Living in a Jumble of Wishes

Chapter 9

I felt someone’s warm hand on my cheek.

I didn’t bother opening my eyes; I just snuggled deeper into my covers, enjoying the warmth of my bed.

The hand on my cheek then moved to my nose and pinched it.

I wrinkled my nose and grumbled an incoherent protest.

I heard a distant chuckle then someone kissed my cheek.

“Wake up, sleepy head,” a voice whispered softly in my ear.

“Zack?” I muttered and I felt the person freeze.

“Uh n-no,” he stammered and I opened my eyes.

I looked up and saw Landon sitting on my bed, looking very uncomfortable.

“Landon!” I exclaimed. “I’m so sorry!”

I knew that my cheeks were a deep shade of red now. I can’t believe I called him Zack.

“W-What time is it?” I asked. “And how did you come in?”

“It’s eleven thirty in the morning,” He said. “And the key under the plant pot outside is not very original.”

“Wow I didn’t expect to oversleep,” I muttered, more to myself. “I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay,” he said. “I didn’t stay outside for long. I’m good at finding stuff so I found the spare key.”

“Not just for that,” I muttered, feeling embarrassed.

He understood what I meant by that. He knew I was talking about calling him Zack.

“You’re forgiven. You were still asleep anyway,” he said, forcing a smile. “Besides it’s natural to be dreaming about your boyfriend.”

“I wasn’t dreaming about him!” I said, feeling my cheeks heat up.

He just gave me an awkward smile and then cleared his throat.

“So what are our plans for today?” He asked, changing the subject, thankfully.

“I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “Maybe I could kick your ass at some video games.”

He gasped. “That’s not possible!”

“It is!” I replied, giving him a challenging look.

“You’re on!” He said with a determined look on his face.

I chuckled and laid back in my bed, letting out a yawn. We can play later, I just woke up. I can’t beat him now.

“How’s Hannah?” I asked him, smiling as I remembered the cute little girl.

“She’s good,” he replied and I could hear the smile in his voice. I moved to the right slightly and patted the spot next to me. He smiled and lied down next to me and we both stared at the ceiling as we talked.

“She keeps on begging me to tell you to go to our place for a tea party,” Landon said and I chuckled.

“And why don’t you tell me? Jealous of me liking your sister more than you?” I teased.

“Yeah I’m sure that’s the reason,” he said sarcastically.

I laughed quietly. “Then what is the reason?”

“I just don’t want her to cling to you too much because she can get annoying,” he said, shrugging.

I smiled. “Don’t worry about that. I love Hannah and I’d love to have a tea party with her someday.”

“And I’d love to see how you’d look in a big pink Barbie dress,” Landon said making me laugh out loud.

We stayed silent for a bit then Landon asked, “Don’t you ever think that you want siblings?”

“Yeah, actually I do. I would love to have a sister I could talk to all the time about everything or an older brother,” I said honestly. “But my parents didn’t want more than one child so it’s just me.”

“Hmm,” he said. “That sucks because having a sibling is really amazing.”

“You’re going to be so protective of Hannah aren’t you?” I asked, smiling slightly at the thought of such a kind and caring Landon.

“Yes,” he said confidently. “I’ll protect her all the time. She is my little sister after all.”

“That’s sweet,” I said and he smiled.

“You can go ahead and admit that I’m sweet, Pam, no need to be shy,” he joked and I laughed.

He really is sweet but I won’t admit that to him. It will make him tease me even more.

Suddenly, Gangnam Style started playing. I blinked then moved my head to the right and saw Landon taking out his cell phone.

“Hello?” He answered and I chuckled. That was his ringtone?

“Nope, not today” he said. “Mmhmm, okay… Yeah, sure… See ya, bye!”

When he hung up I smirked at him and said, “Nice ringtone.”

“You’re just jealous because you can’t do the dance as well as I can,” Landon said making me laugh.

“You can do the dance?” I asked amusedly. I imagined him doing the dance and started chuckling.

“Hell yeah!” He said then excitedly jumped off the bed and pressed a few buttons on his phone before the song started playing again, this time from the start.

Then I witnessed the funniest thing I have ever seen in my entire life.

Landon doing Gangnam Style.

I laughed and laughed and laughed till tears were streaming down my face, I had the wipe them away with the sleeve of my shirt.

“Come dance with me!” Landon said and I thought ‘what the hell?’ as I jumped off the bed, stood next to him, and started dancing horribly.

We were both laughing so hard, we could barely hear the song anymore.

When we finally couldn’t take it anymore, we both collapsed on the bed and laughed.

“That was hilarious,” I said, wiping away the last tear on my cheek.

“Yes it was,” he said, chuckling, his green eyes twinkling.

“Enough dancing for today, though” I joked. “How about some video games now?”

His eyes lit up and he nodded his head vigorously.

I stood up and turned on my Xbox. For the next three hours we played video games while yelling at each other and occasionally at the screen.

It was very fun, though, and I enjoyed every second of my time with Landon. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time.

At around 1 o'clock, I started nagging because I was hungry. I didn’t have breakfast so I had to be hungry by this time.

We ordered Chinese food and I changed out of my pajamas before following Landon downstairs where he was watching TV.

The TV was on the whole time but we weren’t watching, instead we were joking and laughing.

