Page 84 of Clichés & Curses

I went over to the coffee table to pick up the vase, placing it on the kitchen island, before I slowly took out the flowers one by one.

‘Are you feeling okay?’ Nina asked, once all the items she bought were in their rightful place.

‘Yeah,’ I shrugged, feeling a bit sombre than usual. ‘It’s just one of those days, I guess.’ I kept my focus on the flowers, but I didn’t need to look at Nina to know she had a concerned look on her.

‘Well, do you want to talk about it?’ she asked.

I let out a sigh, contemplating it for a moment. In the end, I just decided to let it out. ‘Colton asked me out.’

‘Oh,’ Nina voiced out. She was quiet afterward, the pitter-patter of the rainfall being the only sound in our apartment. Once I took out all the flowers, Nina took the vase to the sink and threw away the water before refilling it. Meanwhile, I prepared the newly bought sunflowers to be put into the vase.

Her next question came as I was trimming the stems. ‘What did you say after he asked you?’ she asked.

‘I told him I can’t,’ I answered her.

‘So, you told him no?’

I shook my head. ‘I told him I can’t, because he was a star athlete which makes him a cliché love interest and that’s why I can’t date him.’

‘And how did he react to that?’

I thought about all the things he had said, about my unfairness, about me not giving us a fair shot, and using the outcome of other people’s relationships to predict my own.

‘He asked me whether I would have gone on a date with him if he wasn’t a star athlete,’ I told her. ‘And I told him, it wouldn’t have mattered, because he was a star athlete, and I wouldn’t allow myself to be with one, not even him.’

Nina let out a wince. ‘That sounds a bit harsh.’

‘You should’ve seen the look on his face.’ The memory of his face crossed my mind once again, along with his words that kept haunting me.

You were the last person I thought to see me as just a star athlete, Clara.

‘So, technically, you didn’t actually give him an answer,’ Nina said after a moment of pause.

‘That’s the thing. I didn’t.’

And that was what had been bothering me.

On top of this sadness I felt over what happened with Colton, there was also confusion over the last question he had asked me. In short, it was a simple yes-or-no question—nothing more, nothing less. And yet, I couldn’t seem to pick an answer between the two options.

It had been easier to brush off when Eliza brought it up, since we were discussing a hypothetical situation where Colton was asking me out on a date.

But when the question came straight from Colton, I couldn’t help but ponder over it.

Was Colton being a star athlete the only thing that was holding me back, or is there something else?

I thought back to what Colton said, about me being scared of whatever was happening between us.

Was he right?

‘I should’ve just given him a no when he asked, instead of telling him why I can’t,’ I groaned. ‘Then, I wouldn’t have to deal with all this confusing shit and avoided this whole mess. We could’ve just gone back to being the way we were before.’

Back to being friends.

Just friends.

My heart clenched at that thought.

‘Are you sure that’s what you want?’ I heard Nina ask.

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