Stop right there

He looked at me with amusement as I stormed towards him like a mini hurricane.

What was it with people and their sudden fascination with my personal life?! Whatever it was, it had to stop right now! I thought angrily.

"That's mine!" I barked, trying to grab my journal out of his hand.

He frowned slightly at my rudeness, clearly did not appreciate being spoken to like that. He much preferred amenable girls. The ones that looked pretty but didn't express much of an opinion. His lean body reacted instinctively by dodging out of the way like a basketball player moving away from his opponents.

With his back towards me, I started pulling and tugging at his clothes with the determination of a Rottweiler.

"Give it back!" I yelled.

"Calm down!" Theo's brows were knitted together and his face turned red. He could feel my hands touching him and was not used to anyone being this close. "Here, take it." He raised his hands in the air as if he was surrendering and stepped back away from me to keep a safe distance. Then he handed the journal over to me.

I looked at him with suspicion. He was just going to hand it over to me like that? And I didn't have to fight for it? Surely that seemed a bit too...easy?

I gently placed my thumb and forefinger on the journal and tested it slowly by gradually pulling it out of his hand with the delicateness of a bomb disposal expert.

The journal began to slide towards me and I felt a flutter of excitement, home free at last! I almost started rejoicing! Then all of a sudden, like the last remaining few seconds in a game of a tug of war, Theo snatched it out of my grasp again.

"Wait," he said, a smile appeared across his lips.

I knew it! Of course, he wasn't just going to hand it over like that! I glared at him angrily, so furious I was ready to spit fire. He was just trying to dangle a carrot in front of me and like a stupid donkey, I took the bait!

Seeing the annoyance on my face made his smile grew wider, "There's just one thing you need to do..."

I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. If he ends up saying something like give me a kiss I swear I'll end up punching him in the face! My hands curled into two balls.

Theo laughed out loud, "you just need to come to a party at my house this weekend."

"Why would I want to go to some stupid little party at your house?!" I spat.

Theo's face dropped in an instant, he frowned, "it's my sister's engagement party."

I immediately regretted what I said. Calling his sister's engagement party a stupid little party was uncalled for. My father has always taught me to be kind and respectful to people and lately, I've been behaving atrociously. I would never have said those words had I known.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that..." I began to apologise.

"So you're coming then?" He looked at me, there was some eagerness in his eyes.

"No, that's not what I'm saying." I shook my head. "I hope you don't get the wrong idea and I might be wrong about the whole thing, but if this is you asking me out then I don't think it's going to work..."

"Stop right there, who said anything about asking you out?" Theo interrupted, looking very offended. Who did she think was? Trying to reject him? If he wanted someone he could just click his fingers and they would come running.

Oh. I couldn't help but look a little stunned. Had I been barking up the wrong tree? Was this not him trying to ask me out? I was confused, to say the least.

"Please don't flatter yourself. You're the size of a midget and you're not even that pretty." He snorted and glanced at my body up and down with a look of disapproval.

Ok, that was punching below the belt, I was not the size of a midget. Some could say I was vertically challenged. There was simply no need to be that offensive. I wanted to say something equally offensive back but I couldn't even string a sentence together. My mind had gone completely blank.

"Look, if you want your stupid diary back then meet me at the main gates on Saturday morning at 8." He said.

"It's a journal," I argued weakly.

"Whatever." He said rather impatiently, turning his back ready to leave. "Don't be late. Capeesh?"

"What if I happen to be late?" I asked. "Would you just burn the journal?"

He looked at me, his dark eyes serious. "If you happen to be late, I will publish all of its contents on the school forum. So don't be late."

I gulped. That would be disastrous.

"Any other questions?" He asked, daring me to speak further.

I shook my head, then I remembered something. "Can you tell me how to get back to the dormitory, please?"

He smiled despite himself and he started walking. I took that as meaning he was going to show me the way and I quickly followed. His legs were long and he walked fast. One big stride of his was the equivalent of two of mine, I was practically jogging alongside him to keep up.

"You're too unfit." He suddenly stopped and turned to me.

I placed my hands on my hips as I continued to pant loudly. I was glad he had finally stopped because it meant I finally had the chance to catch my breath again. Was he about to have another personal dig at me again?

"You need to start training." He stated.

What training? I looked at him confused.

"How often do you run?" He asked.

"I...I...ran 1000 metres the other day..." I breathed.

He shook his head in disapproval, "you need to be running every day. Starting from tomorrow."