Prank Me Love

You're That Picture From The Back Of My Mind

'"Oh, I've had such a curious dream!" said Alice.

And told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange adventures of hers that you have just been reading about. Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been.'

-an excerpt from "Alice In Wonderland" by Lewis Caroll

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CHAPTER FIVE:

Seems like my expectation didn't go as well as what I'd imagined.

"Hi!" Beth smiles at James cheekily, her voice sounding higher than usual, "I'm Beth, Shane's best friend." She offers her hand to him which James willingly returns without missing a beat.

"Hello," James greets back, grinning down at her, "I'm James, Shane's neighbor."

Why does he always get his way out of charming the closest people to me? Even not nearly exerting too much effort in the process. I don't get it.

"You didn't say he was so damn hot," Beth whispers to me, obviously ogling James from head to foot. Gosh, why can't she just strip him off n***d right where he is so we'll get over this?

"I did," I say, gritting my teeth with a tight smile. And somehow, I even doubt James doesn't notice this secret conversation Beth and I have.

"You said he was hot..." Beth clarifies, "just hot, Shai. Not so damn freaking-James-Dean hot."

"Excuse me?" James clears his throat, instantly distracting Beth and me. I gave James a reassuring smile and tug Beth's arm with me towards the front door of our house.

"It's hot in here. Let's go inside," I say, knowing pretty well James is already following behind us.

"He's so freaking hooooooot," Beth tells me through the movement of her mouth. I roll my eyes at her and smirked. Where's the Beth man-eater, when I needed her?

"I thought you were best friends with that Evan guy," I hear James says when we were finally settled inside the house. He closes the door behind him.

"Yeah," Beth replies for me, turning around to face him, "But I'm way closer to Shai than that idiot." The mere smug smile Beth was giving James was already enough for him to guess that something was 'on' with the two.

"Oh, really?" James raises a brow, smiling, "He's a cool guy. You've known each other for how long?"

"Can't even recall the first day," Beth says, plopping down on the couch, snorting, "We're like blood siblings, four of us, bonded with a pact. You know?"

"Sounds fun," James stares at me with that odd expression again. He'd given me that same look back when I introduced him to Evan. I don't even know why it affected me at all. I always feel strange when he's doing that.

"Yeah, it was," I hear Beth says softly, and she had that long look on her face too that reminded me of something I don't want to recall anymore. I blinked it back away and tried to change the subject.

"Who's up for ice cream?" I say, ignoring the effects of their faces on me, and settled with wondering if the desserts had already melted away. I went to the kitchen in a haste, opened the ice cream container, and sigh in pleasure.

Painful flashbacks were already forgotten. Sweet delights, here we go.

"So, back to the siblings' pact," James opens up that conversation again and I inwardly groaned. Why did he have to bring it up now?

"Yeah?" Beth blankly looks up to him, not even conscious of my silent protests.

"You said there were four of you. I reckon it'll be you, Evan, and Shane... But who's the fourth one?" James asks inquisitively, his eyes filled with curiosity.

Beth stops and looks at me worriedly, trying to give me a chance to speak up but I was too afraid I would do something stupid. So I remained silent. Ignoring her as I indulge myself on the half-filled glass of melted ice cream, I tuned them out of my earshot.

"It's..."

"Right!" I butt in, clasping my hand together in a loud smack, "I forgot! I have something to do right now."

Beth looks at me with that pity eyes again and I tried hard not to flinch at the picture. "I really need to do this thing... It's urgent... Let's just continue this talk next time. Beth?" I look at her expectantly and I know she'd understood.

"Sure," she agrees right away, smiling. "I'd be heading out now. Though, it was nice meeting you, James." She hastily tells James, standing and giving him a pat on the shoulder. There's only one guy she used to do that thing with... But, I can't think about that right now. It's still pretty raw.

"Sure, same here," James grins back, able to notice that something was off with the way he looks from Beth and back to me. We both watch Beth leave and close the door behind her. And silence, once again, filled the entire space drowning us.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," I hear James tells me in a softer voice, as I busied myself on cleaning the glasses on the kitchen counter.

"It's really none of your business now, James," I told him, my voice cold and distant.

"Right."

"Can you please leave?" I ask, more like ordered him, still with my back facing him.

"Okay," he replies shortly and it took only a few seconds before I finally hear a door opens and then shuts. I sighed and closed my eyes in relief.

I didn't want to cry now, nor will I ever want to in the near future. Right now, I just want to be on my own. I don't really need anyone to comfort me. 

