I am so sorry for the delay of this chapter! We had a family crisis not long after I posted the last chapter and I had my end of year exams too, then by the time I came back to write a new chapter I had writers block =/, but from now on I'll be back to posting chapters regularly, I promise =). Thank you for the reviews too, I really appreciate them =).
Chapter 6 – The Imelda Marcos of Converse
I woke the next morning to the sunlight streaming through the glass doors and the smell of bacon, I looked down and noticed there was a fleecy pink blanket neatly placed over me, Chris or Jill must have put it over me whilst I was asleep. I stretched my arms and legs out before slowly standing up and making my way over to the door, but just before I opened it I heard raised voices on the other side.
"Chris! What have I told you about leaving your dirty boxers on the bathroom floor? It's disgusting! You live with two women now; we don't wanna see your skiddy pants first thing on a morning!"
Chris's voice sounded further away when he replied so I guessed he was the one cooking bacon in the kitchen, or should I say burning bacon.
"Well sor-ry!" He replied sarcastically. "I forgot this was my house too! If you don't like it why don't you go live with perfect Carlos?"
Carlos? But I thought Chris was Jill's boyfriend? Okay, now I was confused.
"Oh for the love of God! Chris I'm gonna tell you one last time, I do not fancy Carlos! We went on a date once and that's it! What's your problem with him anyway?"
"Oh I dunno, maybe the fact he practically trips over his tongue every time he sees you! It's gross! No man should bow down to a woman like that."
I heard Jill huffing and puffing on the landing before she replied.
"Well at least he respects me! You know Christopher Redfield it really doesn't surprise me that you don't have a girlfriend!"
With that I heard her stomp into one of the bedrooms and slam the door. When I felt it was safe to come out I tip toed past the bathroom and to the top of the stairs, an open door on the opposite side of the stairs to my own catching my eye as I went. The door lead to a dark green bedroom with posters of topless girls pinned to the walls, the floor was covered in dirty socks, underwear and various other clothes with the odd shoe strewn about. I figured that must be Chris's room because there wasn't a feminine item in sight, but if that was Chris's room then where did Jill sleep? I turned around and noticed another two doors behind me, the one to my left facing Chris's room was slightly ajar and it looked like it was just used for storing unused furniture, and the one to my right which was opposite my room and next to the bathroom aswell was shut tight, Jill's room. I stood there for a few moments going over the past day or so in my head, I had just assumed Chris and Jill were in a relationship but I hadn't actually seen any evidence. This surprised me as they already seemed to act like a married couple. I shrugged to myself and walked down the stairs into the living room, I noticed there was a football game on t.v; or as the Americans call it, soccer. I stopped to watch but I didn't recognise any of the teams so I carried on into the kitchen and seated myself on a stool at the island.
"Morning, kiddo!"
I rolled my eyes at his pet name for me and smiled.
"Morning…Are you sure you should be cooking without adult supervision after last night's escapades?"
"Ha ha, quite the comedian aren't we?" Came the dry reply.
I simply grinned at him and peered over at the bacon sizzling away in the pan; to my shock it wasn't burnt!
"Wow I think we've found a meal you can actually cook instead of cremate."
"For your information I am an expert at frying bacon, it is my speciality, want some?" He beamed.
Chris seemed so proud of himself I couldn't help but laugh, and his bacon did look pretty tasty so I nodded in response. Just as he was dishing it out Jill walked into the kitchen.
"Hope you've saved me some."
"After your little outburst earlier? No way! Cook your own! Or better yet, get Carlos to make it for you!" Chris huffed.
"Are you still banging on about that? I don't fancy him, but if I did it wouldn't be any of your business! Come on Amy, get dressed quickly so we can beat the Saturday morning traffic into Tower City Centre. Leon should be here any minute to help Chris decorate your room and I need to get out of here before the testosterone levels in this house go through the roof! Men these days! I'll be waiting in the car."
Jill stormed off out the front door muttering something about testosterone turning men into cavemen before slamming it behind her. I used this as an opportunity to find out what the deal was with Chris and Jill.
"Riiiight. Soo, I'm kinda confused here, are you and Jill a couple? Have you been a couple in the past? Do you wanna be a couple? And would Carlos be the guy Jill escaped Raccoon City with by any chance? He was hot!"
I took a deep breath and waited for a response. Chris dropped his knife and fork and put his head down on his forearms before giving me a quiet, muffled answer.
"I..Jill."
"Erm...Sorry what was that? I didn't quite hear it."
"I LIKE JILL!...There I said it."
"And you think she's into Carlos right?" I spluttered whilst stifling a giggle.
"What's so funny about that? It's a complete disaster. I've known her since the beginning of STARS and she goes on a date with that greasy meathead instead, and he worked for Umbrella! She's too good for him."
