19. Realization Hits Hard

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Dedicating this chapter to one of my motivating commenters HiImmi97, thank you so much for leaving such sweet & nice comments which always make me happy & encourage me write more.

Special thanks to thevaliant07 who is always ready to make awesome banners for me. :) The banner on the side, made by her. :)

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Chapter - 18

REALIZATION HITS HARD

When I was a sophomore, I had pledged not to do two things in my entire life; the two things which were a nightmare for me; the two things, thinking about which used to give me goose bumps. Not the erotic goose bumps, but the terrified ones. And apparently, both the things were related to my sister.

There was this time in sophomore year, when I had a very important football match and it was my first match as a captain; the person who has to handle the entire team; the person who is responsible for winning or losing the match. Yes, that was me. My elder sister, Hailey, had suddenly developed a sibling love streak in herself and to see her brother reach heights by winning the match, she wanted to contribute something big in my victory. With her own creative mind, she cooked a 'very healthy match winning soup' for me the night before the big match. I was elated to see my elder sister putting so much effort for me. I remember that I couldn't budge the huge smile that was on my family's face and mine, to see their daughter cooking for the first time and their son captaining an important football match. For my parents it was a day when their kids had grown up, finally.

I suffered the consequences of being overly happy at my sister's efforts in two miserable phases. The first phase was when I took the first sip of that 'very healthy match winning' soup. It tasted, no wrong usage of words here, the soup didn't taste like anything, it just felt like someone had poured all the spices and every mismatched ingredient available. It was pathetic. The moment I had taken a sip of it, I remember how miserably, I had managed to swallow it. It was like a lump about the size of Texas in my throat.

The second phase was experienced a few hours later. I, the captain, was suffering from serious stomach problems and thus, I couldn't play that important match. It was Adam who had to captain it, whereas I was in the hospital taking medicines while cursing Hailey's cooking abilities and that was when, I took the pledge to never eat anything she cooks.

Apparently, my first ever pledge had broken yesterday when I ate the chicken she had cooked; and thankfully, I was still alive, sitting in the T.V. room with Brian, Hailey and Kim and most importantly, I was healthy. There was not even a slight feeling of any stomach problems that I could possibly face.

The second pledge that I had taken was to never go shopping with Hailey. Let's just say that she was a typical girl, who loved to shop. She goes to the mall to buy a hair clip and returns after a minimum of six hours with every possible thing except for the hair clip. And when she returns home, she cries for not being able to find the perfect hair clip and goes for shopping again as soon as possible.

As I had already broken my first pledge, I was not in a mood to break the second one, and that's why I was insisting on not going to the mall with Hailey, who was currently making her scary puppy face, which somehow Brian found very cute and eventually agreed to go.

"I'm not going with you guys," I repeated myself when Brian looked at me with expectation in his eyes.

"But why?" Hailey asked with wide eyes.

Rolling my eyes, I asked back in a 'duh' tone, "Do I really have to tell you that?"

Hailey narrowed her eyes towards me for a second and turned to look at Kim, who had been oddly quiet since yesterday. "You're coming with me to the mall, right Kim?" she asked her.

Kim sunk back further in the couch, where she had been lazily lying since almost an hour. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line as she looked at Hailey. "Um... I..." It was clear that she herself was trying to search for something to say as she scratched the side of her head thoughtfully.

"You what?" Hailey asked her.

"I actually... um..." she again tried to say something.

"What?" Hailey asked again.

"I-" Kim started, but I cut her off.

"She hates shopping," I announced and the three heads snapped towards me. "It's true." I defended myself from the accusing glare that Hailey was sending towards me.

"He's right!" Kim supported me grudgingly when Hailey looked at her in confirmation.

Hailey nodded her head slowly as if thinking something and Brian asked me, "How do you know that she hates shopping?" At his question, I found three pairs of eyes looking at me curiously and with interest.

"Huh?" was all I could utter.

Still, there was no sign of any loss of curiosity in their eyes and I said, "Well, I know her. She is my friend."

