“I don’t think she can hear you,” he said turning to me, holding a piece of paper. “She went out, she’ll be back a little later.”

I dropped my bag on the floor, and went straight into the kitchen, I was starving. I heard his footsteps following me. “So what was that argument about?”

I finished gulping down the iced water and stared at him, “What argument?”

“Between you and Jake.” He specified.

How did he know about that? He wasn’t there to pick me up until a couple of minutes after I left Jake. “How’d you know about that? You weren’t even there when it happened.”

He smiled, “I am a guy, aren’t I? And I had girlfriends before; I know the look on a girl’s face when she’s angry at her boyfriend. Also, you had on the same look last night, after I heard you fighting.”

Busted, I thought. “You said you heard me slam the door, and you couldn’t have heard me arguing because it was during the ride home.” I told him. “I’ve been noticing that, you know a lot of stuff that you can’t know.” His face went frozen, like he didn’t mean to get caught.

“Lucky guess,” it was a simple answer, and the way he said it made me regret telling him.

“It was about everything,” I answered his first question. “The same things we’ve been fighting about since forever ago. I’m gonna go in my room. See you later.” I said, leaving the kitchen and walking upstairs.

I shut my door and sat on the chair next to the window. How did he know? He knew about the fight last night, and the one right now. I decided it wasn’t worth getting a headache over. I my TV and instead of cable showing up, it was a DVD that I must’ve forgotten to take out. It was about me and Jake when we first got together. I smiled weakly to myself. I usually watched it just to remind me why were together in the first place. Maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t take it out, but it wasn’t doing anything. It usually made me smile and made me want to forget about the fights. I usually called Jake and apologize, but I didn’t feel that anymore. I usually wanted to forget the whole thing, and go back to the so-callled-happy-relationship I thought I had, but nothing

I sighed and took out my books from my bag. Maybe getting lost in advanced calculus would get my mind off of it.

About an hour later, I was finished drowning myself with numbers. I went downstairs and got myself a full bottle of vitamin water. Thank goodness no one was home yet. Ma was still out, maybe her and Daddy went out for dinner; they also make sure to get some time together, to never lose that spark. And Ate Twinkle and Ate Lakam probably went out shopping again, and they call me spoiled. The read question was where was JP.

There was music coming from the living room, the same tune I heard this morning from Gerald’s room. I walked into the living room and there he was guitar in hand and a pencil behind his ear. His eyes met mine. I immediately looked away. “Sorry, I heard music.”

He shook his head smiling. “It’s okay. What’s up?”

“Nothing, um…did JP call? He’s usually home by now.” I said, trying to sound natural, but I knew I was failing miserably.

“No, he didn’t, but I think he’s okay. He seems like a good kid.” He smiled wider.

I nodded. I looked around and decided to join him in the living room. “What are you working on?”

“The same thing I’ve been working on since a couple of months ago.”

“Can’t you work on it in the pool house? My mom gave you the whole thing for a reason: some privacy.” I told him, taking another sip.

He shrugged, “I didn’t want to leave you alone here.”

I choked on the water, and wiped my mouth. “I’m 17; I think I can take care of myself.”

He smiled, “There’s a higher possibility of getting hurt and attacked in your own home then out there in the world.”

“And you think you can protect me in here? What’s a college guy gonna do for me?” I smiled back.

He just chuckled. “I didn’t realize you wore glasses.”

I took them off, “Yeah, um, reading glasses.”

“You look good in them,” he said looking back.

Blood rushed to my cheeks. It was weird, I shouldn’t care that he just gave me a compliment, or maybe it did, considering I didn’t get much anyways.

It was quiet for a while. “Can I hear what you have done?” I really just wanted to hear his voice again.

“It’s incomplete, you wouldn’t want to.”

“Come on, you’re living in my house, you should obey my rules.” I smiled.

“And what rule is that?” His eyes bore into mine.

My breath got caught in my throat. “Um…” I sighed, “Just play the damn song.”

He laughed, “Okay, but my voice isn’t exactly the best.”

“Just go,” I sat crossed legged on the leather couch, and he cleared his throat a couple of times. I chuckled at how nervous he got.

He held his guitar in place, and started strumming away. He didn’t even need to look at his sheet, he just started playing.