I sighed and rolled my eyes at Chris for the second time in a matter of minutes. Men are so dense at times.
"God, why do men need everything spelling out for them? You lot never pick up on signals! I will never understand your species."
Chris looked at me confused before tilting his head to the side like a dog.
"What do you mean by never picking up on signals?"
"Jill doesn't fancy Carlos. Anyone with half a brain cell can see she's besotted with you. My guess is she went on a date with this Carlos dude to make you jealous and by the looks of things, it's worked. I can tell by the way she looks at you that she likes you too, that's probably why I got the impression you two were already a couple. You need to tell her how you feel, you're both stuck wondering how the other person feels when really you should just get it on already."
After I finished my speech I smiled at the speechless Chris and made my way to my room to get washed and dressed. After washing I brushed my hair and tied it up, then I picked a pair of Jill's boy-fit jeans and a short sleeved plain white t-shirt, it wasn't looking too warm outside so I also picked up one of Jill's blue hoodie's and put my black and white converse on, Jill must have guessed I wasn't the overly girly type when she met me, she put all the kinda clothes I would wear on my bed for me. I skipped down the stairs quite excited at the prospect of a bit of shopping; every girl loves to shop right? I shouted bye to Chris and was just about to walk out the door when I bumped into something. I looked up and noticed it was Leon carrying tins of paint and brushes. The butterflies kicked in and I started mumbling incoherently and looking at anything but Leon's face…Wow look at those abs!...Wait, focus Amy!
"Oh hey…Sorry about that."
"No I'm sorry; I should've been looking where I was going. Are you going shopping with Jill now?"
"Yea we're going to Tower City Centre, wherever that is."
"Good luck with that, Jill lives to shop." Leon chuckled.
I laughed nervously and swiftly stepped around Leon, I was becoming increasingly more embarrassed in his company and I needed to get out now.
"Well I'm off now, thanks for helping Chris with my bedroom by the way."
I started towards the door when I remembered something.
"Oh yea, have a word with Chris will you? I've just dropped the bombshell that it's obvious that Jill likes him about twenty minutes ago, I don't think he's recovered yet, he might need some man talk."
Leon burst into fits of laughter almost dropping the paint. "It's about time someone told him the truth. Barry, Claire, Steve and I didn't wanna be the ones to anything in case it got awkward."
"Oh shit, I never thought of that. Oh well the damage is done now, gotta go, see ya later!"
I turned on my heel and ran to the car, if this was gonna be my new home I really wanted it to be a happy one, even if I had just made the situation in our house awkward it needed to be said. I had to get Chris and Jill together and with Leon's help that might just happen.
The drive to the mall wasn't a long one, which I was glad about because I was desperate to get some clothes of my own. Not that Jill's weren't nice it's just I wanted something of my own, in this new country all I owned were a pair of converse, pair of jeans, a vest top and my underwear. Talk about embarrassing. I think Jill sensed my eagerness to shop as she headed straight for the clothes shops. After a few hours of picking out new clothes we were walking past Foot Locker when I noticed a window display full of converse, I'm sure my eyes lit up like light bulbs cause Jill started laughing and dragged me inside. There were converse of every type and colour, I was in converse heaven. Jill startled me when she spoke.
"So which one's do you want?"
"You mean I can get a new pair?"
"You can get as many pairs as you want; after all this is Chris's credit card." Jill grinned devilishly whilst flashing the piece of plastic around. "I need to get my own back on him for being such a moron."
As I picked out three new pairs of converse; a red pair, a green pair and a white pair, I saw this as perfect timing to ask Jill about Chris while he was the topic of our conversation.
"Jill, can I ask you something personal?"
I decided to go with the more delicate approach with Jill; she wasn't as dumb as Chris when it came to stuff like this, she didn't need it spelling out.
"Yea sure." She answered absent minded while she checked out a pair of shoes.
"Do you like Chris?" Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.
"Yea of course I do, why?"
Okay, maybe she was a little dense at this kinda stuff too.
"No I mean like-like Chris?"
She paused for moment before answering. "You mean like-LIKE Chris?"
The penny dropped.
"Yea, cause I know he like-LIKES you."
She turned to me so fast I almost got whip-lash.
"Really! He said that!"
"It was kinda obvious, he was crazy jealous about that Carlos dude and when I asked him about it he admitted he liked you, but he didn't think you feel the same."
"I used Carlos to make him jealous; I didn't think it would work though. Oh dear, what do I do? How do I act in front of him? Do I tell him or do I wait for him to come to me? I might be waiting a while for him to come to me though since he's such a stubborn old goat…"
I smiled and shook my head, it was obvious neither Chris nor Jill had much experience when it came to relationships.