No one could.

---------------------------------------------------

"I look up to the stars, and it didn't say anything."

My hand presses down on the page I've been staring at for quite a while now. The scribbled words I read over and over again for almost two years now, had been like an imprinted memory inside my mind. I looked down on a bunch of random things written on the only prized possession I got of him-who-I-can't-be-named. It was a journal I have been keeping underneath my dresser that I kept after he left. The scrawny penmanship that felt like it had just been written yesterday made my heart flutter again in the same way I had always been back then.

"It didn't say anything, but I know what it wanted to say to me."

I silently read the words he had written that night before everything became so twisted and changed between us, whispering it to the cold air with a bitter smile. I quickly shut the book close and stared up to my ceiling, my back on the bed. It's Sunday night, and tomorrow is Monday. School day. Ugh. My life is not as enjoyable as I want it to be.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I've been forcing myself to sleep these past few weeks, but somehow, there are times I just can't.

It had been like this always. Every time I would try to close my eyes, my mind wanders back to those things I don't want to go back to anymore. And now, I still wanted to try to get my sleep, but I doubt I'd even be successful tonight while bothering with this kind of feeling again.

Sometimes, there are just things you can't really have no matter how hard you try to reach them.

"Morning, honey," Dad greets me with a glance as I sat on the dining table with a grumpy face. I only slept for, like, two hours last night. I woke up this morning, harried and very dazed to find that I had missed my alarm. I rushed myself to shower and hastily fixed myself for school, in the fastest way I can, not even bothering to blow-dry my hair.

Being a girl is sometimes a pain in the a*s, you know? We have so many things to mind with our appearance. I don't even know why I would even bother with it... But as they said, it's already something stuck with my genes. Damn, conformity and biology.

"Morning, dad," I grumbled back, inhaling the scent of morning pancakes to brighten my mood.

"Morning, princess," Another voice appears beside me and I froze, still halfway with my first spoonful of breakfast. I look at the face with a cheeky smile who was staring back at me from across the table. What is he doing here?

"Ready for school?" he asks me, drinking a glass of milk dad has just set down on the table with my glass of orange juice.

I was busy staring at him to even reply. What is he doing here, really?

I watch him silently while eating the rest of my meal for a long moment, thinking why he was even here with us sharing breakfast.

"Don't you have anywhere else to go?" I ask out of the blue, gulping the rest of the juice I had. Dad seemed to be so busy with the newspaper, that he wasn't even paying attention to the two of us.

"Yes, I am." James answers, nodding at me, "I'm driving you to school today."

I almost choked out the rest of my drink, and James quickly tapped me on the back to help. I coughed loudly, almost teary-eyed of the sudden clogging pain in my throat.

"You should slow down with the juice, honey," Dad says from where he sat across us, but still not even bothering to glance up from the newspaper. I can't believe he's ignoring an emergency situation right here in front of him.

"What are you saying you're driving me to school?!" I exclaimed, glaring at James when I finally had the strength to speak again.

"I'm driving you to school," James dumbly repeats, as if it was just that simple and I was being over-dramatic, "It's a win-win situation."

"Win-win?" I frown at him, even more confused.

"Yeah," he says, shrugging, "You'd get a free driver, and I get to have something to do other than sulking alone."

Wow, his life must have been so sad after all. I shut up for a minute, deciding whether I should punch him hard or pat him on the head for that kind of excuse. I took a deep breath instead, to keep my temper.

"Whatever," I mutter after a second, scowling as I stand up from my seat.

"We're leaving, dad," I say, walking around the table to kiss dad on the cheek. James watches us with amusement and silently follows me out of the house with a smile still painted on his face.

"Is this something you just do out of boredom or to annoy the hell out of me?" I confront him the moment we settled inside the truck.

"Hmm..." James pauses, trying to pretend he's thinking about what to answer then quickly smiles, "Both reasons, I guess."

"You!" I punch him lightly on the elbow, giving him a glare despite the grin I had. He laughs for a second and begun backing us out of the driveway. I can't help it too, I laughed with him. One thing's for sure, this guy sure knows how to handle me. Ugh. You're way too easy on him, Shane.

"I've slept on a couch this time," He says to me after a moment and I turn to look at him. I didn't even bother saying anything to that. I already knew whose couch he had slept in. The blanket on the coffee table did not miss my eyes when I exited the house this morning.

"Yeah? Was it cold?" I ask instead, drumming my fingers on the dashboard in some kind of familiar beat.

