Page 33 of It's Just You

“Was worth a try. But 7? Really?” I didn’t want to get up that early. I needed at least an hour in the bathroom.

“We’re going to meet up at 7. That means you have to get up at 5 anyway to do all your fancy makeup. Which you don’t need when hiking anyway, so you should just get the extra sleep. Just saying.”

Not in this lifetime. No one would ever see me without it, no matter what we were going to do. “It’s not going to be fancy makeup, just some basic stuff, so no worries.” Why was I even telling him that? He probably didn’t care anyway.

“If you say so. I still think it’s unnecessary, but I won’t tell you what to do.”

It was sort of hot when he tried, but then, I could be pretty contrary when someone tried to give me orders.

“Aside from making me get up…”

“Why do I get the feeling you don’t want to go with me at all?”

“No, I want to!” I paused, getting myself under control. His text had thrown me, suggesting I didn’t want to. I did, just not that early.

“Are you sure? I won’t get mad if you don’t want to go.”

“No, I want to.” I paused, realizing how this probably sounded. “I mean, yes, I’d like to go, even though I still think you’re just settling on 7 to make me suffer. But I’ll think of a revenge and then everything’s good again.”

“You agreed to go. So suck it up, buttercup, and if one piece of glitter gets near me, I’ll be the one getting revenge.”

I sighed deeply. Somehow, I could picture him punishing me… way too much. But he probably thought about something else, like–I didn’t even know. Nothing like what I would call fun.

“No glitter, you already told me, and despite me looking like I only care about looking pretty, there is a small part of my brain not used for that, so I can remember easy stuff like that.” I grinned as I sent off my text. I loved messing with him like this because he’d most likely reply, telling me he definitely didn’t want to imply that.

“Only easy stuff? And here I had you pegged as brains and beauty.”

Fuck, now what? I could feel myself blush, something that hadn’t happened in a while. And it left me at a loss for words, because all that I could say was thank you. But that was kind of lame and didn’t fit and I still had no idea what to say.

I rearranged my pillow, fluffing it up, then bit my lip.

“Still there? Or did I say something wrong?”

I stared at the phone, still trying to figure out what to answer. “Yeah, still here. Just not sure what to reply, tbh.”

Kane was silent for a moment, then his answer appeared. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you or anything.”

“Not upset, just actually speechless, which doesn’t happen that often.”

This time, it took Kane a moment to reply. “Now that, I can believe :-P”

“Ass. But thank you. I guess.”

“Your gratitude is bowling me over.”

I laughed at that. “All right, thank you. I wasn’t fishing for compliments, though.”

“I know you weren’t. That’s not why I said something.”

After that, we continued to chat for a bit longer, but nothing heavy anymore. I wanted to ask a few more questions, get to know him better, but that would have to wait until we were actually together again. At least he was speaking to me. He’d accepted I was flirting, though I did tone it down a lot, and we planned to go hiking. All in all, it was a fucking great win, and I looked forward to spending the day with Kane. Even though it really meant getting up at 5 to be ready in time.

Because, no matter what I told myself about being me, I wouldn’t let anyone see me without makeup. Not even my parents. And sure as hell not Kane.

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