Episode 2

EPISODE TWO

I went to school 30 minutes early, I don’t have anything to do at my apartment so I figured I’ll just go hang-out and wait at the classroom, I arrived and saw that a few students were already there so I don’t look like a nerd that’s excited to attend class, so that was good and while I was waiting, someone entered and yes, it’s her

"Hi" Arden greeted happily

"Hi to you too" I replied

She then sat next to me, "I’m surprised I didn't see you at the lobby"

"I’m not in a "hanging out" mood and besides its hot today, so I figured I’ll just wait here, in this quiet, air-conditioned room"

She giggled then stared at me

“What?” I asked

"Nothing, I just noticed your eyes, they’re beautiful"

"Got them from my mom, remind me to thank her later" I smiled

Arden laughed "are you always this funny?"

"On some occasions" I said

I just notice that she really is attractive, like you-could-stare- at-her- face-all-day kind of attractive

After a while I got really bored so I decided not to attend class; I stood up and went to the door

"Where are you going?" Arden asked "class is about to start"

"I’m not really in the mood to attend class so see yah!" I said then left

I was walking around, when Lance approached me

“Hey!” He greeted

“Hey Lance” I greeted back “what’s up?”

“Not much, just the usual stuff” He smiled “so, you and Arden are close right?”

“I guess, why’d you asked?”

“I wanted to ask you a favor, is that ok?”

”Sure”

He then took out a small rectangular box and gave it to me

“What’s this?” I asked

“It’s a gift for Arden” He answered

“Why would you give her a gift?”

“’Coz I like her, I was actually planning on asking her out then giving her that gift but my schedule is kinda crazy right now so I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to ask her so I mi-”

I so know where this is going, I interjected “Let me guess, you might as well give her a gift first so she knows you sorta like her”

He nodded and smiled “So can you give that to her? Please”

I have to be nice here, don’t I? I sighed and nodded

Lance smiled “thanks so much, I owe you one”

I smiled back and told him that I have to go and left. I decided to go to the gym and shoot some hoops

I was playing when I noticed someone standing by the doorway, I looked and saw Arden

I smiled instantly "Are you stalking me?"

"Depends but I have to give you something, so I have a reason to follow you" she replied with a smile and walked towards me, she then handed me my wallet

“It fell when you stood” She said

No wonder my right pocket felt light, I took it and put it in my other pocket “thanks”

She smiled then grabbed the ball from my hands, went to the 3 point line and in her heels, made a shot which easily went in

I stared at her in amazement, how the heck did she…? And she’s wearing heels!? Wow.

She looked at me and smirked “just because I look girly doesn’t mean I can’t play ball” then she threw the ball at me

Which I caught “so it’s going to be like that” I smirked “okay then, let’s play”

She smiled, removed her shoes and started guarding me, I managed to get pass her but trust me it’s not easy, she’s very good at playing basketball, we continued playing and after 3 tiring rounds, I lost…

“No fair” I said as I lay on the court, catching my breath “you’re cuteness is too distracting, I want a rematch” I joked, wait, did I really said that?

She laughed and lay beside me. She just looks at me and doesn’t say a word

I also looked at her and we just kinda stared at each other for like a minute or so, then I remembered that gift

I sat up and reached into my pocket, "Oh by the way, here" I said handing her Lance’s gift

She smiled and sat "what's this?"

"A gift, Lance wanted me to give it to you" I said "You can thank him later, if he manages to ask you out"

“He’s gonna ask me out?”

"Yeah, he told me earlier when he gave that to me" I said

"What do you think should I do?" Arden suddenly asked

Which actually shocked me, why is she asking me? "Why are you asking me?" yep, I blurted out what I was thinking

"I just want to know you're opinion" she said

I looked at her "It’s up to you if you want to go on a date with him"

She became quiet; it looks like she's having doubts, but why? They’ve already talked to each other and it seems like they're in good terms, so why have doubts?

"Ok" Arden suddenly spoke

"Ok what?" I asked

"Ok, I’ll go out with him if he asks me"

"Oh...ok" I said then we stood, I don’t know what else I should say so… "I gotta go, see yah later" and then I walked away.

And Lance did managed to ask her out and she agreed to go

The evening of their date, I decided to go sit at the bench by the mango tree and waste my time there since I don’t have any plans. While I was there, I looked at the night sky and admired its beauty

Suddenly someone spoke from behind, “Hey!” which made me scream like a little girl

Arden laughed "relax, it's just me" she said emerging from behind then she sat next to me

"Geez you scared the shit out of me!” I exclaimed, my hand on my chest “don’t ever do that again!”

She giggled “Sorry, what are you doing here anyway?”

