Valentine's Day - Part Three

I raised my wrist and read the numbers on my watch. It was just a little past eight. My date wasn’t with me anymore, so I wondered about calling my parents to come pick me up. It’s not like I had anyone else to talk to.

Just as I was about to give them a call, someone from earlier came into mind.

She had invited me to get my portrait taken with Naomi. Even though that wasn’t going to happen anymore at this point, I decided I could still tell her goodbye before I left. Digging the phone I had ready in my right hand back into my pocket, I walked back towards the school.

I headed down the somewhat long pathway along the courtyard outside. It had gotten noticeably colder out, so not a lot of people were hanging around the area. Assuming they went to the gym, I took the opportunity to look over the stalls within the span of a few minutes.

As a result, I found a stand that seemed to be art related. There were samples of what appeared to be portraits ranging from caricatures to realism. The only odd thing was that no one was at the stand whatsoever. In fact, it looked pretty abandoned to me.

I didn’t think she was one to leave stuff out like this and take off, especially with how she was in class. So, I figured she left with the majority of everyone else to the gym. I didn’t really feel like going back there, but I ended up pushing myself to go anyway.

I walked inside to find the place growing a little “livelier” than before. Background chatter now filled every part of the gym. And, there was no doubt that a lot more people huddled together throughout the building.

I guess finding Mrs. Rivers wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

As much as I just wanted to give up and get ready to go home, I pushed myself just a little more. I was willing to take a chance in trying to spot her in a crowd. If I came up with nothing after a few long minutes, that’s when I’d call it quits.

I started with the area by the refreshment table. I took a bit of time wandering by the groups there and looking around. At some point, I stopped, wondering if any of the nearby students thought my behavior was strange.

I exhaled out a long and heavy gust of wind.

Is there actually a point in going around and looking for her just to say bye?

Finally deciding that it wouldn’t be a big deal just leaving, I pulled up my phone. Just as I was about to have a swipe at my screen, I heard my name unexpectedly. Believing under a rare coincidence that it’d be Mrs. Rivers, I readied my voice to tell her I was taking off. But it turned out I was wrong.

It was a small and petite girl wearing a red strapless dress approaching me instead. At first, this girl seemed all but familiar to me. On the other hand, it was obvious she knew who I was because she had been walking straight towards me.

Clasping her cup of punch close to her chest, she lowered her eyelids and spoke in a soft tone.

“Hi.”

It finally clicked in me when I noticed the heart hairpin she always wore on the left side of her face. I knew she was wearing a different outfit than usual, but how did I not already realize who she was as soon as I had seen her? Maybe I really was worn out.

“Oh, Faith. I didn’t know you were here…” I replied.

“Yeah, about that…” She turned her head away as if what she was about to say was something embarrassing. “I kind of got here late. Lost track of time, I guess…”

“Nothing wrong with that. Happens all the time,” I told her in an effort to cheer her up. Looking her over once more, I decided to give her a compliment. “You look nice.”

Wait. Was that actually the best thing to tell her? Or was it too much? Crap.

“H-Huh?” She shifted her gaze onto me as her head remained in place, hiding her free hand behind her back. “Y-You think so?”

“Yeah…” It was the only thing I was remotely comfortable saying. I didn’t want to come off as flirty or anything.

“U-Um, thanks,” she expressed as she turned her focus away from me. Every few seconds, her eyes would glance back towards me as she continued speaking. “You…you look good too.”

“Thanks,” I told her and felt the immediate need to find something else to talk to her about. It was at that point where I also realized something else different about her. “Oh, are you wearing contacts?”

“C-Contacts?!” She immediately jumped as if I had just somehow startled her. “H-How’d you know?!”

“You’re not wearing your glasses,” I pointed out. “I guess it makes sense. It is kind of a formal party and all.”

“O-Oh, yeah.” Her seemingly stiff body began to ease itself. “Yep. Right on the money, hehe.”

Her reaction was a little odd, but I didn’t mind it too much. I figured she was just nervous in general. After all, it looked like she wasn’t with anyone.

