MY LITTLE KITTEN

CHAPTER TWO. THE DATE

"you went out with who?!" Laura busted on the other side of my phone. She sounded angry, not the reaction I was expecting from her. She knew how long I have had a crush on Luna.

"as I said we just went to have coffee. She was actually sweet to me"

"sweet? Caleb are you telling me that after three years, she comes out of nowhere and asks a guy she never noticed for a coffee? Are you serious?"

Yes she had a point I know but come on. This was my one time chance to get to talk to Luna and I wasn't gonna waste it.

"that's more of a reason to go out with her, she came to me, not the other way round. Am the unpopular one here"

"the fact that you see all of this with a blind eye is killing me, it is so unlike you, you will regret this you know"

"I know, but it's not like she will be my girlfriend. I mean come on, I bet she just wanted someone out of her Social group to hang out with"

But the message I got later that night proved how wrong I actually was.

Hey. It's Luna. Thank you for keeping me company today. If you would like to go out again, I would love it. See you tomorrow at school.

My heart was beating outside of my chest I was sure. We are talking about the girl who had a lot of friends, who fit in anywhere she goes. She loved my company? Me? Caleb Cooper? I was truly visiting a rainbow tonight.

See you tomorrow.

I didn't want to sound cheezy so I pressed send. I didn't believe this was happening to poor old me. The guy with zero social skills and no car. Me?.

The next day Luna joined our table during lunch hour which sent murmers all over the cafeteria. I knew this was going to be the new hot gossip on campus gossip groups. But I didn't care. I even noticed how Laura asked Luna a bunch of questions. It was basically an interrogation. But dear nice Luna answered all her questions. Including the one that caught my attention.

"why Caleb?" Laura asked "you could talk to anyone at this campus, why Caleb"

"I asked myself the same thing" Lana started "at first I just saw him around the library, he usually talked with the librarian. And I could see how open minded he was with everyone he talked to. It caught my attention. Most of the people I chill with are fake, they don't really say what they want to say. But Caleb, I don't know. During the science fair last year, he really left an impression"

Even I was caught off guard. She knew me since last year. How come she never talked to me all this time? Not that it mattered. What mattered was that she knew me. Poor old me was on her mind before, that was enough to make me float on cloud nine.

But my best friend wasn't buying it. She still asked her a bunch of questions.

"I understand that you are being protective of him, but you can trust me"

That was all it took to melt my heart away. I don't think I would have listened if anyone had said stay away from her.

"are you free this weekend?" my stupid mouth opened on its own and I gasped closing it with my left hand as I was using my right hand to eat. Luna smiled at me while Laura glared at me as if she was seeing a six foot hole on my forehead. I shrugged her off and looked at Luna. Her smile capturing me and taking me to places u didn't know existed.

"if it's a date then yes, am free this weekend" she simply replied capturing a piece of apple between her white teeth. Gosh everything about her was perfect.

"then it's a date" am sure my smile was way too wide to fit my entire face. I couldn't believe my luck. I just became the luckiest man alive.

And that was three months ago, before I received the heart wrecking message.

Well now that you are all caught up with how I ended up as the new campus cerebrity because I was dating a campus queen bee, let's get back to the current state of affairs.

"it's getting really annoying, sometimes I regret introducing her to you"

I looked at her after closing the locker. "for the last time Laura you didn't introduce her to me! She came to me on her own"

"am sure I did. I mean if I didn't ditch you that day for that stupid son of a b***h, you wouldn't have had time to talk to her"

Wondering how Laura's mind works? Yeah I don't get it either. Oh, Laura and Joshua broke up after she caught him kissing a random girl at a bar. But you don't have to worry about Laura, she moved on pretty fast. She is now seeing someone else.

"Oh now he is a son of a b***h?" I teased her raising my one eyebrow.

"if you want a stick in your ass you will continue with your nonsense" her eyes went from zero to hundred in a second. That was my que to stop. Laura could be really dangerous.

But this was the first time she actually hated talking about her ex boyfriend. Every time she broke up with someone, we would casually joke and laugh about it. Maybe she was letting out less than what she actually felt. I don't know. I knew better than to push it though.

We went straight to class after I sent a text to Luna. She hasn't replied to any of my texts since last night. I was gonna go check on her later on after my class. So when the three hour lecture was over, I was the first to sprint out of the door.

I dialed her number and I went straight to voice mail.

"hey babe, I missed you. Call me back ok?"

I said then put my phone in my pocket. I stood in front of her class like the gentleman I am. I knew her whole schedule. Am not a stalker or anything, but she was my girlfriend, I had to know when she would be free to have time for me.

In 10 minutes students had already started to come out of the classroom but no sign of Luna. She always told me first if she was going to miss a class. I saw her friend Lititia and went to her.

"hie Lititia..." I gave her the smile she always hated. For some reason, this girl didn't like me at all.

"oh it's you...". At all. She gave me the droppy eyes she always gives when she is annoyed by something. "Luna isn't here if you are looking for her, but oh, am sure you already know that. I mean you know everything already all the time don't you?"

To say I wanted to punch her in the face would be an understatement. Every time she opened her mouth I wanted to b***h slap her face so hard that her mouth would split open and continue doing it till she couldn't say s**t anymore. But I didn't do that, I only smiled wider.

"she is not picking up, do you know why she missed the class?"

"oh I think I do, I think she finally figured out that you aren't good enough for her" she ripped a gum and threw it in her mouth. "now if that's it. Bye" then she literally cat walked out of my face.

Like b***h that's not even what I asked! Fuck

I gathered myself and went out to meet up with Laura so that we could go for lunch. We had one more class in the afternoon then we would be done for the day. But I was gonna stay for the library to finish an assignment.

