by Katie Wright
"What were you doing," I wasn't trying to be nosy.
"I'm getting my house redone. I figured it's time for a change."
"Oh yeah, why did you decide to do that?"
"Well besides it looking like complete shit, I now can do whatever I want without anyone telling me what to do."
"Oh, was Terry demanding?" I didn't mean for it to come up but I assumed he was talking about her.
He leaned back a little more in his chair and crossed his arms, "Yeah she was. But anyway I hoped while I was out you were looking through these."
I realized I hadn't but I still thought Chinese sounded good. "I was thinking Chinese food."
"Me too," he took the menu and we decided what we wanted. Both us were big fans of the 'general.' How couldn't you be? Casey ordered and we decided we'd pick it up since it was down the street.
Well actually Casey told me to make myself at home while he went to pick it up. I turned the television on and waited while he was gone. The phone rang and I tried to ignore it but it was like ten rings before the answering machine picked it up. And at that point I wish I had gone with Casey to the restaurant.
'Hey babe,' came the whiny voice from the machine. 'Just wondering where you're at. I called your cell but you didn't pick up.' Immediate vibrating came from under me and I pulled out the cell phone. It was on silent and now read that he had a message. I placed the phone on the coffee table. I tried to continue watching the tv but the voice kept talking.
'…so anyways I just wanted to say I love you and I hope when you get this you call me back. Byes!'
I squirmed in my seat. 'I love you.' I couldn't believe it. How long had they been going out? I guess it was a few months now but still. Did he love her?
Casey came in through the front door with bag in hand, "Oh I cannot wait to eat."
"Yeah me neither," I said as I got up.
He came back in as I went to the kitchen.
I heard him say, "Did somebody call?"
I yelled a 'yes' and started picking out what I wanted. "Where are your plates Casey?"
"In the cabinet, right of the sink."
I went up and looked for the plates. He turned the answering machine on and I could still hear Lucy's voice making its way into the kitchen. I placed the plates on the table and took out come cutlery.
Casey reached the kitchen entrance, "Did you hear that?"
I looked over, "Um kind of, I was trying to watch tv."
He nodded and started opening up the take out boxes. He sat down and shoveled food on his plate. I just stared off at my own fare.
"Why aren't you eating?"
I looked up, "What?"
"You did hear it didn't you?"
"Yeah," I wriggled in my seat, "so?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" Casey was leaning over staring at me but I would not look at him.
"I didn't want you to get mad; I wasn't trying to eavesdrop on something personal."
"If you knew who it was why didn't you pick it up?"
Then I looked at him, "Don't you think Lucy would become a little suspicious if she heard my voice picking up the phone?"
"Why do you care?"
I shook my head and started picking at my food, "I don't."
"Okay," he started eating.
I couldn't help it I had to ask, "So she's in love with you?"
Casey stopped chewing and in fact stopped moving. He swallowed after a few seconds and looked at me. His eyes were darker almost the color of his hoodie and I couldn't help but become entranced in them.
"Um," a shaky laugh came from his throat, "that was blunt."
"I'm sorry," I started, "I just heard it."
"Yeah maybe we should just eat. Or you could tell me what you're doing at that interesting job of yours?"
I hadn't vented to someone about the whole situation all day. I needed to talk to him about Dan, he was a guy maybe he could shed some light on everything. I began to tell him the whole thing and soon I was emptying out all of my thoughts that I felt when I got home, including my parents. When I was done he sat back and folded his arms waiting for me or for something. I in turn asked, "So what'd you think?"
Chapter 15: Remember the Bet?
Casey's seemed to think over what I had told him and then he got up and over to my seat.
"Come on," he started. I got up and followed him into his family room. He sat down and gestured for me to join him. Turning the television off left us in silence.
"What?" I asked to prompt him to speak.
He turned at an angle and draped his arm over the back of the couch. Leisurely and relaxed I was jealous of his always comfortable laid back posture. "Well I think as far as your parents are concerned you're making a bit much out of it. I mean," he stopped and started biting one of his fingernails. "I don't want you to take offence but I think you're too sensitive. Maybe they really did think you were at work. I just don't think you should make too much out of it."
I nodded, because I knew he was right. My parents weren't wishing their lives without me back I was just paranoid. And it was odd, my thoughts. Instead of me jumping at him and telling him he was wrong I listened and agreed. Maybe it was in the way he said it to me, he was blunt without being insulting.
I looked at him he seemed to get straight to the point and asked, "Well what do you think about Dan?"
