7: You Have To Reconsider

"What are you doing?" I asked, I was too shocked to function and leaned on his arms for support. I took hold of his biceps, squeezing them gently, telling him to loosen his grip on my arm which he did. The fire in his eyes soon calms down and his breathing slows.

"Derek? Derek? Are you okay?" I ask.

His arms fall down but he doesn't let go completely, his fingers hold my pinky finger gently as he takes a few slow breaths.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine," he says looking down at our hands.

"No, no, I'm not fine," he says, his voice deeper than his usual this time, "I need to talk to you, You have to reconsider," he says as he looks up, into my eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"Us, I'm talking about us. Not being friends. I ask you to reconsider," he says, his words sound shaky, "No, no, I don't ask you to, You have to reconsider," he says, his voice firmer than ever.

It blows my mind away. Why would a guy like him want to be friends with me so badly. Not even any boyfriend of mine has ever shown such dedication for my attention and not one of them was as popular or good looking as Derek. Why would Derek go to such extremes just to be friends with me. I don't know but I didn't have the heart to turn him down.

"Derek, I don't know, it's too complicated with you, What if I get hurt?"

"What if you didn't, You have to fall Ashley, If you want to fly."

"I'm sure you've read your share of instagram quotes Derek, but this isn't helping in any way."

"Okay, So what if I promise you that you won't ever get in the middle of anything, If you did I will tell everyone that I'm a part of F3."

"What? Are you crazy?"

"No, I'm that sure," he said with frightening finality in his eyes.

"You're that sure?" I ask again.

"I'm that sure," he mimics his previous statement.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay. But I have something to tell you too," I am worried, but I have to do this, I have to tell him.

"Tell me what? Don't tell me you have a boyfriend?" He said, panic clear in his voice, his fingers squeezing my pinky gently.

"No, I don't have a boyfriend, I don't know how that matters, but no, it's something else."

"What is it then?" He asks impatiently.

"I got a message."

"Is it some guy? Did he propose to be your boyfriend?"

"What? No, Why is your mind in the gutter? It's something serious."

"Tell me this clearly, Does this involve a boyfriend at all or not?"

"It does not, you baboon." I say and take out my phone and show him the message.

Unknown: I know what you saw at the night of the blackout.

His expressions remain calm and collected.

"So? It doesn't mean anything, Even you couldn't have recognised me if I wouldn't have showed up in the room later that night, Someone's bluffing." He said.

"What if she isn't? Maybe she's in one of my neighbouring rooms and could've recognised you because she knows you from University."

"I really doubt that, but for your sake I'll take the number to investigate." He then tapped on his phone.

"We should forget about this and celebrate."

"Celebrate what?"

"Uh? Hello? Our friendship."

"That's not necessary."

"It is, it is, now go to your room and I'll meet you there with some snacks and I don't know we can watch a movie or something."

"Derek Lockwood, the King of the town, that's your idea of a celebration? Don't you like go to clubs or parties when you want to celebrate?"

"I do, most of the time."

"Why not now?"

He leans in and whispers, "This isn't like most of the times, you aren't like most of my celebrations." He says with such passion that I want to correct him then and there that there isn't anything special about me, I'm as ordinary as they come. It's him, he's the special one, only he has the power to look at something so plain and treat her like she's magic. But I don't, we split up and I go to my room and start cleaning up a little then spread a clean bedsheet and place the laptop on it scrolling through the movies that Netflix has to offer.

Derek comes crawling in the window with two large bags of snacks.

"You can use the door you know," At this point I wasn't even surprised, I already knew he'll come from the window and I kept an eye out.

"Nah, This is more our thing."

I roll my eyes at him, "or you just like to keep polishing your wall climbing skills."

"That too, but mostly because it's our thing."

"Okay, so what do you wanna watch?" I ask him.

"I don't know, I don't watch movies, you pick."

"What do you mean you don't watch movies?"

"The movies, I don't look at them in motion, hence, I. don't. watch. them." He says as if talking to a delinquent or someone with hearing disabilities.

"Oh my God, How are you alive this far?"

"Like this," he says then shrugs.

"What's the last movie you watched?"

"Uh, The fight club, and let me tell you the title is very misleading," he said.

"Let me guess, you expected gruesome fighting and blood splatter but you were disappointed that it was actually about a much mature issue than you wanted it to be."

"Exactly my problem, it's so nice when two people think alike, you know."

"Wow, we clearly don't think alike, Fight Club is one of the most wonderful things the cinema has to offer."

"Okay, So you pick." He says giving me a can of Coke and a bag of doritos.

After a heated discussion we decided to watch 'To all the boys I've loved before' and it's second part 'P.S. I still love you.'

We placed the laptop in the corner then me, and behind me was Derek. He rested his elbow on the pillows and supported his head on his arm.

An hour and two bag of doritos and oreos later he said, "Okay, this is getting uncomfortable for me, switch places with me."

"What? What kind of a man are you? How will I see with your mountain of a body blocking my view."

"I don't know anything, I want to be the smaller spoon too, just because I am a guy doesn't mean I have to be the bigger spoon. You can climb over me to watch, Come on, Switch. Switch." He rolled over me in one swift motion positioning himself in front of the laptop, pushing me with his back.

"Why would you even suggest watching movies if you don't watch movies," I asked annoyed with my current posture.

"Oh, I always wanted movie nights, I just never found the right person to watch them with." He looked at me giving me a big smile before turning back to the movie. He says such things with such ease, that it's hard to take him seriously. I sat in a half sitting position till it was time for us to switch again. We watched the entire two movies like this, switching places and sometime after that I fell asleep with my back pressed to his chest.