Chapter 4

    A week had past since I had met Ava and yet it still felt like yesterday. 

    

     She was nice and a fun kind of person. We spent most of our time playing video games, causing trouble at malls, viewing movies at cinemas, and making Janette and Clarissa pay for their previous actions. 

      

      Everything had been going perfect between us until I met him. 

 

       

 🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

 

     It was another Sunday and we had gone to the cafeteria to have some food after a long day at the salon—which she had convinced me to go to.

 

        I had never seen myself so pretty before and although I didn't say it out, i felt supremely confident and beautiful.

 

         We were talking about one of the ladies at the salon who we thought would do better as a stand-up comedian than a salonist, when he walked into the cafeteria. 

 

        My eyes caught sight of him immediately and I lost interest in what Ava was saying and in the entire world in general.

 

          For a moment, it felt like the whole world was paused and only him and I were still moving. 

 

       He looked dazed as he looked around until his eyes caught mine. Normally I would have looked away but I didn't, I just couldn't. 

 

        He slowly began to walk towards me with a style which enticed me the more. I watched his every move and his every step and my heart began racing faster than ever.

 

      When I was sure that he was indeed walking towards me, my mind went wild with several thoughts; 'Why is he walking towards me? 'What am I going to the when he approaches me? Does he feel the same way? 

 

       But then, all my questions were answered at once as he tapped Ava from behind and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

 

     I felt like I was just shot in the heart. I looked stupidly at them laughing and saying probably happy things to each other. One of his hands were on her shoulder and the other playing with her beautiful newly trimmed hair. 

 

        As for Ava, I had never seen her so happy before. Her eyes glowed with excitement. Her smile was perfect. and did well in exposing all her white pretty teeth. She was truly happy and....I wasn't.

 

      Fine, it's okay for you to judge me but I can bet that if you were in my shoes you will feel the same. 

 

      Ava must have noticed my mood as she touched my hands gently and said to him. "This is Hillary Hunter, the girl I told you about."

 

     She talked about me to him. That brought more questions to my head, like 'what kind of things did she talk about? Good things? Bad things? Did she tell him I was a loser who couldn't stand up for herself? Did she tell him that I was the school laughing stock? Oh my!

 

       Like she read my thoughts, she quickly added. "Don't bother, only nice things." She laughed and I corresponded nervously. 

 

         He was staring at me with an amazing smile on his face. It felt like his golden brown eyes could see right inside me, probably pry into my thoughts and find out that I liked him, definitely not as a friend. He was the first guy I had ever acknowledged despite the number that came after me. Most of the guys that had gone after me in the past had been put off by my intentional weirdness. Now, they all saw me as a creep, and never bothered me anymore. Good riddance to bad rubbish, anyways.

 

       He stretched his hand out and graced me with a smile, which sent chills all over me. "Hi, I'm Dylan."

 

      His eyes were still fixed on me, making me partially paralyzed and numb. I rubbed my sweaty palm on my trousers and anxiously shook his outstretched hand.  

 

    "Hi." Our first touch was magical. The feeling of our hands touching sent sparks all over my body. It wasn't a strong handshake, it wasn't soft, it wasn't too long neither was it short  but it was plainly perfect. 

 

    Our hands maintained the same position with our eyes fixed on eachother until Ava gently separated us. "Hey, what's going on here? That's enough." She said jokingly but I knew she didn't like it.

 

      "You have really soft hands."He said still staring at me.

 

        His compliment almost gave me a heart attack. "Thanks." I struggled to utter.

 

      "What about me? You never commend me." Ava said with a babyish voice.

 

       He laughed. "Your hands are as hard as a rock, Ava."

 

        "What! You're a liar."

 

    We all laughed. 

 

     "Take that back, Dylan." She said poking his muscular arm with her manicured finger nails. 

 

      "You see, your hands are hard but not as hard and cold as your heart." He said.

 

        She gave him a funny hard look and then looked at me with a smile on her face. "Well Hillary, say something nice about me to prove him wrong."

 

          I giggled shyly. "Uhm...you are..."

 

   He interrupted me. "Don't think too hard Hillary," He placed his hand on my shoulder, renewing the sparks. "there's nothing nice about her. 

 

   She tapped his hands off my shoulder. "Don't mind him Hillary, you were about to say something really nice about me, right?"

 

      "Exactly. Well, I think you are very friendly unlike most beautiful girls I know."

 

      "Ohh, that's so sweet. Thank you, Hillary." She said.

     

       He scoffed. "Beautiful? Ava? She's just plain, the only beautiful person here is you, Hillary."

 

     I almost choked as he uttered that. I wish the ground could open up and swallow me this time. Did he really mean that or was he just joking. Whether joking or not, I felt happier than I've ever felt since I was given birth to.

    

      Ava was still smiling but it was obvious that she was getting a bit jealous, which was natural. 

