Bewitched

Chapter Two: A Special Friend

"I'm alright." I said for the nth time that evening.

As soon as Feliciana heard about the news of me injuring myself, she suddenly barged in the nurse's clinic, crying hysterically. A shot a murderous glance at the blithering idiota, whose name is Antonio. Yes, he's the one who carried me all the way here.

Antonio smiled apologetically at me. I rolled my eyes. I'm not sorry for doing that. Hmph!

"Jesus Feli, I'm not going to die because of a fucking sprain." I rolled my eyes as I patted her head. My younger twin can be such a drama queen. Thank God for Po...Err...Ludwig – he seemed to understand me and gently led my sister out of the clinic.

"Come on, Lovina needs to rest before your parents fetch the both of you." He said.

I was about to close my eyes and get a roundtrip to dreamland when Antonio suddenly sat beside the bed. I forced my eyes to glare at him, but it was no use. I was so tired that my vicious man-hating hormones didn't seem to function. I managed to hiss at him though.

"Hey, you should take a rest." He suggested.

"How am I supposed to sleep when you're watching?" I grumbled. I bit my lip before the word 'bastard' slips out.

"Oh...I guess I'll leave." His voice trailed as he got up.

"Wait! Bast – Antonio, I have something to say!" my voice raised a few octaves high because of panic and a hint of desperation.

He stopped walking away and faced me. I sat on the bed on silence for a whole minute. Antonio patiently watched me with alert eyes.

"Look," I finally began. "I-I...I'm really s-sorry not! No! What I meant to say was: I am very sorry for my earlier actions. I didn't really mean to act that way. don't make me repeat what I said, goddammit!" I gasped out, clutching my chest as I struggled to get lots of 'em oxygen. Trying to say really nice things to guys really wears me out that much. I knew I had already apologized earlier, but I couldn't help but to repeat it.

Antonio winced at my effort and gave me a glass of water. I gratefully accepted it without thought. I forced myself to watch his reaction.

I almost regretted apologizing.

He was actually struggling not to laugh! I gawked at him, mortified and embarrassed (and a bit angry too!). He visibly relaxed as he met my eyes with his happy, sparkly ones.

"I thought you were going to yell at me again." He teased.

I look away indignantly. "I'm not as terrible as everyone thinks goddammit." I muttered.

"I know. But the way you yelled at me made me feel like a small kid fighting the urge to pee right then and there after seeing a ghost," He said, his features playing between serious and humor. "It was unnatural and unnerving. I was torn apart from leaving you and helping you." He blushed as he looked at me with an apologetic smile.

"Why didn't you run away like the rest of them?" I met his eyes, curious.

Every guy that crosses my path runs away from me like a bunch of sissies. I've grown to be infamous, as opposed to my younger sister's popularity. I don't really care. As long as freaks don't keep on nagging me, it's fine with me.

"I felt that you were struggling to be nice. You're not as bad as the rumours suggest." Antonio thoughtfully said.

"Rumours like?" I rolled my eyes. People in the school tend to exaggerate so much. They could all win Noble Prizes for that.

"Supposedly, you suck souls from living men and offer it to appease the underground head honcho and that you have claimed a pure and chaste angel as your bait to get more souls. they say that you're a devil incarnate." He chuckled.

Despite myself, I smiled a bit. Underground head honcho? Angels? devil incarnate? Jesus, they were far more creative than I thought. I supposed that the angel that they were talking to was –

"Lovina!" Bella called out as she practically shoved Antonio.

"Bella? How about your club?" I frowned.

"Don't be all macho now! How did you sprain yourself?" she scolded.

"I tripped. I was at the conservatory. You know, stray branches." I shrank a bit. When Bella gets angry or upset, she could really get scary you know.

"So, who brought you here?"

Oh, right. Antonio's still here. Bella followed my eyes towards Antonio, who was sitting across the room silently.

Bella blinked. "Oh! That's a surprise. Uhm, thanks for bringing her here." She looked at me with her 'explain everything to me' look.

"No problem. I guess I should leave you both." Antonio sheepishly smiled as he looked at both of us before leaving.

Line Break!

My Thursday's getting more and worse as Bella and Feliciana continued to nag me about the sprain incident. Somehow, my younger sister managed to ditch Ludwig and decided to bother me. If it weren't for my temporary lame ankle, I'd escape hours before. I braced myself from the merciless interview my younger twin and best friend were conducting.

"What's your relationship with Antonio?" Bella asked in a hushed tone after he left.

"Yeah, I mean you practically kill every guy you see, let alone guys that touches you for more than an hour." Feli chirped as we stopped at my locker.

"I just tried being nice," I sighed as I took my Calculus and Physics books from my locker. "But I kind of scared him a bit." Feli closed my locker and carried my books for me while we walked towards our room.

"Spare us, your evilness! May the sacrifices we offer be enough to appease the devil incarnate!" Feli and Bella chanted in unison before laughing.

"Yeah yeah. Feli, go to your class before I accidentally suck your soul." I teased as I took my books from her.