“Did you come with anyone else? Or, are you…?” I asked next.

“I’m alone…” Her lips curved upwards. But I got the feeling she wasn’t actually happy about the words that came out of her mouth. “…what about you? You’re not with someone either?”

She seemed to look past me as if my potential partner may have been around the area. But she had already been long gone.

Eyeing the exit to the building, I answered her.

“I was…but she had to leave pretty early. I was just about to take off myself actually.”

“Oh, really…?” Her last comment lacked energy, and I couldn’t help but have a good idea why.

She was alone. She said so herself. And, it also didn’t seem she was familiar with anyone else around. I knew that feeling all too well. I was in a similar position at the beginning of the school year until I lucked out with Naomi. Back in our classes, I only ever saw her talk to me if not the teachers. Was I really the only person she knew?

I still couldn’t say we knew each other too well, but it was at least safe to believe we were some form of friends, right? Bonus points for being neighbors.

“You want to hang out?” I asked.

I didn’t need to go home early as Naomi did. I could definitely stay longer.

“H-Hang out?” Her body made a small jerk backward, causing the punch she held to waver back and forth in its cup. “If you were already going home, I don’t want to stop you…”

“Don’t worry about it,” I told her. “Only reason I was going home was that I was by myself. I don’t mind staying longer. Besides, you just got here, and I know how much it sucks to be somewhere alone with a bunch of strangers. I couldn’t just leave you, especially after you made those chocolates for me.”

“The chocolates…!” Her eyes shot open as if she had just remembered about them. “Were they good? Not too soft or chewy or anything, right?”

“They were great actually. Maybe even better than store-bought chocolates.”

“T-That’s good to hear!” Loosening the tight grip on her cup, she released a breath of relief. In fact, if I wasn’t mistaken, she flashed a genuine smile back at me. “I did my best to make sure they’d come out as great as they could be, but I still wasn’t sure if you’d like them.”

Flashing a smile back at her, I felt any lingering ice between the two of us chip off and break.

“Yeah, I’m actually interested in how you made them. Was it hard?”

“It’s actually not hard at all when you get the hang of it.” The tone of her voice now took an excitable approach. “The way it works is…”

Faith and I ended up grabbing a seat at an empty table. From there, she explained a bit to me on what went into making her own chocolates. It was somewhat a lengthy process, but she stressed that it was easy to do. Granted, she used store-bought chocolate to start, but she had made her own mix in the end.

“It’s no secret recipe or anything. I learned how to do it from the internet,” she shared.

“Oh, yeah,” I recalled something in particular. “I’ve seen you with your laptop in class during our free period a few times. You on the computer much?”

“When I’m bored, I guess, heh heh…” A hint of red rose on her cheeks before she turned the spotlight on me. “What about you? Is there anything you like to do?”

The idea of telling her that I sat around playing video games a lot of the time didn’t really jump out at me.

“I’m kind of on the same boat as you. I like to listen to music when I’m not doing anything at school. Helps pass the time and stuff.”

“Yeah? That’s cool.” She glanced over to the dance floor nearby. “I love listening to music too. Sure wish I could dance to it though…”

“Dance? What kind of dancing?”

“Oh, you know, any kind really, I guess. But to tell you the truth, I’m not such a fan of going to these things a lot of the time. I feel like only an idiot would come here and not know how to dance. And, that idiot would be me, heh heh.”

“You don’t need to know how to dance,” I assured her. “But even if you really wanted to, it’s not that hard to know the basics. You don’t need to dance like those celebrities on TV. If it’s something like ballroom dancing, you can easily get by with some simple steps. Especially if you’re with someone that can lead you.”

“You seem like you know a lot about dancing.” Faith looked at me with a kind of surprised yet subtle expression on her face. “Do you…dance a lot?”

“No, actually. Just when I need to…” For some reason, I started to feel ashamed of myself. I wasn’t sure if it was normal for a guy to be familiar with dancing as I was. “I don’t practice every day or anything. It’s just a good thing to know if a girl wants to dance with you or something…”

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t matter with me, would it,” she seemed to joke.

