Daughter of Light

Chapter 30: Affectionate

~Chapter 30~

“So how are things going between you and your boyfriend?” Ami asked, as she applied a thin layer of makeup on my face.

I rolled my eyes, “He’s not my boyfriend, Ami. How many times do I have to tell you? Yesterday, he apologized to me and we went back as friends.”

My best friend giggled, “And then he asked you out on a date this afternoon!” Yeah, that was exactly she was dolling me up. When she found out Ash asked me out, she immediately volunteered to give me a makeover. I kept telling her it was just a friendly date but thinking of us in a date made my stomach do somersaults.

Ami moved to curling my hair. It was just ridiculous. “I don’t think I should be looking like this.” I said as I looked in the mirror. My hair was curled on the tips, I wore mascara and eyeliner and my lips had lip gloss. I was wearing a white camisole that reached mid-thigh with a cream colored cardigan and leggings then white flats from Ami.

She gave me an ‘are you crazy?!’ look and exclaimed, “C’mon, Clarence, you look absolutely beautiful and gorgeous!”

I sighed, “Ami, what if he doesn’t really like me?”

She moved forward and held both my shoulders, “Clarence, trust me, he does. I see the way he looks at you and the way he acts around you. I’m positive that he likes you as much as you like him.”

I don’t even know why he asked me out. It was just yesterday, we were talking, and Ash suddenly asked me to hang out the next day. I willingly agreed to it and he told me to meet him in the woods at five. I was a tad nervous because I never went on a date before – or as Ami calls it. She tells me it wasn’t just hanging out ‘as friends’. These were the times I wished I could really see what’s in Ash’s mind.

It was now four minutes until five in the afternoon and I was dying for this day to end. I sat down on Ami’s bed, “How come I can’t see that? That he likes me?”

Ami shrugged, “It’s just the way it works. Other people can clearly see someone is in love with the other person but they themselves don’t realize it. The only way to find out is take the risk.”

“And when I do take the risk?”

“Then, you’d be happy together, I promise. Remember that Jed and I would start as friends and we took it slowly then became a couple? Yeah, you never experience real love and happiness if you’re with the right person.”

“What if he’s not the right person?”

“I guess you’re the only one who would see that. It’s not the love that hurts. It’s what happens when you fall in love. You get too attached to that person that you never realize that you’d be hurting yourself. Sometimes we just like the idea of falling in love instead of the right person. That’s the common mistake people make. They take their heart when they fall in love, but never their brain. Then, they’d end up breaking their heart. It’s not always ‘listen to your heart’. At times, it should be ‘listen to your head’.”

I stared at my best friend, speechless. That was so deep, what she said. It makes me a little scared that I might be heading in the wrong direction because I’ve never liked someone before. But I should learn from my mistakes and risk the pain of heartbreak if that happens, right?

“Have you fallen in love with my cousin, yet?” I asked softly.

Ami nervously fiddled with the hem of her shirt. She seemed hesitant to answer that. “You know,” I said, “Back at Washington, Jed asked me about you. I told him a few things about you and questioned him a few times. Then, I asked him what he would do if he fell in love with you. He seemed reluctant to answer that so I just let it slip. But he looked like he was afraid that he might hurt you when he fell in love and made a mistake.”