Around thirty minutes later, the food arrived and in fifteen minutes tops, I finished eating all of my food.

“Wow you really were hungry,” Landon said as I rested my back on the couch and patted my now bulging stomach.

“Yes I was,” I replied, chuckling slightly. God, I’m so full right now! I ate like a pig.

“What’s your favorite food?” He asked.

“My mom’s pasta!” I replied. “And you’ll taste it tonight.”

“I will?” He asked, looking confused and slightly nervous.

“Yeah,” I replied. “My parents return home at around five then mom will cook dinner and we’ll eat at around six thirty.”

“So I’m meeting your parents tonight?” He asked nervously and I chuckled.

“Don’t be nervous,” I replied. “They’re not strict and they actually want to meet you.”

“They do?” He said, bemused.

“Yeah! I told them about you and they want to meet you.”

“What did they do to Zack when they first met him?”

“Nothing, really,” I replied, shrugging. “They don’t like him much but they didn’t give him any hard time.”

He didn’t stick around long enough for them to have a conversation, I thought bitterly. I didn’t have to worry about Landon, though because I knew he wouldn’t do like Zack did.

“Oh,” Landon replied then he asked, “Why didn’t they like him?”

I just shrugged again, not wanting to go into details. I didn’t want to tell him about Zack being late all the time nor about the times when it didn’t even feel like we were a couple at all.

“It doesn’t matter,” I finally said. “But I’m sure they’ll like you so don’t worry.”

He searched my face for a few minutes then nodded.

“If you say so,” he replied, some of his nervousness disappearing.

“Does Zack treat you well?” He asked reluctantly.

“Yes!” I said defensively. “Why would you ask something like that?”

“Sorry,” he said, lifting his hands up in surrender. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No, Landon, I’m sorry, I over exaggerated,” I said, sighing. “I just don’t want to talk about Zack right now.”

“Okay,” he replied, nodding in understanding.

“So do you want to watch a movie?” I asked and he nodded.

“Sure,” he replied. “What do you have?”

“How about Law Abiding Citizens?” I suggested, searching for the DVD box.

“Some friends told me that it’s a good movie,” Landon said. “But I haven’t watched it yet.”

“Me neither,” I replied. I bought the DVD a few days ago. “I guess we’ll watch it now.”

“Yup,” he replied as I went to the kitchen to make some popcorn before starting the movie.

For the next two hours we just watched the movie. It was a pretty good movie.

When the movie was over, we took the bowls of popcorn to the kitchen and that’s when we heard the front door open.

“I’m home,” my mom called out.

“We’re in the kitchen!” I called out.

“Hey,” My mom said, smiling when she saw Landon. “You must be Landon! I’m Pauline, Pamela’s mother.”

“Hello,” Landon said politely, shaking my mother’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you Mrs. McCloud.”

“Please call me Pauline, Mrs. McCloud makes me feel old,” My mom said, grimacing.

Landon chuckled at that. “Okay then,” he said. My dad came in soon and introduced himself to Landon just like my mom did a few minutes ago.

Mom then told us that she will be preparing dinner now so we went back to the living room.

“They like you,” I told Landon as I plopped down on the couch.

He grinned. “So I made a good first impression?”

“Yup, you were polite and cute,” I said. “They definitely liked you.”

“So you think I’m cute?” He asked, smirking at me.

“I-I didn’t say that,” I stammered, blushing. Why was I blushing?

He chuckled. “You actually did.”

“Okay, fine I did,” I finally admitted, narrowing my eyes at him. “So what?”

“Nothing,” he said, still smirking. “I think you’re cute too.”

“I have a boyfriend,” I said lamely and had the urge to face palm. Why do I say such stupid things sometimes?

He laughed. “I know that,” he said amusedly. “That didn’t stop you from calling me cute and it won’t stop me from calling you cute.”

I blushed and nodded as I averted my gaze.

I guess it wasn’t really wrong to think that someone else was cute if you were in a relationship. I mean it’s not like I like Landon or something.

I just think he’s cute.

Yeah, that’s it, I convinced myself, and we are just friends.

Soon, mom called us, saying that dinner was ready.

“This pasta is really good,” Landon complimented my mom’s cooking.

“Thank you,” my mom said, smiling at him while I said,

“See? I told you!”

He laughed and pinched my cheek making me slap his hand away and give him a glare. He just smirked at me and went back to eating his food.

Throughout dinner, my parents talked with Landon about his family and the future career he wants to pursue.

Mom found that medicine really suited Landon and she literally started squealing when he told her some cute stuff about Hannah.

She made him promise to bring her over for dinner some time.

I was smiling the whole time, happy that my family loved my best friend. I actually knew that they would love him because he’s really a great guy.

He’s really polite as well and my parents keep on complaining about how our generation has some people who can be really impolite so they’re probably happy with Landon being a polite guy.

Sitting around the table, eating, talking, and laughing seemed really perfect especially with Landon here and I couldn’t help but think that if Zack was in Landon’s place, things wouldn’t have been as good.

Actually, I think things wouldn’t have been good at all, just like they weren’t good when he first met my parents.

It’s like Zack doesn’t get along with my parents and they don’t like him.

But that doesn’t matter because tonight it’s just me, my parents, and my best friend. 

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Thank you for reading! :)