Once Upon a Time

eighteen...

***

"Amen!"

"Keep it down dimwit!" Daniel urged but Austin failed to comply.

Austin wiggled his brows at him. "So you kissed her?"

"No, She kissed me."

"Same thing, now what? Are you guys a thing now?" Austin asked clearly bothered.

"That's the problem,"

"Must they always be a problem?" Austin rolled his eyes.

"Hey! I didn't do anything wrong, she just left." Daniel retorted.

"You must have given her a reason to, that lady is head over hills in love with you." Austin told him.

"And you know that because?" Daniel asked.

"I have these two things they call eyes and they are screaming; Hey there, my best friend could be in love with his wife if he's nervous after a kiss, how does that sound?"

He was silent.

"I think you should give her a call." Austin suggested breaking the silence.

"And say the hell what? Hey, Rissa I'm crazy about you?" He blurted out before sighing.

"Are you going to do it or should I?" Austin asked.

"Don't you dare, I'll call her when I'm ready and talk to her. Don't call for crying out loud, nosy idiot!"

"Sorry, What was that?"

"Nothing, I was talking about myself, nothing you should be bothered about."

"What was that you owe me again? Right, you owe me two pizzas."

"Dude, what is really your deal with pizza?"

"Well look who's talking, at least everyone knows that I love pizza." Austin stated.

"At least I am the one with a sane mind, who's crazy over pizza these days?"

"Say sane? That would be me." Daniel groaned. He was probably right. He didn't sign up for uneasiness. After all, he had kissed tons of ladies before. Why does this have to be so different?

__$

He looked at the screen only to find his sister's name and he wasted no time in picking it.

"You know you should be in bed." Said Daniel. "Resting, and not trying to disturb me this particular morning."

Audora chuckled and said, "Hello to you too, I didn't want to stay in bed all day."

"Whatever, why are you calling? I have a meeting in an hour." Daniel said to her.

"Did something happen between the two of you today? Breakfast was a little awkward."

Daniel sighed. Was it that obvious?

"We'll talk later Audora," he tried saying.

"Don't you dare hang up on me!" The pregnant woman yelled.

"It's nothing important!"

"It's nothing important you say?"

"It's just-" he groaned.

"Spill it! C'mon I know you want to talk about it." Audora chimed.

"Fine, we kissed." Daniel confessed. "Satisfied?"

"Why will I be?" Audora shrieked. "Have you ever heard of detailing?"

"I have a meeting in two minutes." Daniel defended.

"We're counting in minutes now, huh?" He rolled his eyes. How could he forget that he told her two hours earlier on? He should probably never tell a lie ever again in his life.

"I think you should check up on her." Audora finally said.

"Did something happen?!"

"I think you might have done something to the heart there. See you in 5 minutes sugar." She hung up.

__$

Clarissa froze when she saw him leaning at the door. After sharing a little more than a second stare she continued folding her clothes.

"Well you should be resting." He finally spoke when he noticed she wasn't even going to continue looking at him.

"Why? I'm perfectly fine." She rather replied.

Now that he was here, how was he going to start? Audora had told him she wasn't okay, right? Maybe it's one of her stupid tricks again planning on getting both of them to be alone, who knows!

"That's what everyone says when they're not really fine." He said.

"But I am okay," she said and he frowned.

"So you are okay?" He pressured and that earned him a confused look.

"Why wouldn't I be? I'm only home because Audora had told dad that I needed to stay at home with her. Darius is busy these days and she wasn't feeling too well." She told him.

Yah right! And yet again his sister had tricked him. He grimaced at his ignorance in his sister's ways.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. She said she was going to call you since.... you left earlier than usual today." She told the last part with hesitation not wanting him to bring it up.

"What happened in the morning was-"

"I don't want to talk about it." She interrupted. She stole a look at him. It was then she noticed that he was no longer leaning on the door frame but inside the room, barely far from her.

They stared at each other for sometime before she looked away again. He nodded in understanding never taking his gaze away from her.

He said, "But you know we can't forget what happened Clarissa. Sooner or later we are going to talk about it."

"I think it's best we forget about whatever happened this morning Daniel. You know I get it, maybe it was just a spark of the moment. You don't need to pretend it bothers you so much."

He frowned in confusion. That was really not what he had in mind. He was willing to give them a try, forget about his past and whatever that might have happened. If only she could read a different meaning to their kiss, then she would know that he isn't pretending, he was bothered...alot. Bothered about how she would react when she finds out that he had been insincere to her cousin ever since, he was willingly to break up with Clara just to make her his but a lot of things happened during that month.

He tried to fully understand what she just said. Did she just assume that he was pretending to be affected? His facial features morphed to that of hurt but he blinked it away suddenly finding the will to say something finally.

"What?!"