Secret Crush

Chapter 3 - [His Place]

The next morning, I made sure that my alarm was set and the new back up batteries were put in. Plus, I set my alarm to wake me up thirty minutes earlier than normal. Why? Well… I sort of decided that I wanted to dress up a little more today… that meant I needed more time in the morning.

So when I woke up, I took my regular shower and then stared at myself in the mirror for a short while.

My mom loved makeup. So I always had a crap load of makeup because she’d always be trying to get me to put some of it on.

The problem was that I had no idea how to work any of it.

So I just stared at it for a bit.

I then pulled out the eyeliner and, ignoring my exploding tear ducts, I put some on.

When I had finished, and looked at myself in the mirror, I already felt like I was wearing too much.

I sighed and wiped some of it off before packing all the makeup up and putting my contact lenses in.

I put on my black skinny jeans and then my Pikachu sweatshirt with a red tank top underneath.

I brushed my hair quickly and put on a headband before picking up my bag and heading to the kitchen.

When I got there, I saw my mom looking through her purse.

She looked up at me and smiled. “Morning.”

I smiled. “Morning mom.”

After pulling out her red lipstick, she rushed to the mirror and put some of it on. Followed by that was some mascara to bring out her green eyes. Then she ran her fingers through her dirty blonde hair and looked at me when she saw that I was watching her. “What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

My mom was a beautiful lady, and often, people could never tell that her and I were related.

I didn’t blame them either.

We were total opposites.

Sometimes even I wondered if we were related in any way.

She turned and smiled. “Ready?”

I nodded. “Where’s Nate?”

She shrugged. “I’m assuming he’s still in bed.” She said as she put her handbag over her shoulder and slipped into her heels, which made her taller than she already was.

And soon I was out the door, following behind my mother.

She dropped me off at school and I was comfortably thirty minutes early. That’s what I liked.

So I relaxed for a bit and waited for my friends to get here.

Unlike me, my friends were more of the people who liked to spend more time sleeping then worrying about being late.

So when they came, it was already almost time to get into class.

Valerie sat down beside me and examined me from head to toe. “You’re a little more dressier than usual.”

I smiled. “I tried out some of the eyeliner that my mom bought me.”

I saw her face change in disapproval, but she smiled. “Myeh… it looks good.”

“Really?” I felt my face brighten up.

She chuckled. “Yes, darlin’.”

I smiled and looked at my feet.

“What’s on your mind?” Val asked me, still watching me.

I kept smiling and looked at her. “I’m a little nervous.”

She raised an eyebrow and I frowned. I was always jealous of people who could do that. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Mr. Dmitri isn’t giving us time in class to work on the project… so I have to go ask Gale when we’re working on it.”

Val snorted. “Don’t be nervous.” She said. “Go up to the son of a b***h, look him in the eye and say ‘yo. When are we doin’ this thang?’”

I gave her a ‘what the flip’ look. “Maybe you should ask for me.”

“Hey, I would. But you know that the second he opens his mouth, my fist would have smashed through his skull.”

I laughed.

And I kept laughing until the bell rang because she just kept throwing her disses.

When classes started though, something really strange happened.

Mr. Dmitri called me up before he started his lesson.

When I walked over to his desk, he smiled at me. “Naomi… Are you comfortable working with Gale?”

My eyebrows shot up. How the hell did he know about us? “Yeah…” I said. “Why?”

He looked at Gale and then at me. “Well, I was thinking about it last night and I feel like I may have forced you to work with him. I’ve had the both of you in my classes before and I noticed that you two are polar opposites… well, I guess I was a little worried about whether or not he’ll work well with you, or you’ll work well with him.”

I smiled. “Mr. Dmitri, thanks for worrying, but really, I’m fine. He’s doing his part and I’m doing mine.”

Mr. Dmitri nodded his head, looking a little relieved. “Alright, great.” He smiled. “But if anything, please don’t worry about coming and telling me.”

I smiled too. “Thank you.”

He nodded his head again and I walked back to my seat.

But then I remembered I had to talk to Gale about when we were meeting up.

So I took a deep breath, let it out and stood up, walking over to Gale and his friends.

“Gale?” I called as I approached him.

He turned around immediately.

Gale looked as good as he always did. But today he was wearing a thick black sweater and blue jeans… and he looked more casual then he usually did. “Yeah?”

I ignored his friends, who were raising their eyebrows at me, some even snorting. “We didn’t talk about when we were going to work on the project… since we aren’t getting any class time to work on it.”

Gale leaned back in his seat. “Oh yeah…”

“I’m free whenever.”

He tapped his finger on the desk and then looked back at me. “Why don’t we just work on it tonight?”

My eyebrows rose, but I tried to hide my shock. “Sure. Where?”

He smiled his cute smile, but there was something about it that made it look a little strained. “I need to go home to walk the dog, so how bout we meet at my place.”

