02- On His Face

My phone starts going off for the hundredth of time. However, I still can't find the courage to take it.

“Noooo!” I whine to myself, hiding my face with my blanket.

“Why did I do that?” I start thrashing my limbs around on the bed as my skin crawls, remembering my action of last night.

It's been minutes since I woke up. My treacherous mind was generous enough to flood bits of images of last night's incident. Please, God, why don't you just turn me into a hippopotamus right now? I need thick skin so that my embarrassment can't pierce through it, and I don't have to suffer.

“Please God! Just vanish me into the dust! Please! Or just let me take my embarrassing existence back in the form of a sperm so that I can restart my life once again!” Hiding my face on the pillow, I plead.

“What's gotten into you? Should I call for an exorcist?” My little sister asks.

I find her looking at me with her judging eyes when I look up. How could I forget that this little spawn of the devil started to live with me?

It takes me about a minute to restrain my overwhelming emotion and clear my throat in a desperate hope to appear as the big sister that I'm.

“What are you still doing here? Don't you have college today? Grow up a little and at least attend your classes so that you don't waste my money for nothing.” She rolls her eyes before turning around and fixing her hair in the mirror.

This little shit!

Ignoring her, I try to calm myself down and act like I didn't just yell a bunch of nonsense like a teenager who is going through a heartbreak or something. There's no doubt that my hair looks like a bird's nest right now. My eyes wander around my attire. While the bits of events are floating in my mind, I register that I'm wearing my pyjamas and not the dress I was wearing last night. Wait a second! How did I end up in my house? My mind starts to race. Did I just teleport here after kissing him, or was it all just a dream? Please, God, let it just be a dream!

“You are the one to talk.” Lilly brings me back from my internal outburst.

Her mocking eyes look at me for a brief second, causing me to throw the blanket away from my body and walk towards her.

“And what does that mean?” I ask her, trying to sound bitter, but I know I sound like a sleepy and exhausted old lady.

“You drank your ass off last night, and your asshole boyfriend brought you home.” Her voice is so bitter that it makes me raise my eyebrow.

Is she talking about Owen?

“Owen is not my boyfriend.” I state before she can continue, cutting off her complaint.

She rolls her eyes again. Sometimes, I really want to gauge her eyes out. Not to mention, she watched me going through a meltdown with those eyes of hers. I should just take them out and sell them, if that can bring me something. Otherwise, she is totally useless.

“I'm not talking about that loser. It was another one. The one I hadn't seen before, and he had the audacity to say “move your ugly ass and let me bring her in” To my face! How dare he? I did my best make-up for the night out last night!”

“Hey! Watch your language. Don't call my friends losers-” I stop mid-sentence when my mind finally registers what she actually said.

My face must have looked comical because I find Lilly looking at me as if I've lost it. But I'm not surprised that Cruz didn't fail to get on her nerves as well. By the rate he is railing people up, he should be labelled as a drug, which makes people want to yank their hair out.

So, not only did I fucking kiss him but he also brought me home. I ignore Lilly's weirded out expressions and look at my clothes. Then it hits me again. Noooo! If Lilly went out with her friends last night that means he also changed my clothes!

“It can't happen!” I yell out, my hands gripping the roots of my hair tightly.

“Alright, I'm done with your bullshit.” Lilly takes her bag and slings it over her shoulder.

But before she can go, I grab her shoulders and shake her so violently that her perfectly made hair starts to fall apart.

“Tell me you changed my clothes last night!” I asked her desperately, still shaking her.

“For the sake of my fucking hair, stop it!” She yells, holding me down.

“And do you really think I will waste my time changing your clothes? I'm sure, it was your freaky boyfriend.” There goes my sanity.

“No fucking way.” It feels like my head is spinning like the fan that is spinning above my head.

“Oh, and when you are done screaming about whatever happened between you and your jerk boyfriend last night, the landlord swung by and not so politely told me to give you a warning that he is gonna kick us out if you won't have the rent in time.” She gives me a bored look before continuing, “So, stop wasting your time hanging out with a bastard like him and work.” with that she leaves.

Every fiber of my body is screaming at me for yanking her hair and screaming at her. She has been freeloading at my place for the past 6 months, almost tripling my expenses and she has the audacity to say that I don't work enough. But I stay put. I can't even say anything to her because she is the apple of mommy dearest’s eyes.

