Bonus Chapter 1 – Ice Cream
2nd year of the college
Ding-dong. Jonathan rang the doorbell and tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for Alice to open the door. He had an important test tomorrow and Alice wasting his time asking him to run errands for her. He tightened his grip on the ice cream bucket he had and rang the doorbell again. He looked at his silver watch. He had been very busy lately, with his finals and the football tournament coming up, the stress was piling up on him. He absolutely hated wasting his time but then Alice was his sister and he could never say no to her. He had even agreed to buy tampons for her once even though after that his friends had given him a hard time, cracking jokes on his expense.
He sighed as he shifted the ice cream bucket to his left hand and held up his right hand to knock the door again. He knocked the door “Alice, open up the door” he shouted. He shifted his weight from one foot to another as he waited. He had an important test on Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and he had no idea what he would do about it. He making a mental checklist of things he was going to do after going back to his dorm when the door opened.
“Ah- um you are not Alice” he stated as he saw a brunette with amazing hazel eyes standing before him. “I am aware that I am not Alice Jonathan” she stated and his mind slowly registered that it was Liza. He seemed to become quite a fool when he was around Liza. He had never been anything less than his charming smooth self when he was around ladies, but something about Liza made him into stuttering rambling mess. When he had first seen Liza, the first thought that had crossed his mind was that she had amazing fingers, long and beautiful, like pianists and the second thought that had crossed his mind that he would love those fingers to be tangled in his hair as he kissed her senseless. Weird, you would think that he would notice her eyes, her lips, her legs but no it were the fingers that he had noticed first. She had been lovingly holding a book as if it was her greatest treasure.
However, his fantasies of kissing her had been immediately put on hold as she had shot down his every effort to flirt with her. She and Alice had become best friends. He had seen her support Alice through everything, from boyfriend troubles to her fashion disasters, she had also somehow managed to tame down his sisters bitchy side. Most of the girls couldn’t stand Alice because of her perkiness and slightly bitchy attitude but Liza had handled her perfectly well.
“What do you want Jonathan, Alice isn’t here?” Liza said breaking his chain of thoughts. Liza’s voice sounded tired. He looked at her, not the type of glance overs you give, but really looked at her, her usually neat appearance was disheveled, her black t-shirt was crumpled, she was wearing her grey sweat pants which she never wore before bed time, her hair which were usually in a neat chignon were tied up in a messy ponytail even her face showed signs of stress. “I was just dropping off some ice cream for Alice but it looks like you need it more than Alice does” he said. He wasn’t her best friend but he did care about her. Liza had been nothing but loyal and sweet, she had also helped more than he could count. She was his friend too.
Liza sighed. “It’s nothing” she said “Come-on Liz, I may not be Alice but I am still your friend.” Jonathan said, the word friend making him want to bite his tongue. He wanted to be so much more than ‘just friends’ with this girl. “I know that you are my friend Jonathan but I just don’t want to talk about it” Liza said. He hated hearing her sound so tired. ‘Fine don’t tell me but at least let me come in” he said. “Oh sorry, I almost forgot to invite you in” Liza said as she made way for him to enter the dorm. : What would you like water or juice” she asked as she opened the freezer to keep the ice cream in it. “Just water” Jonathan replied as he made himself comfortable on the couch.
Liza brought water and handed it to him. “You can tell me about it you know. It will lessen your burden” Jonathan said as he sipped water. Liza sat on the couch opposite to him, as she contemplated whether to tell him or not. Jonathan could practically see Liza’s contemplation as the frown between her eyebrows deepened until they relaxed and smoothed out. “Fine but promise me that you won’t pity me” Jonathan nodded “Today was the day my parents died” she blurted out. Jonathan’s face didn’t morph into an expression of pity but it morphed into one of sadness, as if he was really sharing Liza’s pain.
Jonathan stood up from his couch and went over to her side and just hugged her. “Do you want to eat ice cream and watch chic flicks?” he asked as if it was the most normal thing to do after one of your friends had just disclosed that it was their parent’s death anniversary. Liza pulled back and laughed for the first time in that day. It was not a giggle, it wasn’t even one of those small laugh one did at some funny joke, it was a full blown laugh that shook you to the core and brightened up the room.
“Won’t it diminish you manliness?” she asked teasingly “I have already bought tampons for Alice, there isn’t much out there that can diminish my manliness” Jonathan said with a shrug.” Liza laughed once again as she went to the kitchen to bring out the ice cream shouting behind her “You choose the movie, I will bring out the ice cream”. They started out with ‘Mean girls’ followed by ‘John Tucker must die’ ‘The Jerk Theory’ ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and many more. It wasn’t until it was late in night when Titanic was playing and the only light in the room left was the one coming from the TV, that Jonathan realized that he had an test on Jane Austen tomorrow but as he looked at the face of the girl sitting beside him that he realized that he could screw hundreds of tests like this to see her happy. So he focused his attention back on the movie and forgot all about the test that was awaiting him.