[Otto's POV]
Otto closed the front door behind her at a quarter before ten and started walking. She didn't look forward to this "date" that her best friend had so kindly set her up with.
For the umpteenth time that day, she self-consciously pulled at her T-shirt and cursed the stupid thing. After lots of fitting and comparing, Jessy had selected her current outfit as date-worthy. The only downside? It barely fitted her anymore. She'd had the pieces for years and since her growth spurt earlier this year, she nearly burst out of them.
She'd been mentally arguing with herself to go and put on some better fitting clothes, even if they had to come out of the dirty wash, but then she'd probably be equally self-aware about her outfit because of other reasons.
No, she'd just have to endure it. She might not get along with Alex, but he wouldn't purposefully hurt her, would he?
A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered Alex's words after the incident with Thomas: "Stop running away like that. I never meant to hurt you."
His breath had tickled her ear as he'd said it. That's how close he'd hugged her.
If she was being really honest with herself, she'd admit that it had felt rather nice, and that the urge to sag into his embrace had been rather large, but she purposefully hadn't.
Back in that moment, she'd been so certain that he'd done it to manipulate her into doing whatever it was he wanted from her. She had expected him to keep bothering her as his latest conquest until he could add her to some sort of record. But instead of smothering her with unwanted attention, he'd become close friends with Jasper and had granted her the breathing space she'd needed to get used to him.
Still ten minutes early, she arrived at the end of her street where Alex was already waiting for her. He was swiping at his smartphone, which gave Otto the opportunity to look him up and down without him noticing. He was wearing a dark-coloured denim and a thin blue zip-up sweater, perfectly fitting his figure and the colour complementing his eyes.
"Damn it, he even looks good in casual wear!" Otto thought as she willed her heart to calm down. Secretly, she'd been hoping that he would be wearing something ridiculous, like a Hawaiian shirt or something with a camouflage pattern. But no such luck.
It made her feel even more self-conscious about her own old T-shirt that nearly showed her tummy and worn-out jeans. She felt a strong urge to turn tail and forget about this whole ordeal but decided to swallow down her pride and walked up to him with a smile.
"Good morning. You're early!"
"Hey! You're here?!" Alex looked up from his phone in surprise, but smiled kindly when he noticed her smile and put his phone away.
"Yes. Why do you sound so surprised?" Otto asked. She sure hoped that it had sounded like a casual remark and not an accusation, but she wasn't sure. It probably was somewhere in the middle.
"Ah! That is... because I was... kind of... expecting you to bail out on me?" he admitted sheepishly.
"Huh?! Bail out on you? Why would I?" she asked incredulously. Was that really how he saw her?
"Well, it's not exactly a secret that you dislike me," he mumbled as he shoved his hands in his pockets and avoided her eyes awkwardly.
"D-Dislike you?" she nearly choked on the words. "Where did you get that ridiculous idea? I don't."
She stubbornly crossed her arms and avoided his eyes in the opposite direction he was looking.
"By the way, if anyone should have been scared to be stood up, it would have been me, since Jessy practically forced you to go buy clothes with me," she added as an afterthought.
When she glanced over in his direction, she noticed several emotions flash over his face, of which the most distinct one was surprise. Yet, he didn't refute her statement. Great, now she was conscious of the fact that he didn't want to be here.
"Shall we get going?" she asked in an attempt to relieve the awkwardness, but even after he'd nodded and they'd started walking, the silence continued. Otto wrecked her brain for a suitable conversation topic but came up empty. And judging by his frown, so did he.
"ARGH! Damn it!" Alex suddenly cursed after a few minutes of walking in silence, startling Otto. "I knew today was going to be awkward but I didn't think it would be this bad straight from the start!"
"It's because you told me you didn't want to be here!" Otto blurted out and cringed when he looked at her incredulously.
"What?!" he asked. "Oh, no, no, no! You are not going to pin this one on me! Just admit it. You have this wall pulled up around me and it's preventing you from interacting normally with me!"
Otto opened her mouth to object, but Alex didn't let her.
"Don't you try to deny it!" he said. "I'm not blind you know? I can understand that you interact differently with Jessy and Jasper than with me, but you act even colder towards me than the other boys in class!"
Well, that shut her up. Colder, he said? Did she really? When she searched his face she could see that, at the very least, Alex believed it to be true. He was staring back at her so intently that she couldn't look away. It was hypnotising.
"Did I offend you in some way?" he asked when she hadn't replied after a while, momentarily breaking the hypnotic spell she had gotten caught in. But the effect didn't last long. She could already feel herself being pulled in again by his bright blue eyes which never had left hers.
"Could you please stop looking at me like that?" Otto squeaked as she ducked her head and hid her blushing face in her hands.
"Uhm, sorry?" Alex asked, confusion dripping from his voice. When she dared to peek at him from between her fingers, she noticed that he had averted his eyes obediently. Otto sighed a breath of relief. That was not the reaction she expected from a player.
"You don't know, do you?" she asked.
"Know what?" he asked and met her eyes out of habit, but quickly looked away again. Seeing him so out of his element gave her courage to continue.
"That you are extremely handsome," she said matter-of-factly.
"Come again?!" he spluttered in surprise. Another wave of relief washed over her.
"You know, if I told that same line to Jasper, he would have used it as an invitation to shamelessly start flirting with me," she laughed, still glad that Alex hadn't reacted that way.
"I would never do that!" Alex said, looking offended, and then doubted. "Is that what I'm supposed to do?"
"No! Definitely not! Please don't," Otto hurried to say. Hopefully she hadn't given him the wrong idea.
He laughed.
"I'll change the question then: Is that what people expect me to do?" he asked, still smiling kindly.