“You know…I could teach you a bit if you want…” I offered with some slight hesitation.

“H-Huh?!” Her cheeks immediately became scarlet red. “N-No, that’s okay! I wouldn’t be able to dance in front of a bunch of people anyway! It’s way too nerve-wracking!”

Her reaction wasn’t surprising to see. When I first started learning to dance, I didn’t like the idea of a bunch of eyes being on me. Thankfully, I didn’t have to go through something like that. Instead, the closest to that was dancing with other people already on the floor. Being confident in what I already knew, it usually melted any nerves away. As long as there wasn’t exactly any pressure to wow everyone, I was fine.

“Ohhh, Faith! Where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you at all until now!”

A sudden new voice chirped its way into our conversation. As for the person responsible, she approached our table in a giddy manner. It was the teacher I had been looking for earlier: Mrs. Rivers.

“Oh, hey, Mrs. Rivers,” I greeted.

She returned a lighthearted smile along with a wave.

“I got here a little late, sorry,” Faith explained with a soft smile as she tucked her hands between her legs. “I didn’t know you were here either, Mrs. Rivers.”

“I’ve been doing portraits with my husband and the Art Club outside. It got a little cold though, so we decided to take a break in here. But a lot of the club members helping out ended up leaving early. That, or they’re too busy mingling with the other students here. I think we’re just going to go ahead and pack up and start heading back home.”

“You’re not going to stick around until the end of the festival?” I asked.

“We could, but some of us can’t exactly afford to sleep in like you kids.”

“You say that like you’re old.”

She only returned a hearty chuckle.

“Are you going to need any help packing up?” I asked next.

“That’s fine.” She waved my offer off. “I don’t want to keep you two from enjoying the festival.”

I exchanged a look with Faith. “We aren’t exactly doing anything right now. We’ve just been talking.”

“Maybe you can give us some extra credit…?” Faith seemed to joke unless she was actually testing her luck.

“If you aren’t doing anything, then yeah sure, I’ll pass you some extra credit.” She obliged pretty easily, laughing a little afterward. “It’s not like you need it anyway. How about this?” She leaned in a little closer until she was practically whispering to us. “For the rest of the semester, I’ll turn a blind eye if you need to use the time in my class for things like homework and exams every once in a while.”

“Seriously?” I almost found myself standing up from disbelief. The fact I could use an entire period to work on other schoolwork was too good to pass up. With the little free time I had for lunch, I might never have to do homework at home for the rest of the school year. In moderation, of course.

“Yeah, sure,” she said. “Just don’t tell any of your classmates about it though. Keep it hush hush on the down low. I don’t need any complaints.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t!” Faith immediately exclaimed out loud, surprising me a little. It looked like she was on the same boat I was. Actually, she might have even been happier about it than I was.

Mrs. Rivers shared a warm grin in response. “Great. Go ahead and come with me. It won’t take long.”

Just before we went outside to get their things, Mrs. Rivers introduced us to her husband once she got a hold of him. Taking part in some light manual labor, we helped them clean up afterward. Once everything was in the back of their car, we got our thanks and saw them off.

Faith and I stood outside as we watched their car leave.

“I like her,” Faith mentioned in a calm voice. “I want to say she’s my favorite teacher. I’m glad I picked Art as an elective.”

“Same here,” I agreed and then checked the time on my watch. “We’ve still got some time left before the festival ends. Anything you want to do?”

“It’s kind of dead outside already.” Faith recalled the sight of the courtyard when we were still in the middle of helping Mrs. Rivers out. “It looked like everyone else was also packing up for the night. Too bad. Maybe I should’ve come here earlier.”

“There’s still the Spring festival,” I reminded her.

“Oh, yeah. The board we were painting for Mrs. Rivers, right? Almost forgot about that one. I’ll make sure to come to that one then! But…” She paused for a moment and then directly faced me. Forming a timid stance, she held a soft grip on her right arm with her left hand. “I kind of don’t want to go alone, so…will you be going too?”

