Chapter Text
When we moved here it was just mom and me. I thought it would still be me and her for a long time, but for the past few weeks she has been seeing a new man with whom she seems to have established something serious.
Fortunately, school takes half my time, and even today I am happy to go there and not hear my mother talk about this Samuel Davis that she talks about all the time now.
They met at Padel and I never thought that in such a place there could be flirtations between people.
Anyway, anything is possible in life. Except for me. I live on impossible things.
I am on the bus ready to be dropped off at the bus stop and thus reach the school. I reach the exit point and grab onto one of the handles. Suddenly something falls on my shoe and the green stain.
It is nail polish. Without question I pick up the small bottle and close it as the girl who just put it on looks at me, apologizes, and then thanks me for closing it for her.
That girl is very pretty and I definitely want to see her again. I am sure she is from my school because I feel like I have seen her before.
So with a sentence said on the spot I get off the bus and leave with a new bottle of green nail polish in my hands.
Days go by and that girl is always where I am. For months we never saw each other while now we only see each other even at a distance. Like now in the cafeteria. I feel she looks at me and I like her.
I get out of the cafeteria and join my classmates, including Finn, the lunch boy who’s in my class with Noah and me.
When I get home, I’m gonna jump in bed and just want to sleep, but my only thought is the girl on the bus.
What’s her name gonna be? I don’t know why, but does she look like A. Alice like the one in Wonderland? It’s a wonder so even the name would be appropriate for the person who brings it.
Another possible name might be Alexandra but I don’t know, I’m not convinced.
Ashley might be good for her. Although I still think Alice is the prettiest.
-Bobbie are you home?
My mother's voice makes me go downstairs to talk to her.
-What's going on?- I ask looking at her.
-Don't wait up for me tonight. I have a date with Samuel.-
-Okay- I say before drinking some juice from the carton and putting it back in the fridge shortly after.
Once back in my room I fall asleep and the next morning when I finally see the small group of boys standing still talking in a corner I join them.
-Hey- I say as they look at me shocked.
I turn to the girl on the bus and hand her the nail polish.
-I have something of yours. Since I took it right off my shoes it's not as long-lasting as they say..-
I hand it to her and then I have to say something to be me. -And it's definitely not my color but it's not yours either-.
I love the look the girl is giving me right now. It's really sexy.
-Bobbie- I say introducing myself as they each repeat their names back to me.
I won't remember any of them in ten minutes but I don't care. The important thing is to know hers.
-Anaïs- she says.
I was right. Her name starts with A and is even more beautiful than Alice.
She even looks like him. Alice, Anaïs.
The boy asks me how long I have been in this school and I tell him that I am in class with Noah, one of their friends.
-Filled with zombies and it's not even Halloween yet- I say when they ask me what I think about the school and the people who populate it.
They giggle so I have won them over, even though my goal is to win her, Anaïs.
-It was good to meet you guys. Bye- I then say torpedoing myself and saying a meek "ciao" facing Anaïs whose gaze I feel on my back.
The next day, I continue to observe her from afar noticing how beautiful she is and how much I like the way she dresses.
She is different from the crowd and everything she wears looks great on her.
I guess her friends don't like me very much so I always avoid going to talk to them even though right now she is one of them calling me to join them.
They invite me to an evening of theirs and at 7:20 p.m. I show up there at the cafe where the chick works. I sit at the table with Anaïs' friends and chat with them while I wait for her to arrive.
When she arrives we are in the middle of chatting about two people I saw kissing in front of me and about whom I was telling to get to know better.
I immediately notice Anaïs' cut on her finger, and when I point it out her friends start asking her how she did at work since it was her first day with Finn.
Mila one of their friends goes off to answer the phone and when she returns she warns the group that she may have a sexually transmitted disease.
Everyone is upset but I am the only one who is not freaking out since I know a thing or two about awkward, unprotected situations.
We continue talking about the incident but suddenly Otis asks me how I ended up in their school.
-My mother and I moved house and my previous school was honestly too far away-.
-So it's just you and your mother?
-Yes. I mean, she has a boyfriend now, but we'll see how long that it lasts. A dude named Samuel-
-Samuel?-
-Yes. Her last boyfriend's name was Robby, so it's like she's working on getting on with the alphabet-
-Really?
-Yes. She met this guy in Padel-.
And finally Anaïs' voice brings me to look into her eyes.
-Samuel?- she asks curiously in a way that is a little too intense for my taste. -Not Samuel Davis right?- she asks again looking at me.
-Yeah. What about it?-
Anaïs' friends keep fixating on each other but I can’t understand what the problem is with this Samuel.
Maybe they know him or something.
I observe everyone but the one most affected by this thing is Anaïs.
After hanging out with her friends, I go home, and my mom’s already there.
-Hey, I’m just gonna sit on the couch and watch.
-Honey. Samuel invited us to dinner tomorrow. You’re not busy, are you? -
Dinner with Samuel. Great, just what I missed. Things are really serious here and I don’t know how much I like it.
- No, I can come. - I say by shrugging myself even if I have no desire.
-Great so you’ll know her daughter too. Maybe you become friends- wink at me and I smile.
-Who knows- I answer.
Honestly, my only thought right now is Anaïs' reaction to knowing that Samuel Davis was the man she was seeing with my mother.
I’m starting to get these weird thoughts about her being her, and why she made that face and had that traumatic reaction.
But surely it will not be her and Samuel Davis has a ten-year-old daughter named Veronica Davis who when she sees me will want to play with me and not in the way I would like to play with Anaïs.
The fateful day of dinner with the Davises comes, and my mother and I reach her man's house immediately. He seems really nice and strangely enough he also seems to be decent compared to the men Mother has been with.
The two of us reach the kitchen where he is preparing dinner while I wander around the living room.
There is a box full of records and I wander in there before looking up and intercepting a girl upstairs who is supposed to be the man's phantom daughter.
When I see that it is Anaïs I can't help but smile because I was really hoping it was her, but she doesn't seem happy to see me instead.
While our parents are still struggling with the kitchen the two of us remain on the couch waiting for them.
-To unexpected encounters- I say raising the glass full of mojito just brought by Anaïs.
She says nothing and I see her drinking in the sexiest way in the world.
God.
I get up from the couch to dampen the tension brought on by the fact that our parents are doing boyfriend-girlfriend smooching in the other room, and I come across a picture of her as a baby.
-Is that you?
-Yes, so?
-So cute. So you sing?-
-Not really anymore , but sometimes-.
I nod and then pick up a book asking her if it is hers. She says it's her father's probably and definitely not her mother's.
I giggle before I hear our parents exchanging kisses and almost certainly being in the process of fucking.
-Anyway I'm actually really not in the mood for this- I tell Anaïs before she stares at me completely shocked and asks me what I mean by this phrase.
-You'll make up an excuse?-
-What?-
-Or do you want to stick around this lovey-dovey party? -
-No but we can't just -
-These two really aren't going to miss us-.
I won't stay a minute longer in this house.
-You'll make something up- I then say before leaving saying a paltry "Ciao".
I can feel his gaze on my back, and I would like to feel his nails on my skin, too.
But I guess I'll have to wait a while for that.
I will have to work well before I become his lovey-dovey, too.
But I will definitely have to succeed.