Pay Off

Did I just start a food fight?

After changing into black yoga pants and an oversized peach coloured tee and throwing my longe blonde hair up into a messy bun, I took a look at myself in the mirror. I had only applied a small amount of mascara that morning and I was looking tired. Perfect, I thought, that should help Cole to want to keep a distance from the crazy looking lady. I slowly made my way out back to the living area to see Cole just sitting back down, a bucket of popcorn in his hands.

“I figured a TV marathon deserved some snacks, what do you think?”

“Perfect” I wasn’t sure if I was talking about the snack or the Man, or if I thought the Man was the snack!

I sat down in the seat I was occupying before my sudden urge to change. It suddenly hit me how strange a day I was having. It wasn’t even midday and I was sitting in my loungewear eating popcorn on my sofa with Cole Talbot. Me from forty eight hours ago would have laughed at the joke if you had told me what I would be doing.

To settle my nerves I reached across and grabbed a large handful of popcorn and quickly tossed a kernel up in the air and caught it in my mouth, throwing my arm up in a minor cheer when I caught it.

Cole let out a chuckle. “Ok, girl got skills, I see that. But how high can you go?” He then tossed a kernel slightly higher than I had done and caught it in his mouth easily - he didn’t feel the need to cheer himself however he clearly exuded confidence.

If Cole wanted to learn something about me today, he could learn I was very competitive and would not go down without a fight. So I cracked my neck and picked out my next piece of popcorn. Looking him straight in the eye, I said “you’re on” and threw a kernel up with more power than before, easily higher than Cole’s and with a bit of smart manoeuvring caught it in my mouth once again. There was no cheering myself this time, I just stayed looking Cole straight in the eye. I could tell he wanted to smile but he was taking this impromptu competition as seriously as I was.

“Impressive. But I will win little Lia, here throw this - I got it” he handed me a kernel of popcorn and opened his mouth ready.

I could easily win this game with a bad throw, but I’m never a cheater. I only ever win fairly. So I took aim and launched the popcorn kernel across the couch to a spot where Cole caught it with ease.

I stood off the couch and moved a step back. “My turn, I got this”

Cole took a piece out of the bucket, pulled his arm back and threw it towards my face. But it was a bad throw and I nowhere near caught it.

“I win!” He declared

“Uh uh no way! That was a bad throw and you know it. You cheated!”

“Did no such thing little Lia, now be a good sport and accept your loss” he teased back.

“I’ll do no such thing Cheater Cole” I pouted at him

He let out a laugh and in my immature competitive state I barely had time to realise what I was doing before I dove across the sofa, grabbed the bucket from Cole and dunked it over his head.

Oh No! It suddenly hit me what I had done and I chewed my lip in anxiousness of what had just happened.

Cole lifted the bottom of the bucket up to just over his eyes and peeked at me with a squint, the brilliant blue of his eyes shining at me. He couldn’t control the smile spreading on his face before he burst out into laughter. I couldn’t control it either, I threw my hand over my mouth and let the laughter out too. My competitiveness always did make me go too far.

“So Amelia Wyatt scares easily and is as competitive as they come. Got it. I did say today was all about learning more about my roomie after all” he beamed at me.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I probably should have warned you before you started a competition with me but I thought I finally had that streak under control, guess not” I shrugged as I reached over and grabbed some popcorn stuck to his tee and tossed it into my mouth.

Cole just stared at me, smiling as ever. “I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship you know roomie? Let’s start the zombies now, ey?”

“Sure” I whispered back. I couldn’t tell him we couldn’t be friends. He’d want to know why, and I definitely couldn’t tell him that. But god, I wanted to be his friend so badly. I focused on the TV as the titles started rolling so as not to say anything I shouldn’t say to Cole, but I barely paid attention to what was on the screen. I knew that I really needed to pay attention to the pictures on the screen and not on the feelings the man opposite stirred within me. Besides he could never feel the same. He didn’t remember Middle school nerdy Amelia, he had only known Lia less than twenty four hours. I was still a stranger to him who had been rude, standoffish and had started a food fight with him. I needed to remember that was all I could ever be to him. I needed to sever this friendship before it could even start. But resisting Cole Talbot was like a moth resisting a flame. Gheesh…