I was even more shocked now. “Um… yeah. Okay.”

He nodded and kept his strained smile on his face. “See you then.”

I smiled back and turned around, walking back to my desk.

When I sat back down, the three girls sitting to the right, in front and to the left of me looked at me. “You lucky bum!” Said Amy, the girl who was sitting in front of me. She widened her blue eyes and tossed her blond braid over her shoulder.

Janet, a brunette with green eyes and the girl who was sitting to the left of me nodded. “You get to spend the evening with Gale Dallas!” She squeaked.

“God what we would do to get a chance like that.” Said Reema, the black haired, brown eyed girl who sat to the right of me.

I chuckled and leaned back in my chair. “I guess.”

Reema ran her fingers through her hair. “I wish Mr. Dmitri made me his partner.”

The two other girls nodded to that. “Dream come true!” Janet said.

Amy kept her eyes on me and giggled. “You should be a little more excited Naomi.”

I just smiled at her, and thankfully for me, Mr. Dmitri told everyone to shut up and turn around because he was going to start todays lesson.

I had told Val about what was going on during our lunch break and she was seriously upset that I was going to his house, worried that a visit there would bring back a crapload of memories.

But honestly, she was the only one who was worried about that.

I didn’t really think that it was a bad idea. I mean, if anything were to happen, it would be that I’d see even more now that he’s changed, and that would help me even more… right?

But Valerie and I didn’t get a lot of time to talk about it, because Maria showed up soon enough.

I had chosen not to tell Maria about my old relationship with Gale because Maria was a drama queen. As much as I loved her, I knew she would make a big deal about it. And that would mean the school would eventually find out about Gale and I. And I’m sure Gale would not like that. So whenever Val needed to lecture me about Gale, we had to make sure Maria was somewhere else.

And when afterschool came, I just kept telling myself that it was another project and I was going to another students house to work on it.

That’s it.

But of course, life wasn’t as simple as that.

As I walked down the street in the direction of Gale’s house, which I would obviously know, I took deep, relaxing breaths.

Even though it was starting to get very chilly out, it was still a lovely day. The sun was still out and the heat I felt on my face made my cold fingers feel a lot better.

Gale’s house wasn’t a long way from the school. Maybe a twenty-minute walk? But the only annoying thing was that it was in the “elite” part of town, since his parents were successful business people. And this elite part of town was up on the top of a hill. So walking all the way there was going to be exhausting.

My town, the City of Broadview, was actually a very small city. I never paid attention in Geography so I really didn’t know what we would call it. So I just called it a town.

It got its name because it’s on higher ground and there’s a beautiful park near the edge of our town where you can look off the cliff, down at the busy city next to us.

But what sucked about our town was that it was very divided.

The richer people, like Gale’s family, lived on one side of town.

The middleclass people, like my family, lived on another side of town.

And a lot of the poorer people lived at another side of town.

It was really the reason why we had so many divides in our school too.

The rich people knew nothing about the poor people and vice versa. And neither of them were willing to get to know the other.

I guess that sucked. But I was really one of the few people who believed that. Everyone else seemed okay with it.

I sighed loudly as I passed through the gates that showed the entrance into the “elite” territory.

Here comes the climb.

But suddenly I heard a car pull up next to me, music pumping loudly.

When I turned my head, I saw a beautiful black BMW pull up next to me.

I knew in an instant that it was Gales.

He rolled down the passenger side window as he turned down the volume and looked out at me. “You left!”

I raised my eyebrows. “What?”

“I was looking everywhere for you.” He said. “I meant that we were supposed to meet after school and I would give you a ride.”

I hesitated. “Oh.”

He chuckled, seeming so much more relaxed and comfortable then earlier today. “Come on.”

I felt my heart start to beat a little faster, but I blinked a couple times, reminding myself that he was just another partner of mine, and walked forward. I opened the passenger side door, took off my bag and got into his car.

I quickly put on my seatbelt and looked straight ahead, feeling so awkward it was unbelievable.

“Were you really going to walk all the way to my house?” He asked.

I swallowed my urge to say: “well I used to do it all the time.” And said, “I didn’t think it would be that long.”

He shook his head and chuckled as he picked up the speed. I was startled by the loud roaring of his car as it sped down the street filled with huge mansions and pretty yards.

“How are your parents?” He asked.

The topic of my parents made me uncomfortable. After all, it was during the time of their divorce that he had stopped talking to me. He wasn’t there when I needed him most.

“Good.” I simply said.

He nodded.

“And yours?” I asked, trying to be polite.

“Good. They’re still never home, but good.”

I smiled and nodded, getting more uncomfortable by the awkwardness of our conversation.

And my heart sank at the thought of the time when talking to him was so easy.

From the corner of my eye, I saw him press his lips into a thin line.

