Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Isabella's pov;

After coming out of the cafe, we were on the way to the car. We had been walking in silence, the only sounds being our feet against the pavement and my breathing. He looked at me from time to time, but he did not say anything. I was too caught up in my own thoughts to notice where we were going or when we got there.

After several blocks, I held Mr Martinez's hand while he was about to open the car door and asked, "Can we walk on these streets for a while?"

He nodded and said, "Yeah. We can take a walk."

We started walking on the way i go to my school.

I said excitedly, "This is the street I take to my school everyday."

"Middle or High school?"

"High school. For middle school we have to turn on Wheeler street. Have you seen my middle school before?"

He shook his head and said, "I've only been to your high school once for the match... when you asked your Big Brother to come see it. You forgot to invite me. Mr Johnson took me without my concern."

"We weren't close at that time. How could I invite you all of a sudden?"

"But you asked Mr Johnson. I wonder how you got attached to him like that quickly."

"I don't even know the reason, I grew up alone, I didn't have any siblings or cousins to play along with. I had friends, a lot of friends but still a sibling is different from them, right? When I saw Big Brother, I didn't know what to call it. A connection? Haha. I felt something towards him. He felt like a brother to me as soon as I saw him at your house. And, when he fought for me, I liked him more. Soon, I got attached to yuyang too. She liked me back a lot, to my surprise. Whenever I go to Big Brother's house, it feels like I still have a little family on this land. A brother, a niece… it's a different feeling."

"Looks like it's hard to get the love your brother received from you."

"You have to fight for it."

"He gets it without even a word but I have to fight for it? How does that sound fair to you?"

"Mr Martinez, I got an idea. Let's go visit my middle school."

"What? Now? What if someone sees us? What if we get caught by the teachers?"

I laughed and said, "It's Sunday. There won't be anyone in the school. Let's go."

"What about the guards?"

"I thought you're the brave one. Aren't you?"

"That has nothing to do with this. You're asking me to trespass. Wasn't it illegal?"

"Awww!"

I grabbed his hand and turned on Wheeler street and ran towards my school.

I stopped and took my breath in front of back of my school.

"Why did we run?"

"Fun, heh?"

He asked me, "Why are we standing in front of the wall? Did we get lost?"

I laughed and said, "Like you mentioned earlier. There'll be guards in the front gate so we're going to jump across this wall to get into the campus."

"Are you insane? How can you climb this wall? Did you see how high it is? I can't reach that height."

I took the boxes and made up like a stair and asked me to hold my hand.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Come on, it'll be fun."

I made him jump across the wall and i followed him behind.

"Do you always jump like this?"

"Only when I came late. The physical education teacher will be at the gate to punish those who come late so I use this way to escape from him."

"What kind of punishment will he give?"

"He's a physical education teacher. What else will he give? He asked us to do sit-ups, run around the playground, and do push ups."

"You do pushups in front of the school?"

I nodded and said, "We can't enter the campus until we complete it."

"Sounds like a scary teacher."

"Hahaha."

"By the way, it didn't take a lot of time to come here from your house. Then, why are you coming late to school?"

"Woah!"

"What?"

"You just sounded like him."

"Did I?"

"Yup! Whenever I come late, he asks the same question too."

"You didn't answer yet."

"Because of part time jobs, I'll go home late and sleep late so eventually I will wake up late too."

After a while, he asked, "What if there are guards inside the school?"

I shushed him and whispered, "Then, Talk slowly if you don't want to get caught." And signalled him to follow me behind.

"You were the one who talked loudly now."

"Shhhhh."

When i looked back, he was walking far behind me. I held his hand and said, "Walk together with me." And started walking alongside the wall.

"Where are you taking me?"

"To my class."

"If I go to the police station because of this, I won't let you go easily."

"Police station? Argh! We're not going to rob the bank or something. We're inside my school and I'm taking you to my class. We're just paying a visit. Even if we get caught, don't worry I'll take the blame."

After some time, we came to the building where my class is.

"This is it! Follow me!"

"Why are you shouting? What if the guards hear you?"

"Mr Martinez, there's only one guard who comes during weekends and he will be at the entrance. And, He won't come in."

"Then why did you shushed me?"

"That was fun, right? Sneaking along the wall." And laughed.

"You made me look like a fool."

I continued laughing and told him to follow me to upstairs. I ran up the stairs like a crazy one and stopped in one corridor.

"Is this one?" He asked me while taking his breath after running after me.

I nodded my head and walked in the corridor and looked into each of the classes.

"Where's your class?"

"It's the third one."

While we're walking, I stopped Mr Martinez and said, "Wait, wait." And searched on the wall.

"What are you looking for?"

"I wrote my friends' names somewhere around here."

"Do you think it will be there all these years?"

