|| Arabella ||

"Stop hitting me, you crazy girl!" Theo shouted as I kept beating him with a cushion.

"No," I dragged out the word, not willing to back down at all.

Protecting his face with his forearms, he clamored, "At least get off me."

"Never." I was sitting on his chest. My knees were on his either side, locking him in a mount position. Tonight I was determined to teach him a lesson.

"You are heavy!"

"And you are evil!"

Theo managed to push away the pillow from my hand, so I started pummelling him with my fist.

"What the fuck is going on?" I stopped hitting Theo and looked over my shoulder at a frustrated Wyatt who was seconds away from turning red from anger. "What are you guys, five?"

"He fed me toothpaste cookies and this shitty juice," I complained like a little child, pointing at the content on the coffee table.

"She is stupid enough to fall for it. Not my fault," Theo defended himself.

Wyatt pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to calm himself. "First of all, Ara, welcome to my club. I have eaten these biscuits at least seven times in my life, all credits go to Theo." I almost wanted to laugh at his misery, but knowing I was as miserable as he was, I swallowed back my laughter. "So a piece of advice for you: never ever eat any biscuits from an opened packet in this house, sis. It's probably filled with toothpaste or glue."

Eww. Glue. Please tell me Wyatt has never actually eaten any of it.

"And for you, Theo, I think I told you to throw these shitty biscuits away," Wyatt scolded like a fed-up mother.

"Since when do I listen to you?" Theo muttered, and I shot him a glare.

"Since I have my SAT exams in three weeks," Wyatt retorted.

My eyes widened. "Oh, my God, I didn't know about that. I'm so sorry to disturb you," I quickly said. It was no wonder that Wyatt was always studying in his room or stayed in the library after school.

Wyatt sighed. "It's okay, Ara. But please, you guys, don't create a racket. I need to concentrate on my studies."

I lowered my head and mumbled, "Sorry."

"Theo?" Wyatt arched an eyebrow, expecting a response from him.

"Yeah, fine. Sorry," Theo grumbled. "But would you please tell Annabelle to get off me? I'm being crushed here." He pointed at me still sitting on him.

I flicked him in the forehead one last time, making him let out an 'oww' before standing up.

"You better be grateful you don't have your long hair anymore," Theo muttered begrudgingly and sat up.

I raised an eyebrow in challenge. "Why? Would you pull at it like a kindergartener?"

"Yeah, since you have taken all the responsibility for being mature. For example, hitting me with a cushion," he snorted, "Very mature."

"You see, what a bad influence you are? Your immaturity has rubbed off on me," I said, lacing my tone with pity.

"What's the age of being immature then? When I am forty years old with a wife and kids? Or when I am an old man with wobbling feet?" he asked.

I was slightly caught off-guard at his question—a tiny bit impressed if I was honest—but I frowned nonetheless. "That's no excuse to annoy people like this."

"Some people are just fun to do so."

Was he saying that I was a fun person? As in, he liked to pull pranks on me because I wasn't boring? Like, in a way I was special? That's kinda nic—

"After all, not everyone is stupid enough to fall for them," he added after a moment.

Anything remotely positive that I felt for him, even for a second, scratch all that. Theo was a nasty person. Period.

"You obnoxious—" Just as I started to raise my voice, someone whose existence I had forgotten for a few minutes spoke up.

"What did I say about creating a racket?" Wyatt questioned me.

I closed my mouth ashamedly, mumbling a small sorry.

"I'm going back to my room to study, and I swear if I hear another loud word from any of your mouths, I will lock you both in the bathroom together for hours."

Theo and I both clamped a hand over my mouth immediately in fear. If the two of us were locked in a closed-off space for hours, one of us was going to end up as a corpse for sure.

"Good." With that, Wyatt flashed us a smile and went back to his room.

I released a sigh and sat down beside Theo on the couch. "He was certainly in a foul mood. I bet it's because of your stupid prank from this morning," I accused in a low voice.

"Nah. He's just stressed about his SAT exams. He did bad last time," Theo replied, picking up the remote to change channels as the earlier movie he was watching just ended.

"How much did he score last time?" I asked curiously.

"1400 or something."

"But that's a good score already."

"Not to him. He wants more than 1500. I'll never understand toppers."

I hummed in response, then started to think about the future. "Next spring, we will be taking our SAT too." He hummed too. "How much do you aim to score?" I asked absentmindedly.

"Anything's fine. I don't really care right now," he said. "What about you?"

"I need to score high to get a scholarship to a prestigious culinary institute," I said.

"I see."

As Theo was surfing through the channels, a show that I love caught my attention. "Hey, stop. I want to watch that."

"No," he denied blatantly and switched to the next channel.

"Hey, c'mon, you are always using the TV. Let me watch for a while," I whined.