He grinned a bit and started rubbing the back of his neck and then stopped as if he had been caught doing something wrong. "Well," he cleared his throat, "I think he likes you and I think you know that. I mean come on he wouldn't be normal if he didn't try to get you alone. And I guess he's using work as a way to be around you and be alone with you."
My faced squished into one of disgust which caused Casey to begin laughing.
"Come on," he began between regaining his breath and calming himself, "it was kind of obvious he's into you since the dinner at your parents."
I brought both hands to my face and fell back on his couch with a resounding grown. "I know," I spoke through my hands, "he likes me but I just can't, ahh!"
Hands pulled mine away from my face and I was staring up at Casey who had a particular grin plastered on his face. Was he making fun of me?
"Heath, have you told him you're not interested," he stopped, and took his hands off of me and moved away, "I mean if you're not interested in him."
I sprung up, "No!"
He placed his hands up, "I thought so but I don't know girls are weird like that."
"What do you mean?"
He looked away, "Just that they aren't always honest about their feelings."
"Oh Terry," I questioned him because I just assumed he was speaking of her. She was the only girl I knew so far that had betrayed him.
He spun his head around, "Terry isn't the only one, I meant girls in general."
Oh, touched a nerve, so I went back to the matter, "Well I suppose I should tell Dan, but I don't know when or how."
"Well you could just tell him next time you see him."
"I could but he's just, I don't know, hard to explain things to. He kind of bothers me," I added the last part mostly to myself.
"What do you mean he bothers you?"
There was a look in Casey's eyes that seemed different, almost wary looking.
"Don't get me wrong. I just mean he isn't easy to be around not like I'm afraid of him or anything," I muttered.
Casey came closer to me on the couch, we were barely touching knees and that sharp tingle at the back of my neck started to prickle. I rubbed the sensation away but as he gazed at me the sensation swept down my back. A chill went through me and I shook involuntary.
"Are you cold?" He asked as he rubbed my arms. "Goosebumps?"
"Um, yes I'm a bit cold."
He got up, "I have another hoodie, be right back." And he got up and left me sitting on the couch. He returned with the oversized sweatshirt and threw it at me.
"Thanks."
"No problem." He situated himself on the
couch and spoke, "Now are you going to tell me the truth?"
"What? No."
"No, what?"
"No, I don't have anything to tell…" I wasn't very believable.
"Okay then why does he bother you?"
I pulled the sleeves down covering my hands and wrapped them into a ball on my lap. "Um, I don't know, he just does. I think it might be because I knew he did like me and tried to kiss me and I think he thought that I was interested. Now he wants me to come over his place and I'm just not comfortable about it. He asks a lot of questions sometimes that just seem odd. I mean if we were friends I wouldn't feel so awkward about it but some stuff just seems too personal. Something about him…"
Casey cut in, "Well then maybe you should tell him you'd feel better if he just came over to your house because you can't meet him over there or something."
"I could but how would I tell him why I can't?"
"Just say you don't have a car those nights or that I'm fixing it."
"I think he would think something was up. He doesn't like you."
"Yeah well fuck it I don't like him either." We both shared a laugh.
"Yeah well I don't blame you."
Casey touched my arm, "Seriously Heath just tell him or your boss, you don't have to do anything you're not okay with."
I nodded, "Yeah I know."
I looked over at the clock, "Maybe I should get going. I've been sitting here talking the whole time, I'm sorry." I started to get up.
"Wait," he all but shouted at me. I was startled and sat back down.
"Yeah?"
"I, uh," he got up, "I wanted to show you some of the changes I'm doing with the place."
I nodded, "Okay, then show me."
I followed him through the kitchen out a back door where he had the outside lights on. He took me far out into the backyard and then turned around, "Look," he pointed.
I turned and noticed that there was no siding on the house. "Casey there's nothing here."
"Yes but there will be. It's going to be white siding with blue trimmed windows. I'm thinking of putting on a back covered porch."
I smiled, "Yeah you have a cute house it'll look good."
"Cute?" He sounded disconcerted.
I looked over at him, "Not in an unmanly way. But I always thought it was cute just in need of some cosmetic touch ups."
"Nice way to put it. Yeah I know it looked like shit but I just got the urge to redo it you know? So you think it will look good?"
I genuinely felt that it would and told him so.
"Okay," he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "I can show you the inside."
"I thought I've seen all of it."
"Uh, no. Let's go."
