Step to You

TWENTY-THREE

----Rose's POV

"So, you will stay for another month in his house?" Elise asked with a suppressed smile. We are in the canteen, eating lunch. Sue nudged her. "What? I'm just happy that she'd get to see her crush for another 30 days."

I sighed, and half-laughed. All the effort I put into keeping away from JK are put to waste. My mom needs to recover fully before going back, and she said it's best if I stay with Aunt Annaly for the mean time.

"But Rose is trying to forget her feelings for him, right Rose?" Sue asked me. She really supports my plan of "forgetting JK Alison", which in my secret opinion, would now seem to be impossible.

I mean, with just a few words of comfort from him, now I'm all over him again (╥﹏╥)...

I responded to Sue's question with a smile. Elise tapped the table. "I told you! It was impossible! Our friend is clearly into Alison... Even if she moves out of Alison's house, she will still like him!"

"Ssssh!" We both told Elise who puts her palms on her mouth.

"Who's moving out of JK's house?"

It was Jim Inocencio. Holding a tray of food, he walked towards us. "Who's moving out of JK's house?" He repeated, looking at each of us.

Elise snapped, "None of your hair's business!" She smirked. "You got green hair today?"

Jim winked at Elise, "Do I look good?"

Elise rolled her eyes and looked away. Jim just laughed and waved hello to me and Sue before going away.

If Jim is here, then JK might be... I followed Jim with my eyes and there, on the far corner of the canteen, is JK. He's quietly eating his lunch. Aunt Annaly is coming back next week so no one is preparing lunch for us. The househelp doesn't do the cooking since it is Aunt Annaly's task. So here we are, eating canteen-cooked food.

"Hey," Sue nudged me with her elbow and I turned to her who motioned to the door, "Van."

I looked at where she pointed and saw Van with Jennie. He's looking so down, and when our eyes met and I smiled, he just nodded his head a bit. Jennie waved at me though.

"Did you fight?" Elise asked, as she drinks her juice.

I shook my head. "No, why would we? Do you think he's fine?"

Van is the brightest faced person I know, and I wonder why he seems down today.

"I hope he's okay," I said, still looking at him and Jennie who went out of the canteen without buying anything.

"Did he meet you last night?" Sue asked after a short silence.

I turned to her with a frown. "No. Why?"

Sue gave a deep sigh, "Rose, I'm so sorry... But... I guess, there's something you should know?"

Elise put her glass down, looked at Sue and said, "Wait, don't tell me you gave...?"

Sue nodded then clasped my hands.

Elise slammed her left hand on the table. A few students looked scandalously at us, but Elise just clicked her tongue and proceeded to drink her juice.

"What is it you're talking about?" I asked them curiously.

"Rose, I... I gave your address to Van last night."

I stared open-mouthed at Sue. "What?"

"He stood outside our house until almost 11:00pm, if you were me, you'd give it too," she said.