surprise visit.
Essa pov
I end up staying up much later than I should, my head full of Draven, keeping me up until 2am. When I do get to sleep, I sleep in later than usual. What wakes me up is Bobby's face inches from mine. I scream and scramble away, nearly falling off the edge of my bed in a tangle of covers and pillows. "What are you doing here?" I shriek, my heart pounding.
He grins at me. "I'm here to ask how your date went," he tells me, looking completely unashamed to have been caught sitting on my bed while I'm asleep.
"How'd you get in here?!" I demand, my heart slowly going back to its normal pace. "Do my parents know you're in here?"
Once again, Bobby grins at me. "Yeah, of course. They let me in the front door," he says. "Cass let me in your room, so I assumed it was okay. Sorry for scaring you."
I wrap the blankets around me tighter to hide my pajamas, a tank-top and sleep shorts. "Can you give me a second to get dressed?" I ask, irritated. "Wait outside. Then we can talk."
Bobby nods with a smile. "Fine. I'll be right outside," he says, standing to leave. Once he's closed the door I slip out of bed, grumbling under my breath about how intrusive he is. I pull a pair of skull leggings and a long purple tank-top out of my closet and dress quickly before heading out to meet him.
I find him sitting at the kitchen table with my parents, telling them some story about when he was at boarding school, and they're all laughing. Mom looks up when I come in, smiling. "I don't know what you had against Bobby before, Essalinda," she says brightly. "He's a sweet boy."
Rolling my eyes I pour myself some coffee and lean against the kitchen counter, brooding silently. Bobby smirks at me smugly. "Hear that, Essalinda?" he teases, emphasizing my full name. "I'm sweet." He winks at me, making my parents laugh again.
"Didn't you wanna talk about something?" I ask, struggling not to snap at him.
He sips from his own coffee and nods. "Yes, I wanted to see if you'd like to hang out or something," he says, draining the rest of his mug. "So, you coming?"
Mom takes his mug to the sink and rinses it out. "You should go, Essalinda," she says, smiling like a fool. "It'll be fun."
"Alright," I mumble, taking a long drink of coffee. Setting my cup in the sink I say to Bobby, "What did you have in mind?"
Bobby grins at me. "You like ice cream, right?" No sooner are the words out of his mouth, and he's grabbed my hand and pulling me out the front door. "Let's go!" I stumble after him, calling a good-bye to Mom and Dad.
Eventually I manage to pull out of his grip. "You know, you don't have to pull me along. I can walk on my own," I inform him bitterly, side-stepping away from him.
He doesn't seem bothered by my attitude. "I know a really awesome place to get ice cream. It's pretty amazing," he tells me, walking on more slowly. I walk alongside him, as we come to the end of his lawn and start the walk into town.
Bobby chatters to me tirelessly the whole way, but to my surprise he doesn't bring up my date again. He doesn't even mention Draven. We soon come to the ice cream shop he was talking about and we look over the long list of ice cream flavors. I've always loved chocolate, so I order the chocolate implosion, and Bobby orders mango. I reach into my pocket to pay for my own, but Bobby stops me. "Let me get it," he says, handing the cashier a couple bills.
"Are you sure?" I ask anxiously. I don't like owing people money, or even just letting them pay for my stuff. "I can pay for myself."
He shrugs. "It's not a big deal. Now just try the ice cream, and tell me it's not the best you've ever had." Tentatively, I take a bite and my eyes widen.
"Oh, my God, this is SO GOOD!" I exclaim, and Bobby laughs as he takes a bite of his own ice cream.
He nods. "Chocolate implosion was the first thing I ordered," he agrees. "But mango is pretty good. It even has chunks of mango in it." He walks with me over to a bench where we sit side-by-side and eat our ice cream in silence. After a while Bobby asks, "So how was your date last night?"
I blush, remembering how much fun I had. "Really great. It was more fun than I even expected!" I gush, looking at the sidewalk, a little embarrassed. "Draven's really sweet."
I can hear the smile in Bobby's voice when he replies. "I'm glad you had fun."
Despite how reluctant I was to join Bobby today, I actually end up having fun with him as well. After we finish our ice cream we just walk around and talk and by the end of the day I can't even remember why I ever hated Bobby to begin with. He's so much nicer than I remember him, and we end up staying out for hours before he walks me back to my house. I invite him in and he sits with me and Cass to watch The Invasion.
"I've never watched this movie," Bobby says as I pop the DVD in the DVD player. "What's it about?"
"It's a suspenseful movie, I guess; not really scary," I tell him. "These aliens leave this... stuff... on Earth and when people touch it they go to sleep and wake up without any emotion. Then the infected people go around infecting everyone else. It's pretty awesome," I tell him, sitting on the couch.
Cass lays out beside me, hanging her legs over the arm of the couch. "Yeah, I like this movie," she says.
Bobby laughs. "I never would've pegged you guys for the creepy movie types," he says.
I poke his shoulder. "I told you, it's not scary."
Cass raises her head to look over at Bobby. "Yeah, but you should see her when we watch The Walking Dead. When everyone else is cringing and all grossed out, she's just sitting there with her popcorn like, 'so?'" We all laugh, and I hit play on the movie.
Hours later, Cass and I regretfully say bye to Bobby, and head to bed. Who would've thought the person who was my enemy for years would become one of my best friends in just a couple hours?