I played with my fingers as I bit the inside of my cheek. I hated to admit it, but I was really hoping that right now, he was regretting what had happened to us.

“Alright, we’re here.” Gale said, breaking the awkward silence as he pulled up into his empty driveway that was big enough to fit sixteen cars in a four by four formation.

He parked his car right in the middle of it and got out. I followed.

His house was very familiar to me, and even though it was huge, I almost knew it as well as he did. After all, a lot of my childhood was spent here.

It was lovely too. His front yard itself was the size of my whole house, and it was kept well by his sister who loved flowers and gardening. It had a small pond with ducks and lilies, beautiful bushes and a couple trees and four sets of benches scattered around.

My favourite part was the swing next to the pond.

Gale and I used to fall asleep on that swing while we watched the stars. Stargazing was something we both loved to do when we were kids. It was something that my dad got us into.

So overall, his front yard was beautiful. And according to my brother, Gina, Gale’s sister, had won a ton of awards for its beauty.

But I’m just getting started. If the garden is that lovely, you can only imagine how lovely the inside of Gale’s house was.

Gale led me up his cobblestone driveway and to his huge porch that was the size of my average living room. He put his keys into the lock of the pearly white double door that was normal in width, but was two times my height in length. I always wondered why someone needed doors that were this big. Gale was tall… and Gales dad was taller, but definitely not that tall.

When he opened the door, he walked in, not taking off his shoes. I however, took off my shoes and put them up on the rack next to some other shoes. My dad always told me that it was rude to walk into other people’s homes with your shoes on.

“Hmm… Guess Gina took Blitz out.” He said as he looked around. He turned to me. “You remember Blitz?”

I nodded, remembering the German Sheppard who was just a puppy when I last saw him.

Gale watched me for a second, probably waiting for me to say something else. But when I didn’t, he started walking.

I took a deep breath and looked around. It’s been almost four years since I’ve been here and it still looked pretty much the same.

The only difference was that Gale’s beautiful paintings were hung up on almost all the walls. There must have been hundreds hung up around this house, since it had hundreds of walls.

I followed Gale down the hallway and up the huge staircase that led to the second level, but as I followed him, I was secretly admiring his beautiful paintings.

Gale was unbelievably talented.

It was funny that he never really realized how talented he was until the eighth grade. I mean, he was always good at art, but one day, he sat down and painted a picture of a rose and when he showed it too me, I was mesmerized.

He gave me his first painting, and I still have it hung up in my room.

I didn’t know much about art, but all that I could really say was that he liked painting real things. He didn’t do abstract art or any of those types. All his paintings were realistic. They were gorgeous portraits of random people, or sceneries, or objects.

And god did they look real.

But I froze when I saw one particular painting.

It was a painting of Gina that was hung up in their huge family room.

I swallowed hard as I stared at how beautiful it was. He had definitely gotten better then he was in the eighth grade.

It looked like so realistic… and she looked so beautiful.

Of course, Gale’s older sister was naturally beautiful. She was tall, like Gale and had long brown hair that curled beautifully on its own. Her eyes were as green as Gales but because of her dark hair framing her face and the light amount of eyeliner she always wore, they looked so lovely and bright.

She had a gorgeous smile with dimples, and long dark eyelashes and… well, she was beautiful.

And the painting seemed to show every single detail about her face that only a brother could really notice.

I smiled.

When Gale noticed I wasn’t following him anymore, he stopped and turned around. “What are you looking at?” He asked, walking back down the stairs.

“Nothing.” I said, turning to face him.

But when he reached me, he looked out at where I was looking and chuckled. “You like it?”

I hesitated. “It’s, um, beautiful.”

He smiled. “Thanks.” He said. “I had lots of fun doing that one. It’s probably one of my best.”

I smiled back awkwardly. “All of these paintings are yours, right?”

“Yeah, my sister freaks out when my mom buys any other paintings. She actually set a few on fire in the backyard before.”

That made me laugh.

Though Gina was pretty, she was a tough girl and was also brave. It was one of the reasons for why my brother loved her so much.

Whenever a friend would ask who wears the pants in their relationship, my brother would, without any hesitation, point at her.

He turned around and started walking back up the stairs. “I was thinking we should just work in the art studio, since I’ve got all the craft stuff up there.”

“Art studio?” I asked. I couldn’t remember him having an art studio.

The left side of his lip curved up into a cute half smile. “Yeah, my sister got one of the spare rooms renovated for me.”

“Wow, she really supports you.”

He nodded. “Someone has to.” He said as we reached the top of his staircase.

He then led me down through the second living room they had on the second floor and then past his old bedroom and to one of the spare rooms.

When he opened it up, I got a little excited.

Unlike the rest of the house, which was covered with expensive tiles, or expensive mahogany hardwood, this room had a cheap looking, brown hardwood floor that creaked when you stepped on it and had dried paint drops all over it. And it was an absolute mess. Exactly how I imagined it.