The reactions I got from the three of them were completely different. Brian snorted, Hailey raised her eyebrows with a smile on her face and Kim kept looking at me with a weird look in her eyes.

After a minute of strange silence in the room, Hailey went to sit with Kim and said, "Please come with me?"

I watched as the strong expressions of hating shopping crumbled from her face and she opened her mouth to say something, but shut it and couldn't say anything. "Okay." She sighed in defeat and got up from the couch. "I too have to buy a few things," she grumbled, clearly unhappy.

Hailey jumped happily and said, "Yes!"

I just rolled my eyes at her behavior and focused back on my phone which had just beeped, indicating a new message. I pressed the 'Read' button and the message was from an unknown number.

'Hey Keith, well... I'm free tonight! ;) - Hannah xoxo' The message read and my eyebrows shot up at the unexpected message from the unexpected person.

'This, my dear friend, Keith, is called a Direct Invitation,' the wiser side of my mind told me, beaming inside me a very scary happy smile. 'Tell her that you're free as well.'

I was very happy about doing exactly what my wiser mind had told me, but just then a hand wave between my eyes and my phone distracted my attention. "What?" I asked with annoyance from Hailey, who had managed to delay my reply to Hannah's invitation.

"So?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"What 'so'?" I counter questioned, mimicking her facial expressions.

She kept her hands on her hips and started tapping her feet on the floor lightly, showing her impatience. "Yes or no?"

"Huh?" was all I could say and that's when I realized that I had missed a part of the boring conversation that was taking place here while I was busy being happy about Hannah's message.

Kim stood up from the couch and rolled her eyes at me. "Just answer her, yes or no?" Her voice was etched with irritation and I really couldn't understand what her problem was. She had been acting weird since lunch yesterday and it was quite disappointing to see her like this; to see her not smiling, laughing and goofing around.

"You're wasting our time, Keith," Brian's voice broke my thoughts and I realized that they were waiting for me to answer them to a question, which I had not heard. The three of them towered over me as I sunk deep inside the green bean bag on which I was resting. They mirrored each other's facial expressions of impatience. I looked from Hailey, who was standing on my right, to Kim, who was towering me from my left, while looking at Brian who was standing between the two girls.

"Um..." I searched my mind as to all the possible questions they could have asked me. For me, saying 'no' was the safer option, and that's what I did. "Um... no?" I rather asked.

I watched as their irritated expressions changed to a complete blank expression and a slow, creepy smile covered their faces.

"Good!" Hailey chirped. "Go and get ready!" They dispersed towards their earlier positions and I watched them in confusion.

"For what?" I asked.

"You're going to the mall with us," Kim told me in 'duh' tone.

"What?" I asked, standing up from the comfortable seat in shock. "But I didn't agree to go with you guys. I just answered in negative. I said 'no'. Remember?" I looked at each one of them like I was talking to a group of idiots. And, they proved that they were idiots as they just kept smiling.

"Yes, you answered in negative." Kim supported me. I shot her a thankful smile and she continued, "We asked whether you want to stay home and you said, no. That means, you don't have a problem in coming with us to the place that is heaven for girls - mall." She finished off with a huge smile on her face and I looked at her incredulously.

"Oh! But I'm not coming with you guys," I told them my final decision and folded my arms in front of my chest, challenging them to try and make me go with them.

'Ha! As if they could!'

"Where are you kids going?" Dad's voice made us look towards the door as he entered the room with Mom.

"Mall," Hailey answered instantly. "But, Keith is saying that he won't come with us."

"How old are you, Hail? Ten? You're complaining to our parents? Brian, you're marrying a kid." I laughed, throwing my head back and clutching my stomach. She narrowed her eyes at me and stuck her tongue out, effectively proving me right.

Dad and Mom sat down on the couch, shaking their heads at our bickering and Dad said, "If he doesn't want to go, then let him stay here. What's the big deal?"

"But Dad-" Hailey started with wide eyes and the most serious expressions on her face. "Those were his words that he doesn't want to stay home."

