章節 165: Chapter 162
When Austin had arrived at the store, I had already been loaded with questions, not only about his bike but also what he was planning on doing about the entire situation. But he had been in no mood to discuss the topic and he just asked me whether we could talk about it some other time. I didn't want to, but it's not like I could force him to talk when it was evident he didn't want to. I just let him eat his meal in peace, and the cake did somehow managed to cheer him up. According to what he knew, I had gotten it from Max's mum's birthday party, and he had no reason to doubt me.
He hadn't studied with me at the store, but I insisted that he do his assignments since I knew he had some. I said I'd check to confirm whether he'd done them myself and he gave in and took out his books. There were hardly any customers so I decided to close up early, bearing in mind that unlike the other days, we had to walk home. But the good thing about that street was that it never really dulled completely. For some reason there were always a number of people out there hanging out in the night. So even if you were alone, you felt secure in a way.
" Goodness! Cheer up already. It's not like your bike is gone forever, you'll get it back eventually. " I finally complained once we arrived at the house. He was all sulky and quiet and I hated it. And I somehow wondered whether there was something else on his mind apart from his bike. Even if it was really expensive, I was certain that wasn't going to be an issue for him. If it had been my bike that had gotten damaged I probably wouldn't have even taken it to get fixed in the first place. It would have cost a fortune that I didn't have. But he could just sort that out in no time. There was no permanent damage.
He didn't reply and I shook my head and walked away, leaving him on the couch and going to wash up.
" Where are you going?" He immediately asked, on noticing I was leaving. He clearly thought I was leaving him all alone there and going to bed,but I assured him I was only going to take a few minutes.
" Just finish writing your History notes in the meantime, you'll get into trouble otherwise. "
I knew the notes were due the following day, and their teacher didn't joke around when it came to such things. I knew this from Max. He hated school almost as much as Austin but he always made sure that he was keen and diligent when it came to History. A small thing such as missing notes would be enough to make the teacher give you a bad grade, or deduct points from the upcoming exams.
I was as quick as I could be, and after I had taken a shower and changed, I went back to the living room and found him exactly where I had left him.
I gave him a small smile on realizing he had done what I had asked and was currently busy updating his notes.
" Aren't you straining to write over here?"
" I'm good. "
" You should have gone to the counter instead, or the table in my bedroom. You'll get tired like this. "
" I'm almost done, I just have like two pages to go. "
I sat closely beside him and my hand just naturally reached for his ear, needing to touch at least one part of him. It was impossible to sit and be that close to him and not touch him. He stopped writing and looked at me as if he wanted to say something, then he looked away again and went back to his work. Austin never held anything in, it wasn't how he was built. Whatever it was he wanted to say was just going to find a way to be voiced no matter what. He couldn't control it.
And I was simply going to wait until that happened. I wanted to sleep though, so immediately after he was done I was going to make him go to bed. And maybe before we fell asleep I'd start up a conversation about what he was really planning in doing about about that whole mess. We couldn't ignore it.
" This is so tiring! It's draining my energy entirely!" He complained, placing his own in between the book and stretching, then he leaned back against the couch and turned to face me.
" You done?"
" One page left, I can finish up tomorrow. "
" No, don't procrastinate. Just do it now, you're almost done anyways. "
He dramatically rested his head on my shoulder and claimed his hand was gonna break. He'd never written that much since he joined highschool, that I was sure of. I mean, the notebook he was writing on was still new.
" Then pretend you're writing it for me. Like you used to do when we were kids. "
I recalled the way he'd jolt down those facts about things I was interested in. If he could do all that research just for me then perhaps he could use me as his motivation.
" You mean like that essay on friendship? What else was I supposed to write? You were my only friend, "
" Oh! That was really cute, but I'm talking about the notes you always left for me, the blue ones. "
" Blue ones?"
I groaned and shook my head. Not believing that he could have forgotten such a thing. He always claimed that he remembered everything that had to do with me. So if it was taking him that long to recall something so important then perhaps he didn't remember as much as he claimed to.
" The birthday card when you turned ten?"
" Uurgh! You actually can't remember? "
" I'm trying to, but all I can remember are the blank ones I teased you with, " he chuckled after that and held my hand in both of his, focusing almost all his attention on properly linking our fingers together, then he sighed and told me he was tired and didn't have it in him to write anymore.
" I'm still not over the fact that you forgot those notes! How can you remember what color t-shirt I wore to the park at nine but then forget that you'd leave me entire filled notes on topics I was into. "
He suddenly looked even more confused. And I watched as he squinted his eyes and tried to recall what I was referring to, but then not too long afterwards he shook his head and said I was probably mistaken. That there's no way he'd forget something like that so it had to be some sort of mix-up.
" Don't tell me you were cheating on me back then. Was it that Adrian kid?"
The fact that he could still vividly recall Adrian was all the proof I needed to know he wasn't playing or trying to mess with me. I darted my gaze around the place, thinking about something. Wondering what direction my thoughts were heading to. And suddenly my heart just started to beat faster, almost as if it had sensed some sort of danger. And I didn't want to feel that way because it was extremely creepy. I just had all these half formed guesses in my head and my mind was suddenly working to put them together.
I nervously swallowed, starting to her an entirely different picture of things and wishing with everything I had that I was mistaken. Because if not then things were more messed up than I had originally assumed.
I asked Austin whether he was sure, trying my best not to sound too alarmed or spooked. It would be better if I just kept those assumptions to myself first and tried to sort through them later on.
" I already told you. Why are you so hung up on this anyways?"
I faked a smile and shook.my head, assuring him that it was nothing. Praying that he didn't start to suspect anything. But he normally took a while to figure complex stuff out, and unless I willingly told him my thoughts, there's no way he'd be able to find out.
I wasn't even going to bring up the subject I had been intending to bring up. Because if my suspicions were correct, the entire dynamic of that situation was going to shift. It would literally make a left turn, and I'd be the one stuck in the middle.
But how could I have missed it before?
He did know blue was my favorite color. He only ever approached me when Austin hadn't been around, and he had always been relatively nice to me. Was it my attention he wanted and not Austin's? Fuck! That last time in Austin's house when he kept saying " It's always him" ....was he referring to Austin and not me?
I needed some serious rest!
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