I glance at the white Mickey Mouse watch I'm wearing on my left hand. I am concerned because Jackson is already a good dozen minutes late. Furthermore, I have the darkest scenario in my head, and it's all because of his problems and the situation the last time I had to run with him to lose the bandits.
What if something bad happened to him? I may have known him for a short time, but during that time I managed to get attached to him. He is the only person I can talk to about any topic, and what sounds better: I feel comfortable around him.
I sit on the wall and impatiently swing my legs as I try to spot him between people. And I let the air out of my mouth when I finally spot his brown hair.
Keeping his hands in his pants pockets, he walks toward me and looks from side to side as he crosses the street. He looks handsome and every time I have a hard time believing that I met him accidentally, or should I call it something else? Did we meet because this is our destiny?
- I should apologize to you, but I will only explain myself in the way that impatient waiting makes a person realize how worried he is when a late person still does not show up. Did you have that feeling? - He asks directly, sending me a roguish smile.
I usually don't lie, but in this case, I can't tell him straight to his face that he is right.
- He doesn't. I just guessed that you were captured by the hoodlums and I will be able to go home in a while.
- But you are cute," he announces, grabbing the tip of my nose. I feel like a child when he does this, but I have to admit that it's a nice feeling. - I will still insist that you are different, and that's what I like most about you.
- I am not different. - A childish grimace adorns my face.
- Well, what do you mean, no! - His feigned indignation looks so funny when he spreads his hands while I start laughing. - And who runs away from a grandmother who is in a good mood?
- After all, I told you then that I had a reason.
He squints his eyes.
- What, did I please your grandmother? - I open my mouth in amazement because he is good at discovering the truth. - I appreciate open women. I like it when she can tell me directly in my eyes that she has the hots for me. You have to acquaint me with your grandmother. Age doesn't matter to me.
At this point, my face no longer looks amused, and I bet he can see how my jaw dropped in surprise after his statement.
- You have just convinced me never to invite you home.
Jackson tilts his head to the side and looks worried.
- I'll have a problem if you don't tell me soon that you like me. - I don't know if I can be even more surprised by his boldness. - We both love jellybeans, but it's your grandmother who has the hots for me after all. Who should I choose then?
- And you claim that I am different? It's your sense of humor that is quite peculiar," I accuse him, hoping that he is not serious about it after all. - If this is the way you talk to hoodlums, I'm not at all surprised that they want to bury you alive in the woods.
- Come on. That would be too mild. They would like to quarter me alive and spread body parts all over the place to make their job more impressive.
- I, for one, still can't believe that you can joke about it.
He merely shrugs his shoulders.
*
I don't understand why exactly we decided to a café, and worse, a cake that is so sweet I can't swallow it. To kill the taste, I sip my tea sometimes, impressed that the boy sitting across from me has managed to eat it all.
Apparently, he likes to consume huge amounts of sugar, even though you can't see it from him. In the past few days, I've started to worry that I've gained two pounds after the meetings, and it's all due to the high-calorie food he loads into me.
- What is it? Don't you have an appetite? - he asks when he sees that half of the cake is still on my plate.
- Too much meringue makes it impossible for me to swallow. I won't be able to.
I'm surprised when he takes the plate from in front of my nose and finishes eating the sweets for me.
- It's better to put these delicacies in my stomach than in the trash," he says as he lifts his gaze from above the plate.
- With each passing day, I am more and more impressed with your personality.
He merely shrugs his shoulders and finishes eating his pie, and my attention is drawn to the boy who entered the café accompanied by his girlfriend and best friend.
That was still missing.
I try to shield myself in any way I can to avoid attracting their attention, but Samantha has a sharp eye and nothing can escape her attention.
- What about you? Why are you covering yourself with your hand? - A curious Jackson looks over his shoulder and for a moment observes the three people who are buying coffee. - Friends? - He asks when I am again the center of his attention. - Bad friends?