Just as she finished her over acting, Dad looked at me with eyes wider than Hailey's and I mentally groaned at the words that were about to come out of his mouth. He stood up from the seat and walked towards me, stopping two steps away from where I was sitting. "You are Keith Warren. A Warren, Keith! A Warren is a man of his words. We never take back their words. The words that once leave our mouths are like arrows that can't be taken back. Ever."

His voice was serious, so were his facial expressions. But, it was difficult for me to keep a straight face when I knew the exact words that he was about to say and especially when, Hailey was standing just behind Dad, acting like him and mouthing the words that he was saying to me. Every person present in the room was trying to control their laughter, well, at least they could smile or grin. I couldn't even do that. I had to keep a straight poker face.

My Dad was emotional when it came to this topic and Hailey knew it well enough to play it against me.

Dad was looking at me with a challenging gaze and I muttered, "Okay." The crazy Warren side of my Dad disappeared and he went back to sit on the couch, smiling all the way with his shoulders broad as if he was proud of changing my mind. "I wish I had said yes," I muttered under my breath, regretting my decision of choosing the safer answer.

"You'd had to go with us no matter what you chose," Kim muttered with a smirk and I understood the little plan that they had formed when I was distracted by Hannah's message.

In my mind, I heard a huge applause that was directed towards my sister and her team.

Just like this, my life's second pledge was also broken.

****

"Would you like to place your order now?"

My head snapped towards the waiter who was looking rather bored with his job. "I'm waiting for someone," I told him politely and looked towards my watch which showed the time to be 8:02. Sighing heavily, I picked up the glass of water that was served on the table and drank half of it in one gulp.

The day was tiring for me. I had to go to shopping. But, thankfully, it was only Hailey, who was interested in it and both Kim and Brian shared my boredom, which didn't last for long. After almost an hour of wandering with Hailey from one store to another, she had accidently bumped with her school friends. She and Brian decided to catch up with them over lunch, leaving Kim and me alone. Just when I thought that finally, I was free from the shackles of the disease called 'shopping', Kim announced that she had to buy some stuff and needed my help with that. All she had to buy was some gifts for her friends back home and thankfully, it didn't take her much time. In the beginning of hanging out alone, she was a bit reluctant in talking to me; the reason of which was beyond my understanding and, but eventually, after a lot of random talks, jokes on almost everyone around us and making fun about every weird stuff we spotted in the mall, she was back as the Kim I knew.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting," a voice broke my happy memories of the afternoon and I looked towards the person taking the seat opposite me.

"Don't worry about it." I flashed Hannah one of my dashing smiles and she blushed, or was it the overdosed pink colored make up on her cheeks? Whatever!

The same waiter from earlier arrived at our table, but now he was no more the dull person, he was looking way too happy when he spotted Hannah sitting opposite me. Hannah was hot! Even the boring waiter couldn't deny that.

We placed our orders and all the while the waiter whose name was Ben, kept on giving sly looks to Hannah, which didn't get unnoticed by either of us.

"I'm glad that you replied back," she said with a smile. "For a moment, I thought that Adam had given me a wrong number." She finished with a giggle and I almost grimaced at the voice, but turned that into a little smile.

I had replied to Hannah's message before going to the mall and telling her that we could meet at this Mexican restaurant. But, somehow, I was already regretting my decision of messaging her and not even ten minutes had passed since she came here.

"So, Keith-" Hannah's voice broke my thoughts and I looked at her questioningly. She gave me a seductive smile and batted her eyelashes as she asked, "This counts as our first date."

It took me a moment to understand what she had said and therefore implied, and when I did understand, I choked on my own spit. Date? Was she kidding me? Because if she was, I was absolutely ready to run out of that Mexican restaurant at that very instant.

A worried expression replaced Hanna's seductive expressions and she handed me a glass of water, which I very gladly took. "Thanks," I said once my choking sounds came to an end. "Date?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Yes," she answered in confusion and pressed her pink colored lips together. They were tempting, and looking at them, I couldn't deny that it was not a date, but just a meeting before sleeping together and never meeting each other again.