She was about to protest when Ludwig happened to pass by and dragged her away to their next class. I actually felt relieved – one nuisance down. Having Feli around too much is really not enjoyable – she's too noisy and cheerful for her own good. I really don't know how P-Ludwig manages to bare her company, but I guess he's too stoic for his own good that he needs someone like Feli to dilute his 'stoicness' and vice-versa.

Line Break!

After enduring 3 hours of torture (1.5 hours for Calculus, and another 1.5 hours for Physics), Bella and I happily finished our academics for today and walked together towards the Art Club room although I insisted her not to.

"Yeah, and trip again? Not a chance!" she laughed. I rolled my eyes.

After threatening Matthew in a subtle way for the sprained ankle incident, Bella finally left me to the care of my club mates. Just like with Feli and Bella, my club mates flocked around me and began nagging me.

Matthew began apologizing for being 'irresponsible' and offered a 1.5 Litre of maple syrup as a peace offering. I gratefully accepted the 'offering' – I secretly dig the William family's maple syrup. I must have looked annoyed (my facial expression doesn't mostly match what I really feel when it comes to guys) that Matthew gave me his new polar bear keychain as a consolation offering. I mumbled my thanks to show him that I'm not angry or upset with him.

Kiku lightly scolded me for being too gluttonous and twitchy for my own good. "Because of your injury, I'm not going to let you go and do your club duties alone." He said.

"Come on, I can perfectly handle myself." I whined frustratingly.

Kiku shook his head. "This is also a punishment for getting the tomatoes from the conservatory without permission."

I involuntarily blushed. How did he know that? I practically shoved those tomatoes down my throat so that no one could blame me! I almost choked because of that dammit!

"I planted those tomatoes for the school." He simply said.

I knew there was no use arguing with Kiku. He grinned with satisfaction as he saw my declaration of defeat and went on. "You're quite lucky that someone actually volunteered being your assistant for the time being."

"Uh-huh. Let me guess, Hera?" I sarcastically replied. I inwardly wince for being mean to him. I still couldn't control my man-hating hormones perfectly yet. Hera, an attractive Greek with an equally mind blowing body is Kiku's current girlfriend. She's a grade higher and she's quite popular.

Kiku frowned for a split second (He doesn't like discussing their relationship in public) before smiling. "No, but let's find out." He opened the door.

It was Antonio. He ran his hand through his messy brown hair and nervously smiled at me. "Hi Lovina. I thought that I should help you out while you're still injured." He said.

I looked at Kiku to complain but he immediately busied himself with the manga he was reading. Antonio didn't seem to read the atmosphere and grabbed my hand to lead the both of us away from the Art Room.

"So, what do we do now?" he asked as we were walking on school grounds. When we stopped walking, I immediately brushed his hand aside as gently as possible. That somewhat prolonged touch of our hands made me want to slap him repeatedly. I knew that it was wrong and tried to distract myself. Thankfully, he didn't react and just let my action/behaviour slide.

"Eat tomatoes." I blurt out of the blue.

"That's a good idea," He grinned as he whipped out two pulp tomatoes. "It's a good thing I brought an extra."

"Thanks." I mumbled as I took a rather big bite of the juicy fruit.

I felt really hungry at the sight of the fruit.

"I remembered you last night, you know, at the conservatory," he babbled on. "I immediately knew that you liked tomatoes because you were pretty much enthusiastic eating those tomatoes you harvested. So I thought, 'Why not bring an extra for Lovina just in case she gets hungry?'." He laughed as he watched me sputter with embarrassment.

"You..." I hissed. He let out an uneasy smile as I glowered at him. "Forget everything you saw yesterday!"

"How could I forget? You looked really cute when you ate those two tomatoes in one setting." He really looked serious that I found myself getting amused. What's so cute about someone looking like a total glutton?

"You seriously have a problem with your vision and probably taste too!" I grumbled before laughing.

I don't know how he made me laugh that much, but it felt nice and awful. It's hard to feel two different emotions at the same time. It's like I wanted to pee so bad on a toilet made out of onion skin, but I couldn't because the toilet would disintegrate and I won't get to pee on that toilet.

After eating, I just silently sketched the trees while he hummed to himself. We remained like that for a hour or more before meeting up with my sister. When it was time to go, he walked me to the school entrance. For a minute, he stood in front of me. I was about to ask what was wrong when he suddenly blurted out, "Can we be friends?"

I didn't know what I exactly did (my body sometimes goes on auto pilot when I'm near boys) because after a moment, he happily walked away with a goofy smile on his face, and waved goodbye.

A guy, as a real friend.

It was new to me. Kiku and Matthew were somewhat more of acquaintances, so I didn't really give much importance to their reactions. I liked their company, but I don't find myself enjoying myself with them as much as I enjoy being with Bella and Feli. I found myself asking:

How will I act around him?

Will I be able to share stories with him as much as I do with Bella?

Will I care about his feelings?

Will I be able to trust him?

...Even though I was born to hate him and every men out there?

End of the Chapter

A/N: Hi guys. Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you guys liked the first chapter! o w o Banzai! Banzai! I don't know if I've done a good job on this chapter (I felt that I ended this chapter abruptly). I tried my best! Please bear with my amateur writing skills. Oh, reviews please!