I saw her in the cafeteria with Matt and Louis, 2 of our friends that am not really close to. As I said, am an antisocial and I like it that way. I grabbed a tray, picked my food and went to them. They were talking about the last party they went to.

"hey guys" I greeted them

"oh. Hey Caleb, not sitting with your sweetheart today I see" I could definitely feel the venom in those words Matt said. But I chose to ignore it. Almost the whole campus thought I wasn't good enough for her, that she was definitely playing with me. But nah. Luna wouldn't do that to me.

Call me stupid if u want.

"she didn't come to school today" I said taking a huge bite of my burger. Luna didn't like eating in the Cafe so most of the times we would drive to eat in town then come back.

"caught in a hangover I bet" Louis said

"she didn't go to any party last night, she would have told me" I didn't miss the look the three of them shared. "what?"

"am sure she goes to parties without you knowing Caleb, a girl like that can't help it"

Now Laura joined too. I looked at her, I thought she would be on my side.

"what do you mean by a girl like that?" I couldn't stop myself from sounding angry. I was getting pissed off and was losing appetite of the already bad burger.

"Caleb don't act like you don't know what she is like. While you are cooed at home studying what do you think a rich girl with nothing but money to spend is doing?"

Not that I hadn't thought about it, but they didn't have to say it to my face like that. They were my friends, as much as I liked them being honest with me, I wanted them to be on my side and trust luna the way I trusted her. She always told me if she was going out with her friends. That was the life she always had, I couldn't stop her. It's not like she ever stopped me from studying either.

I dropped the burger back in the plate, stood up "am Gonna go back to class, I have something to do" then I left. I could hear Laura calling me back but I wasn't in the mood to talk to her right now. I mean they could make it less obvious that they didn't like my girlfriend. I took out my phone and dialed luna's number but went straight to voicemail. It did that the whole day till I slept thinking of the worst case scenario. Where was she? And what was she doing? She could at least talk to me.

The next morning I didn't even feel like myself, who knew being ignored by my girlfriend would make me feel like s**t? I didn't even want to go to school and see anyone, I just wanted to lay in bed. And that's what I was going to do. But first things first, I dialed Lunas number. My heart pounded when it rang. It rang 3 times before it got picked up.

"hello..." I rushed jumping from my bed. I finally had energy. "hello, Luna?" but the other side was silent. "baby? Are you there?"

I heard shuffling noise before the line went silent. I cursed out loud while dialing it again. What was she thinking? Did she have any idea on how much she was troubling me?

An idea came in my mind, that maybe she might show up at school. I only had one class today of biometrics. It was one of my best courses that's why I was OK with skipping it.

I almost tripped in the shower when I heard my phone ring. I thought it was Luna.

"Caleb?" my mum's voice came through from the other side. I can't say I was really disappointed, I had missed my mum.

Oh yeah I leave alone in one the apartments near college that I had found when I first came here in first year. I have been leaving in washvilke since then.

My parents stay in the capital, it's 6 cities and 8 hours away by bus from college so I just had to move out. Am a second child out of two, my sister is married with a kid. She got married 5 years ago. So my parents are always alone at home. Therefore there are always phone calls on my side from my mum telling me she misses me, dad? Not so much. Me and my father weren't the closest of a father-son relationship as most other boys are lose to mum but it's because of other issues. And moving out ended up increasing the distance between the two of us.

"hie mum, how are you?" I asked now drying my wet hair.

"am fine, are you preparing for a lecture?"

"yeah, I have one from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock. So I still have time" I checked the clock, it was only quarter to 7.

"don't forget to eat ok? Last time you came back you were really skinny. Are you studying a lot?"

"just enough, am studying enough mah, enough about me, how is dad?"

She went silent for a second "he is fine"

"don't lie to me mum...what's wrong? What happened?" I was now getting impatient. Mum always had a way of keeping things from me, but I would always tell when she is lying.

"his legs are acting up again, but he is fine now. We went to the hospital"

"what did they say?"

"he is fine baby, now finish getting ready"

"I will come home when I have a clear schedule mum, take care"

"you too baby"

Then the line went off. Even though I wasn't close with my dad, I was really worried about him. He was suffering from gout, so every time it was close to winter, it would act up and his BP would rise up too. Guess it was already that time of the year. I had to go home. Now I had more worries to add on top of my love life.

I dressed up in a black Tuttle neck, tucked in blue jins and a gray cardigan. Yeah, dressing up isn't my thing at all. Nothing is my thing. I had time to make breakfast so I had toast and juice. Wore my black Converse and off I went to school. I liked my place because it was just a 15 minute drive to college. Which I could walk on days like this to clear my mind.

It was already quarter to 9 by the time I made it in campus. I found Laura on our meet spot, I wasn't expecting her to be there after yesterday.

"did you walk?"

"yeah, had enough time"

"no wonder, been waiting for you for some time. Almost thought you weren't coming"

"can't say the thought didn't cross my mind"

I said it while passing her, she grabbed my hand. I looked at her.

"Caleb am sorry about yesterday, it wasn't right of us to say all that to you"

"it's fine, not like it's the first time I have heard it" I took out my hand from hers and started walking. I turned back to see her still standing there. "we are going to be late if you just stand like that"

She ran to me with a smile knowing I wasn't mad at her anymore. I couldn't stay mad at Laura for too long and she knew it. She is my best friend, I have no one else.

We got to class and the lecture started. My phone vibrated when it was almost over. What I regretted was checking the message.

Let's break up Caleb. It was nice knowing you.