"Are you alright?" she asked worriedly, scrunching her eyebrows a bit.

"Never been better." I smiled, lying through my teeth, which Hannah didn't get and smiled brightly.

For the next half an hour or so, we chatted, or I should say, she chatted while I vaguely listened and paid complete attention to my Mexican meal. During this time, a realization dawned upon me. Why couldn't I involve myself in talking to other girls like I talk to Kim? Why spending even ten minutes with a girl were unbearable for me, well, other than the time I am sleeping with any of them and the only sounds they said is my name? This half an hour that seemed like a day to me would have felt like seconds with Kim. The entire afternoon in the mall with Kim was so much fun and it went in a blur, but here I was dreading the last half hour.

'Something is terribly wrong with me,' I concluded.

'What the hell is wrong with you, Keith?' I shouted at myself within my head in the hopes of getting an answer at least this one time.

"Earth to Keith," Hannah's voice brought me back and she was looking at me with a frown on her face.

"Um... I spaced out," I said, scratching the back of my head and giving a half shrug.

She smiled a bit in return and said, "It's alright. Happens with everyone."

"I'll be back in a minute," I told her and stood up from the seat when she nodded in return. I went to the restroom and rested my palms on the sink. Taking a deep breath, I stared at myself in the mirror.

"Get a grip over yourself, Keith. Get a grip," I told myself. I turned on the water and took a handful of it to splash it over my face, as if it could wake me up from whatever state I was in. I stared at my blue eyes that were staring back at me. Water was dripping from my face and spoiling my jacket, but it was of least concern right now. "Here you are with probably the hottest girl you've met and all you can think about is Kim?" I asked myself in disbelief. "You've to bang Hannah at New Year's party which is tomorrow. Stay focused, Keith," I reminded myself about my 'Winter Mission'.

When after taking a few deep breaths, I was sure that my thoughts were under my control, I went back into the dining area to spend some time with Hannah and making her mad about me, which she already was, but still I had to get back in the game. The rest of the dinner went on smoothly, full of flirting and seductive looks from both the ends.

"Want my jacket?" I offered Hannah, once we were outside the premises of the warm Mexican place. She was shivering with cold, and like the gentleman I was, I offered her my jacket. Who was I kidding? I was just concerned about gaining bonus points in bed!

"Yeah," she gladly accepted and draped the jacket over her shoulders.

We walked to where her car was parked, which was at a walking distance from the restaurant. I was absolutely ready to go back home and talk to...

"I'll see you at the party tomorrow," Hannah said with a sly smile. Her eyes gave me a completely suggestive look and I couldn't help the arrogant smirk that made its way to my face.

Just as I was about to answer her in affirmative, my eyes went to the Bakery that was located exactly behind Hannah and in front of my eyes. Or rather, my eyes went to the two people clearly visible due to the glass walls of the Bakery. 

 Two very familiar people.

Two people, I never thought I would get to see together. And here they were laughing together over something. It was too much to take in.

All my attention diverted from Hannah and focused on Adam as he said something to the girl with him - Kim. She was listening very attentively to whatever crap he was saying and she started laughing. I kept on watching as she playfully hit his shoulder and he held her hand in an instant; the hand which she made no effort to release from his hold.

'Why is Kim hanging out with Adam? Why is she laughing with him? Why is she looking so happy? 'Seeing her happy with him brought a weird pain in my stomach, an uneasy feeling overtook my body and unknowingly, I closed my fists tightly in a death grip.

About twenty meters away from me was Adam who was holding Kim's hand, and here I was suffering from an unknown pain.

'Don't be a fool, Keith,' the wiser side of my mind told me harshly. 'You were the one who wanted Adam and Kim to get along well. You were the one who asked Adam to talk to Kim and now, when they are getting along, you've got a problem with that? Something is seriously wrong with you.'

I wanted her to

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