“Just enjoying the view” I said “Wait a minute, what are YOU doing here? Shouldn’t you be at your date?”

“I cancelled it”

“Why?”

“I’m not really in the mood to go on a date tonight” she said “I’d rather watch a movie instead”

I stood “Then let’s rent some DVDs and have a movie marathon”

Arden smiled and stood, we then went and rented some DVDs

We had a small discussion on which place to go and both agreed that we’ll watch at Arden’s apartment since it’s nearer, so we went to her place, which is a bit bigger compared to mine, her living room is definitely bigger, I can tell you that, there’s a shelf-like divider in the middle of the room which divides the living room from the kitchen/dining room, in its right was two doors, one is her bedroom the other is her bathroom, and she has a nice back porch and small backyard. So after we went in, she quickly set up the sofa bed on her living room, I started the movie then we laid on the sofa bed and started our movie marathon.

In each of the movie we watched, I only understood half of the story line because I would caught myself looking at her, good thing she didn’t caught me. Sometimes she would say something funny and we just end up laughing. Everything just felt so right; we really enjoyed each other’s company.

It was already late but we still have one movie left to watch, we decided to watch it anyway, the last movie was “Imagine Me and You” which I picked because it’s my favorite anyway during the movie, I kinda glanced at her and before I knew it, I was already staring and this time she caught me looking at her

“What?” Arden asked “Is there something wrong?”

“No...I was just, uh, seeing if you were cold, ‘cause its freezing in here” I said

Lamest excuse ever. But then she stood, grabbed a blanket and covered the two of us

“All better?” She asked smiling

I smiled and nodded, okay, maybe not the lamest excuse ever

She then moved closer and laid her head on my shoulder

I swear I forgot to watch the movie ‘coz I would check if she’s comfortable or if my fidgeting is bothering her but after a while I got comfortable and just eased into our position and we fell asleep like that

one time I woke up because I heard her voice, I thought it was morning already and she was trying to wake me so I opened my eyes but I saw that it’s still dark, I heard her speak again, I sat and turned to her, turns out she was sleep talking and It was very adorable. I smiled and laid back down, I was about to go back to sleep when I heard her talk about gummy worms being her favorite and that she’ll buy a dozen jars of it, I laughed and went back to sleep

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was her face which was a few inches away from mine, my heart beat fast as I stared at her but after a while I felt my neck hurt, I moved my arm to try and change my position but I felt something soft, what is this? I thought it was just a pillow so I moved my arm again but then Arden suddenly gasped; my eyes grew big as I realized what that was, I quickly jerked away my arm and sat, did I just touched her breasts?

I blushed like crazy, I slowly turned to see if she was awake but fortunately she’s still asleep, thank goodness, I sighed then slowly stood up, good thing we don’t have classes today, we don’t have to hurry. I got out of bed and made myself look neat to be seen in public then went outside; I first went back to my apartment, took a quick bath, got dressed then went outside to buy breakfast

At the convenient store

I was waiting for my order when someone tapped me from behind, I turned and saw Jamie

“Hey Nicky!” She greeted

“Hey!” I greeted back

“What are you doing here so early?” she asked

“Buying breakfast, you?”

“Same”

“Wait, you’re buying breakfast?” I said “but you can cook”

“I can but it’s a hassle” Jamie replied “and besides what’s the point of having money if you’re not gonna spend it” she then turned to the guy at the counter and ordered a ham and cheese sandwich decaf latte

I smirked “got a point there”

Then my order came and he gave it to me

Jamie looked at me and said “are you that hungry? ‘Cause that’s a lot of food”

I giggled “I’m not the only one who’s eating this, you know” I said then paid for the food

“Really?” her eye brow rose “It’s too early for you to have a guest so I’m guessing you spent the night with someone”

“Yeah, so?”

“Oh c’mon spill, what’d you guys do?”

“Well, Arden and I just watched a few movies“

“You’re with Arden?” Jamie grinned “you sure that’s all you did?”

I looked at her and grinned before smacking her head

“Aw! I was just kidding!” She reacted “wait a sec, didn’t you tell me that she’s going on a date with Lance last night, so why is she with you?”

“She cancelled the date so we decided to have a movie marathon” I replied as I stood “I’m going to go ahead, see you later!”

Jamie waved and I left, I went back to Arden’s apartment, when I came in I saw Arden laying on the sofa bed and watching TV, when she saw me, she sat and asked, “where did you go?”

I showed her what I was carrying “bought some breakfast” I said “sorry I left without waking you”

“You have food in mind when you left so I forgive you” She smiled

I giggled and sat next to her, “I hope you like chocolate chip pancakes”

“I don’t just like them, I love them! They’re, like, my favorite morning food”

“Really? Me too! I just love these” I said

We both laughed and now we basically called ourselves “the pancake girls”

While eating Arden asked “So, what do you plan on doing today?”