For a moment, I had to think about that. I didn’t mind going with her at all, but I also wasn’t sure if I’d be inviting Naomi to that festival too. I don’t think they’ve ever met, have they? Would they even get along?

Regardless, I gave her my answer.

“Yeah, sure. We can hang out again.”

With a smile, she nodded.

“Okay.” After, she took a slow look around. “Hm. It looks like the only thing left to do from here on out is dancing, and there’s no way I’m doing that.”

“I can teach you.” A slight singsong tone coated those words as if I had been teasing her with that reminder.

She shook her head fervently in response as an embarrassed smile stretched out on her lips.

“No! Not in front of everyone.” Pulling up her phone, she seemed to check the time. “Maybe I’ll just head home and look forward to the next festival. Unless…you want to hang out a little longer…?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to keep you up or anything. Like you said, there’s always the next time. Do you have a ride home?”

She nodded.

“My mom can come pick me up whenever. What about you?” A wave of concern enveloped in her face. “You didn’t ride your bike here, did you?”

“Oh, don’t worry.” I had a good guess that that concern revolved around me riding back home alone in the dark. “My parents dropped me off.” Once I heard myself say that, I began having doubts about my ride back home. “Crap… It’s not that late, but I hope they didn’t end up falling asleep. They don’t usually pick me up or drop me off anywhere, and when they do, they can sometimes be trouble. I’ve had my share of times waiting for hours until I was able to get picked up before.”

“Do you…need a ride?” She seemed to be offering me a way home.

“What? Nah, I’m sure it’s fine.” Forgetting about me in the day was one thing. I didn’t think my parents would actually leave me by myself at night. “I’ll give them a call. I just hope it doesn’t go to voicemail.” I felt a little uneasy since it wouldn’t be the first time based on past experiences. In fact, having unreliable transportation was one of the reasons I started riding a bike in the first place.

As if sensing my uneasiness, Faith shook her head in response.

“You should come with me. I mean, we live in the same exact neighborhood. It’s no trouble at all. Actually… If you ask me… I think it’s pretty dumb not to go back together…” she mentioned with a short chuckle.

I realized what she was getting at. I actually almost had completely forgotten about that myself.

“I actually almost forgot that we live in the same neighborhood there, heh heh.” Going back with Faith did sound like a good idea. A lot better than taking my chances with my parents. “Okay, sure. I’ll just send a text to my parents that I’m going home with you.”

Faith nodded with a smile, relieving her face from concern.

“Okay. Let me tell my mom about it and that we’re ready to leave.”

As I had already removed the phone from my pocket and held it in my hand, I looked at Faith with a question in mind.

“Are you sure she’ll be okay with it?”

“Of course! My mom’s super cool.” She said that as if she was rather proud of it.

“Hm. Alright then,” I told her before I focused on my phone.

After writing out my message and sending it, I turned to Faith.

“She’s on her way,” she said after putting her phone away. “She knows you’re a neighbor, so she’s totally cool with taking you back.”

“Okay.” Remembering that it had been pretty chilly out, I made a suggestion to Faith. “You want to head back inside the gym? It’s pretty cold out and all you’re wearing is a dress.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. This isn’t so bad. Not like last time.” A lighthearted giggle slipped along her tongue. She seemed to be referring to that one time I found her walking home on a super cold day. “My mom should be here pretty soon. What about you? Are you cold?”

With my jacket, I was hardly cold at all.

“No, I’m fine.” Taking a once over at her attire, I took particular notice of her bare shoulders. “Do you at least want my jacket? It’d suck if you got sick for being out here like that.”

“N-No, that’s fine.” There was a slight stutter in her response. “T-Thanks, though.”

Afterward, we found a spot nearby that wasn’t so out in the open. It wasn’t going to keep us warm like being in the gym would, but we welcomed any help we could get. From there, we sat and talked a little as we waited for our ride to get here.

