Chapter seven: there's something there...
there may be something there that wasn't there before...
I sat on the back of my brothers open delivery truck in our driveway, enjoying the smell of hardwood and furniture polish. It had been a crazy day... That last day of semester. Darn him, castiel... Why was he getting so handsy lately? All he wanted to do was tickle me, or hug me, or touch me in some way. Maybe he knows it annoys me. At least over the break I'd get a break...
Break... Rules... Nathaniel.
Hmm... He was so upset that day. I sighed and stared at my boots as I recalled the fierce look on his face, as he even went as far to throw the first punch. I've never had guys fight over me before... I never wanted that either.
I glanced at my iPod playing some random soundtrack. Huh... Beauty and the beast. My favourite movie as a kid. I snorted likening their fight to the ending climax of the film, were Gaston the the beast fight on the balcony of the west tower. I was such an idiot... But it was my weird mind and imagination that kept me going in stupid situations like this.
Just liken it to fantasy and the real issue seems so much less big... Or at least bearable. I continued to typecast the other Sweet Amoris students into roles from the franchise giggling as I did so when suddenly the sound of a foreign vehicle caught my attention.
I glanced up and my eyes bulged at the all too familiar sight.
I switched my iPod to "System of a Down" and then hopped down out of the truck and sauntered over lazily smirking. As much trouble as he causes me, and especially with the boy I adore, I just can't bring myself to hate the red headed tsundere. (*Eng translate: tough guy/soft guy)
Sometimes I wonder if I'm starting to like him... I mean were closer lately... And he's really fun to be with, and I don't mind the hugs and stuff... He's not too bad looking either...
Not...bad at all... Enter... Otaku mode...
He took off his helmet and shook out his hair, wind blown and messy yet still attractive. The way it looked stuck in odd places, his face slightly hot from the ride... His forehead glistening in the summer heat, as well as the smoothe black, silver and red bike which combined the components of 'menacing' and 'sexy' into one simultaneous look... Describing its owner perfectly. He catches me stare... He smirks... He knows what I'm thinking doesn't he...
Wait...
Oops...
Hmph... Shut up FANGIRL he's not THAT attractive...
"What's up pussycat? You like what you see?" He lifted his head cockily as he bragged. I blushed and cursed my aesthetic attraction to him.
"Um... Yeah actually. The only thing I hate about it is I can't capture it in art. I suck at vehicles and stuff." I casually dismissed his actual point.
He laughed shortly before pulling me into a hug, causing me to sway a bit to the left.
I hugged him back but not before checking that he wasn't covered in dead bugs.
"What are you doing here? How do you know where I live? Oh my god you stalker hahahaha..." I muttered into his shoulder, which I only just barely reached. Well... When wearing my boots anyway. I'd worked it out, with Nathaniel in my boots I reach his neck and with castiel I reach his shoulder. My heels are two and a half inches...
Sad face... I'm so short...
"What do you mean? I found out the same way you find out stuff..." He held me out and then reached in his pocket, holding folded up papers, the ink on it indicated a photocopy...
...my enrolment form?!...
I gasped and then half laughing, half screaming at him barraged him with my fists until my brother came out and ruined everything.
Now, i have two brothers. One is twenty and runs this little business... He's okay. My other one is eighteen and very tall, muscular for his build, and he's utterly insane. Like, I mean psycho insane... He runs up to cars of people he knows at give way signs and presses his face to their windows, and helps himself to people's food at their house and has no problem shaking a car around to scare the drivers, usually his own friends.
They call him donkey kong... I call him Zachary.
And I call him an idiot.
He leapt off the top of the delivery truck and suddenly bellowed out "WHAT'RE YOU DOIN?!" before tackling castiel, grinding his knuckles into his head... Oh shoot...
I pulled them apart and shouted at him to leave us alone, but Zachary just grinned and laughed like a horse, wrapping his arm around my shoulder,
"Aww Vickie is this your leetle boooyfriend?" He teased me.
I glared at him with a plastic grin and hissed, "No and if I ever get a boyfriend, he is NEVER meeting YOU!" I pushed him off and castiel and I exchanged glances;
Mine was saying -
"And you thought I was a freak..."
His saying -
"Is this $#!& for real?!"
I nodded and he rolled his eyes and fixed his jacket without a word... Then things got more awkward.
I introduced him... Well more like everyone kept asking who he was and I was saying so... To the family and they asked a few general questions, like how we met and stuff etcetera.
It was all going kinda good except for one thing...
"Victoria, the side tables are ready to be polished! Use the clear one, the rag is next to it!" Darren called. I cringed as my... Ugh... My real name echoed throughout the garage.
Castiel cracked up laughing for the umpteenth time at it and I sent him a glare...
My name is Victoria Keagan but to my friends and outer-family my name is Voaz and its staying that way. My nerd legion had come up with the name and it had stuck ever since. We got it out of a video game name generator.
Speaking of which... How did Castiel, Kentin and Nathaniel all know me, and all my darn personal information thanks to the enrolment forms... How did none of them know that my birth name was Victoria? Especially Nathaniel. You'd think he'd be one for formalities right?
Perhaps its because "Voaz" was placed in the "preferred name" box or something.