“I think I’ll re-paint my apartment” I answered “I’m getting sick of that color the walls have right now”

“Need help?”

“You’re offering to help me paint?”

She giggled “Yeah is there something wrong with that?”

“Nothing, I was just surprised that you would do that on a class free day” I said

“I got nothing planned today so I’d rather do some painting than getting bored here” She said “also I want to see your apartment since you already saw mine” She smiled adorably

I smiled at her and we continued eating

After that, we went out and bought some paints and brushes then we went to my apartment

“Here we are” I said then opened the door, “welcome to my humble abode”

Arden walked in and looked around then she turned to me “where should we start?”

“How about mixing the paints first” I said then I opened the cans of paint; I started mixing the blue paint with some white to make it lighter

Arden was watching then she spoke “nice choice of color”

I smirked “thanks, it’s my favorite”

“Mine too” She said

I smiled “that’s two things we have in common” I said then handed her a paint brush “let’s start painting so we’ll have another thing in common”

She giggled and then she helped me lay newspaper on the floor then we started painting

At one point I took a chair and stood on it so I could paint the hard-to-reach spots

Arden then suddenly spoke “Um, Nicky, Could I ask you a favor?”

“Sure” I answered “What is it?”

“Exams are coming up and there are some subjects I’m having trouble with an-”

“And you’re wondering if I could help you study?” I said finishing her sentence with a grin on my face

She smiled shyly ”Yeah, I mean, if you’re not busy”

“I’m not” I said “we’ll study together”

“Okay” She said “It’s a date!”

I was reaching the paint can from the floor when she said that, I was surprised and ended up losing my balance and falling off the chair! She tried to catch me though but we ended up on the floor with paint scattered on her

Arden was sitting but I was still lying on my back, so she asked with a worried tone “Are you alright?”

I slowly sat “yeah, I’m fine, no worries” I looked at her and saw the product of my clumsiness, so I quickly apologized for getting paint all over her

Arden then took her paintbrush and smeared paint on my face and giggled

I smiled and readied my brush for a paint war that was about to begin

As soon as I stood, Arden managed to smear more paint on me before running across the room; I chased her, paint brush in hand. Long story short, I managed to catch her and we ended up looking like zebras with blue stripes! But we were laughing our heads off so it’s cool! We even took pictures, what a great day!

We cleaned up the mess we made. After cleaning, Arden asked if she could use the shower and if she could borrow some clothes, of course I said yes and off she goes while she’s taking a shower, I went to my bedroom and looked at myself on the mirror, I let her do this to me? She must be special, I smiled to myself. After a while someone knocked on the door, I looked and saw Arden, covered only in towel, her still wet hair flowing down beautifully and her ivory shoulders exposed. I stared at her and felt heaviness in my chest, like my heart was about to burst out of my chest

“Can I come in?” she asked

“Yeah” I said and quickly turned away and I then heard her sit on my bed, I grabbed another towel and quickly went to the door

“Where are you going?” She asked

“Gonna take a shower” I said without looking at her “you can pick any clothes you want to wear in my cabinet” then I quickly left the room

After taking a shower, I wrapped myself in a towel and looked at the mirror in the bathroom. Let’s face it, I didn’t look away because she’s half-naked, I looked away because she took my breath away. When she walked in, she had no make-up on, the only thing I saw was her simplicity. She’s magnificently beautiful.

I sighed and left the bathroom

I then saw her sitting at the living room, so I went to my bedroom and quickly got dressed then I went to her when she saw me, she instantly smiled and motioned me to come sit next to her , so I did then she spoke, “I saw a guitar in your bedroom, do you play it?”

I nodded “want me to play a song for you?”

She smiled and said yes, so I stood, grabbed my guitar and went back to her

“What song should I play?” I asked then sat next to her

“Anything”

So I started playing “Two is better than one” and started singing

“You came into my life and I thought hey, you know this could be something….’cause everything you do and words you say, you know that it all takes my breath away and now I’m left with nothing”

She kept on listening but after the first chorus, she sang along with me until the end of the song

“Maybe it’s true that I can’t live without you and maybe two is better than one, there’s so much time to figure out the rest of my life but I figured out with all this said and done, two is better than one…”

She smiled at me “Your voice was amazing”

“Yours too” I said “I didn’t know you could sing”

“One of my many talents”

“And what other talents do you have?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know” she giggled

We chatted for a while longer, then she decided that she better go home, I hailed a cab for her and watched her leave before going back inside

I fell asleep early and I dreamt of her beautiful face…