Four Years

Chapter 5

"This was fun."

Ivan slipped on his sunglasses, stretching his arms outwards. Well, I had some different opinions about that.

All four of us had finally stepped out of the parlor and were crowding in front of Shelley's car. I was silently observing Jace and Ivan as Shelley was chatting away with them. Ivan was on the shorter side of Jace, carrying light features in the form of blond hair and green eyes unlike Jace who was dark-haired and brown eyed. Then I did not know why, but I somehow started to compare who would look better with Shelley. The odds were definitely in the favor of her ex-boyfriend.

I was obsessed with people's heights so much to the point that I knew each of my friends' heights, also that I was the tallest one among my friends. And I also knew that Jace had five or six inches on me—I mean he was still really tall.

"Yes, it was! Thank you for going out with me, Jace. I knew we'd hit it off once we got to know each other better." Shelley grinned at Jace.

He stuck his hands into his pockets. "Umhmm."

"Hey, Alyssa, wanna go out with me again?" Ivan leaned against Shelley's car.

"Uh, we'll think about that later." I smiled nervously. "Don't you guys have an away game?"

"Oh, yeah, the cheer squad has a competition there, too." Shelley mused.

Ivan nodded. "Yeah, it's at the end of the month."

Suddenly, Shelley gasped loudly, her face morphing into a horrified expression. She was looking at something over my shoulder, on her car window. Then everything happened so fast, I barely had time to think anything. Ivan, probably too having seen what Shelley was seeing, grabbed my arm and violently pushed me away from the door. This action led me to trip forward right into Jace, knocking my nose into his collarbone as his arm came around me to stabilize both of us.

My hands were planted onto Jace' chest, and eyes wide, I stared over his shoulder. What on Earth just happened? As the realization of my position slowly started seeping in, my entire face burned a daring shade of red. I was frozen with embarrassment and I was pretty sure I was about to hyperventilate very, very soon.

I titled my head slightly to find Jace' face only breaths away from mine. His eyebrows were drawn with concern over this perilous state. I could only stare at the dark in his eyes like a deer staring into on-coming headlights.

"Oh, my God, are you okay?!" Shelley screeched at me.

The moment broke and so did our trance. I stumbled away from her date (because oh, my God, I had just practically thrown myself onto the guy she liked) as fast as I could with my noodle body.

"Why did you push me?!" I demanded to Ivan.

He took my right arm in his hand, inspecting it. "There was a honeybee right over your shoulder. It didn't sting you, right? I once got stung by one and it was hella painful."

"No, I'm fine. Um, thanks, Ivan." Then flicked him on the forehead. "But I definitely didn't appreciate you pushing me like that."

He grinned cheekily. "Eh, it's just my player reflexes."

We laughed off the situation, but the warmth of Jace' arm around my waist wasn't something I could laugh off easily. Unfortunately.

*  *  *

When Shelley dropped me home, the day was transitioning into the evening and the sky was a pleasant hue of orange-ish blue. I invited Shelley to come watch a movie with me since Savannah texted me a few minutes ago saying she needed a sleepover, but Shelley claimed that she needed to do some kind of beauty ritual with her mother.

Oh, well.

Whenever I rang the doorbell of my house, I suddenly become multiple folds of obnoxious. Mom opened the door with a pissed off look and her hands on her hips.

"What is wrong with you, Alyssa? Does the doorbell have drugs stuck on it that you somehow inhale them and lose your braincells?!"

I stuck my tongue out, ducking past her. "Whoa, savage, Mom."

I jumped on the couch in the living room, laying on it lazily. My elder sister, Aimee, was a college student but she took her classes online since she was also working on the side in establishing her own production house. I loved books and Aimee had promised me she would let me read books in the advanced reader sections when she owned a publishing house.

"Move your lazy butt and go wake Aimee up for dinner. You didn't eat too much ice-cream, did you? Last time that happened you had a fever the next day. You better not fall sick." Mom blabbed on in the background.

I assured her that I did not and I would not fall sick again. God, Moms are really after your ass for that one time you fell sick.

As promised Savannah arrived for the sleepover later that evening. The moment she stepped inside my house, she had this twinkle in her eye which made me fear for my life. Okay, that was a tad bit overdramatic. My mom loved Savannah because she was much better child than her younger daughter (as if that's literally not what all the moms say all the time).

"Okay, you are telling me everything."

She said to me as soon as I closed my bedroom door. Unlike my sister's wholesome themed room (that's a whole new story), my room was the epitome of the minimalist aesthetic with peach colored walls and three print outs of Pre-Raphaelite art in a staircase pattern. My bed was the comfiest thing in the entire world mainly because I had tons of pillows stacked on it.

Savannah dragged my desk chair in front of my bed and forced me to sit on it. I felt like I was under serious questioning by the FBI. I gulped, sitting with a straight spine.

"Soooo," She dragged the O, "who was your date?"

"Ivan Lee." Seeing her expression, I raised my hands. "Seriously. I was just as shocked."

"How did Jace react to this?"

I frowned. "Why would he react to that?"

"Yeah. Why did Shelley set you up with her ex-boyfriend?"

"I do not know."

She laid on her side, propping herself up with her elbow and bore a thoughtful expression on her face.

"This is interesting. Nothing else happened? Were Shelley and Jace all mushy-mushy with each other?" She questioned.

I thought back. "Naah, not really. She was too busy catching up with Ivan for that matter."

"Of course she was." Savannah mumbled.

"In fact, he wasn't very interested in the date... apart from his ice-creams, it seemed."

She nodded, looking satisfied. "Wow, it's making my suspicions stronger. And nothing else?"

I remembered the honeybee and the event that proceeded it.

"Well, I almost got bitten by a honeybee but I was saved." And oh boy, what a save it was.