder.

"5 minutes more, mom!" I cover my ears with the pillow. But have to remove a couple seconds later for the lack of oxygen. I rub my eyes and try to focus on my surroundings.

First thing I focus at? The alarm clock.

6:30 a.m.

Why does my mother want me up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning?!

Thump!

Ugh, the knock.

But wait a minute. Now that I realise it, the sound doesn't sound like a knock.
And definitely not on my bedroom door.

Thump!

A stone.

Thrown at my window.

Somebody's tossing stones at my window!

I get up from my bed and peer out the window but stay hidden behind the curtains.

I mean somebody throwing stones at someone's window at 6:30 in the freaking morning!?

Yup. Definitely a psychopath.

And when I finally get a good look at the intruder, I almost race down to strangle him myself.

Because standing there, a stone in hand, back to his bike is none other than my biggest headache.

The bane of my existence.

Andrew Sanchez.

He waves when I pull the curtains from the window and give him a death glare that could probably melt glaciers but he only seems further amused.
I don't bother opening my window or inviting him in. I make my way towards the shower and clean up at an excruciatingly slow pace. He is the one who disturbed my sleep this freaking early in the morning. If he has to wait another hour for my attention? His problem.

After getting ready, I finally make my way down and out of the house. Mom and Dad are out for their morning walk so it's just me.

When I open my front door, I find him sitting on the front porch and he looks up when I step out.

"As someone who has such pretty tight schedule, you seem to spend awful lot of time getting ready." He stands up, his usual smirk in place.

"It's way too early for this. What are you doing here, Andrew?"

"Well I'm here for the lesson, Miss. Or did you forget?"

"At six on a Saturday morning? Are you out of your mind?!" I nearly scream.

"Well its not exactly six now since you took your sweet time getting all dressed up." He looks me up and down.

I take a moment to study him too. He's wearing all black. Black jeans, black leather jacket with black t-shirt underneath and black sneakers. His dark brown hair, blue eyes and lightly tanned skin a beautiful contrast to his outfit.
I, sometimes, wish his attitude was just as beautiful but unfortunately, no such luck.

"Whatever. I need to have breakfast before I deal with you."

"Great then, hop on. I know a perfect, peaceful place. We'll get breakfast and then do the rest of the work." He extends a helmet to me.

"Yeah right." I scoff. "I'm not going anywhere with you. How much of it is still left anyway? It's like they're never ending."

"Welcome to my side of the world, firefly."

"Oh, please, it's only because you couldn't even take an hour out of your precious time to devote to school. How can you not even care? What is more important than school in yout life right now, anyway?"

Since its our senior year in high school, I can't believe any other 'task' more important than grades.
It's what I've been working for my whole life. This is the make or break point of my whole life, career wise. How can he seriously no care?

"There's a lot you don't know about me and it's better off this way." He looks at me with a strange look on his face. "If you seriously have that much problem with helping me, I'll leave but don't go making assumptions about my life."

He turns around, hops on his bike and drives off leaving me alone in stunned silence.

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I don’t go back into the house. Instead, I decide to take a stroll through the park.
After a while, I sit there on a bench and take a deep breathe and try not to think about what just happened.

I take a look around. The park is filled with children running around and chasing each other, laughing all the while. Not a care in the world. I wonder how that's suppose to feel like.

It's early spring here, in South Carolina, so the place is adorned with colourful flowers blooming on the side of the footpath and trees look fresh and alive as their green leaves sway lightly in the morning air.

There are still many adults either jogging or meditating. On the far corner is a group of elderly people, laughing with their hands up in air. The sun is still halfway up and I shiver against the deliciously cold morning air. It's such a beautiful picture, I wish I could save it in my mind forever for all the other overwhelming days.

"Fancy seeing you here." Someone says over my shoulder. I look up and lock eyes with the darkest pair of irises I've ever seen.

"Hey, Liam." I paste on a smile. "Yeah, I don't come here often. Much less on a Saturday morning. Exercise and I just don't get along."

"Don't tell that to the girls running around here. They'll have a heart attack if they knew you were in such great shape without busting your ass every morning." He chuckles and I look away, blood rushing up my cheeks.

"Don't worry. My lips are sealed. Actually, I was just here because I got up early and thought maybe some fresh air might be good."

"Oh yeah. The weather's still a bit cold but it's beautiful, isn't it? In fact, I come here to jog everyday. The morning routine gets my blood pumping for the rest of the day." He stretches.

He does look like he runs a marathon everyday, followed by heavy workout at gym, if the defined muscles on his forearms and biceps are any indication.
He's wearing a blue sleeveless vest, a pair of black sweatpants and black running shoes. His generally light brown hair appear a few shades darker and a few strands stick to his forehead, slick with sweat. I resist the urge to reach out and push them back.

"Yeah, I guess. It really is beautiful out here, this time of the day." I inhale deeply. "By the way, do you live around here? I never saw you before."

"Yeah, I live just down the block. Actually I just moved here, almost a month ago. Gonna live with my uncle till the semester starts."

"Oh that's...amazing. So how long are you gonna be here?"

"A month, at tops. I hope we can spend a little more time together, though. I'd really like to make a friend here who isn't over 40 or under 10. " He chuckles.

"I guess I can help with that. Prior warning though: if you're gonna be my friend, I'm gonna talk your ears off with all the Taylor Swift talk."

"I think I can handle that. I love her music too."

And just like that I forget about any other thing to worry about.

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