"Found it! Here, come and have a look."

I showed him the scribbling of the names of Sophia, Liam and Bella.

"You look happy."

"Yup! I can't believe it's still here after all these years."

"Let's get into the class now."

I nodded and walked into the class.

When I entered the class, it felt as if I was back to being a middle school girl.

"They changed the seat arrangements. There were two seats clubbed together while I was studying." I walked over to one desk and said to him, "This is where i met Sophia. She was a transferred student and looked like a nerd. I was the one who saved her from a boy at that time but now, she's like a rogue."

"More than you?" He made fun of me.

"Do you how good when I was in middle school? Believe it or not, I scored high scores all the time and made my name on the board everytime when there's an exam. Things changed, I practised basketball hard to get the scholarship for high school and started working as a part-timer so my grades dropped."

"Where do you sit?"

I walked past him and pointed at the desk and said, "This is my place. And here, Sophia and there Liam. Liam and Sophia fought to sit beside me and got ended up on either side of me. I don't know why I was popular during those times." And laughed.

He took one of the desks and I sat beside him.

"Bella, pass me the chalk over to me."

When i gave the chalk, he throwed back at me.

"What was that for?"

I took another chalk and throwed at him. We played like that some time.

I walked to the front and wrote Mr Martinez's name on the board as talking list to report to the teacher.

"Oh, really?"

"You're the talkative person in this class. Wait till I report it to the teacher."

"Are we roleplaying?"

I throwed the chalk on his head and said, "Don't talk nonsense."

He laughed and asked, "Is there place you go often in the middle school?"

I thought for a while and said, "Yup! There is one. But... You'll laugh when i showed it to you."

"Is it a bathroom?"

"No!"

"Then I won't laugh."

"Promise me, you won't."

"I won't."

"Okay. Let's go."

I erased his name off the board and said, "We shouldn't leave evidence."

"What about the fingerprints on the desk?"

"We're not murderers. Come on."

While we're on the way, I asked him, "Why did you ask me if it's a restroom?"

He laughed and said, "Just kidding."

I opened the door and showed the place where i go to often. He laughed as soon as he saw it.

"You promised me that you won't laugh."

"Sorry, I tried but I couldn't hold it anymore.

He walked in while asking, "Why is the science lab your favourite place where you hang out?"

I walked after him and said, "Did you forget what i said? I was brainy when I was in middle school and kind-hearted too so I help out teachers a lot. Among them, science lab is my favourite so I come here and help out the teacher and do things around the lab.

We sat in the stools and talked about what I do during the lab hours for a while.

The sunset. The sky was clear for the first time in ages. The light came through the window of the science lab and lit up the whole room which looked beautiful.

I stood from the stool and walked to the window and looked through it.

"Mr Martinez, come and have a look at this."

"What is it?"

I pointed to a stone bench and said, "That's where we play together after the school hours. We play until we get tired and sweaty. I miss those days. It was so fun that i miss very badly now."

Mr Martinez held my hand while I was talking and said, "You had so many beautiful memories. When I heard it from you, for a moment I thought, ``It'll be fun if we met earlier and became friends in school."

"If we met in school… oi! We're so many ages apart. Did you forget that? While I was in middle school, you would have finished your high school and been in college, right?"

"I get homeschooled. I don't have any memories to cherish like you."

I moved closer and leaned on his shoulder and looked outside the window while saying, "You can take my memories, Mr Martinez."

"If we met earlier, I think I'll be happy like you too. I wouldn't have become an introvert and shut myself from everyone."

When Mr Martinez placed his head on my head, I stood in front and looked at him while biting my lips.

He touched my lips and asked, "Why are you biting it? It will hurt if you keep on..."

I moved closer and pressed my lips against his lips. When i tried to move away, he held my head tightly and pressed his lips on mine. Soon, we two started kissing each other passionately. While kissing, he lifted me up so i wrapped my legs around his waist and continued kissing him while running my hands all over his back. He slipped his hand into my tshirt and caressed my waist while kissing on my lips. Following lips, he started moving to my neck and kissing them. I got lost in the moment and held him closely towards my body. He started sucking my neck which made me wriggle because it felt ticklish. His hands ran up and suddenly he squeezed one of my b**bs which made me let out a moan to my surprise.

He stopped sucking my neck and dropped me down and took a step back. I adjusted my tshirt and my hair and looked at him. He looked tense. While I was figuring out what just happened now, I felt embarrassed to look him into his eyes and face him.

He stuttered, "S-Shall we go? W-We left the car in the middle of the road."

"Okay."

We walked out of the science lab and headed to the wall which we used to jump into the school.

He lifted me up to jump across the wall and I jumped out of the school. He jumped after me.

