My Crazy Housemate

3Jeremy didn't look away when Chloe turned to look at him. They both stared at each other for a while until Jeremy reached to touch her face with his hand.     1

Chloe's gaze moved away from his face to look at the hand which was about to touch her. She watched his hand with furrowed brows. It was as if he was trying to make up his mind whether to touch her or not.      

Just before his hand got to her face, he stopped and withdrew his hand sharply and cleared his throat.     

"Are you... sick?" He asked in a gentle voice.     

For a few seconds, she didn't answer. Her gaze moved back to his face before she sat comfortably to watch the events on the stage. There was a couple dancing on stage which a lot of people seemed to be cheering for.      

"They are quite talented." She said, deliberately ignoring the question Jeremy asked her.      

"Would you like to talk about it? I mean, whatever is making you sad?" He moved closer to ask when the cheers and claps of the crowd grew louder.      

She turned to look at him with the same gaze he found difficult to read. "How do you know?"      

"What?" He asked in confusion.      

"Guessing I am angry or sad... How do you do it?" She asked with obvious curiosity.      

She thought she had been able to master the art of keeping her emotions hidden. Her face was always straight so no one knew whether she was happy or sad. But one look at her and he always knew something was wrong with her.      

"Uhm.." He touched the bridge of his nose as he thought about how to answer her question.      

"I guess it's obvious. Anyone can tell. Right?"     

'That's not true.' She wanted to tell him. 'Even my parents do not understand how I feel.'     

But she didn't say it. Instead, she asked.     

"Do you really want to know why I'm like this right now?" She asked calmly.      

"Yes."      

The corner of her lips curved slightly, "Once you know... you may... regret knowing. It's best you just forget about it and enjoy this show."      

She smiled at him before looking ahead.     

She tried not to think about anything else but what was going on in the stage, but her mind kept wandering. Her throat tightened as she remembered her conversation with her parents the previous evening. Maybe they were nice and loved her dearly, they were also really strict and would not hesitate to take out whatever was going to be an hindrance to their only daughter. Especially since they already have a black sheep in the family— Leo.     

Jeremy has been nothing but good to her. He was the nicest person she had ever met minus Adrian. How can her parents simply assume he was a gangster? Who put that thought in their heads? If only they knew he couldn't hurt a fly... but no, they weren't interested in knowing anything about him. They believed he was a bad person leading their daughter astray.      

Talking about his mother had been so uncalled for. So what if he was the son of a mistress? He was very cultured and respected people unlike most offspring of their social circle.      

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She wouldn't have come here. She shouldn't have. Why did she come? It didn't matter if her parents were wrong to assume those things about him. If they really wanted to teach her a lesson through him, then there was nothing she would be able to do about it.     

Her heart almost stopped when a hand touched her hand and held it.      

She still didn't open her eyes but she made an effort to withdraw her hand from his grip. When he didn't let go, she also stopped resisting.     

"We can get out of here if you want." He offered.      

Almost immediately he said it, she nodded. She hated noisy places and this place was far too noisy for her.      

When they both stood up, Chloe looked at their hands which was still connected so he quickly let go with a quick apology.      

He didn't know what got into him to suddenly hold her but he felt she needed some kind of assurance so she would know he was there beside her. He noticed she wasn't really herself and could guess something must have happened at home which she didn't want to talk about. And he wasn't going to force her to tell him.      

He led the way and she followed behind him. They walked down to their classroom without saying a word to each other. They simply walked slowly and side by side.      

Since everyone was having fun in the school hall, the classroom was empty.      

Chloe began to feel very nervous. She reached for her bottle of water inside her bag and realised it was almost empty.      

"I'll get you one." Jeremy offered and began to leave the classroom but stopped when he heard Chloe's soft voice call,     

"Jeremy."      

He turned around to look at her. When their gazes locked, she gulped and looked at the side guiltily.      

He waited patiently for what she had to say without saying a word. Only thing he did was to move closer to her.      

She suddenly turned to look at him and smiled cheerfully.      

"So... I'm going to make your wish come true."     

"My... wish?" He asked with confusion.      

"Yes. So I figured you've been really good to me and deserve a reward. So hurry and tell me what you want." She said, trying to look like she was excited but it made Jeremy frown even more. He could tell she was faking it all.      

"Why would you want to give me a reward for being nice to you?"     

"I don't... understand." He shook his head. He really didn't know what she was talking about or why they were having this conversation.     

"It's rare for people to just be nice to others without expecting anything in return —"     

"Not me." He said, slightly offended by her words.      

"Including you." She cut in. "You are nice to me because you like me and want me to date you. Wrong?"      

Jeremy didn't know what to say at this point. Did he by chance do something to warrant this? Where was this conversation coming from? Where was it heading to?      

"I will give you anything you ask me right now except dating you."      

"I don't want anyth—"     

"Money?"     

His face turned stone cold.     

"A kiss?"     

"..."     

"Or... sex?"     

"Just stop it!" He raised his voice angrily.      

Chloe was a but startled since that was the first time he looked obviously mad at her. His face was burning red but she couldn't tell whether it was from anger or the embarrassment he felt by her words.      

"I don't care if people have been nice to you because they expected something in return, but I am not like that." He stopped to take in a deep breath to control his temper so it wouldn't seem like he was yelling at her.      

"I told you before. Even if we never end up together, I will still care for you as much as I do now."     

"I don't want you to! Just stop it already!" She yelled at the top of her lungs and raised her head to blink back whatever tears that was threatening to fall.      

"Did I..." He paused and gulped. "Did I do something wrong?"      

"Yes!" She snapped at him. "You did everything wrong. You should have always ignored me. You shouldn't have liked me. You shouldn't have been my employee. You shouldn't have come into my life at all!"      

He looked at her with a mixture of shock, hurt and disbelief.      

"I was doing a lot fine until you came into my life. And now I have to start worrying a lot." She paused to catch her breath. She didn't bother to clean off the tears that had slid down her face.      

"I did a perfect job hiding David from everyone but I am not even dating you and yet everyone is trying to make my life difficult because of you."     

'And I don't know how to protect you from them.' She said in her head as more tears slid down her face. If anything happened to him because of her, he was never going to forgive her. She knew it.      

"So please... stay away from me. I will recommend you to nice mall so you can quit working for me and also—"     

He didn't wait for her to finish. His shaky hands formed fists and after another sad look at her, he turned and walked away.