“Belief,
Make things real;
Makes thing feel, feel alright.
Belief makes things true,
Things like you, you and I.
Tonight you arrested my mind,
When you came to my defence with a knife.
In the shape of your mouth.
In the form of your body. “ And I don’t know how to continue from there.” (I DID NOT MAKE THIS SONG UP, ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SONG: BELIEF BY GAVIN DEGRAW).

The words were so touching, so real. “That was amazing. I wish I could write like that.” He smiled his incredible smile. “Look, I want to apologize. I was a yesterday. I shouldn’t have acted that way.”

He nodded, “Don’t worry about it. I get it. New kid in town, takes over the pool house, takes your car, and your parents are incredibly nice to the kid. I’d be mad, too. But just so you know, I’m not trying to steal the spotlight from you. You’re still their star child.”

I leaned back. “So, how was your first day of school?”

“Lonely.” His answers were either one words, or a complete paragraph filled with hidden meanings

“I think I can relate.”

“You have a great friends and a boyfriend. How can that be lonely?” He asked me, putting his guitar away.

“Soon to be ex-boyfriend. I’m planning on ending it.”

He looked at me truly interested, “Why? Did he hurt you?”

His face stared into mine like he was searching for an answer. “No, of course not, he wouldn’t do that. It’s more complicated than that. I tried to remember why I got with him in the first place, all those reasons why, and now, those reasons just don’t make any sense. They seemed worth it in the beginning, but now they’re not.” I shook my head.

“Relationships are messy and they’re hard.”

“Tell me about it. The only thing harder is being alone and I think that’s what I was afraid of. Anyways, can we change the subject? No offence but I’m not exactly comfortable with talking about my love life with someone I don’t exactly know.”

“None taken.” He looked back on his sheet and starting writing stuff down. “So, you want anything to eat? I’m starving.”

I nodded, “I’ll get the take-out menus.” I stood and walked to the kitchen. Some Shanghai noodles, some grilled dumplings, steamed vegetables, and no Asian meal would bbe complete without rice. I spun around, and bumped into Gerald who was standing right in front of me. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.” I brushed my hair away and walked to the phone. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tiny glint of a smile on his lips.

I told the guy my order and hung up my phone, finding him sitting and watching me. “That’s a good way to get on my bad side,” I warned him. “I hate all eyes on me.”

“Really, I thought being an actress and student body president made you love all the attention.”

He remembered. “I’m not president yet, and I’m in a group, so some of the eyes aren’t on me. Same thing goes with acting.” He followed me back into the living room. “You know what I noticed? You keep on finding out things about me, and I know nothing about you.”

“Hey, you volunteer things about yourself; I don’t force it on you.”

“Come on, what did I say about these rules?” I smiled at him, trying to turn on my charm, though I doubted it would work.

He chuckled, “Okay, so what do you want to know?”

“I don’t know. Do you miss home?”

“Yeah, I mean as much as anyone would miss home.”

“Wow, you know you at answering questions.” I laughed and the door bell rang. “Excuse me.”

“Kim, I don’t think you want to open the door. It’s too soon to be the delivery guy.” Gerald stood up the same I did.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Oh, is it one of the attackers, you’d rescue me from?” I chuckled, teasing him.

But when I opened the door, I kind of hoped I listened to him. “Jake, what are you doing here?”

“We need to talk, babe.”

I shut the door behind me. “There’s nothing to talk about. You can go now.”

“Babe, come on, it was just a shell.”

I scoffed. “And here I thought you were coming here to apologize.”

“Okay, I admit what I did was wrong, but you overreacted. Can’t you see that? I mean I threw it out the window because you looked at it like you didn’t understand it. I was doing you a favour.” I couldn’t believe what he was saying to me, and that stupid look on his face me more angrier.

“You know Jake, after what happened today, I came in my room and tried to remember why I ever fell in love with you. And you know what happened? I couldn’t think of one reason. So it made me wonder why we’re still together. And if you want to stay together, you’re gonna take your huge ego, and drive away right now, because I’m honestly not in the mood to discuss why you screwed up. If you don’t know now, then you’re never going to know. And for starters, it wasn’t about the shell; it was about what it meant that you took and threw away.” I spun around and walked back inside.

A moment later, I heard his car drive away. Gerald was staring at me. “You okay?” I nodded. The bell rang again. “It’s not him. You can get it.”

I smiled, “Food does numb the pain,” I tragically tried to joke.

“And so does talking about it,” his smiled was inviting, and maybe I was actually willing to talk about it.