Chapter 2: Waiting a Coon's Age

ZACHARY FLYNN'S POINT OF VIEW

I looked at my wrist as I was about an hour in my car, waiting for Xincere Calliope Monroe, the only reason why I never get on time for my first class. I did not remember giving her any gifts on her birthdays, except for numerous alarm clocks and dozens of marshmallows. But in her case, those alarm clocks could no longer handle her, those are no longer be able to wake her up every morning. But despite all her flaws, she was the only girl my age I was comfortable with. And unfortunately, the one who succeeded to make me fall for her quirks that made her so different. I mean, literally different from any other girls.

I got my phone in my bag and dialed her number for the nth time this morning. It keeps on ringing. I deeply closed my eyes for a moment and just let out a heavy sigh before I dropped the window of my car as I saw Mrs. Lin walking from where my car was parked. She was one of their household helpers. I got out of my car and walked towards her and held her right hand and gently stroke it to my forehead as showing respect.

"May God have mercy on you. Come inside. She probably about to go downstairs now." I saw her deep dimple on her both cheeks and even some lines on the edges of her eyes signifying her age, as she gave me a sweet smile like she always does. She gently patted my head using her left hand and her presence made me remember my grandma

"There she goes. Thank you, Mrs. Lin. But, I guess, we need to go now. We were actually later than yesterday." I said after seeing her running from the front door of their house to where we were standing. She has a slender figure and accentuated more as she was wearing a maroon-puff-sleeve dress paired up with her white sneakers. I can see the paleness of her skin as her nose turned red this morning as she sneezed. She was still holding on to the back of her shoes, it seemed like she ran outside even if she was not yet done wearing her shoes properly. I even saw that one of its shoelaces was not yet tied in a knot when she gently stroked Mrs. Lin's right hand to her forehead.

"Mrs. Lin, we need to go. We're already late. See you later! Please do take care. God bless." I already memorized her lines to Mrs. Lin before we go to school every morning, same tone, same speed. She abruptly opened the car and hopped into the passenger seat.

"We will go ahead." I politely said to her, who managed to give a genuine smile from the moment I saw her earlier up until I was about to step into the driver's seat.

"Drive carefully! Don't forget to eat on time." I nodded and smiled back as a response to her.

"I thought you already left me." I furrowed my eyebrows as I hopped in the driver's seat. She uttered as she was combing her wet long light-brown hair. I got a lap cloth from the backseat and gave it to her.

"You don't have any idea how long I waited for you outside. Didn't you sleep last night?" I slightly bent down to tie her shoelace tightly without even looking at her before I started the engine.

"I'm sorry. This was all because of the alarm clocks you gave me, all of those failed to wake me up this morning. Look, I was not able to even use a blower on my hair." She was more looked at complaining than sorry. And still, manage to put all the blame on the three-alarm clocks I gave her. I just grinned, shaking my head. She's odd!

"By the way, you have a practice game later, right?" She asked while putting something on her eyelid. I shook my head and hissed as shifting back my gaze on the road. I just nodded my head and took a glance at her. I saw her getting something on the dashboard mount of my car.

"Zac, what shade do you think is better, the one I used yesterday or this one?" She was holding a darker shade of red lipstick. I just glanced at her, reluctantly. I always notice her long and naturally curled eyelashes and her innocent round eyes and a little dark under-eye that shows how she stays up late every night. That is probably the main reason why she struggles to wake up every morning. Her tiny mole on the edge of her lash line helped to accentuate her pale skin tone. I just glanced at her, reluctantly.

"Are those different?" She grimaced as she heard me ask her back and abruptly tucked her hair under her ear that, making me see her excess piercing on the upper part of her left ear.

This was literally how I spent the first hour of our first period every morning, waiting for her for almost an hour, watching her running to get into my car and the worst thing is, to share in her problem concerning the best shade of make-up suited her every day. She even told me to consider the color of her outfit every day whenever I gave my judgment on it. But, I honestly did not know the difference between those things. They all looked the same on her.

"Stop putting that stuff on your face. Believe me, Xincere, it still looks the same." I tried to sound convincing and took some moments to stare at her, but it looked like she took it the other way. I was just trying to help here. Besides, isn't that a compliment?

"Zac, not because I was not as sexy as your girls on campus, you can insult me like that." She gave me a side glance of disgust and seemed like murmuring something under her breath.

"Don't worry, starting tomorrow, you don't have to wait for me. You can go ahead of me so early as you are supposed to be if you're not just waiting for me for almost an hour. I'll be asking my dad to wait for me before they go to the office." She rolled her eyes against me and continued on putting something on her cheek.

"You know how uncle really is, and I bet my life, he would rather hire a driver than to wait for you every morning." I snorted before rolling my eyes against him. Honestly, they used to be late every morning because of her, and maybe one of the reasons why Auntie always cook for me and invited me to eat in their house was because I was the only one who can bear her tardiness. Something like bribery, I guess.

"Besides, who says that I like those girls? They are not my type." I muttered under my breath.

"As if I'm believing. Based on the last book I have read, all men like sexy girls." She shrugged and seemed so confident with what she just said.

