How dare he.
How dare he! I shoved Henry away and
he nearly fell back into the cool water. He
looked stunned. I was too, but unlike
him, I was flaring with anger. He was
just a statue, his golden brown eyes
wide as almonds.
I began furiously, "I can't believe-"
Henry silenced me by putting his finger
against my lip. "If you want to blow up
at me, do it at home. Not here where
there are witnesses."
I breathed in and out heavily and tried
to calm myself down. It worked … a little
bit.
"I can't believe you had the nerve to kiss
me," I hissed. "This is our first
appearance publicly and you kiss me?!
You think you can just have everything-"
"Pancake, just shut up," Henry
murmured. "Why are you so mad
anyway? It was just a kiss. It's not like it
was your first."
He shrugged to show how unimportant
a kiss was. My cheeks burned and I bit
my lip, looking away. The truth was …
that kiss just then, had been my very
first kiss.
Unbelievable right? But sadly, it's true.
That was why I felt absolutely furious,
humiliated and upset. Henry had stolen
my first kiss and I didn't even like him,
for goodness sakes!
I hated him! He was a total jerk!
Henry's face fell when he realised that it
had indeed been my first kiss.
"Oh."
"That's right, oh!" I said dramatically,
rolling my eyes.
I tried to make my face not too angry-
looking or else everyone would think
we're fighting already. I left Henry there
and started wading through the water.
But surprisingly Henry was right behind
me.
Oh wait, it was no surprise.
We were supposed to act like a couple,
and Henry couldn't just be left alone in
the water without his girlfriend. When
we reached the softness of the sand,
Henry put an arm around my shoulder
which made me feel like swatting him.
"Hi," a high-pitched voice said from my
left. "You're Henry Parker, right?"
Both Henry and I looked up to see a
curly blond haired girl in a skimpy red
bikini. She looked about sixteen.
Henry nodded at the girl. "Yeah."
The Barbie doll ran up to Henry and
bounced on her heels, linking her arm
with his. "I'm Gabby! So like oh my god, I
can't believe I'm meeting you! What's it
like being a celebri-"
"I believe I haven't introduced
my girlfriend, Lainie," Henry interrupted,
smirking.
Even though I was mad with Henry, I
couldn't hold back my snicker. The
snotty Gabby girl glared at me.
"Are you joking? She looks more like
your cousin or something!" She then
laughed.
Henry rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah
anyway we have to go."
His grip on my shoulder tightened and
he pulled me along with him, making me
stumble. He ignored the shouting of
Gabby and when we finally ended up
where his Ferrari was parked, we dried
off with our towels from the trunk. I
ignored Henry the whole time.
Then, Henry cursed.
"Paparazzi, four o' clock, get in the car!"
I nodded quickly and slid into the car.
Henry locked all the doors. The paparazzi
were yelling questions like 'who's the
girl?' and knocking loudly on the
window, which made Henry extra angry.
But, wow, they were annoying!
I shoved my oversized black sunglasses
on so the flashes of the paparazzi's
cameras wouldn't make me blind. But it
was also to make sure the cameras or
Henry wouldn't see that single tear of
frustration had escaped.
* * *
When we finally arrived home, I jumped
out of the car and sprinted as fast as I
could inside Henry's mansion. I didn't
want to talk or face Henry. I was just not
in the mood. I knew Henry was waiting
for me to blow up at him but I just felt
dead now. My first kiss had been stolen
by a jerk! That was the only thought
repeatedly running through my head.
Once I reached my room, I locked the
door and made my way over to my desk.
I pressed play on the 'Stress' playlist on
my second-hand iPod Nano and blasted
up the volume. Taking out my sketch
book, I started continuing my latest
design: a cottage. As I got into it, time
flew by and before I knew it, I had
forgotten everything about Henry.
I was sketching the roof of the cottage,
someone knocked on my door very
loudly.
Guess who?
Henry.
"Lainie, open up!" Henry called.
I ignored him. After many useless
attempts to get me out of the room such
as, 'we have pizza!' he finally ended up
leaving.
I smiled to myself and kept occupying
myself. By the time I had finished the
exterior of my cottage with all the
measurements, I looked up at the clock
sitting on the nightstand.
12:16?! AM?!
Seriously? Wow. I groaned and rolled
over onto my back. Taking my iPod into
my hands, I stopped the music. The
house was so quiet and eerie, but
something had to ruin the silence.
Yes, my growling stomach.
I didn't want to leave my room anytime
soon, but gosh, was I hungry!
I walked slowly over to the door and
quietly opened it to reveal the dark
corridor outside. That meant Henry was
asleep. Smiling to myself, I headed
downstairs and into the kitchen and
found left over Hawaiian pizza still in its
box on the counter.
Yes!
I loved pizza. Getting excited, I took two
slices of pizza and put them onto a plate
and blindly felt my way over to the
microwave to heat it up. As I waited for
the pizza to heat up, that was when I
heard it. A deep breathing sound. Those
scary ones from the horror movies that
gives you goose bumps.
Oh god, oh god!
It was coming from behind me, about
eight feet away. It could be a thief or
worse a murderer! Especially since this
is Henry Parker's mansion. He was rich,
famous and anyone could have a reason
to kill him.
I grabbed a butcher's knife as quietly as
I could from the knife rack sitting next
to microwave and gripped it tightly. I
crept forward and saw a tall figure.
A man figure.
I gulped and irrationally decided to go in
for the attack. Not to stab him of course.
I could be taken to court for murder.
Just a kick down there will do. If he tries
to go ahead, I'll threaten him with the
knife. If he has a gun, I'm stuffed.
I ran up to him, hoping to take him by
surprise and kneed him as hard as I
could down there. The guy then fell to
the floor in front of my feet, groaning
loudly.
Well, that was easy.
"You idiot!"
That's when I froze. That voice sounded
so much like …
"It's me, Henry!"
Oh. Ok, what was going on?
"What do you think you're doing?!" I
hissed angrily. He wasn't funny if he was
trying to scare me. What if I had decided
to stab him too?! I ran over to the light
switch for the kitchen and flicked it on,
to find Henry in a fetal position on the
marble floor. He took a deep breath and
got himself up, groaning painfully.
"God, that hurt," Henry said, wincing
slightly.
I rolled my eyes. "Deal with it and I
repeat: what the hell were you doing?"
Henry sighed. "Well, I knew you would
come downstairs sometime for food, so
I waited. Took you long enough. But
really, I couldn't help but scare you a bit
with the breathing sound."
He chuckled after that, making my blood
boil a bit. "Why'd you wait for me?" I
asked.
Henry bit his lip and looked up at me.
"To …"
"To what? To gloat that you stole my
first kiss? To tease me that my first kiss
only happened now, when I'm nineteen?
To humiliate me?!"
Henry flinched. "Why are you so sensitive
about your first kiss?"
"Every girl is!" I nearly yelled.
Henry just stood there, his eyes intense,
while I gritted my teeth. He was about to
say something until I interrupted.
"Well, consider your mission
accomplished. I feel like crap. We'll forget
that the kiss never happened, ok?"
I walked away from a speechless Henry.
When I finally reached my room, I
slammed the door, just so he could hear.
I snuggled in my bed and hoped my
night's sleep would go forever. Then it
suddenly hit me.
I had left my pizza in the microwave.
Whoops.