“So, you remember what happened in class today with Mr. Hopkins, right? He was talking about the science behind our skin and stuff, but I couldn’t understand any of it. Before I know it, he points right at me and says ‘Hey, your epidermis is showing’. Then, he goes and tells everyone that it’s a joke because epidermis is supposed to mean our skin! I was so embarrassed! I thought he was talking about something else! Sometimes, I can’t help but get the feeling he likes picking on me.”

“Maybe he’s jealous of your pink glasses,” I joked along with a small smirk.

“Yeah, right?” she answered, grinning after. “At any rate, he should be on my side. Those who wear glasses have to stick together, you know!”

It was nice to see Faith acting so much more natural with me in the sense that she wasn’t so reserved. It took a while, but I believed it was safe to say that any distance between us was closing in. Still, there was one thing I couldn’t help but find strange about the conversation we were having. It had nothing to do with what we had been talking about. Instead, it revolved more around the interaction between the two of us. The way we spoke to each other? For some reason, it felt familiar. Not that it was bad. Just that there was some kind of deja vu vibe about it.

“Hey…” Faith called me with a soft voice, pulling me away from my thoughts and having me turn to look at her. “Thanks for sticking around with me here today. I know you didn’t have to, but I’m actually really glad you did. I’m not sure what I would have done if it was just me.”

“No problem. I had fun too.” I studied her for a moment before I decided to follow up with a question. “If you don’t mind me asking…are you shy or something?”

“Yeah, I guess…” She gave a sort of crooked smile after chuckling shortly. “I can’t say I’m too good with people.”

“Hm. I don’t think it’s that, really,” I told her. “For some people, it takes some getting used to before you open up. But I understand anyway. I guess I’m kind of the same way too, sort of.”

“Oh?” The pitch of her voice made a slight raise.

I wasn’t sure if getting into this sort of thing was the best idea. While it was good that we were getting to know each other on a deeper level, I didn’t want to rush things. In an attempt to make a subtle avoidance of the topic, I racked my brain a bit. Then, I remembered when dancing had been the subject of our conversation earlier.

“Hey, you want to try dancing a bit?”

“H-Huh? Come on… I told you I can’t.”

“That’s why I’m here to teach you. It’ll just be some super easy steps. Even a dog can do them.”

I stretched my legs and stood up in front of her.

“N-No…it’s okay. I’m sure I’ll be fine with not being able to dance for the rest of my life.”

“No one’s here if you’re worried about being watched,” I encouraged her, glancing at my surroundings. “It’ll be really quick. Trust me.”

Faith’s cheeks lit up under the night sky, and she continued to stay at her seat. Yet, she turned her head away and remained silent for a short moment. Seeming to take the time to think to herself, she turned back to me shortly afterward.

“D-Don’t laugh at me, okay? Make fun of me and you can forget about your ride home.”

“I promise I won’t,” I assured as I held out my right hand towards her. After staring at it for a few seconds, she accepted my hand and allowed me to pull her up. “Now, there’s a whole bunch of ways to dance, obviously, but I’ll teach you the first thing I learned. Really, easy.”

I connected her right hand with my left and went on to position my free hand on her back. To my surprise, her body jumped as if I had startled her.

“O-Oh sorry,” I apologized. “Maybe I should have asked if it was okay to…”

She shook her head. “I-It’s fine. Just not used to it, is all… What now? Am I supposed to do the same thing…?”

I nodded. “Yeah, you can just move your hand to my shoulder.”

“Okay…” She did so, but it was easy to tell she was nervous about our positioning. In fact, she was actually quite the complete opposite compared to Naomi.

“It’d be easier if we had some music, but what you want to do is just follow my footsteps.” I turned my head toward my feet and guided her, making slow and steady steps. Imagining a square box on the ground, I followed its perimeter.

It took her some time to get used to following my footsteps. But after a while, she was able to keep up with me. At some point, it even felt like she was doing the steps on her own without actually going with my lead.

“There you go,” I praised. “See? Easy. You don’t always have to move in a box-like pattern though. You can also just keep to moving to side-to-side. A lot of people do that when they dance at parties. That or they also swing their arms and turn.”

“So, this is dancing? Aren’t you supposed to do those moves where you twirl and spin and all that junk?” she questioned.

