Chapter 3

At the hospital I tucked father under a blanket.

During the course of a afternoon I have managed to, read him my books, tell him funny stories and jokes, draw his face, sing to him and (like I was doing) tucking him in so that I could tell him about my day at school.

As i was ready to tell him about school, someone knocked on the door. I opened it and recognised a girl, the one who held my hand and made a pitiful face that morning when I was told to go home and take a break.

She was holding flowers, she was still wearing her uniform, her black hair cascaded down to her knees. She also had freckles which looked cute on her.

‘Here I thought this might cheer the atmosphere up a little.’ She handed me the flowers and I invited her inside the room. I took out a chair and handed it to her whereas I went and took the other chair that I had sat on previously.

We just sat there, nothing to say, until I broke the silence, ‘so how’d you know that my dad was here?’

‘Our whole class knows, the teacher found out this morning, that’s why everyone has been lighter on you than usual. Our class may seem like brutes but I don’t think anyone wants anyone to deal with something that your currently dealing with yourself.’

As I listened to her words, I guess she was right, no one really wishes such horrible fate for someone else unless they truely despise each other but, the class were merely just a bunch of bullies. I nodded, she had a point.

‘Er, Jinny, I know this is pathetic and all but I’d really like to be.... your friend- and before you refuse me, I have liked you for a while, you never cared what others thought about you. I could never be so brave that’s why before I was not confident enough to say this to you, but now I think I could be worthy enough to be your friend!’ Determination gleamed in her pupils.

I patted her shoulder, ‘do you have any money on you?’

‘I think a tenna.’

‘Let’s go shopping, right now.’ I lifted her hand and pulled her off the chair, I kissed my father on the cheek and pulled her out to town.

We had a wonderful time Rachael ( that’s her name ) and I went bought cotton candy, bought some nice clothes and generally enjoyed time together, as friends. As we parted ways we gave each other our contact info and said that we should text once we were home.

Walking back I felt a smile on my face, my very first friend. Although this could be some stupid stunt pulled by my class I wanted to at least make full use of it before I find out that it may in fact be fake, or even just a dream.

On Friday (the next day) when I returned to school Rachael was there standing in front of the gates waiting.

‘Hi, you waiting for anyone?’

‘Yep, waiting for you!’ She smiled brightly, I felt myself smile back. We went inside our class, I went up to Brian and gave him a flirtatious smile then winked.

‘What on earth are you doing.’

‘I just cannot believe that you have not been swayed by my amazing flirtatious skills!’ I laughed and went to my desk. I looked at Rachael and we both laughed together.

Break came around, both me and Rachael went to the benches and began eating our food.

‘Why are you so interested in Brian, you know he doesn’t like you, quite frankly he’s.... way out of your league.’

I nodded, ‘Yes well he’s just a puppet for an experiment that I’m trying out.’

‘What kind?’

‘If love is what you see or feel, does it depend on how you look or how you act?’

‘Well shouldn’t it be obvious, it depends on how you act, no one will stay with a handsome but selfish a-hole for very long will they?’

‘Yes but look at our modern society, does it look like much matters when you look like a complete plastic oven?’

‘I see your point.’ She nodded and took a bite out of her food.

‘Oh so I’m just a toy, you don’t have any feelings for me?’ Brian had come out of the bushes he had heard our conversation. Sh*t!!

‘Eavesdropping is so stupid, are you that obsessed with me that you have begun to stalk me?’ Brian turned red. Gottcha!

‘Whatever, I wanna see you try charming me with you flirting skills, remember When you asked me out, well I agree!’

My eyes widen, ‘What!??’

‘I agree, let’s go on a date tomorrow 5pm on Felixstowe Beach!’ With that he walked off.

‘What point is he trying to make?’

‘I don’t know Rachael, I really don’t know.’ I put down my sandwich on my lunch box. What on earth is he doing? What point is he trying to make? Maybe he has a crush on me? 😂

Saturday 4:30 and I was already at Felixstowe, picking out my clothes didn’t take much effort I just grabbed the newest ones from my shopping trip with Rachael. I wasn’t really trying to impress him with my looks, tbh that was the whole point.

I wondered around I had bought myself some cotton candy and was sitting on the blanket that I had to put down with rocks since it couldn’t stop moving with the wind. My feet touched the water.

‘This is all you got?’ I turned round, Brian was standing behind me, and oh lord he looked smoking!! God forgive me but he looked so good I wanted to touch him.