"You have got a laptop, right? Go watch it there," he ushered, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You have one too," I pointed out calmly. I wasn't going to fight him over a silly remote. I wasn't a five-year-old—as much as Wyatt believed so.

"It's more comfortable on the couch here," he said and laid down on his right side, casually placing his legs on my thighs.

I glared at his feet on my lap and pinched his small toe, making him curl his toes. "Put them down unless you want me to chop them off," I threatened.

"If you have so much problem, why don't you go sit on the beanbag? I want to stretch my leg."

I knew that I could easily do that, but when did I ever give up without an argument with Theo? "This couch is big enough for four people to sit on. It's your fault for being so tall."

"Well, my apologies that my puberty hit me unlike yours."

"Hey! My puberty hit me just fine, okay? It's your brain development that hasn't hit you yet."

"It takes one to know one."

I gritted my teeth. "Do you want me to pummel you once again?"

"Oh, no, no, I'm scared, supergirl. Spare me," he mimicked the voice of a frightened little girl before rolling his eyes with a flat look.

I snarled at him, then looked down at his legs. A smirk formed on my lips. "Suck a rookie mistake," I said victoriously, reaching my fingers out to tickle him.

"If you think that I didn't foresee you trying to tickle me, then I must applaud you for naivéty. I'm not ticklish."

I groaned.

I didn't say anything anymore and just started glaring at the television. But he just kept scrolling. "Will you stop at a channel already?"

"There's nothing interesting going on," he said nonchalantly.

"Then, how about you let me watch?" I suggested with a tight-lipped smile.

"Nope."

"Jerk."

I kept hammering his talus one by one until he finally stopped at a game channel where an American football match was going on. Now, this was something we both liked—a fair deal.

The two of us started to get engrossed in the match when the doorbell rang.

"Who is it?" I glanced towards the front door, making absolutely no effort to get up.

"You will know if you open the door," Theo answered.

"Why don't you open it then and let me know?" I suggested, eyes fleeting back to the big screen.

"There's no way in hell that I'm missing such an intense part of the game," he responded.

The doorbell rang once again, yet none of us made any moves. It rang for the third time when Wyatt came out of his room.

"What's wrong with you two? Someone's ringing the bell for minutes now," he chastised, running to get the door.

I heard some murmuring from the entrance but didn't avert my eyes from the match. I vaguely noticed Wyatt dropping off a box of pizza on the coffee table.

"I ordered some pizza for us. Eat it before it gets cold," he informed.

I nodded, blindly reaching for the pizza box to get a piece out. Theo also sat up to get a slice of the pizza, his feet still on my lap. At this point, I didn't even mind.

As I took a bite, I realized that my throat has been dry for a while now. But I was too comfortable to get up.

Wyatt was about to go back to his room when I called out, "Wyatt, can you be a sweetheart and get some soda from the fridge?"

"And a blanket, please. It's getting kinda cold," Theo added.

"Oh, there's some leftover salad from last night. Get that too," I further added.

"Also, get my phone from my room. I was supposed to get a call from Uncle Albert."

I could feel Wyatt's glare boring in my skull even though I wasn't looking at his way. "Get everything yourself, you couch potatoes," he admonished us and sauntered back to his room with a slam.

We paid no mind to Wyatt's wise words and continued eating our pizza with no soda. Even if we were getting cold, we didn't get any blankets. Besides, leftovers could be eaten tomorrow, and Theo's uncle's call could definitely wait.

I didn't even realize when the pizza box got empty and was almost about to bite Theo's hand.

After an hour of full attention on the TV, the match ended. The team we supported won. If it wasn't Theo, I would hug the person next to me out of happiness. So I celebrated to my heart's content by clapping so loud that I was afraid Wyatt would come out to scold me. Thankfully, he didn't.

The after-match reviews were going on, so we decided to watch that too.

I stretched my arms when the interviews ended and commented, "That was quite long, wasn't it?"

Getting no response, I turned to my right to find Theo fast asleep.

"The devil's finally been put to sleep. Geez, I hope it was eternal," I murmured wishfully to check if he really was knocked out.

Since I didn't get any reply, I carefully set his feet down and stood up to grab a blanket for him—hey, I wasn't heartless, okay?

When I was placing the blanket on Theo, I got a close look at his handsome face. Well, I have always known he was quite the looker, damn did he look super adorable right now.

It was my first time noticing that he had long eyelashes and his nose was slightly crooked. His lips looked awfully soft. I couldn't help but wonder if he had kissed anyone before—because he was a virgin.

But of course, he has kissed someone before unlike me.

I almost laughed out loud when I noticed the pizza crumbs on the corner of his lips. I grabbed a tissue to clean it.

Before getting up, I was tempted to whisper in his ear, "You are quite cute when your mouth is closed."

★★★