In the center of the room was a huge, square table with a bunch of drawers in them. Gale walked up to it.

I looked around at all the art pieces that were in progress. I mean, the final versions were beautiful but there was something… magical… about the ones that weren’t finished yet.

God, I wish I could paint like that.

I watched as Gale pulled out some white bristle board from the drawer beneath him and put it on the desk. “Tell me what to do.”

I smiled and watched him as he pulled out two stools and gave me one before sitting down next to me.

I lifted myself up onto the high stool and thought. “Well, since we’re doing the Anthropology of Religion… maybe we should have a bunch of religious figures on the bristle board… like, around it?” I used my hand to show where I meant.

He nodded. “Sounds good.”

I pulled my laptop out of my bag and set it down on the table. “So last night, I did some of the research and typed out all the points that we can print out and stick onto the board.”

He nodded again, and when I looked at him, I saw that he was already bent over the bristle board, getting down to business with his drawing. “You know.” He said, straightening himself up and looking at me. “Wouldn’t it be cool if it made it look like all the religious people were holding the points that we’re going to glue on?

“Yeah!” I said. “That’s a great idea.”

He looked down at the board. “How ‘bout we make each box with the points… um…” He opened up a drawer that was next to him and pulled out a ruler. “ten centimeters by ten centimeters?”

“Sure! I’ll make sure I print it out properly.”

“Great.”

For the rest of the afternoon, we worked together on the project.

And you won’t believe how surprised I was that this was working out well.

***

It was around eight in the evening when I yawned.

Gale looked up and chuckled. “Tired already?”

I smiled. “I guess.”

Gale stretched as he looked down at what he had gotten done so far. I looked over at the board and held back a gasp. “How did you do that with markers?” I asked, noticing the hundreds of shades of Crayola markers that he had scattered around the table.

He shrugged. “Same way you do it with paint or pencil crayons.”

The board looked amazing. He had finished half of it and on that half was a beautiful drawing of Jesus, one of Shiva, and one of Buddha. All of them were given a good amount of space and behind each one was a beautiful background. Jesus had a night sky behind him and a field that had a bunch of sheep on it. Shiva had some lovely mountains and clouds behind him and Buddha had a beautiful green forest behind him. All of this done with Crayola markers, in a couple of hours.

“You’re kidding…”

“Painting is easier… I think.” Gale said. “But Markers dry faster and are better on the bristle board.”

I shook my head. “It looks amazing Gale.”

He chuckled as he stood up. “Thanks.” He said. “Now lets go take a break.” He stretched again as he walked over to the door.

I hesitated before I slipped off the stool and followed him out.

He led me down to his kitchen, which was the size of the second floor of my house and handed me a glass when we got there.

He opened up one of his three fridges. “Okay, we have apple juice, orange juice, strawberry juice, Coke, Pepsi, Sprite-”

“Sprite.” I said.

He smiled. “I knew it.”

For some reason, my heart skipped a beat.

He pulled out the bottle of Sprite and poured me a full glass. After that, he put it away and poured himself some Coke. He then put his glass aside and opened another fridge. “Want some frozen pizza?”

“Sure.” I said, realizing how empty my stomach was only when he asked.

“Great.” He said with a smile as he pulled out the huge box, opened it up, placed it on a pan and put it in the oven. “It’s gonna to take fifteen minutes.”

“Okay.” I said as I sipped some of the Sprite.

Gale smiled and leaned against the counter. “We’re almost done, right?”

“Yup, I’ve just got to find one more thing to write about.” I said. “I can print it out at home and then maybe if you bring the board tomorrow, we can stick it on?”

He shrugged. “Why not just come back here?” He asked. “And I’ll hold onto it until it’s due.”

I hesitated, wondering if it’s a good idea to come back here again. But then I nodded. Today went really well, tomorrow should too. “Okay.”

“What time do you need to leave?”

“I didn’t tell my mom I was out.” I said. “So maybe I should leave around nine?”

He nodded. “I can drop you off at home.”

“No, it’s fine. I know how to take the bus from here.”

He snorted. “Take the bus this late in the evening?” He asked. “It’s fine. I’ll drop you off.”

I took a breath and let it out. “Alright. Thanks.”

He smiled.

We didn’t talk much after that, we just watched some TV and ate the Pizza. And then we worked on the project a little bit longer before he dropped me off at home. And like before, it was one, awkward drive.

But I went to sleep that night feeling strangely happy.

Maybe this meant Gale and I could be friends again.

But then again, knowing what happened to us before… he may just stop talking to me again when this whole project is over.

Before I fell asleep, I made sure that my brain and heart understood that I shouldn’t raise my hopes up too high.

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Woohoo! Extra Long chapter!

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- Luckycharms