When Sour Meets Sweet

4. Childish argument

    We walked close to the river. I slowly regained my confidence.

   "Mr. Wonka? Here's the part when-" Charlie began to say.

    Wonka suddenly remembered something. "Oh, yeah! Did you know that chocolate contains a property that triggers the realease of endorphins that gives one the feeling of being in love?" He turned to face me.

    "You don't say." I said. His expression changed emmediately. His pale face became slightly pink for a moment. He looked at me in shock.

   "What? Isn't that what Mrs. Beauregard said?" I asked confused.

    Mr. Wonka looked away, clearing his throath. "Y-yeah, you got it quite right."

     'Did he think that I was being serious?' I almost cracked a smile at the thought.

     "Now, I want you to show me where exactly Augustus fell in."

    He took me to the exact location. There was a big spot which didn't contain any grass.

    "Yeesh, not even a cow could eat so much grass." I muttered to myself. The boys must have heard me since they looked at eachother and started laughing.

   I only then realized what I've said.

   "Oh, sorry, that was mean."

  After we spent a little while discussing what happened to Augustus Gloop, we went to little boat floating on the river.

    "Since there are only 3 of us, we'll take a smaller boat." Mr. Wonka announced.

    We got into the boat where 2 Oompa Loompas were prepared to row.

    There was only one place to sit down, so I ended up sitting in the middle of the 2 boys. I didn't like the idea of sitting next to Willy Wonka, since he kinda creeped me out.

    He was looking away from me so I finally had the time to look at his face better. I gulped, remembering my sketch and how much better he looked in reality.
     As much as I hate admitting, he was quite attractive. Even his haircut fit him perfectly in a weird way.

     He moved his head slightly and I quickly looked away. Charlie noticed what I was doing and was staring at me with a confused look on his face.

    Not being able to bare the awkward silence anymore, I decided to speak.
    "I heard about the weird flashbacks that were happening all through the previous tour. From what I understand they were related to your dad?"

    Mr. Wonka looked surprised and before he could answer, Charlie hopped in. "Yeah, but we solved them!"

     "Glad to hear that." I said while taking out my notebook and circling the word 'daddy issues' with a red pen. Willy noticed and quickly yelled "I do not have 'daddy issues'!"

   I gave him a questioning look. "Suuuree..."

    "I do not!"

    "Whatever helps you sleep at night..." I sarcastically said.

   "What is that even supposed to mean?!" He crossed his arms.
  "Nuthing." I murmured.

   "I don't like your hat!" He exclaimed with his arms still crossed.

    "Like your 60cm hat is better. It looks ridiculous."

    "How dare you! This is my favourite hat!"

    He snatched my hat off. "How can this be better than my hat? Impossible!"

    "Hey! What the hell? Give it back!" I snapped.

   He held it above his head and said: "Not until you take your hurtful words about my hat back!"

   "Oh, so that's how you want to play?" I took his hat off of his head. He looked shocked.

    "Give it back!" He yelled.
   I put it on my head. "See how ridiculous it looks?"

   At this point Charlie and the Oompa Loompas were laughing their asses off. The hat was so big that it slipped and it covered my entire head.

   Everyone, including me, started laughing even harder. I took it off and gave it back to Willy. He was laughing too.

    We exchanged hats. My hair was all ruffled up, but I didn't care. I haven't laughed like that in a long time.

    "I guess my hat looks better on you afterall!" He said.

    "How come?" I curiously asked.

    "Well, it covered your face!"

    "Pfft- are you implying that I'm ugly?"

    "No." He paused for a second, then continued "Maybe."

    I chuckled. He's not insane, just very childish.

     "Don't worry, I've heard that many times before." I responded. His face became slightly concerned.
 
     "Really?" He asked.

     "Yeah."

    "Oh, I'm sorry." Regret could be seen on his face.

    "No, don't be! It's alright!" I almost shouted.

    Charlie entered the conversation. "Did a lot of people call you ugly?" He said with a sad face.

    "I...yeah."

    "But why? You're not ugly!"

    "I know, but people are just mean sometimes. I'm sure you met a lot of rude kids at school too."

    He looked down at his feet. "Miss Skyler? Were you bullied?"

    I didn't know what to say. This question caught me completely off-guard.

     "I-well...I mean-" Mr. Wonka cut me off: "Charlie, let's not ask such personal questions, alright?"

    "No, it's alright! I was bullied. There's nothing to hide." I answered quickly.

    Right then the boat started moving extremely fast, taking us all by surprise.

     I felt the wind ruffling my hair, which made me smile. I loved going fast and feeling the wind come against your face.

    We suddenly stopped in front of a room labeled as "The Inventing room".

    "Did you enjoy the ride?" Willy asked me while offering his hand to lift me up from my seat. I took his hand and replied: "Yeah, I love riding on boats!"

     "Your hands are very cold." He informed me.

   "I get that a lot. You could microwave my hand and it would still be ice cold."

    The fact that he felt the coldness of my hands through his gloves says enough.

     We went into the Inventing room.

    "You can have a look around, just don't touch anything!" Mr. Wonka spoke.

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