Best Enemies [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER THREE: DON'T FIGHT ME

Selena sat peacefully in the living room of the Crightons watching her sister hyperventilating. For the past half an hour she was in a horrible state and Selena was getting worried.

 “What’s wrong Rach?” she asked her sister for the umpteenth time while she sat there looking stunned, no make that dumbstruck.

 “He’ll…he’ll… be late,” she stammered staring at her as if she’d just seen a ghost.

 “Is it Jake? Has something happened to him?” she asked sensing that something was deeply bothering her. In response to her question, Rachel began to babble several words at the same time and she could only make out that somehow Ashton was involved.

 “Why don’t you calm down and start over?” she suggested in a gentle voice, determined not to get angry because Rachel was so upset.

 “Honey, I swear I had no idea…” she delivered in a small voice and looked at her pitifully.

 Oh-oh. She already had a premonition that it was all about; she wasn’t going to like it. “No idea? About what?”

 “About Ashton coming home tonight for dinner,” Rachel finished in an even smaller voice than before.

 Ok, Selena. You should have guessed it would be something like that. There was no way she could avoid seeing that monster forever but now was not the time to face him. She already had her own demons to deal with as it was. Trying to keep her composure, she handed the sleeping baby back to his mother and frowned at her sister accusingly.

 “Please, Selena,” Rachel said refusing to take the baby back. “Listen to me. I’m sorry. No really,” she added on seeing the expression on Selena’s face.

 “I swear, totally, absolutely swear that I had no idea he was coming. I know how much you hate him and want to avoid him. I have asked Jake not to call him when you are home but he wanted to show him something and...” she pronounced solemnly looking not any younger than eight years old.

 “Rachel, I’m going back home.”

 “Ok, ok. I can understand your reluctance.”

 “Reluctance?” she echoed loudly, ready to explode but sobered at the look in her eyes.

 “Let me finish, please,” she said.

 Selena sighed and signaled her to go on.

 “We were supposed to have a friend of mine to dinner tonight, Heather Knight. You know her, don’t you? She was with me at the university.”

 “The one who wore her hair like a hedgehog?” Selena mocked, knowing she was acting like a bitch but could not help herself.

  Rachel glared at her and nodded. “Yeah, the very one. Well, we had invited her over and we were trying to fix her up with Ashton and…”

 “Fix her up?!!” Selena shrieked letting out a loud laugh. “As in a blind date? Hah! What a nice pair they would make. The Hedgehog and the Dog!!!”

“SELENA! Stop it!”

“Ok,” she said still chuckling at the thought.

“Yah, so Heather just phoned me saying that would not be able to make it as she had some professional restrictions and since you already told me you were coming. But I told Jake to forget about bringing Ash but he insisted that he would want to meet his best friend as we’ve not seen him much lately and wanted…”

“Alright, I get it. It was not your fault but now I can’t promise that your nice evening won’t turn into another disaster.”

“No, please Selena. Can’t you be civilized to him? I’m not asking you to like him or whatever. Just try to treat him as a friend. Look, he’s Jake’s best friend and I’m sure he would want to have him home more often. But only because of you…”