However, my mind races to reach up to another situation right now, letting go of Lilly's silly words for now. My clothes! Yeah. That is what is going on in my mind. Weird things start to cloud my judgment. I'm freaked out because of the fact that I'm not freaking out after knowing it was probably Cruz who changed my clothes. Why the hell am I feeling excited instead?

I look over the mirror to see a stupid blush creeping into my cheeks.

“What the fuck? Get rid of these sloppy red dots!” I slap my cheeks, thinking it's gonna make everything normal.

“When did I become so shameless?” I ask myself, still hating the blush on my cheeks.

And when my eyes land on the wall clock, my eyes widen.

It's 10.30 and my office starts at 8. No wonder I'm getting hundreds of calls from Bella and Owen. Mr.Jerk must be calling me as well. Of course, he must. His corporate slave isn't there to handle his early morning tantrum and brew his coffee. Without wasting even a second, I grab my laptop, write a letter for a sick leave at the speed of lightning and press send.

“Why am I so stressed out? I'm gonna quit anyway.” I remind myself when I find my heart beating so fast that it scares me.

So what I kissed him, huh? I was drunk. I'm sure he enjoyed it too. Wait? Did I really enjoy kissing him?

“Stop thinking!” I shake my head, “And act sick. You have people to fool.”

With that I start my fake coughing fit. “Sounds good enough. If that jerk asks me to go, I can just send an audio of me coughing. Problem solved!”

When I look at my phone to finally face reality, I find 22 missed calls and a voicemail from Bella. Let's not wonder how many calls Owen made. And 30 calls from Cruz. Of course.

“I swear I will come over there and drag your ass if you don't receive your damn phone and you know I'm not kidding, Willow.” The voicemail says.

There's another voicemail from Owen.

“Where the fuck are you? You won't believe what's happening! Get your ass here and then I will tell you what's happening.”

I know I don't need to wait to see what's happening because Owen has sent me another voicemail.

“You are gonna feel like you've gotten electrocuted if you know what happened. I can't believe I saw Cruz smile today! He has been showering everyone with his smile today and apparently his smile is blinding every female employee, even Bella. Come and ruin his mood like you do every morning with your shitty coffee. I can't stand how he is getting all of the attention which should have been on me instead. Come on, Low, give him a blow so that he falls below the standards of all the ladies.”

I roll my eyes. I desperately want to shove the fact in his head that he never got the attention of the ladies to begin with. But I'm shocked to the bones. What's wrong with Cruz? The delusional part of me is making me believe that I'm the main character and my one kiss made him ditch his bad boy facade and turned him into a soft puppy who is in love with me. God! I should stay away from those sloppy romance books.

The better part of me is saying that it's the silence before the storm. He is trying to hide his anger through a smile so that no one suspects him if he kills me and hides my body for kissing him without a warning. My body shudders as my mind presents a vivid picture of Cruz smiling like a psychopath who is coming towards me to murder me. Is this how am I gonna die?

I start praying for my life at this point. I realize Bella sent me another voicemail. To divert my mind, I listen to it.

“You are so in trouble, miss. Just you wait there. I'm coming for you.”

Shit. She sent it to me about an hour ago. If I want to keep my skin intact, I should call her and explain the freaking situation to her. And that's when the calling bell rings, scaring the shit out of me.

Before I can take a breath, it starts ringing again. Nostrils flaring, I hop towards the door. No one is letting me even breathe in peace today. First the fiasco with Mr.Jerk, then dealing with my bratty sister, the shocking news of Cruz smiling for the first time and how Bella. Suddenly, I feel angry at everything and everyone.

“I swear, I'm really sick of that bastard and everything and you better not chew my ears off right now because I have a lot on my plate right now. And no, I don't want to hear how blinding that psychopath’s smile is.” I grumble as I answer the door, only to see the grumpy face of my boss standing there like he owned the place.

Once again, I may look comical because Cruz starts to break the facade of his cold face and an amused smirk adorns his face.

“What?” He asks with his deep and raspy voice, making me remember yesterday.

I say nothing. Of course, I don't. It's not like I have anything to say except stand there like a statue who has her mouth wide open in shock.

“Thinking of abusing my lips again?”

And then I do something which I never thought I would do but imagined doing it several times. I shut the door on my boss’s face, surprising both him and myself.