“Well, that’s advanced-level dancing,” I responded, chuckling a little in response. “You don’t need to know that unless you want to be fancy about it. Don’t get me wrong though. It’s not like I’m an expert at this kind of stuff. I just know enough to get by when it comes to gatherings like these.”

“That makes sense.”

“So? What’d you think?” I asked once we broke away from our direct contact.

She returned a small giggle.

“I guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be,” she responded, locking her hands together behind her back. “I always thought you had to have some kind of insane practice for this kind of stuff.”

“Nah, not really. For the simple stuff, at least. But you do always have to have good coordination with your partner. It’s not so important when it comes to simple dances like these, but it always helps. If you aren’t in sync, you might just end up tripping over each other.”

“Got it. In that case, if I ever dance, maybe I’ll just stick with you then.”

“If it makes you feel more comfortable, sure.”

After taking our seats again, she asked me another question. One that I had been hoping not to hear in the first place…

“If it’s okay to ask, how’d you learn to dance? No offense, but I didn’t really take you to be someone who knows a thing or two about dancing.”

“…that? Well…” I couldn’t help but turn away from her. “…I don’t know. It’s…kind of embarrassing.”

“Hey…!” She now faced me with her body, leaning towards me to tack on some pressure. “I danced with you even when I was afraid to. It’s only fair that you tell me! Come on, I won’t laugh either. Pinky promise!”

She held out her pinky to me, but I found it unnecessary to make the literal promise. Sighing in defeat, I figured she had a point. She had a certain amount of trust in me when it came to teaching her to dance. It was only right I returned the same kind of trust when it came to my secret source.

“I guess you’re right…” I surrendered, scratching my cheek from embarrassment. “I didn’t laugh at you when it came to dancing, so you better be serious about it too.”

“I promise, I promise,” she repeated and leaned in closer as if I was going to whisper her the answer.

I felt my face begin to heat up. She had already pushed me to a vulnerable state with her curiosity, and now she was only inches away from me to boot. Making a slight turn of my head away from her direction, I released a heavy sigh.

“I…I learned from my sister.”

“Your…sister?” she returned, staring at me with somewhat of a surprised expression on her face.

“Yeah…” I proceeded to explain before she was able to get any weird ideas. “In high school, she was a pretty big dancer. She took it up as one of her afterschool activities. Problem was: She needed a partner to practice with back at home. And that partner turned out to be me. Even though she practically forced me to practice with her, she tried to justify it by bringing up girls. She said knowing how to dance would attract them all, especially on the dance floor. So far, that hasn’t happened. But it isn’t so bad, I guess. I finally got to dance tonight. In a way, I’m kind of glad I knew how in the end. To tell you the truth, it is a good confidence booster when it comes to events like these.”

“Ohh…” Her eyes remained glued on me for once. It looked like I had really caught her interest. Either way, I was just glad she wasn’t laughing. “She sounds like a pretty cool sister.”

I shrugged. Whether she was actually “cool” or not was really up for a debate I had no interest in.

“She left for university this year, so she’s not home anymore. She only comes by for holidays or so.”

“Do you miss her?” she asked, giving her head a little tilt to the left.

For whatever reason, it wasn’t as easy as saying yes or no to that question. Juggling words around my brain, I tried coming up with the best and honest way to give her a suitable answer.

“Can’t really say, I do… If I had to be honest, I don’t think much about her. It’s not like we’re close or anything.”

“Oh?” she returned, her brow furrowing into a look of concern. “Aren’t siblings supposed to be close?”

“Well, just because you live together doesn’t mean you always get along. In her case, she wasn’t home a lot of the time, even when she was still living with us. You could say she’s pretty outgoing, so she spends a lot of time with friends and stuff.”

“Oh… Well, I guess I wouldn’t know…” Her voice trailed off as she turned her head and faced the stars above her.

“Are you an only child?” I asked next.

She nodded. “Mm-hm. It can be pretty lonely at times back at home.”