I don't have to explain everything to him because he's able to catch the point himself. Occasionally, I wonder if he can't read my mind.
- Monsters," I reply, which makes him laugh, even though I'm telling the truth.
- I'm a beast, so I'll eat little monsters with no problem. - His amused look makes me start laughing. - And that's precisely the kind of expression I like best in you.
- Alice... who would have thought you were dating? - I hear Samantha's annoyed voice as she stops in front of our table. I feel like returning everything I've eaten so far.
I see that Thomas is focusing his eyes on the boy accompanying me, while Samantha is tossing her red hair and strutting around like she's been made Miss Teen. I don't know if this is her way of trying to prove in front of everyone what a great girl she is and for everyone to admire her?
- Oh, Alice, you're going to be fat," she says with concern in her voice, when her gaze is caught by the two plates that Jackson put down in the middle of the table earlier. - You're not doing anything to get rid of those plump cheeks. Soon you'll look like a hamster.
I realize that she purposely wants to ridicule me in front of her prince from seven pains and, above all, in front of the boy who accompanies me.
- Alice doesn't have to worry about that because she'll never manage to get to the size you're wearing - Jackson's answer is a masterstroke for me because I can't get out of admiration as Samantha's jaw drops. This is something she was unlikely to expect.
Poor thing.
Thomas measures his girlfriend from the bottom up, and his face betrays that he rather agrees with Jackson's statement.
- How dare you? I eat one meal a day so that I don't gain a gram and maintain my ideal figure! - she says with indignation in her voice, although you can see how offended and embarrassed she is by what Jackson said.
- Then you're screwed because Alice in my company eats unimaginable amounts of sweets, and yet she still looks beautiful.
His statement causes a pleasant, warm feeling to envelop my left breast. At this point, I'm probably blushing, but again I have to admit to myself that this boy is wonderful.
Is this a gift from heaven for putting me through hell with my mother for seventeen years?
- Samantha, just stop because you are starting to embarrass me. Everyone is watching," Thomas says, and I'm surprised that he's not even going to defend his girlfriend. Apparently, he doesn't care at all and doesn't give a damn how she just feels.
The redhead measures me and Jackson with an envious look, then without a word she walks away towards a vacant table. I'm sure that tomorrow, during the last day of school before the vacations start, she will give me such hell that I will remember it for a very long time.
- Alice, see you tomorrow. - Why do I get the impression that I have just become more attractive in Thomas' eyes? I have no doubt when I see the way he looks at me when he leaves. Is it because of Jackson's presence?
- I hate redheads.
The boy, sitting across from me, puts his arms across his chest and squints as he looks at my mean schoolmate.
- Is it because the man who pursues you has red hair?
- It started when I was a kid, when I met a boy with curly red hair at the mall who started yelling at me in a different language, and it sounded like he was putting a curse on me. It certainly wasn't German...
- And since then, you don't like redheads?
- Yeah, somehow it happened that I feel an aversion to them since that day. You can't even imagine how horrified I was then.
- And you really dare to call me weird? - I laugh when I see his frightened face when he recalls that child.
- Surely odder is the man who looks into the glass and directly at us. He looks pretty scary. His face is ghastly. Just look at me," he says to me, and his eyes are big, as if he is feeling anxious at the moment.
I turn around, and my heart goes up to my throat when I notice a bald man of not very attractive beauty, whose face resembles a typical cartoon villain.
- How unlucky do you have to be found by a usurer in a coffee shop?
- Well, you know... I'm sitting opposite the glass, and since I'm quite handsome, I catch the attention of every passerby. Even the usurer is unable to resist me. Just see... he even rubs his hands against that glass, just to get to me.
- I feel like I'm in a horror movie. This man is acting and looking like a zombie, so shouldn't we follow the plot now and start running away?
- It will be more fun when we show originality and change the plot," he replies, and I'm surprised that he can smile in such a situation. What is he up to again? - How about it's a zombie running away from us?