"Just leave it to me, I have an idea but I'm gonna need some outside help. Do you mind if I enrol Leon into my plan? He already knows about how you two feel anyway, everybody but you and Chris knew."
"Uhh...Okay, as long as it's nothing embarrassing or awkward!"
"Don't worry, it's all gravy."
We set off back to the car; hauling my three pairs of converse and a pair of black heels, along with ten new tops, two pairs of shorts, eight different varieties of jeans and a little black dress that I intended on wearing for my twenty-first birthday next month, not forgetting the pretty new lingerie sets Chris's credit card bought me. All in all, it had been a successful shopping trip. When we pulled up outside the boys came out to help us carry our newly purchased items, I guess chivalry isn't dead after all.
"So did you have fun spending money?" Chris asked.
"Obviously, it was even better knowing it was yours." She retorted whilst handing him back his credit card.
I didn't know whether to laugh or run, Chris must have turned three different shades of colour in a matter of seconds before Leon smacked him on the back and spoke.
"Suck it up dude, that's women for ya."
Leon grabbed my bags out of my hand and walked up the path alongside me, I was just about to speak when he noticed the three boxes of converse in the bags and stopped.
"Jesus, who do you think you are? The Imelda Marcos of Converse?"
I burst out laughing before giving a feeble attempt at an excuse.
"What can I say? Everyone has a weakness, mine just happens to be a particular type of shoe. Oh by the way, I spoke to Jill and she admitted she likes Chris too, but she doesn't know what to do now. I was thinking we could set them up on a date without either of them knowing it's only going to be them two there so they don't get nervous and chicken out. I'm gonna need your help though, could you get Chris there while I deal with Jill?"
Leon laughed before shaking his head.
"What? What's so funny?" I had a paranoid feeling building up the pit of my stomach.
"You are, and yes I will help you by the way."
Oh god he thinks I'm a joke! It was as if he read my mind because I'd barely finished that thought when he spoke again.
"Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean that in a negative way at all, it's just one minute you act like you can barely look at me or speak to me and the next you're laughing and chatting away without even taking a breath."
"I talk more when I have something to focus on and I don't talk much when I'm nervous, sorry if I seem a bit weird."
"You're not weird. I'd call you…different, but in a good way."
Instantly I started blushing profusely, there was no way I could hide it this time. Damn it he was definitely going to think I was weird now!
"Why do you blush or stutter everytime we speak or we're near each other?"
I froze in the driveway. This was my worst nightmare come true, being confronted by Leon S. Kennedy about why I blush or stutter everytime I'm in his presence. Geez it doesn't take a rocket scientist to answer that! I just wanted the earth to swallow me up right there and then.
"Amy, come here and see this!" it was Jill calling me, saved by the bell.
I didn't hesitate for a second; I sprinted into the house leaving Leon stood on the drive with his arms full of my bags, oh well, that was payback for having put me on the spot like that. It became apparent Leon was another dense guy if he couldn't work out something as simple as that himself! As I came to a stop beside Jill she pointed upstairs.
"Come on; let's go see your new room." She said with a big smile.
I'd totally forgotten about my room being decorated, I could feel the excitement building up in my tummy like I was a kid all over again. Jill led the way and I followed closely behind with Chris behind me, then Leon with all my bags. She opened the door and stepped aside for me to see past her.
"Wow, you two did all this in just a few hours? That's amazing! Thank you."
I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and I didn't care how stupid I looked, it was the first time I'd been genuinely happy since I arrived in America. This was my new room and it looked great, the cream carpet and duvet set contrast great with the violet curtains and walls. I couldn't believe how fast they'd done an entire room. I was impressed.
"I really don't know what to say to you three, you've been so welcoming and generous and you don't even know me. I am so grateful, thank you."
I don't know what came over me cause I'm not usually the touchy feely type but I actually hugged each one of them, even Leon and I managed not to blush, I was too caught up in my new room to care. I could tell that the three agents were pleased that I was happy,
"Well we'll leave you to settle in and put your new things away and stuff, I'll prepare dinner, it'll be ready for six. I'm gonna attempt to make them parmesans you were talking about last night, wish me luck."
With that Jill walked off and Chris followed behind. I didn't notice Leon still stood in the doorway after they'd left.
"I'm not letting it go you know? I will get it out of you eventually as to why you get so nervous around me. See you at dinner."
I groaned and sat on the end of my bed before flopping back, this was great, everything was great; my new room, my new clothes and shoes, the people I'm living with are lovely…Leon catching on to my little crush, not so great.
A/N: I know it's not my longest chapter but I need to get back into the swing of things. Also for those of you who don't know who Imelda Marcos is, she was a politician's wife who owned 2,700 pairs of shoes, jealous much! Thank you for reading this latest chapter and please review =).