Back inside he showed me his old bedroom near the kitchen which was now covered in clothes and some sparse furniture. He told me that he was either going to have the extension connected so that he could turn the room into a den. Then showed me how he was planning on knocking out the wall between the kitchen and now family room and make it one large kitchen with an island. He said it would create the idea that there was more space.
There was another room across from the family room. He wasn't sure what to make of it for now but possibly an extra bedroom.
"And this is the grand finale," he said leaning on the staircase.
"And what is up there?" I kind of had an idea but I couldn't keep the butterflies from fluttering around my stomach. The anxiety I felt almost didn't allow me to follow him as we went up.
He opened a door and turned on a light which flooded a decent size bedroom, Casey's bedroom.
There was a bed, as you can imagine, to the left under a window.
"I thought this was storage," I commented, not meaning to sound offensive. But there wasn't much space except for a bed and armoire.
He flopped onto his bed, "Yeah but you know I figured I need some private space away from the rest of the house. A bit of a low ceiling but I'm not going to be dating anyone over 6'2 and I don't planning on having any of the guys up here so I figured what the hell."
Casey seemed less dark, more like himself. More like the person I should have met in the first place instead of the person that I assumed he was. That was such a Dan thing to do. And it hit me I had acted just like that asshole, no wonder Casey had issues with me and why did I come to this realization now?
"Yeah it's great up here. And Casey?"
He turned his head from looking at something on the window to me.
"Um," I started, not knowing if this was even the right place or time but an apology was in order, "I'm sorry."
His eyes squinted, "What for?"
I moved towards the bed, towards him, not realizing I had, "For how I acted when I first met you and how I have acted since then. I know you have this impression of me and I don't blame you because I realize that I am like that sometimes."
Ashamed, I turned my head down and played with my sleeves. There seemed to be silence and then I looked up during the pending silence and saw Casey standing in front of me. I didn't even hear him move from the bed.
"It's okay I forgive you. Yeah you're a bit you know…."
"Bitchy," I finished for him.
"You said it. But you're also not like that. You can be sweet and you have defended me against Dan, so I know you're not like him. You're something else."
I didn't know what to say, I thought I would just get a 'no problem.' But instead he made me feel like I wasn't as terrible as I thought I was or anyone else. That maybe there was something behind my bitchiness.
"Casey, I" and that was my last word I uttered until I felt his lips covering mine, caressing mine.
I couldn't think or act and in fact just stood there while he seemed to be trying so hard for me to do something. I didn't want to disappoint but what was I supposed to do, this man had a girlfriend and I would not be 'that' girl.
He pulled away, something of regret shone in his eyes.
"What?" I asked.
"That was me remembering that you owed me for the bet and it'll make up for everything else."
"Bet?" I was still on a cloud. I had felt during the kiss that I had removed myself from my body and had been looking at the scene between us. I felt detached.
Casey was now about five feet away from me near the window.
"Yes the bet, remember, summer, Labor Day, you owed me."
"I owed you?"
"Yes and I figured I might as well do it now you know when you were out of it then you know realize and slap me. All that talk, you know buttering you up for this."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I just mean obviously I couldn't have done that to you a couple of months ago or you would have slapped me. Plus I thought it would take your mind off of everything."
I stepped back a bit mentally and remembered, "You already kissed me before then."
"Yes," he bit his lip, "this is true but I was doing you a favor."
"Okay, then what about Lucy?"
"Lucy?" He seemed befuddled and then humming went off in the room. We both jumped at the sound. Then Casey pointed his finger in the air and his other hand went to his back pocket, "Cell phone."
"Oh."
"Hey," he looked away from me but I could hear him, "Hey Luce. Yeah, I know I'm just watching tv. Yeah I'm going to bed in a bit." Now he was staring at me and I felt like an intruder or eavesdropper. I made a move for the door but he put his hand up. "Yeah Luce, okay goodnight," he paused, "no I told you already you know? Okay goodnight."
He hung up, "Lucy."
"Yeah I heard. Not that I was trying to listen, okay I'm going to stop now."
"But she's right I have a long day tomorrow."
"Oh yeah, me too. Alright."
Casey walked me out to my car, "Okay goodnight and drive safely."
"Okay," I said, "Goodnight and thanks for dinner."
"No problem."
I pulled the window up and drove away from his house. I watched
as he went into his house and waited until I turned the corner.
As I made a u-turn to return back to my house I noticed a pair of headlights behind me. They got a little closer and soon they were right behind me. I couldn't even see their headlights they were so close to the car. I tried slowing down, like my dad said, 'If they want to go around you, let them it's better than getting yourself killed.'