Rewrite the Stars

3: Out to Spite Arui

[Arui Vincent]

"You're out of your mind," the girl said, exasperated. She ran a hand through her dark brunette locks, clearly frustrated as bits of anxiety fills the void in her blank expression. Then she turned her eyes to look at me as if I were a crazy person. Her stormy blue eyes piercing through me with disbelief, confusion and maybe a bit of anger. I couldn't really tell which it was because I was bad at reading girls.

Maybe I was but I had just the right amount of crazy.

"And you're way in your comfort zone," I replied, trying to muster a polite smile.

I know I was rude and obnoxious but I didn't mean it intentionally, at all. It's like whenever I have a witty comeback in my mind, it can't help but work its way out through my lips. And on my behalf, she was asking the taxi driver a stupid question anyways. I mean, what kind of taxi driver doesn't know the destinations in Kuala Lumpur? If the driver were new to the business or was making a part time income from being a Grab or an Uber driver, maybe it wasn't an entirely stupid question. Another fact about Malaysian taxi drivers, well, at least the red-yellow cabs instead of the blue cabs; they never use GPS.

Cepuemas lah.

"How do you expect me to finish fifteen things on this bucket list?" Abel held onto her bucket list, shaking her head as she skimmed through the things for the second time. Maybe she was hoping somehow the ideas would magically disappear. She pursed her lips into a thin line, knitting her eyebrows until evident wrinkles form on her forehead. That's one way of showing how clearly annoyed she was. "Not to mention how wildly insane it is some of your ideas are."

Hm, so her name's Abel. I don't know why but I sort of had a sudden gut that her name was something more English like Roseanne, Helena, Briella or something along those lines.

But she does look like an Abel. It's closest to The Weeknd; Abel Tesfaye. I know for a fact through his music that he's reckless and she wasn't an exception either.

"It's not like I'm asking you to jump off from a moving convertible or go bungee jumping. Maybe... I could have added bungee jumping to the list but in Malaysia, we don't have a sport as exhilarating like that," I replied.

"Okay, you're crazy."

"My therapist said I still have my sanity in tact. So your insights are very wrong."

"Ugh, whatever," she groaned, pinching the bride of her nose, frustrated. She puts away her bucket list into her small bag, then folding her arms out in front of her chest, she suddenly laughed. She watched me under a gaze of a cold and unmoved stare. I shifted uncomfortably under my weight in my seat. I'm never comfortable when someone throws a look at me like they're about to kill me. If looks can ever kill, Abel could be breaking the law right now.

Malaikat maut.

"If you're that much of a daredevil as you speak by your ideas, I'd like to propose a challenge that you do these outrageous things with me," she finally spoke after a few minutes of grim and awkward silence. I didn't expect that coming from her though.

How is Hilton Kuala Lumpur that far? I steal a glance out of the passenger's window, realizing we were in a traffic jam. As a local who's travelled all around and everywhere in their country and knowing how the traffic jam especially when work hours were over was in Kuala Lumpur, we could be stuck here for hours. I really wanted to escape that question.

"No," I replied, firmly.

I have way many better things to do than rather getting involved with a foreigner and playing tour guide.

"Awe, what? You're backing out? I thought spontaneity was your best suit but I guess..." she cooed lowly, a coy smile playing at her lips.

"I'll show you spontaneity! Oh, you're on, Aussie. I dare pledge to your challenge," I exclaimed, gritting my teeth. I can't be challenged. I have this bad habit that whenever I'm challenged, I can never ever back down.

I get that kind of stubbornness like a mule from my mother and honestly it's the main reason why my mother can reach a thousand plus levels on her Candy Crush. She's determined, too eager to prove herself and stubborn to admit she won't lose to matching candies. I don't have that kind of stubbornness when playing games but only whenever I fail at my academics... or when people can't just shut their mouth. Like Abel here, a prime example of somebody who can't close their sass-hole when they need to.

"I'm British, by the way," she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Huh, no wonder I have a hard time understanding whatever you're saying. You know, it takes me longer than a whole minute to understand your accent," I tried to play coy. Two can play at this game. "Do you British people speak this much with prim and proper?"

"The last time I've checked I'm not speaking with the Queen Elizabeth of England," I added while scoffing, rolling my eyes until I swear I could see my own brain. I purposely mimicked Abel to get on her nerves.

It looked like it was working for a moment, when I saw her eye discreetly twitching, but she immediately composed herself.

"We'll start your crazy ideas tomorrow. Do we have a deal, Arui?" she ignored my sentence, holding out her hand to offer me the deal I could be regretting for a lifetime. I'm making a deal with the devil and she's the devil in turning.

I take her hand and shake it firmly. I smirked, "You bet your sassy ass we do. Deal."

Oh, man, Arui Vincent anak Andrew Buyun, what mess did you just got yourself into?

This is what I get for not taking an Uber in the first place.

Not-to-self; don't take red-yellow cabs anymore or else you'll get stuck with some egotistical foreigner with a pride too huge to swallow.