ILY

ILY A Second Time

Despite the weird feeling that Jethro felt while he was with Topaz, he was happy that night. He immediately texted her the moment he parked the car in his home driveway.

“I am home,” he said.

It only took a few seconds before he got a reply.

“Great. I hope you had a great night. See you soon.” Topaz texted.

“How about this weekend? I could cook that lasagna for you.” Jethro pressed the sent button and suddenly regretted it. Maybe it was still too early to ask her like that.

“This weekend seems perfect. Mom had to attend to something so it would be nice to have some company.” Topaz replied. Jethro felt relieved that he received a positive reply. He was quite certain that his advances would be rejected.

“Great, I’ll text you the time tomorrow. For now I guess you need to rest. It’s past midnight already.” Jethro suggested.

“Actually I am in bed right now and feeling a bit sleepy already. I was just waiting for you to text me if you are already home.” Jethro was so happy reading that.

“Seems like tonight did work out.” Clyde tapped his shoulder as they entered their home. “Lock up, I am heading upstairs. I need to upload something.” Clyde added, handing him the bag of sweets that Mrs. Layton gave them earlier.

“Thanks, Clyde,” Jethro said. Clyde was already at the bottom of the stairs and was headed to his room.

“Anytime,” he replied. He gave him a two-finger salute and winked before he headed upstairs.

Jethro stored the treats inside the refrigerator and locked up as Clyde told him before heading upstairs to his room. It was around one in the morning but his thoughts were still alive.

He was imagining Topaz. Her long black hair was neatly braided, resting on the left side of her shoulder. Those brown warm eyes looking at him. It looked sad. It looks lifeless. But somehow, she had managed to smile during dinner and while they were in the kitchen. It was a good start, to say the least.

He stared at his phone. He scrolled up to see all the messages and the call attempts that Topaz chose not to respond to. Now, he began scrolling down again. Topaz replied to him finally. In fact, she even asked him to text her once he got home.

Tonight was worth it.

He tried hard not to text her about his plans of coming over this weekend although he wanted so bad to talk about it. She needed to rest. And he needed to stop being too pushy.

He wanted to rest but his mind was running around. He wondered if Topaz was already asleep. Did she enjoyed the dinner as much as he did?

Then he remembered Jessica. He was still pissed at her but he knew that she did not mean harm.

He recalled what Topaz said earlier. That Jessica liked him. He knew that. But he was not too confident to pay attention to that. His interest was geared towards Topaz. He enjoys her company. But just like what he told Topaz earlier, he never saw Jessica as someone more than a friend.

Was Topaz jealous? Did she felt like how I felt when I saw Michael pushing her wheelchair around school? He smiled at the thought.

He got up and changed into his pajamas before grabbing his phone again. He looked at Topaz's message. Finally they were talking again.

"Ahhhhh," He silently cursed at himself. He began typing on his phone.

"I am about to sleep now. See you this weekend." Then he hit the send button.

He turned to his side and waited if Topaz would still answer his message.

He waited and waited but there was no reply.

"Maybe she is already asleep." He thought.

Jethro started to feel the night catching up on him. He started to feel sleepy. A few more minutes his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

Little did he know that a few seconds after he entered dreamland, Topaz replied to his message.

It was already eight in the morning when Jethro heard Clyde calling from outside his room.

He overslept. He was supposed to be running early that morning but he did not hear his alarm go off.

He looked for his phone. It was already dead. He forgot to charge it last night. That explains why he missed his alarm.

Jethro plugged his phone into the socket and did not wait for it to turn on. He went straight downstairs to grab breakfast.

"Looks like we both overslept," Clyde said, drinking a glass of milk.

Jethro grabbed the carton milk on the table and took a glass from the cabinets. He poured himself milk too.

"So about that video that I promised Mrs. Layton. How does Monday sounds? I could film it on Monday and have the video ready before the weekend. If we release it by Friday, we could at least see audience response in time for the weekend.

"That sounds just about right. Why are you even asking me, you are the expert here." Jethro said before drinking up his milk.

"Just be there after class, OK. You could help me with the lighting." Clyde said.

"I have to head upstairs now. I have a potential collaboration on the works. Just knock if you need anything." He said before heading back to his room upstairs.

Jethro grabbed a cereal box and poured some on his bowl before he headed upstairs. Maybe he'll do some assignments so he could free up his day tomorrow for Topaz.

He immediately grabbed his phone to turn it open when he entered his room.

To his surprise, there was a message there.

He opened it and almost dropped his bowl of cereal when he read the message.

"Can you come back?" It was from Topaz.

He hurriedly put his pants, slipped his phone and wallet inside his jeans pocket and headed to Clyde's room.

"I am going to Topaz, I am taking your car." He said. Jethro did not waited for a reply and headed straight downstairs to the door.

He went to the car, turned the engine and drove away.