 

      He must have noticed the awkward vibe as he quickly changed the topic.

 

 

         The rest of the evening went well, we discussed about various topics and we all laughed, until it was late. 

 

        Ava who was the least person having fun as her mood had changed after Dylan's comment, was the first to notice that it was a few minutes past ten. 

 

        We paid the attendants and walked out of the cafe.

 

       We hadn't taken ten steps before it began to rain. Ava hurried to her expensive car which was two-seated. She urged Dylan to come in but he refused. "We can't leave her here." He said.

 

      Ava said. "We have no choice. It's cold out here and it's late, we need to go home."

 

      "It's alright, I'm fine." I said, hugging myself as the cold rain pattered hardly on me.

 

   "No, you can't go home all by yourself, apart from the rain, it's late and it's dangerous for a girl like you wandering the road alone." He looked back at Ava. "You know what, how about you drive her home and come pick me up here, I could wait inside the cafe... or I could even go home myself."

 

     The fact that he wanted me safe, made my heart scream with joy. 

 

      It took Ava a while to process it. "No, Dylan. The road to her place is awfully bad. Only a truck can get there."

 

     "OK. Go home, Ava. I'll drop her myself."

 

    She looked defeated. She hopped into her car, slammed the door and drove off with speed. 

 

      He placed his hand on my shoulder as we walked to my place. Regardless of the downpour and the cold which made me shiver, he still found ways to make me laugh. 

 

     It took us about an hour and a half to get to my place. He had carried me on his back most of the way as I had gotten cold from the rain. 

 

   He carried me into my house and asked for the direction to my bedroom, and I relunctantly told him with my teeth clattering and lips shivering. 

 

     He walked into my room and dropped me on my bed. He helped in taking off his jacket which he had placed on me earlier. He advised me take off my wet clothes, have a hot water bath, amd put on some comfortable dry clothes on, while he waited downstairs. 

 

      He was right, so I adhered to his advise and did exactly what he had said. In fifteen minutes I was done with it, so i shakily walked to the corridor and told him I was done and that if he wanted to, he could sleep on the couch in my room. 

 

       He walked upstairs and into my room

with a balm in his hands. He had also gotten most of his clothes off, except a white shorts which was really short. It was so inappropriate for him to dress like that in front of me—a church chorister who was also the assistant head of the abstinence club in church. If my mum found out, I'll be finished. But he looked extremely hot, with his abs and muscles glistening and flaunting under the dim golden lights, I didn't mind, I like it.

 

     He applied it slowly and gently on my body and when he was done, he carefully tucked me in bed. 

 

     As he was about standing up, I grabbed his hand and said softly. "Thank you, Dylan."

 

      He looked at me with genuine care. "No problem, Hillary. By tomorrow you'll be fine."

 

     He stood up and began walking away, but he stopped by the door. 

 

    I looked at him curiously and asked. "Are you okay?"

 

     "Yes....but." He turned around. "This sounds really crazy, but have we met before?"

 

     "No, we haven't." I said, shocked by his question. If we had met i would surely remember a personality, face and body like his. I don't forget people with good personalities—they happened to be really rare in my life.

 

   "But, I'm sure we have met before." He said with certainty. 

 

   I managed a laugh. "Maybe you met someone who looks like me, but I'm Aldo sure that you and I haven't met."

 

      He stared at me for a while with doubt. "OK, Hillary. Good night." 

 

    "You can stay here with me." I spat out without thinking about it. "The couch here is way more comfortable than that in the sitting room."I said trying to cover up for my earlier statement.

 

  "Never mind, I'm fine." He hesitantly walked out and shut my room door. 

 

 

 I switched off my side lamp and shut my eyes to sleep but I couldn't. My mind still pondered about what he had said. 

 

     What of if he had seen my twin sister, Maribel, before and thought I was the one. No way!! Although Maribel and I were twins, we didn't look alike in anyway. She had dark brown hair, I had ebony hair. She was 5 '6' I was 5'9'. She was fleshy while I was slim. She had a thick, bold and loud voice while mine was calm and soft. She had more boobs and butt than I, so it was almost impossible to substitute one for the other. Our differences were too vast for anybody to mistake one for the other. 

 

     I was still awake, rolling in my bed, and thinking deeply when Dylan knocked on my bedroom door.

 

      I switched on my bedside lamp and said lazily "Open up."

 

 

    He walked in with a charming smile on his face, and then the next statement he said blew up my imaginations. "I saw you last week, under the rain, in a blue jacket and black pants."

 

       What the hell! "How do you know that was what I was wearing? Where you in the party?"  I asked more curious than ever.

 

       "No Hillary. I'm sure it wasn't raining during the party, was it?"

 

       "No, it rained later in the night. Then how did you know what I was wearing?"

 

 

    He smiled. "I was wolf you saw, Hillary...and from the connection we shared, you're...my mate."