Being Watched

Chapter 10

Boring is the perfect word that could describe the rest of my week at school. School is really getting boring and I just want a break but I won't be getting a break for another month or so.

Our exams start in three weeks and the teachers have been pressuring us even more.

I keep telling myself that in five weeks I'll be done with exams and I would have my Christmas break which is for two weeks!

When Friday comes, I can't be more relieved! At the end of the day, while I'm packing my books, I remember that I have a church meeting tonight.

I groan internally. I'm not in the mood at all. I just want to go home and watch TV in my fuzzy blue pajamas and a cup of hot chocolate.

I think about telling Jeremy that I won't make it tonight because I'm tired or something but as if reading my mind, he says,

"I'll pick you up at seven."

I open my mouth to protest but he's already out the door.

I frown then sigh. I guess I have no choice but to go.

Okay, I didn't really try to tell him that I didn't want to go because the idea of spending time with him is making me happy.

I return home and decide to cook dinner today and surprise my parents when they come back home from work.

Before starting with the cooking, I go up to my room and put on a pair of sweatpants and a comfortable, thick sweatshirt. I turn on the heat in the house because I'm freezing then I start cooking one of the few things I know how to cook: pasta.

As soon as I'm done, I hear the sound of keys and a minute later my parents walk into the kitchen.

"Hey," I say, smiling at them.

"You cooked dinner?" Mom asks.

"Yeah, surprise," I reply.

She smiles at me and dad gives me a brief hug.

"I'll put the plates, you go change out of your work clothes," I tell them as I take out three white plates with blue designs on them from the cabinet above the sink.

With huge smiles on their faces, my parents walk upstairs to their room.

Still smiling, I fill the three plates with pasta and set them on the table with forks, knives, and glasses.

I wait a few minutes for my parents to come back downstairs and when they finally do, we all sit down for dinner.

"Thank you for the dinner, Steph, it's delicious," Dad tells me, his voice a little muffled because his mouth is full.

I giggle at my dad and my mom grins.

"You're welcome," I then say and they give me the proud looks I love.

After dinner, I change into jeans and a white long sleeved shirt with a light blue jacket above it. I slip on my matching light blue converse and remove the hair-tie from my hair, letting it fall down my shoulders, warming me slightly.

I put on some perfume and slip a bit of money in my pockets before grabbing my phone and going back downstairs to wait for Jeremy there.

I sit on the couch next to my parents when I reach the living room and glance at the TV on which a scientist is talking about volcanoes. I have no idea why they are watching that but I'm guessing it's because they didn't find anything better.

Around ten minutes later, the doorbell rings.

"That's Jeremy," I say as I stand up.

"Okay sweetie, have a nice time," My mom says and my dad just gives me a glance before focusing on the TV again.

"Bye!" I call out and walk to the front door, not waiting for a reply.

I fix my shirt and jacket before opening the door.

Jeremy smiles at me. "Hey," he says.

"Hi," I reply, closing the door behind me.

I glance at Jeremy from the corner of my eye when we start walking. He's dressed in blue jeans and a grey Ralph Lauren sweater. Hot as usual, I think, moving my gaze back to the street.

On our way to church, we talk about school and a few of our teachers. It takes only a few minutes to arrive to church so soon, we're climbing up the stairs to reach the meeting room.

My phone beeps when Jeremy and I reach the top of the staircase. I take it out from my pocket and read the text from Andy.

I got a 76! :D A date this weekend? ;)

I look at my phone in disbelief. He's joking, right?

I start typing my reply as I walk with Jeremy to the door of the meeting room.

"Stephany?" A familiar voice says and I turn around to find Andy standing behind me with the cutest confused look on his face.

"Andy? What are you doing here?" I say, just as confused as him.

"You know Jeremy?" He answers with a question of his own.

"Yeah, we're in the same class," I say. "How do you know him?"

"I met him here," he says and I frown.

"So you attend these meetings?" I ask.

"Yep," he replies.

"But you weren't here last week."

"I was studying for the test," he replies and a small smirk tugs at his lips.

"Oh," I reply. I glance to my right to see why Jeremy was being so quiet and I'm shocked to see that he has disappeared.

"He already went in," Andy teases me.

"Huh," I say before my gaze goes back to him.

"So you're attending the meetings too now?" He asks, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets.

"Yeah, I need some answers," I reply, shrugging and he smiles.

We just stare at each other for the next few moments. Andy then breaks the silence.

"So," he says, grinning. "I got a seventy six, more than you asked for."

"How do I know you're not lying?" I ask, narrowing my eyes skeptically. I know he's probably telling the truth but I just want to prolong the conversation because I'm still not sure whether I should go out with him or not.

He takes out his phone and shows me a picture of a test with his name on it, dated on Monday, and in the 'grade' box a 76/100 is written in a red pen.

"See, I'm not lying," he says proudly. "So about that date..."

"But how?" I ask, bemused. "I mean I was pretty sure you wouldn't get that much!"

Hurt flashes in his eyes. "Is the idea of going out with me really that bad?"

My eyes widen and I shake my head vigorously. "No! No! Andy that's not it. It's just..."

How do I tell him that I'm in love with a guy that doesn't have feelings for me?

"What?" He asks.

"There's a guy..." I trail off, unsure of what to say next.

"Wait, you have a boyfriend?" He asks, shocked.

"No!" I say, shaking my head.

"Then what is it?"

I play with the hem of my jacket, feeling uncomfortable.

"You like someone?" He asks and I nod. "And that person is not me," he continues.

"No, Andy I like you but..." I trail off and he finishes for me.

"You love him," he says and I nod again. Thank God I didn't have to say it because it would've been a hundred times more awkward.

Minutes of extremely awkward silence pass before Andy speaks again. "And the guy loves you too?"