“Guess we’re technically on the same boat then,” I said and faced the sky as well. “The way I see it, having siblings is a gamble. They can either be your best friend or your worst enemy.”

“So, what would your sister be?”

“Hm.” I thought about it but couldn’t come up with a straight answer. “I’m actually not too sure.”

For a while, we sat there in silence. It wasn’t until we heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up a short distance away.

“Oh! That’s her!” Faith stood up and hurried on over.

I tried to get a look at the car, but from what I was able to see, the paint was pitch black. If it hadn’t been for the lights, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to see it in the first place. Digging my hands into my pockets, I followed her to the passenger side of the vehicle.

“Hi, Mom!” She greeted the person inside.

“Hey!” I heard a cheery voice welcome her back. “How’d it go?”

“Pretty great,” Faith answered before she noticed me waiting outside. “Oh. I’m going to get in the back with Chase, kay?”

She closed the passenger door and then pulled the handle on the next door down. She turned to me, smiled, and then climbed in.

“Come on in,” she invited after taking a seat.

Unable to remember the last time I had gotten into a car with someone other than family, I felt a little nervous. Even so, I took her up on her offer and joined her in the back seat, closing the door behind me. After, I decided the polite thing to do was to thank her mom for the ride home.

“Thanks for taking me home, Mrs. Hills.”

“No need to thank me,” she responded in the friendliest voice I could’ve imagined a mom having. Then, she turned her body and faced me from her seat. It was at that point I was able to have a clear look at her face. I noticed firsthand that the color of her hair and eyes had been exactly just like her daughter’s. But unlike Faith, her rich autumn brown hair didn’t hang down over her shoulder. Instead, it was styled in a ponytail, her bangs leaving collective stands of hair on both sides of her face. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Chase.”

Not much came to mind, so my response remained simple. “Yeah, same here…”

Turning to her daughter, her lightly scarlet-shaded lips stretched into a smirk. “Are you sure he isn’t your boyfriend?”

To my side, Faith’s face immediately flushed red.

“He-He’s not! We were just hanging out…!”

“But wasn’t he the one you were giving those chocolates to?”

“C-Come on, Mom! You know it isn’t like that! S-Stop teasing me, please?”

Her mother laughed heartily in response.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” She tore her focus away from her daughter and faced me next. “In case you haven’t realized, I like to tease her a lot.”

“Can we just go home now…?” I heard Faith ask with a drained voice.

“Okay, okay. Sorry, honey.” Her mother apologized once more and turned back to the wheel. From there, she placed a hand on the gear shift and pulled it into drive.

“Sorry…” Faith practically whispered to me. She looked like she had been sinking into her seat as she sent me apologetic eyes.

“It’s okay.” I tried to cheer her up by offering a warm smile. But even I was a bit taken back by her mother’s energetic behavior. Maybe she was just happy to see Faith was with a friend?

Feeling a sudden vibration in my pocket, I dug my hand in there and pulled out my phone. Turning on the screen, I noticed a message back from my own mom.

Okay. Come back safe.

Did she just see my text right now? Maybe it was a good thing I was getting a ride back home with Faith.

On the way home, Faith didn’t talk much in the car. She spent most of the time looking out her window as she rested her head on her hand. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was still too embarrassed after the teasing from her mother. Despite the silent car ride, it didn’t take too long to get back to our neighborhood. Once we turned into the street, we pulled over at my house.

“Thanks again for the ride home,” I said as I placed my hand on the door handle.

“It’s no problem at all.” Mrs. Hills returned a light wave of her hand as she sent back a smile.

As I hopped out of the car, I heard a seatbelt unbuckle along with some kind of scrambling over to where I had been sitting. After closing the door behind me, I noticed the same window of that door lower down. In a matter of seconds, Faith’s face popped outside. “Tonight was a lot of fun. Good night!”

“Yeah, it was,” I answered with a slight nod. “Good night.”

Giving me one last smile, she pulled her head back in the car and raised the window. Afterward, I watched their car move on forward for a bit before I headed home.

