I liked how he talked to me in his gentle and soothing tone, the way he smiled at me, and the way he always handled me with care as if I might break. Then there would be times like earlier where I could get glimpses of other sides of him that never failed to intrigue me.
“Anywhere is fine...” I replied as I felt myself blushing for no good reason.
“Should we just run off? Just the two of us?” he suggested as his eyes widened with apparent excitement.
“We’ll get in trouble if we do that,” I replied while worrying more about Anthony than myself.
His wild suggestion was unexpected and didn’t seem to fit his character but that only made me feel special for getting to see this side to him. I ended up giggling at just the idea of making a run for it together even though I was supposed to be against the idea.
“We’ll get in plenty of trouble already as it is...” he pointed out before winking at me.
I knew immediately what he was referring to. He did just beat up someone, and even if it was for my sake, we would both get into trouble for it to a certain degree for sure.
“I guess you’re right about that,” I agreed before letting out a laugh.
“Do you want to come on a date with me?” he asked before smiling sweetly at me.
I had always thought that Anthony was truly too good looking. Although his tone was teasing, I could tell that he was seriously asking me out on a date. It felt natural for me to simply smile at him before agreeing to go on a date with him, but I didn’t fail to notice the slightly bitter feeling that seeped into my chest.
“Do I have a choice?” I asked before returning his smile.
“Nope, not really...” he replied before wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
He turned me around and we began walking away from the front entrance where his car was parked. I knew immediately that we would be leaving through the side gate of the school instead where we would be undetected.
“Doesn’t this feel like a real date, Diana?” Anthony turned to ask me when we took our first step out beyond the school gate.
It might sound hard to believe given how my life was so different from my sister’s; however, I could honestly say that I had never once wished that I was Diana. I never envied her about anything, and I never wanted anything that she had. At least, that was what I honestly thought up until that moment. As I smiled and nodded my head in response to Anthony’s question, I had to admit that for the first time, I wished that I had been born as my parent’s first born child. I wished that I was Diana, all so that I could make Anthony look at me that way. All so that I could make Anthony mine.
...
Instead of ending up at a popular date spot, we somehow ended up by silent agreement at a public park. It felt like something of the past for teenagers like us to go on a date together in a park. The park was almost void of people, apart from parents watching their young children play in the playground. We both understood without saying anything out loud that we would rather go to a place where we wouldn’t be spotted or disturbed. Being alone and together was our top priority and it didn’t matter where we were.
Ever since he took my hand, Anthony never let it go. We walked side-by-side while holding hands wherever we went. It made me nervous, and it made my heart race at first but since it was clear that he had no intention of letting go of my hand, that meant that I had no choice but to get used to it. We talked about many trivial things that didn’t matter.
“Want to sit?” he suggested as we walked by a bench in the park.
“Sure,” I replied.
The wind blew my hair over my shoulders as we sat next to each other on the bench. Without saying anything we seemed to enjoy each other’s company. Anthony still held my hand in his as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Since the marriage between him and my sister was pretty much an arrangement, it wasn’t necessary for them to fall in love with each other. Regardless of that, our parents were taking steps to at least ensure that the two of them would at least get along. That was one reason why these ‘dates’ were arranged to take place.
I glanced over at Anthony to see him watching me intently. When he caught me looking at his face, Anthony simply smiled without saying anything. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking but I remember what I thought. As I listened to the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees around us, I thought that our parents had nothing to worry about. Anthony was already very much in love with my sister.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I quickly realized that my opinions didn’t matter. After all, my opinions couldn’t change the truth and it also couldn’t change the future.
“I never knew that you could fight like that...” I said to strike up a conversation with him.
“Oh, well...” Anthony murmured as if he was unsure of what to say.
“I guess your family puts you through martial art training for self-defense, right?” I took a guess before smiling at him.
“Yeah...I’m glad that all that training turned out useful,” he replied.
“It surely did turn out useful. Thank you for saving me. Honestly, that’s so impressive,” I thanked him wholeheartedly.
“I thought I told you to close your eyes,” he muttered.
I guess he did say something like that at the time.
“I must have forgotten to,” I said with a careless shrug of my shoulders.
--To be continued...