"Yeah, ... at least I did. But I'm glad you didn't," she said sheepishly. It felt strange to admit something like that to the person himself. Otto tried to read Alex's expression, but she couldn't. She could only see that he was frowning, and that his eyes were shooting from side to side as he seemed to be thinking something over.
"You must be mistaken," he said once their eyes met. "If I really am as handsome as you claim me to be, then why do so many people avoid me? There was this girl in the cafeteria that jumped of fright when I picked up her dropped napkin for her. She turned bright red, mumbled something incoherently and rushed off."
"Actually, that's cause and effect," Otto said. "Not everyone has the guts to talk to a beautiful person. And you are just that handsome."
"Ugh," Alex grunted in dislike. "So it's just because of my looks? And here I thought people stayed away from me because of a mayor personality flaw. Tsk, so shallow!"
Otto couldn't help but agree. She hated it herself when somebody treated her differently just because of her looks. It was fun when she only had to blink her eyelashes rapidly at a male to bend the rules in her favour, but there were much less fun side effects too. And yet, she'd done the same thing to him.
"You know?" Alex said after the short pause he apparently needed to organise his thoughts. "This actually explains everything, doesn't it? Your strange behaviour towards me and even why that Thomas guy had cornered you a few weeks back. You all thought I was some kind of playboy!"
Otto stiffened. Yes, that was exactly what she'd thought of him. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to tell him. She was slowly starting to see that he didn't deserve her prejudice.
Alex took her moment of silence as affirmation and sighed.
"You actually think I'm capable of seducing girls? As a hobby? Breaking their hearts while I'm at it..." It was clear he was trying to imagine that kind of lifestyle for himself but then frowned and shook his head in disappointment. "Damn, how did my reputation get that bad in such a short period of time?"
"I'm sorry. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt. Jasper seems to trust you after all," Otto said, regretting her previous behaviour. Alex chuckled, but his smile looked sad.
"Looks like Jasper has been saving me from my solitude for a while now. You really trust him a lot, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do," Otto said as lots of warm memories made her smile tenderly. "I couldn't wish for a better friend."
Otto watched as both of Alex's eyebrows rose in surprise.
"A friend, huh?" he said. "And here I thought you were a couple. Since the two of you are so close."
"Ugh, not you too," Otto complained. "It's like I'm not allowed to have male friends! The second we become close, someone will start pushing us to become an item!"
"Jessy?" Alex asked, a regretful expression on his face.
"One of many," she sighed. "It's really annoying and causes delusions."
"I see," he said thoughtfully.
"Do you really?" she asked with more bite to her words than she meant to. She knew her actual frustration was directed at Jessy, who seemed to be incapable of understanding that she didn't want to be matched to anyone.
"Of course I do," Alex said as he looked at her with a confused frown. "It's like being forced to watch a commercial about something you're not interested in, break after break. It gets old really fast."
"Exactly," she said, surprised that someone had understood. With such a short explanation to boot. Even Jasper had drawn his own conclusions after debating about it for at least fifteen minutes. It felt nice for somebody to understand and agree for once.
"Is that what happened with Thomas?" Alex asked.
Otto's eyes turned to saucers. Had he asked what she thought he had? How did he even know about that?! Otto felt betrayed for thinking not even seconds ago that she'd been glad somebody understood. Scratch that. This boy understood too much! She felt so deadly embarrassed!
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked," Alex interrupt her thoughts. When she looked up to meet his eyes she found him waving his hands as if he wanted to erase the asked question from existence. It made her realise how ridiculous it was to get embarrassed over something that had happened in the past. It was already over and done with, wasn't it?
"Thomas hadn't expected me to turn him down," she mumbled softly. Alex abruptly stopped his ridiculous waving. He looked surprised that she'd actually answered his question. "He even started laughing when I'd declined him, thinking that I was playing some sick joke on him."
Alex sucked in a breath between his teeth.
"Ouch," he said.
"Indeed, ouch," Otto said as she felt the emotions of the memory wash over her. "It's the only word I can think of. Even after all this time, I can still see the smile on his face fade away into realisation. The image crystal-clear... We didn't hang out anymore after that."
"Sorry," Alex said. He really did sound sorry.
"Don't be," Otto said with a kind smile. "Thomas made his choice. In all honesty, I think that's the main difference between Thomas and Jasper. Whenever we fight or disagree on something, the next time we meet, he'll always treat me with the same warm and tender kindness he always does."
"Hah, yeah... Jasper is cool that way," Alex agreed with a soft smile. Otto still didn't know what to think of Alex, but she was slowly starting to understand why Jasper liked to hang out with him. Alex was kind and open-minded, a character that complimented Jasper's.
"Anyway!" Alex suddenly broke the newly formed silence in a loud voice. "I promise that I won't let myself be influenced by what others tell me! No falling in love with you!"
Otto gave him a flat stare.
"You've never been in love before, have you?" she said. Her statement made Alex jump in surprise.
"I can't say I have been," he admitted sheepishly.
"Then how can you say something like that? Falling in love is not something you decide on, you know. It can happen any time," she scolded. Alex smiled at her softly. That smile was starting to annoy her. Every time she saw it, she felt like he knew something she didn't.
"Let me rephrase that," he said, still smiling kindly. "If I do happen to fall in love with you, I won't bother you with it. Since you've made it clear from the start that I've been rejected."
This time Otto blushed and looked at her toes. She couldn't deny his words. Even though she was starting to feel like he didn't deserve her condemnation, she didn't want to give him any false hope either.
"Come on," Alex said as he gently bumped into her to regain her attention. "Let's get going. We're wasting precious daylight."