I began polishing the interesting semi circular jukebox looking side table my brother had made, and took some time to ignore my name... Stupid stuffy name.
"Wow... Do you ever design anything like this.." Castiel asked after a silent three or four minutes.
I shook my head and then explained my end of the job.
"I'm here to dust and polish. That's my job, and that's all I do. All week."
He made I disgusted noise and then poked me, crouching down next to me. He studied the detail of the design and then watched me. I could feel his stare... I wonder if that's what Nathaniel feels like when I stare at him in the back of the head.
Blushing a little I met his eye contact and he looked away at the side table.
"You should at least be allowed to paint them. I'm sure I'd buy something if you did your art on it." He admitted. I giggled, despite myself and then nodded in agreement.
"If I ever get the chance I'll see about that. Thanks Cas..." I finished up and then stood, stretching, he followed suit.
"Darren, the jukebox is done. I helped load the other one earlier, its all packaged properly." I let him know. He turned to me nodding in acknowledgment and then I was dismissed.
Cas and I walked up to the back yard and I sat down on a bench. He sat down to and I grinned wickedly.
Three
Two
One...
"AH! Dogs! Hahaha! Heck, they scared the crud out of me!" He laughed instantly taken with my bull terriers.
"Hey they've got big heads too... They're awesome! You didn't tell me you had pets too..." He commented, Lobo, the boy, jumping up onto his lap and then planting himself firmly on Cas's lap, buggy eyed and shaking in his excitement.
I smiled and replied, "yeah I do. Two dogs and a cat. These are Lobo and Sierra, they're just bull terriers but we trained them pretty well... Well... Except for when visitors come over. They get all excited like this." I pushed Lobo off him only for him to practically do a backflip as he jumped up onto his hind paws and growled playfully at me.
We scooted over and I patted the little porch couch thing and they both jumped up and made themselves comfortable.
"You gotta bring these guys to see demon sometime... He's really social but I haven't got many friends with dogs... Well except for Lys... But his little ... Poodle thing.. Is all annoying." He started and my heart ached a little.
"No can do. They're other-dog-aggressive. They have already met demon over the fence. They sort of freak out and start barking and stuff." I admitted.
"What really? These little guys? That sucks..." He mused. I nodded
"You can come see them whenever though. They know a dog person when they see one, hahahaha..."
"Why do you have a cat..." He asked suddenly.
I glanced at him quickly and then over at the dog house that the cat basically owned.
"The dogs would like.. Kill it right?" He continued.
"Nope. The cat is their boss. They're scared of it ever since they were puppies. But they hate other cats if it makes up for anything." I tried.
He just went "pfffft" and then more silence.
As we sat and chatted idly I realised something. We've never really talked like this before, and getting to know him so...openly was actually kind of a surprise to me.
Instead of beating around the subject, he was really open with me and it made me feel... I dunno, special or something..? He even told me about his parents and how they actually didn't even live in the house he owned. He just tended to theirs on the other side of town while with the money they send him he saved up to buy his own home.
I couldn't imagine what it's like to just live alone without parents. Screw work, why can't they pay attention to him more? But anyway, I was happy to hear him opening up to me. I told him everything too, like about why I was FANGIRL and the other reasons we had for moving to Sweet Amoris.
"You used to what?" He gaped at me.
"Yep. I had a whole clan of nerds doing my work for me, and stuff. They were my 'friends' so to speak. Ken, the guy from way back when, he was the biggest one which is why he kept trying to do all my work. But when I moved here I wanted to stop that. I'm not some mega bossy queen of the nerds anymore. It was getting bad, especially because of my emotional issues." I stated, staring into space, scratching the dogs absent minded.
"I ... I can see you being a bossy little prick, but really? That's... Even I wouldn't do that if I had the chance. Is that why you were to uptight when you moved here?" He asked.
I nodded. "I was trying to stay focused on being a good girl and I was so stressed about messing up, that I did. Big time. Operation 'starting over' was a failure. Now I'm just the bad girl again, but now I'm the sarcastic rebels best friend that has violent tendencies. Or something..." I sighed.
He poked me playfully. "I think you're too hard on yourself..." I met his eyes and was shocked.
The look in it wasn't sarcastic, or joking or even anything I'd ever seen. It was somewhere around the 'serious and deep' category.
Not quite knowing what to do I just scooted closer to him and rested my head on his shoulder...
This was new. He wrapped his arm behind me and we stayed that way for a while.
About a half an hour later Zachary caught us and nearly had a fight with castiel over the whole ordeal, but I broke it up. He stayed to eat some pie my mom had made, and he met my parents. It felt so weird trying to tell them he wasn't my boyfriend, despite how it looked.
He hopped onto his bike and with a quick nod, and a trademark smirk he made his way off and my heart flipped.
I switched my iPod back on a while later and was startled by the lyrics..
"New, and a bit alarming... Who'd have ever thought that this could be?
True, that he's no Prince Charming, but there something in him that I simply didn't see...
I turned it off again and then after my face felt cooler I burst into laughter... That was ridiculous! I like... No, more like I LOVED Nathaniel, and that wasn't going to happen to me. I was NOT going to suddenly fall for my best-male-friend... That didn't happen to me...
Did it?
To be continued.