AUTHORS NOTE
Happy Friday! Ok so i firstly want to say im so sorry that i didnt post this on monday when i said i would. I spent monday watching the Super Bowl, was nice to see the Broncos win and for Peyton Manning to most likely be going out on a high, although im a Seahawks fan so i didnt care who won either way! but its been an incredibly crazy week for me at work otherwise and i just didnt get the chance to post and im hoping this chapter makes up for it! All characters belong to EL James.
Ana's POV
It's Saturday and today dad and I are having a yard sale. We've been through the house thoroughly and have compiled together everything we don't need or want any more to sell. We have managed to put quite a fair bit of stuff together that we are hoping to get rid of. We've sorted it into sections of clothing, household items, kitchen stuff, furniture and various items. I'm just hoping to sell enough of my stuff so that I can put some money together to hopefully put towards a car. I will be sixteen soon and will be able to get my licence so it would be nice to have my own car to drive around.
We have everything set up on the yard ready to go and it's almost 8am and we have a few people starting to show up already which is certainly a good sign. They start browsing around seeing what we have and even picking up a few things and buying them. Dad and I make small talk as we watch people having a look and buying different things noticing that we seem to be doing quite well and are making a bit of money and things seem to be going quickly.
After an hour or so I notice an expensive looking black car pull up and out gets a beautiful looking women in her mid-forties I would say, her daughter who looks to be in middle school and a boy who I come to realise it Christian the boy from school who seems to be infatuated with me. It's then I realise that this must be his mother and sister and I begin to freak out a little because they are here at my house. I try to hide my face a little so he can't see me but it doesn't seem to work as he spots me right away. He gives me a shy wave so I give him a small wave back. Whilst his mother and sister are having a look around he decides to make his way over to me to which I immediately start stressing.
"Hey Ana." He says when he reaches me.
"Hey Christian." I say back quietly.
"I didn't realise you lived here and that you were having a yard sale." He says making things a little awkward between us.
"Yeah my dad and I decided it was time to clean out a few things." I say. We continue to stand there for a while in an awkward silence not really knowing what to say to each other. I keep running our last encounter through my head and things between us in class the last few weeks have been anything but normal. His constant stare is distracting to say the least.
So….. I was wondering if… maybe you might want to maybe hang out with me sometime?" he says nervously in a voice barely above a whisper.
"I don't know Christian. Maybe. I will think about it." I tell him. Honestly I don't know if I want to hang out with Christian. He seems like a nice person on the surface but the rumours of him and why he got kicked out of his last school that have been circulating around have me worried. I'm also concerned about the fact that he's been at school now for a month and doesn't seem to have any friends. At least none that I've seen him hanging around or talking to at any point. He just seems to keep to himself and doesn't say much to anyone.
"Okay. I just think that maybe we could maybe be friends or something." He says quietly back to me.
"Yeah I don't know Christian. I don't know anything about you and if I'm to be quite honest that worries and scares me a lot. You seem like such a closed off person that I'm worried about the real you who's hiding behind that cold exterior." I say back.
"I don't let a lot of people in and I'm a very closed off person Ana. I don't have many friends because I just don't seem to get along very well with people. I know that might sound strange but it's the truth and I just want to be honest with you so that maybe you might give me a chance and get to know me and realise that I'm not a bad guy I've just gone through a lot that makes life hard sometimes." He tells me sincerely. I stand looking at him after he says this not really sure how to respond. He's being honest which is good but I still have my doubts about him.
"We'll see Christian." I tell him.
His mother and sister approach us after we stand together in yet another awkward silence.
"Hi honey who's your friend here?" she says very sweetly to him.
"This is Ana. We go to school together and she's in a couple of my classes. This is her house and yard sale. Ana this is my mum Grace and my sister Mia." He introduces us.
"Hi Ana. It's nice to meet you. It's nice to finally meet one of Christian's friends from school." She says very lovingly to me and I can't help but wonder the meaning behind it. Has she never met any Christian's friends before?
"Hi it's nice to meet the both of you." I say back politely to her.
"You have got some really good stuff here that we've picked up today." She says to me making conversation.
"Thanks. I'm glad that you managed to find a few things you liked." I say to her.
"Well we better get going we have a busy morning ahead of us. It was really nice to meet you Ana. Please know that any of Christian's friends are welcome at our home anytime. I hope to see you again sometime soon." Grace says to me in a very sincere voice.
"Thank you." I say back not really knowing how to respond to Grace's statement about being welcome at their house. Christian and I are not even friends at this point so I certainly don't see myself going over there anytime soon.
"Bye Ana. I will see you at school on Monday." Christian says to me and after his mother walks away he turns and says "please think about what I said about us being friends. I really would like for us to get to know each other and become friends. I think we could be really good friends."
"I will think about it Christian." I tell him as he jogs away to catch up with his family.
I watch them walk off, get into their car and drive away. I stand there for a while thinking about our encounter and wondering if there is even the slightest possibility that maybe Christian and I could be friends at any point and I hope that maybe we can but I feel like I need to know more about him for that to happen. He's such a mystery that I worry about being friends with someone that I know absolutely nothing about.
Dad and I continue with the yard sale and it seems to have died down at lunch time so we decide to pack up anything that's leftover and give it to goodwill so we don't have to keep stuff we don't want lying around. We tally up the money and we seem to have done really well selling a few big furniture items meaning that I've ended up with about $500 and dad about the same. I'm really happy about this because it means I have more money to put towards a car in a few months' time.
Dad and I spend the afternoon taking what's left to goodwill then come home and sink onto the couch after such an exhausting day. We decide it best to order take out pizza as neither one of us has any energy at all to cook something. The pizza arrives a short time later and we sit down and watch some sports on the TV whilst we eat our pizza.
"So I saw you talking for a while today to some boy. Who was that?" my dad asks out of nowhere.
"Um that's just a guy from my school Christian. He's in a few of my classes." I tell him.
"Are you guys' friends or something?" he tries to pry.
"Um I'm not really sure. He's new and we don't really know each other right now." I say.
"Okay. Well you know it's okay to have friends who are boys right? I'm not going to bite their heads off or anything you know." He says with a chuckle.
"I know dad. But I'm being honest he's new at school and I don't really know him all that well so I'm really not sure about the whole friends thing." I tell him sincerely.
"Okay sweetie but I just want you to know that it's okay and you guys seemed to be chatting away so I figured you must have been friends or something that's all." he tells me.
"We were just chatting about school nothing important." I say.
He's quiet after that which I'm thankful for. These are conversations that I really don't want to have with my dad. Talking boys with him whether they be friends or not is way too uncomfortable. After a while I decide that I'm going to turn in for the night. Standing up I say good night to my dad and make my way up the stairs to my room. I decide to read for a little before bed knowing that I'm not tired enough to actually go to sleep but I don't feel like watching TV any longer. I find myself distracted whilst reading thinking of Christian and his proposition to be friends. I feel like we are just not in a position right now to actually be friends and with that being said I know that first thing Monday at school I know that I need to tell him this. I can't keep stringing him along thinking something might happen when in reality he's not the type of guy I need right now. Maybe someday down the track but not right now. Right now I want to keep what I have with Dale and hop that one day things will be right to be with Christian.
AUTHORS NOTE: Ok so i hope this makes up for the lack of posting this week and im hoping to even put up another chapter over the weekend plus one on monday. The time jump i talked about a couple chapters ago will be coming soon so i will let you know when. As always please review and have a great weekend!