"No," James gives a shake of his head, glancing at me as he watches my fingers and smiles. He returns his eyes on the road again.

"It's the best bed I've had so far." He says, those dimples showing again.

I smiled to myself too. Because, somehow, hearing him say those words made my mood instantly brighter.

"So!" Beth took the seat beside me, looking at me with those very interested Beth eyes. "How's your weekend with hot James, hm?"

"Ugh," I groaned, eating a mouthful of fries as I try to shoo her face away from mine. She was leaning way too close to me. I ignored her and saw, just in time, my other friend, Evan, approaching us from behind her. I motioned him towards us, still ignoring the googly eyes Beth is giving me.

"You're selfish," Beth says when she finally gets nothing out of me and leans back to her chair with her arms crossed. "I wanted to know how James is doing."

"He's still breathing," I reply, smiling at Evan when he sat from across the table with us.

"That's all?" Beth pushes more, ignoring the frown Evan was giving us, "Nothing else?"

"What's she up to?" Evan asks me and I sigh.

"She's curious about James," I say dryly.

"Heh," Evan smirks and steals a fry from me. He looks at Beth and shakes his head. "Don't even bother, Betty. He's already pretty taken with our girl here."

I frown at him as he gestures to me. He's got to be kidding.

"Yeah, he is," Beth sighs in surrender, looking straight at me and I frown harder. "I'd rather let you date him than Miranda over there."

Just the mere mention of her name made me look towards the table from where she was sitting, laughing with her same old bitchy friends. I scowled and turn my attention back to my food instead.

"You are both crazy," I say, shaking my head, "James just likes annoying the hell out of me."

"That," Evan nods agreeably and smirks, "And the fact that he's so into you."

"Shut up," I grumbled while trying to hide my blush before either one of them even notice. I don't want to let those words they're saying get into my head. I can't think of James like that. It's crazy. And I don't want to assume things about him. But hell, I'm pretty trapped here already.

Nothing really interesting happened today, aside from the funny things I've heard about school gossips again. So it's practically a normal school day for me.

And as soon as my last class finishes, I dashed my way, faster than I used to, out of the school and towards the parking lot. I admit I was quite looking forward to seeing James this time, even if I know I was being naïve. This is what happens when you listen to your friends telling you about foolish stuff. I now want to erase what Evan told me a while ago, there's no way James felt that way for me. Hell, we just met. It seems pretty fast, don't you think? It couldn't be possibly true that James thinks of me that way.

But the instant I saw him, slouched down on the driver's seat, his left arm resting above the opened car window, and his head slightly bent towards his other side... My heart seems to stop for a second. The entire picture stole the breath that I paused and just stood there outside my truck's driver's side, staring at him.

He looks too good to be true... A gorgeous guy like him sitting inside an old beat-up vehicle, sleeping like he had all the time in the world. It looked pretty dream-like to me, like a high school movie scene. But here he is, so real, I could almost reach out and touch his cheek.

I didn't know how long I was staying there when finally, he moves and slowly wakes up from his slumber. When he sees me standing there, his eyes seem to narrow a little, as if he's wondering if I was really real or not. Then his face breaks into this huge grin that made me smile too.

"Hi, princess," he greets me, stretching his arms up above him with a soft yawn.

"Hi," I said feeling a bit shy that he caught me staring at him. I quickly move around the truck to the passenger seat. Once I settled inside, he turns the key to start the engine.

"How's your day?" James asks out of the blue, making me raise a brow at him.

"Well?" he mimics my look and I smiled, telling him short ample details of my boring classes and Evan's constant bickering with Beth. By the end of my talk, James was already laughing out loud after hearing my version of Evan's lame jokes and pick-up lines.

"They really need to work out with that whole tension going on with them," James tells me, referring to my friends, Evan and Beth. I was even a little surprised that he kind of knew about the thing between the two.

"Was it that obvious?"

"Well, I'm a guy," he says, shrugging, "I know how our mind works."

"And fighting with a girl is just a way to show your affection for her, huh?" I say with a smirk, already too late to even realize what I just told him.

"Yeah," James says after a beat, glancing at me for a second, with that strange expression again. I stare back at him, suddenly feeling very nervous. I gulp and took a deep breath as I look away. Get a grip, Shane. He's not talking about the two of you. He's talking about Evan and how guys think... Not you. He's not referring to you and him, okay? Calm down.

"Definitely something like that," James adds after a minute, almost like a whisper. I said nothing back though, too afraid that I might say something I would be embarrassed about after. And the rest of the drive was already a blur.