We walked in silence till we reached the car, I could not find my phone and it had gone off. I searched the pockets but they were empty.

“Hey, uh.. I’ll look around if you don’t mind waiting?”

It was a lie. I did not want to be alone with him, so I walked back on the way and wandered around like I was searching for my phone.

"Your phone is here!"

Mr Martinez shouted while waving my phone in the air.

Mr Martinez opened the door so I could get inside the passenger seat, then climbed in behind the wheel.

"Your phone was in the car."

"Oh. Okay."

He started driving us to his house. I looked outside since I was dying out of embarrassment.

After a while, we arrived.

When i tried to get out of the car, Mr Martinez called my name. When I turned to look at him, he placed a quick kiss on my lips and got out of the car.

A soft smile tugged at my lips. He was so cute, and yet he always made me feel like I should hide.

His face lit up in the best way, like Christmas had come early. “Are you going to get out of the car, or are we going to stare all day?”

I got out of the car and walked behind him with a distance. After he opened the door, i tried to go to upstairs.

"Isabella..."

What is he going to do now? Another kiss?

"Mr Martinez!"

I heard Big brother's voice.

"Bella!"

I heard yuyang's voice.

I stepped down from the stairs and looked outside the house.

Big brother was walking towards the house along with Yuyang. I ran to her and lifted her up and hugged her.

I dropped her on the floor and said, "Ah! You're becoming heavier day by day. It's hard for me to lift you up."

Yuyang pinched my cheeks saying, "Why did you left before i woke up?"

"I'm sorry. You were sleeping peacefully so i didn't want to wake you up. That's why i left."

She pouted her lips.

"What do you want me to do to make you smile again?"

"Kiss my cheeks." And showed her cheeks.

I let out a chuckle and kissed on both of her cheeks again and again.

"Don't repeat that."

"Okay."

Big brother asked me, "You two forgot everything when you two met each other. Let's get into the house."

We laughed and walked into the house together.

I walk past Mr Martinez avoiding looking into his eyes and headed to my room along with Yuyang.

After a while, Big brother came and called us downstairs to eat together.

I sat beside yuyang.

We started eating the food. I couldn't eat properly since the thought of kissing Mr Martinez was rewinding in my mind again and again.

"Where do you go together?"

"Huh?"

"I saw the car entering the house while we're near the entrance."

Mr Martinez didn't say anything so I answered, "We went for a drive."

"To where?"

"Nearby."

"Looking like you're getting along well. That's good."

Yuyang asked, "Why should Bella get along with Mr Martinez, daddy? Are they going to get married?"

Big brother didn't give an answer and looked at me. What's that? What are you expecting me to do? Do I have to answer her question now?

Mr Martinez said, "Did your daddy give you the toy I bought for you?"

She nodded hurriedly and said, "Daddy said to say thanks to you. Thank you so much, Mr Martinez. I loved that toy. I assure you that I'll keep it safe."

I patted yuyang's head and asked, "What toy was it? Why didn't you show it to me?"

"It's a set of dinosaur toys."

"Dinosaur?"

She nodded with a smile.

I asked Mr Martinez, "You gave dinosaur toys to a girl in fourth grade?"

"Why? Was it a bad gift?"

"Yes."

"How could it be? The guy who was working in that shop said every child likes dinosaur toys."

"You bought the toys after he suggested it to you?"

"Why are you getting surprised by everything? I'm not experienced in buying toys. And, it was my first time buying a toy."

Yuyang tapped on my shoulder and said, "Bella, I like the toy so don't fight with him."

"We're not fighting, yu. I was just asking about the toy."

"I like the toy."

"I understood."

When we finished with the dinner, Big brother and yuyang left the house after bidding goodbyes leaving Mr Martinez and me alone in the house.

"Come with me next time so that I'll buy the right toy for her."

I avoided his eyes and nodded to him.

"Looking at you being nervous makes me want to kiss you more."

"Huh?"

I looked into his eyes without a blink.

He said, "I'm embarrassed too. I never did those things so I got nervous when you let out a moan and..."

I closed his mouth and said, "Don't say it out loud. I'm dying of embarrassment here."

He moved closer and asked, "For letting out a moan?"

"Please, stop saying that word."

"Okay, okay. I won't. I had a good time with you today. It felt like 'is this how a date is supposed to be'. Sharing the thoughts, teasing and smiling at each other and laughing together. We should do this often." And smiled at me.

"I have College tomorrow... so... can I go and sleep now..."

He nodded hurriedly and said, "Yes, you should go. I feel like I won't control myself if you stand longer in front of me being nervous."

Before running to my room, I placed a peck on his cheek and whispered, "Good night." And left for my room.

He looked shocked for a moment, but soon regained his composure as he waved and said, "Goodnight."