Chapter 8-The Sunset

Sorry I haven't updated in a while!! Dedicated to: Krystal because she's always there for me and reminded me to update. Thanks Krystal! =D

The next day after school, Eric caught up to me as I was walking home. We started talking about the usual things, how we were doing in school, what we should do next for our project, and if we had a lot of homework, when all of a sudden, he asked me what Tiana's phone number was. I blinked up at him in shock. Why would he want Tiana's number? Oh..I thought to myself, maybe he likes her. For some reason, I didn't really want to give him her number, but I told myself that it didn't matter. Who cares if he liked Tiana? I told him the number, then realized that we were on my block. I quickly bid him goodbye and tried to walk unhurriedly up the porch. Our neighbor's dog, Pumpkin, barked loudly through the street. She was an orange/yellow color, so I assumed that was how she got her name. All of a sudden, I was jumped by something warm and...furry? I spun around to defend myself against the attacker, but Pumpkin's eyes just looked up at me hopefully. I sighed. I quickly ran into the house and grabbed some dog treats from the container we had just for her. She ran off. I looked up and saw Eric still standing there. He raised his hand in a half wave. I forced a smile and closed the door.

"Hey there, Eva," Lily said suddenly. I jumped. I had been leaning against the door in relief. I frowned. With Lily, she only talked that way if she wanted something.

"Okay, spit it out," I said, "What do you want?"

"Just to talk to my lil' sis," she smiled. I rolled my eyes. "Okay, well I was wondering about Eric. How's he doing?" she asked.

"I don't know, fine," I said pouring myself a glass of water and heading upstairs, "why?"

"Well, I saw he walked you home," she said. In reply, I told her that that was because he wanted to talk about our projects and that he had asked for Tiana's phone number, so whatever she was thinking was wrong. She frowned at that and went into the living room, probably to watch re-runs of House of Anubis on Nickelodeon. She was obsessed with that show.

When I got into my room, I found that my book "City of Fallen Angels" wasn't in my bag. I frowned. Where could it be? After a thorough search of my room, it was confirmed that my book wasn't there. I started searching the house. A few hours later, I resorted to asking Lily. She said that she hadn't seen my book either, and to get out of the way, but she wouldn't have seen it if it was in her lap the way she was staring at the TV. I went into the kitchen to grab a snack, preferably something sweet. I decided on cutting up an Asian Pear, which I had thought were called "Asian Apples" for the longest time. I turned on my iPod and started singing along to One Republic about how it was too late to apologize and that they were hanging ten feet off the ground. Midway into cutting the Asian Pear, I realized that I heard Lily's voice talking very high pitched and excited to someone. It was probably one of her friends, or Michael. I turned the volume on louder and tried to turn her out.

"Eva! EVA!!!" I realized that Lily was shouting at me.

"What?!?" I yelled back.

"Didn't you notice that the doorbell was ringing? And I being an awesome sister, had to get the door for one of your friends," I rolled my eyes. I always got the door for her friends. Then what she said kicked in, and I asked who.

"Duh. It's Eric," she said, "I guess you gave me unreliable information." I kept cutting the Asian Ap--Pear. I didn't really want to talk to him right now. She whacked my shoulder and hissed, "Go out there and talk to him!! He seems really nice and he's ruining my TV time!!" Wow. So that was why she wanted me to talk to him as quickly as possible. Well, I was not going there until I was done cutting my apple. She waited 30 seconds until she realized that I wasn't going to do what she told me to so she left in a huff.

I started singing again, "'Cuz you are the piece of me, I wish I didn't need," LOL I thought in my head I'm cutting apples into pieces and I wish I don't need to eat them because I don't want to kill living cells.

"Wow. You're a pretty good singer," a manly voice said behind me. I whirled around. It was Bad Timing Guy.

"Why are you here?" I asked bluntly. I wasn't in the mood for games.

"I just wanted to return your book," he said calmly. He made me feel like I was overreacting because he was here. It was really my book!

"Where'd you find it?" I asked.