I shake my head. "No, he doesn't."

"Oh," he replies simply.

"Can... Um can you give me a chance?" He asks after a few seconds and I look into his eyes, surprised.

"You still want to go out with me after I told you that I love another guy?" I ask.

"You said you like me and that's enough for now. Maybe you could forget the other guy and love me instead someday," Andy says, blushing. I smile slightly at how adorable he looks right now.

"But what if I don't?" I ask; my voice low. I really want to be in love with Andy instead of Jeremy. It would be much easier and much better but it seems impossible.

"Then we can say that we tried," he replies, shrugging.

"I don't want to lose you," I voice out my fear. I hate it when people stop being friends because they tried to be more than friends but it didn't work out. I don't want this to happen with me and Andy.

"You won't," he replies sternly. "We'll stay friends if things didn't work out."

But is our friendship strong enough if things didn't work out?

Not giving it a chance wasn't fair, though.

I bit my lip, thinking it over.

A few seconds later, I look up at him. His green eyes are looking back at me with hope and I just can't take that away so I smile and say, "Okay then."

"Okay?" He replies, his smile widening.

"Yeah," I say, nodding.

"Yay!" He says excitedly and I laugh.

"So tomorrow night is okay?" He asks.

"Sure," I reply. It's not like I have plans or anything.

He grins like a kid on Christmas and gives me a hug. He then opens the door of the meeting room and gestures for me to go in.

"Thanks," I murmur as I walk in before him.

Everyone calls their 'hellos' when we walk in and Frank yells, "Andy! Where were you last Friday?"

"I was studying," Andy replies. "I had a test on Monday."

"Oh," Frank replies.

"How did you do?" Frieda asks.

"Good. I got a seventy six," he replies then smirks at me. I just roll my eyes at him.

"You two know each other?" Frank asks us, noticing the exchanged glances.

"Yep," Andy replies and I just nod.

"I'm the boss's son, right Steph?" He mimics what I called him the day of the cocktail party when I first met him.

I narrow my eyes at him playfully. "Show-off," I tell him, pushing his shoulder and he chuckles.

"You work in his dad's company?" Frank asks.

He can be stupid, I thought. I mean I'm only sixteen. What can I work as in a company? The janitor?

"Not me," I say. "My parents."

"Oh," Frank says, nodding. "For someone who moved here a month ago, you sure know many people."

I just shrug because I really don't think I do. I mean it's natural to know Jeremy because he's in my class and meeting Andy was just a coincidence.

"Hello, I'm Marcia," a skinny blond woman says, a friendly smile on her face.

"Hi," I say, shaking her outstretched hand. "I'm Stephany. It's nice to meet you."

"You too," she says then she gives me a small welcoming speech before she tells everyone to gather around.

First, we pray the same prayer as last week and read a verse of the Bible.

"Today we'll be doing something a bit different," Marcia starts. "I know a lot of you are now stressed because of school or university and just want to relax so that's exactly what we're going to do. For the next half an hour, we're going to watch the stars in silence so that you can all think for a bit. It's relaxing and I always find it easier to communicate with God when I'm surrounded by beautiful things like a starry night."

Excited murmurs erupt among the group and soon we're all walking to the top of the church building. There's a laptop there, previously prepared by Frank, and a huge blanket spread on the ground.

"Alright everyone lay down and I'll just put some soft relaxing music," Frank says and everyone walks to the blanket and lay down. I awkwardly take a few steps forward.

Suddenly, each of my hands is grabbed by a different person and I'm pulled down.

I let out a small shriek as my butt hits the floor. I glare at Jeremy to my right then at Andy to my left and they both give me apologetic smiles.

When the soft music starts playing from the laptop, I rest my head on the blanket between Andy and Jeremy and just lie down.

I put my hands on my stomach and look up at the countless stars, shining in the sky.

We're lucky we can see the stars tonight because most of the winter nights are cloudy.

My thoughts drift to the two guys lying on either side of me. I don't know if agreeing to go out with Andy was the right choice. I'm really scared of losing him. Losing a great friend like him would really suck!

If Jeremy ever likes me, I'll leave Andy in a second. I know it sounds mean and unfair but Andy knows that I'm in love with someone else.

A part of me wants Jeremy to feel jealous and maybe start liking me but the other part wants to fall in love with Andy instead of Jeremy. Andy already likes me and he's a great guy. What a perfect relationship we would have if I actually loved him.

I sigh softly and try to think about something else.

Throughout those thirty minutes I thought about a lot of things starting with my love life to my best friends to my new friends to my parents to my school and finally to God.

In my opinion, things are going well with me and God for now, better than they have been for years.

I think that this time I actually want to know God.

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Hey guys! I know it's a bit late and I'm sorry about that but I started SAT sessions at my school so I have to wake up early and spend most of the day there and then I have to do some homework and I've been really busy with other personal stuff these past few days so I'm really tired.

The next upload won't be very soon either because I have sessions tomorrow as well (yes on a freakin' Saturday!) and from next Tuesday till next Friday I'll be going to school from 7:30am till 5:30pm so I don't really have a lot of free time and next Saturday I also have four hours of school to do a practice test.

So basically the next chapter will take a bit longer to be uploaded.

Oh and another thing, I really don't like to write a full paragraph about voting and commenting in every chapter but I really appreciate it when you guys vote and comment. And I prefer the chapters that get around 300 votes and 100 comments over the ones that get 120 votes and 15 comments :P Haha so please try to vote and comment! Thanks!<3

What do you think of Stephany dating Andy? ;)

Happy Birthday to _Remarquable and Crazyboutreading. Have a wonderful year! :)

Thank you Rumpali for the song suggestion! :) --->

Next Upload: Friday or Saturday.

Aim for this Chapter: 200 votes.

Have a wonderful day/night everyone! <3