Discovering Everley

05 | incentive

CHAPTER FIVE - Incentive

Xander laughed in my face for about three minutes straight.

I blushed with embarrassment, not knowing why I had blurted those exact words out and immediately regretted them. My initial idea had been to explain and reason the whole idea to him first, before proceeding to tell him - yet for some reason, my mind must have been unable to function properly because the next thing I knew, the words had already escaped my lips.

Judging from his reaction, it was a huge mistake. My first thought was to abandon the whole idea, walk away and pretend it never happened. But just as I was about to do just that, I realised something.

Xander Myers was laughing, actually laughing. The corners of his eyes were crinkled up and the edges of his mouth had turned upwards revealing dimples in his cheeks, as he clutched his stomach and let the waves of laughter shake over him.

It was strange seeing him like this, especially in comparison to his usual cold exterior self. His laugh wasn't sarcastic, bitter or malicious.. It was genuine.

It was such a rare expression on him that I remained where I was, perplexed. I continued to let him laugh, despite my growing embarrassment with every passing moment. After two minutes however, my tolerance reached a maximum when he continued to laugh. I was very close to leaving at that point, but his laughter came to pause before I could.

"Did you just ask me to be your boyfriend?" he asked in disbelief, after having regained his breath. The tone in his voice was full of mock, and there was a boyish grin on his face with a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"No! Well, I mean yes.. But I-"

My response only caused him to laugh even more, causing me to flush red with frustration and embarrassment.

"You know what? Forget it! Forget this whole conversation ever happened!" I seethed furiously at him, turning around and beginning to storm off as he broke into another fit of laughter.

Iris was mad for thinking up this whole plan in the first place! I couldn't believe I even considered going through with it - with Xander Myers, of all people! I would have had to been in the wrong state of mind when I agreed to this stupid idea.

I managed to make it a few steps before he circled his fingers around my wrist, pausing me in my tracks. The contact startled me and I half turned around, staring at my wrist in surprise. It wasn't until a few seconds later that Xander seemed to notice this and he immediately dropped my hand.

"Enlighten me as to why you, Everley Ronan, want me to be your boyfriend."

I mentally cringed at how bad it sounded, and the whole idea seemed even more pathetic now than ever. To make matters worse, he was probably going to laugh at me again, if I did tell him the truth.

"I.. Can't you just forget everything that happened?" I asked in a too hopeful tone.

He tilted his head slightly to the side as if pretending to consider the idea - but it was pointless, we both knew the answer, and well aware that the other knew too.

"No."

"Nobody would believe you, if you told them you know," I blurted out nervously, not knowing whether I was convincing him or myself, "So, it really doesn't matter if you don't know."

His blue eyes bored into mine, causing me to become even more nervous and fidgety, if that was possible. There was an element of him that was very intimidating, even when he wasn't doing anything.

"That's true." he stated, uncaring of the fact. "I guess I'll just have to believe that you're secretly and deeply in love with me."

My jaw dropped at the preposterous implication, and before I knew it, I found myself furiously denying the claim.