Chapter 7

Arthur’s POV

“Oh my God Anna, you look like a car accident, what happened to you?” Alicia asked immediately as she walked into her business management class and found Anna sitting at their usual spots, beside the windows. Anna groaned, turning to the back to glare at something or someone and Alicia followed her line of sight to see she was glaring at Andre.

“That bastard pranked me this morning. I swear, I’m this close to beating his ass with the crutches I used back in fifth grade.”

Alicia chuckled and took the empty seat beside her. “Now we’re making jokes about you almost having both your legs amputated for getting into an actual car accident back in fifth grade. And what’s this little constant bickering between you and Andre?” Alicia asked, wiggling her eyes playfully and got an eye roll from Anna.

“It’s worse that his name starts with an ‘A’ and mine does as well so people purposely try to form cute names from both our names, it’s disgusting to be honest.”

“C’omon, Andre is hot, what’s there not to like?”

“His face, his little antics, his annoying laughter, his fucking gorgeous jawline, his sexy body, his beautiful chocolate skin that looks like it’s been dipped in caramel and honey— oh fuck.” Anna’s eyes went wide when she realized she was supposed to be hating on him, not thirsting over him.

“Mhmmm,” Alicia teased, pulling her books out of her bag.. “Keep pretending all you want my beautiful friend but we both know you want some of that chocolate inside you.”

Anna cackled, “please don’t be gross. I don’t like him like that.”

“When will you stop lying to me and to yourself?”

“When will you stop lying about being in love with your boyfriend?”

Oh, that one hurt but Alicia laughed it off, it’s not a big deal and it’s not like Anna is completely wrong. She doesn’t know if what she feels for Micheal is even love when he doesn’t even make her feel the sort of things she wants to feel. She thinks she’s selfish for overlooking his good attributes and being more interested in other things that anyone else can tag irrelevant.

“This is what I get for having you as a best friend and you knowing tons of shit about me. It’s not like you’re completely wrong but it’s hard to admit, I feel a lump in my throat whenever I think about how selfish I’ve been lately. I mean he’s trying, he wants everything to be perfect but what if I don’t want perfect? What if I’m not a sucker for all that soft touches and shit? What if I want a little aggressiveness, is it that bad? He doesn’t get it. I don’t know why he’s that way with me but he dated a sorority girl for heaven’s sake and one we know isn’t exactly the innocent kinda girl.”

“Instead of blaming Micheal for not being the kind of aggressive you want, have you maybe thought about how he wants to be careful? It’d be your first time having sex, he’d obviously want it to be perfect and amazing for you.”

“But I don’t want that! That’s exactly what I’m saying, I’d find that boring. I understand that he wants to be careful but I just don’t think that’s what I want.”

“This bitch. Trust me Alicia, you’re saying all that because your sext Buddy has put a lot of images into your head which I find amazing but having sex for the first time hurts like hell. I’m not trying to scare you or anything but my first time, we had to stop because I couldn’t stop crying. It took me about thirty minutes to calm down and ask him to resume the little activity. Your first time shouldn’t be so rough or overly aggressive, it’s supposed to feel good, you’re supposed to feel good and not regret it. It’s better to leave your wild fantasies aside just for that night and be careful with it, you don’t wanna get hurt.”

Alicia swallowed, she knew Anna made sense and she’s been a total idiot for not thinking about it this way. She deserves to feel good about losing her virginity and she’s almost turning twenty, she doesn’t want that.

“I feel bad, what do I say to Micheal? We’re supposed to meet tonight and I know he’s mad at me. I hung up on him that night and I didn’t take his calls or answer any of his texts for two days. I’m such a shitty girlfriend.”

“You kinda are,” Alicia chuckled, slapping Anna’s arm, Anna couldn’t lie to not hurt her feelings sometimes. “You’re right, you do need to apologise and it’s been a week, you haven’t said shit about your sext Buddy, are things not going well anymore?”

Alicia sighed, turning to face the teacher as he walked in. “Let’s just say, I’m in a terrible and messy situation.”

*********

Lunch wasn’t very exciting for Alicia, she was constantly staring at Micheal who was sitting with his friends, cracking jokes and their laughter echoing in the cafeteria hall.

“He’s not making eye contact with me.” Alicia whined to Anna who was trying to swat  Andre’s  hand away from her food.

“I wouldn’t wanna make eye contact with you if I were him.”

Alicia glared at her, poking her food and she stole another glance at Micheal again. “Andre, you’re a guy, what do you want your girlfriend to do to make you less angry if you’re mad at her, hmmm?”

Anna watched, more like she inhaled a deep breath and waited for Andre to answer, did Andre have a girlfriend? Andre was sitting on the table, his eyes on Anna who was staring into space but very attentive to what was happening around their table.

“First of all, I don’t have a girlfriend,” Andre said while looking at Anna and Alicia wanted to gag at this point, “secondly, I think it depends on what she did wrong.”

“If she ignored your calls and texts for two days?”

“Oh, I’ll be mad especially if I did nothing wrong and she just wanted to act stupid.”

Anna snorted and immediately covered it up with a cough when Alicia sent her a glare. “So, what would you want her to do to make you feel better?”

“I’m a simple guy so a simple apology is fine or if she sends me numerous texts apologising, that’s unbelievably the most adorable thing a girl would do. If she does that, I wouldn’t even stay mad anymore.”

Alicia thought about it and she grabbed her phone from her bag and checked her message box with Micheal and she groaned. She didn’t think sending him texts were going to make him feel better as she read his own texts she ignored over and over again.

Micheal: [Alicia, I’m sorry I acted like I didn’t know what you wanted from me that night but I wasn’t ready, you caught me off guard.]

Micheal: [Alicia, hey, I said I’m sorry. Can you at least pick up? I wanna talk to you.]

Micheal: [I know you’re upset and I might’ve made you feel stupid but I’m sorry, I mean it and I’d do anything to show you how sorry I am.]

Micheal: [I bought you a new teddy bear, could you at least let me bring it to you so I could see you or I’d love it if you come over to my place, I miss you.]

Micheal: [You’re seriously angry at me because I refused to sext you and indulge in phone sex?]

Micheal: [I've been calling you for days and all you do is ignore me and act like I don’t exist.]

Micheal: [I’ve said it so many times that I want your first time to be perfect, why can’t you trust me at least?]

Micheal: [Are you seeing someone else? Is that why you’ve been treating me like shit these past few weeks?]

Micheal: [You barely wanted to meet up during our summer break, I only got to see you twice and now summer is over, I don’t even get to see you because you keep making up dumb excuses.]

Micheal: [If I did something wrong, you should at least tell me what they are instead of treating me like garbage,  Alicia. I don’t know what you want anymore but it seems it’s not me. If you wanna end what we have, then at least give me reasons instead of thinking it’s okay to treat me the way you do.]

Micheal: [You know how much I love you and willing to do anything for you, at least give me a chance instead of constantly shutting me out like I’m not trying my best to make you happy.]

Micheal: [It’s sad that you’re reading all this and you’re ignoring me. I don’t know but you always make me feel like an idiot.]

God, Alicia feels horrible. She looks over to Micheal and their eyes meet and she has this pleading look in her eyes but he looks away.

Alicia: [Hey, can we go talk somewhere or do you want me to come over to your place later today to come get that teddy bear?]

Alicia sends the text and she turns to see him check his phone, he doesn’t smile at it and she knows she’s fucked up really bad this time around.