"Then I'm not one of those men." I simply uttered and looked away as I saw her smiling. She hastily got out of my car the moment we arrived in the vast parking lot of the campus.

"Wait, Xincere!" She turned her back as I called her. She casually folded her arms across her chest while waiting for me. I actually never saw her with any of our block mates. So she did not have anyone here, just me. And maybe that was one of the reasons why she had no choice but to be with me.

"Zac, make haste, we will go up to the third floor!" She ran back to me and hardly wrapped her hand on my left arm and I just let her pull me. I saw some of my teammates, who casually greeted me as we were making our way toward our classroom on the third floor. Since they were not yet done fixing both elevators of this building, I saw her struggling to go upstairs because of the dress she was wearing. We were still on the second floor.

"Have this. Stop wearing it, you're the one who suffers." I handed her the black hoodie, I just took it off. She looked at it for a moment before she accepted it and wrapped it around her waist.

"Thank you, Zac!" I just rolled my eyes against her before I looked away as I saw a smile etched on her face. I walked behind her until we got to the third floor.

"How can we enter?" She faced me as if I did not get what she wanted me to do.

"Don't look at me like that, I won't do it again." Miss Moore was our professor this morning, she always considers my every excuse.

"Hurry up, Zachary. You already know how she abhors whenever I knock and come in late in her class." I deeply closed my eyes as giving up. I did not know why it is hard for me to refuse her. Miss Moore did not finish the whole two hours of her class and dismissed the class earlier than it supposed to be. And the good thing was, my charm worked perfectly on her!

"Just thank my charm, Xincere. It saves you from standing outside." I gave him a smug grin as I whispered.

"Bro, don't tell me, Astrid did not give you her answer by this time?" Nathaniel Arc Davidson, who was sitting beside me, whispered while keeping his gaze on our terror professor, who kept on complaining about the first-year psychology students who failed their first quiz on the course she was handling.

"Stop nagging me, Nate!" I shot him with my indignant stare. He never got tired of teasing me every day, I guess it was not a good idea to share a secret with a dude. But despite being so loud, he was the only one who knew a lot about me.

"By the way, have you already heard that our class will be cut this afternoon? Mr. Paisley's flight came earlier than it was supposed to be. So couch rescheduled our game later." Mr. Paisley was the dean of our department. The reason why all the staff and professors were busy for the past few days. He went to China together with some selected students from different campuses to represent the university in different competitions.

"Zac, let's go." She lightly shook my left arm as our class had been dismissed. I looked outside where her eyes were. Her friend, Geli was there, waiting for her.

"Xincere, are you going to watch their game?" I was walking behind them. She turned her head on me before she answered.

"Maybe. Zac is about to play." I saw her slightly shrugging her shoulder as if telling that she did not have a choice, but I could barely hear them because of the noise of a lot of the students who were littering in the corridor. I saw Geli tickling her on her side. She was now wearing my hoodie.

"Sit there, I'll just take your order." I pointed to a vacant table. As we saw that the cafeteria was so crowded. Geli slightly nodded and smiled a bit as she turned her back while I was standing in behind them, my right hand was on Xincere's shoulder, and gently pulled her on the other side when I saw a ton of girls, probably they were first-year students who were playing around toward our direction. Geli was so jolly whenever she was talking with Xincere, but she's kinda shy whenever I am around. But I often heard her teasing Xincere on me.

"Bro, the couch has been looking for you for a while." Nate was catching his breath, and it seemed like he ran the distance to the cafeteria from the gymnasium. He was now wearing his jersey shorts and a navy-blue shirt.

"Okay, bro. I'll come after you." I simply nodded my head at him. Xincere turned her head on me and raised her eyebrows as if asking me if there's a problem. I just shook my head and made my way to order.

"I'll go ahead, there's just someone waiting for me. Come after me. Let's go home together, I'll drive you home." I said in the most nonchalant way I could as I put down the tray having their food.

"Right now? Why don't you eat first? " She slightly turned her back and held my arm while I was standing behind her, trying to convince me.

"That's still not enough on you. Just finish yours. I'll go ahead." I slightly tilted my head outside. She gripped my wrist to stop me as I was about to go outside the cafeteria.

"Have this instead." She was digging in her bag as if looking for something, then I saw her having a pack of marshmallows that she always has. I just smirked, shaking my head before I accepted it, and just hissed!

I was half running until I got into the locker room to get my stuff. For sure, the couch was already mad at me by this time. As I entered the gymnasium, I felt the eyes of my teammates, together with some other junior girls who were having their chit-chat and littering there. I saw how our couch firmly stood while having his arms casually across his chest. He was frowning, and it seemed like all of my teammates knew how she has badly hated me. I saw Nate who was using sign language that we have learned in the last seminar we attended last week, as I remember from that discussion, he probably wants to say that 'You're dead. I just let out a deep sigh and automatically looked at my wristwatch to check if how many minutes did I missed, and that was exactly the actual number of push-ups I must do as a punishment based on the rules coach have set before. Unfortunately, I was one hour and ten minutes late, so I guess I must be ready for 70 push-ups this afternoon.