‘Stop drooling, it doesn’t make you look good.’ I wipped my drool and watched him sit down next to me.

‘I- I’ll go buy some ice cream, what flavour would you like?’

‘I don’t like ice cream!’

‘Any treats then? Cotton candy? A lolly pop? Maybe something savoury like fish and chips?’

‘No.’ I walked in front of him and I could see a smug smile on his face. Oh you think you have got me figured out? Huh we will see.

‘Fine.’ And I walked away. I over heard not long ago that he liked eating tomato-flavoured crisps.

I came over with a huge pack and ate them in front of him.

‘These are so good, yum.’ His eyes darted at my crisps, ohhhh he sooo wanted them. I grabbed a hand full.

‘I’m going to the bathroom look after them will ya?’ And I went, but instead of the bathroom I hid behind a wall and spied on him. I even got my phone out to record him.

He looked both ways and behind him, thinking it was safe he slid his hand inside the packet and quickly shoved a hand full into his mouth.

Once he had finished chomping the first handful of crisps, I walked back to him, ‘Oh okay thx for looking ...’ I look inside the packet and somehow, nothing was left inside. Exactly how big of a handful did he take? How big is his mouth!?

‘Your such a sneak, look at you so damn smug!’ I took out my phone and showed him the video of him stealing my crisps. He turned red , busted! His face was so freaking scared I couldn’t stop myself.

‘Hahahahahahaha, oh man! Your so damn funny, your face is never a disappointment!!! Hahahahahaha, your expression .... ha priceless!’ I smiled widely. ‘Come on let’s do something fun then, I am supposed to make you fall in love with me right?’

He nodded, face still red. At Felixstowe beach you can’t find many couply stuff to do, a few times had I seen rollercoasters to play on but those were more for special occasions.

‘Oh look over there, a haunted house? Wonder when they put that there.’ I pulled him inside. It wasn’t scary, not that scary. They did put quite a few jump scares that, well, made me jump back to Brian’s side.

Brian looked fine, actually he seemed to not get scared at all. Ugh not fair! Ooop! I had an idea.

On the next jumps scare I screamed then jum to his side and hugged him.

‘Flippin’ hell im so scared please help me!’

‘Jinny what are you doing?’

What?! I heard Brians voice far away not close by like I was hugging him. I looked up, I was hugging a damn zombie!??

‘Ahhhhhhh! Oh hell no! My heart, that was...’

‘Hahahahaha Oh sh*t did you think that was me?!?!? Hahahahaha oh f*ck!’ Brian was laughing, like a real laugh. I had never seen him in that way, he looked decent, like, real not what he’s like at school, this special angel thing. He looked human!

‘What’s that face?’

‘Oh.... it’s just I never heard you... nevermind.’ Jinny a haunted house is not the right scene to have this romantic moment where maybe I fall in love with him!!

We finally get out of the house, and I realised Brian was finally actually enjoying this. His face was lit up, nothing like the face he had at the beginning.

‘Alright you want to go anywhere?’

‘No.’ He went back to his indifferent self again.

‘Okaaayyy, then let’s just talk, I’ll start. My favourite ice cream flavour is chocolate mint, my favourite food is chocolate, my favourite movie is ‘50 dates’, my favourite series is ‘Sherlock Holmes’, what u want to do in the future is help the psychology ill.’

I looked at him, he seemed so uninterested. Actually he was walking in front of me, his back my way. I ran round in front of him, facing him, my arms were outstretched. Regardless if I were to walk backwards he didn’t stop moving.

‘I don’t care if you don’t like me, I don’t care if you hate me, but for bloody hell could you at least try and have fun? I’m trying so hard for you to enjoy this and for me to enjoy this as well, and your just moping aboutnit helping! Oh could you for just one- ahhhh.’ I tripped on a rock and slowly fell backwards.

A hand was grasped along my waist and a leg was held underneath me. Our eyes met and we were frozen, in the beautiful sunset beach, the waves ascending and descending, the wind blowing my hair. My heart felt irregular and my stomach felt fuzzy.

He pulled me towards him, he still had his hand around my waist, but at this point I was standing, my hand met his chest but our eyes never left focus. What felt like a long while we finally broke out of our daydreamed trance.

‘Ahem, thx for saving me.’ I turned my face round so that he could see how flushed I was.

‘Yea well I don’t want your head to crack, oh look its 8pm we should go back home... bye.’ And he ran with a sprint away from me. I checked the time but it was only 7:35. Liar!

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