"You left it behind in physics. I was going to give it back to you on the way home, but I forgot," he said. Yeah, probably because you were so obsessed with getting Tiana's number. I said in my head. I realized that he was waiting for a reaction.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks," I said.

"You looked a little blank there for a second," he said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I was just thinking," I said.

"Oh, okay," he said. We stood there awkwardly, "Umm...so I guess I'll just go now."

"Sure," I said, "I'll walk you out." I couldn't help but think this was kind of like the Bachelorette on ABC, but that didn't make any sense. It wasn't like I even liked him.Right?

"Umm..I was actually hoping that we could...umm..you know, hang out," he said.

"Why?" I asked incredulously. My voice went up a few pitches. "What would we even do?"

"Well..it was just a thought. Never mind. Forget I said anything," he said. Why are you my clarity? Why are you my remedy? I realized the song was on repeat. I was staring at my iPod when I was jerked out of my reverie. "Eva? I'll just go now," he repeated. He was starting to sound like a broken record. Oh wait. He wouldn't keep saying that unless he thought there was a chance that I might say yes. I mentally punched him.

"I guess you can stay," I said uncertainly.

"Cool," he immediately had his ego back, "So I thought we might go get some ice cream then we could go to the park or something."

"I guess so," I said. I told Lily that I was going out and that she could have the rest of my Apple Pear.

I ducked outside and found Eric sitting on the swing we had on the front porch. He stood up when he saw me. "Ready to go?" he asked. I nodded in reply. He unlocked his car and opened the door for me. I rolled my eyes. I was fully capable of opening a car door. I hopped out when we got to the ice cream parlor and ordered a chocolate vanilla swirl. "So you like chocolate now?" he sounded completely serious.

I glanced sideways at him. "Does it matter?" I asked.

"To me it does," he said. I started. Why would he say that? I shrugged and grabbed some napkins. I got into his car again and we drove to the park. I immediately started climbing on the spider structure, while he contemplated how to get up without dropping his ice cream. He tilted his head. He was cute, I had to admit. When I realized what I had thought, I immediately mentally whacked myself.

After nearly falling twice, he heaved himself onto the top and turned to look at me.

"What?" I asked, uncomfortable under his gaze. I looked away.

"Nothing," he said turning the other way.

I poked him, "Look," I said. He gazed at the view. The view I saw whenever I came here. The view that I only showed to a few people. Why was he so easy to talk to and be around? We sat there in silence and watched the sunset.

"I think we should go now," he murmured. I knew the feeling. It was a lot to take in. We started climbing down. I showed him how to get down without slipping. It just came easily to me. I knew every foothold, where to put your hands, and how to balance yourself. He finally jumped down, nearly spraining his ankle, by the looks of it. Of course, he had to act like it was all a breeze, even though I knew better.

"You don't have to pretend around me," I said, surprised by my boldness, "I don't judge people based on their weaknesses."

"I know," he began, "I just feel that way whenever I'm around girls." I knew I wasn't special. "Earth to Eva. Earth to Eva," he said in an annoying robot voice. He was waving his arms around wildly.

I glared at him. "What?"

"I don't know," he said, "You just looked spaced out."

"Sorry," I muttered. When we were getting into the car, I realized that he was driving. "Wait, do you have a license?" I asked.

"I just got it yesterday," he said in reply. I guess that made sense, since we were Juniors.

"When's your birthday?" I asked.

"August 30" he replied, "When's yours?"

"November 28" I said, "Sorry I missed your birthday. You should have told me."

"I'll remember yours," he said with a smile, "but you owe me."

When I got home, I had a goofy smile on my face. Lily did too, and I soon found out, because Michael had asked her out. I congratulated her and she actually thanked me, even though I meant it sarcastically. She was really happy with him.

I brushed my teeth and changed into my pajamas. I thought about how Eric had been so sweet, but I was still bothered by how he wanted Tiana's phone number. I'd have to ask him or Tiana tomorrow.

Author's Note

I'm really happy that I finished this chapter by my deadline in one day. I don't really like cramming, but it wasn't so bad. It's pretty late now, so I'm going to go to sleep. I'll try to update tomorrow, too!