I immediately noticed it was almost dead silent inside the house. I couldn’t tell if my parents had still been awake in their room or fell asleep as soon as they knew I was coming back. Whatever the case was, I decided to walk up to my room and prepare for a shower.

Exhaustion began to set in once I was actually in there, so I didn’t take long to wash and rinse myself. Once I was out and back in my room, I sat at the edge of my bed and towel dried my hair as much as possible.

By my side, I heard my phone buzz constantly. Picking it up, I read the name of the person that was calling me. It was Chasing_Faith.

“Hello?” I answered, positioning the phone next to my ear.

“Hey, I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“No. I was actually just about to go to bed.”

“Ohh… Sorry. Should I let you go?”

“Nah, it’s fine.” I continued to press the towel against my hair as I spoke to her. “What’s up?”

“How was your Valentine’s Day?” she asked.

“Pretty good actually,” I told her, going over the events from tonight in my head.

“Really? That’s great. My day was incredible! I mean, it didn’t go the way I planned, but…”

“The way you planned?”

She chuckled a little.

“Well, let’s just say there was this one guy I wanted to ask to be my valentine, but I ended up chickening out in the end.”

“Oh, yeah? Sorry to hear that. It’s tough, I know. I almost chickened out with my valentine too.”

“Wait! What?!” The sound of her voice shrieked out loud, causing me to flinch and pull away from the phone. “That girl you were telling me about, right?! Oh my gosh! Forget about you chickening out! Did you finally seal the deal with her?!”

“Uh…not exactly. We had a good time though.”

“Please tell me you two kissed. It isn’t a mission accomplished unless you at least kissed.”

“This isn’t a game, you know. And no, we didn’t…”

“Booo.” She reacted with disappointment. It was almost like she watching a movie where the two main characters got so close to kissing but didn’t.

“Boo all you want. If it happens, it happens.”

“Don’t you want it to happen?”

The thought of kissing Naomi crossed my mind at that moment.

“…I don’t know. Maybe…”

“Ehehe. You know you want to.”

I rolled my eyes and decided to turn the conversation around.

“What about you? Any plans for that guy you wanted to ask out?”

“Mm… I don’t know, to tell you the truth. I think I’m just going to stay away from anything to do with romance right now.”

Hearing her say that piqued my curiosity.

“Coming from the girl who is such a sucker for romance? What makes you say that?”

“I’ll give you a hint. It has to do with why I was so bummed out this past winter.”

“Right. I remember that… You never did tell me what happened, did you? Someone break your heart?”

“Tore it to shreds! And that’s because we weren’t even a couple or anything!”

“Huh? Did you confess to him and get rejected or something?”

“Yeah. But in the most brutal way imaginable. I ended up clocking him in the jaw and ran off.”

My eyes shot open at the sound of this.

“You hit him?! Did you get suspended after that?!”

“No. I don’t think anyone found out. I didn’t get a call from the school or anything.”

“I’m guessing you two never talked after that then.”

“Heck no.”

“What were you thinking? It must be awkward seeing him around school now.”

“Oh, I don’t have to worry about that. I won’t ever have to look at his stupid face again.”

Geez. It sounds like she has a deep resentment for this guy.

“Well, that sucks to hear. Maybe you’ll find someone else.”

“Maybe. But I think I’ll just be taking a break from now on.” I then heard her yawn out loud before she continued speaking. “Man, I’m pretty tired. I guess I’ll get ready for bed too.”

“You do that. I wouldn’t want you punching any walls,” I joked.

“Hey! I’m not a violent person, you know!”

“Right, because girls usually resort to their fists whenever they get rejected.”

“Okay, sure… Maybe I overreacted, but that was a one-time thing. I promise!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll let you get to bed then. Talk to you later.”

“Yeah, you too. Night.”

After hanging up the call, I tossed my phone back onto my bed and sighed. Remembering that a damp towel had still been on my head, I slipped it off and went to go hang it to dry.

Once settled back in bed, I stared up at the ceiling and thought to myself for a bit.

What kind of girl would actually go as far as to clock a guy like that for getting rejected?