"No matter your problems, face them with a bright smile and a bucket of chocolate ice-cream," nana once wisely told me. At the time, I was barely twelve and thought that I could summon a unicorn if I just believed in myself.
A decade later, despi...
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Mark's point of view.
We leave the old lake house as soon as the sun sets and head to Oakmoor. If it were up to me, I would've just stayed there for a little longer, but Maeva insisted on returning after seeing a load of missed calls and messages we'd received from nearly half the planet.
I'm driving silently, listening to some soft music and occasionally diverting my gaze from the road to take a look at her. Suddenly, she hits the radio button, shutting it off, then plays one of the voice messages she'd received:
'Where in the world are you, girl? We've been babysitting your brother for hours. You and Mr. Asshole have been out for way too long! ...James shut up, I'm trying to talk in here... Anyway, if you guys don't get your asses in here in exactly one hour, and I repeat, AN HOUR, Mr. Asshole will lose one of his balls.'
And that was Kimberly, ladies, and gentlemen. Maeva chokes as she hears the last sentence, then bursts out laughing as I restrain myself from throwing her phone out of the window. Kimberly has never liked me. She thinks that I'm, and I quote, "a selfish asshole who's killed the last bit of chivalry left in the world". I swear, if it weren't for James, we would have killed each other ages ago.
He and I were at a party, enjoying our senior year in high school, hitting on girls and chugging beer. It was almost 4 am when we decided to call it a night, and so we ordered a cab to get back home. Just when we were about to get in the car, a hyena-like laugh emerged from the bushes, making us wonder what the crazy drunk girl staring at us was up to.
Her little black dress was ripped on its chest area, revealing her lace bra, and the red lipstick, supposed to cover her lips, was smudged all over her chin. To be honest, and although the scene had all of the elements for it to turn sexual, it was somehow fit for a horror movie.
She threw herself at me, but I stepped away just in time to dodge her half-bare body, and so she landed on James who's lost at words, the moment she passes out burying his head under her cleavage. Needless to say, my cousin's manners could not allow him to leave her sleeping on the asphalt, so he made me carry her with him all the way to his room.
The next morning, she only thanked him and nearly broke a vase on my head because all that she could recall from the previous night was that I was the asshole who did not catch her when she fell. For all I know, she should be thanking me every time she sees me because if I hadn't moved away, she would've never got to voodoo James.
Moments later, I realize that the radio is still hushed which leaves us in somewhat awkward silence. Meva's looking out of the window, her head resting in her palm. At first, I think she's trying to avoid me, but when she feels that I haven't been taking my eyes off of her for a while, she turns to me, smiling ever so softly which makes me feel all fuzzy inside. Yes, I did say fuzzy. Butterflies in the stomach are not exclusive to girls, okay?! What do you think happens to a guy when the girl he likes smiles at him? Have lizards in the stomach?
