Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
She stood at the door of the restaurant and straightened her dress. Spotting him from a few feet away, she nodded to the host “My friend is waiting for me.” Taking short and quick strides, she stood over the table with a ready smile “Hi Anton.” She greeted sweetly.
“Anesa.” He was not expecting her “What are you doing here?”
She made herself comfortable on the seat across from him “Kyle couldn’t make it so he called and told me to come instead.”
“He did?” he asked suspiciously.
“Yeah, let’s order. I’m starving.” She grinned and picked up the menu casually.
Anton reached out and pushed the menu down “Anesa—”
“Call me Annie.” She whispered, “I like that name better.”
“Anesa..." he had to finally put his foot down “I think you’ve misunderstood me. As much as I appreciate your interest, I’m sorry…I’m—”
“No, don’t say it.” She cut him off “Can we just have dinner?” she didn’t want to ruin her birthday.
“Anesa, I can’t…I don’t want to lead you on. I know you’re a great girl and any guy out there would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend, but that guy is not me.” He said earnestly “I’m really not right for you.”
She tried hard to contain her feelings as she threw him a large grin “Are you finished? Now can we order? I’m really hungry. I didn’t eat lunch cause I knew I would be going to my favorite restaurant tonight…” she faded away when he sat back with a sigh, it seemed nothing he said could convince her otherwise “Am I that unbearable?”
The hurt tone in her voice could not be missed “No…I…I didn’t say that…actually, I’m quite—”
Once again she cut into his words “Is it so hard to ask you for a dinner date? I’m not asking for anything in return. Yes, I might have misunderstood your actions but you’ve already made yourself clear.” She felt the tears ready to burst as she got up suddenly “I don’t want to ruin your dinner.” Before he had a chance to stop her, she was walking out of the restaurant.
“Anesa!” he called but she walked even faster. He was about to go after her when the waiter stopped him, he had ordered a cup of wine and had not paid for it yet. Hastily, he threw a hundred on the table and ran after her. By the time he reached outside the restaurant, the last trolley was taking off. He had to wait for another 15 minutes. Letting out a frustrating grunt, he dialed Kyle’s number.
“Hello?” he was surprised to see Anton’s name popping on his tiny screen.
“What the hell did you do?!” he demanded.
“I had a replacement…” he joked but when his friend didn’t reply, he realized something was wrong “What happened?”
“She left.” Anton replied flatly.
“Why? What did you say? Don’t tell me you turned her down.” Kyle begged.
“Well…I told her the truth. I’m not interested…” he felt suddenly horrible for saying what he said instead of the truth.
Kyle sighed “Great…now we don’t know where she’s gone.”
“What do you mean?” Anton grew frustrated as he waited impatiently at the peak.
“Back in high school, she told me that there was this one time she planned a great dinner with this guy that she liked. She invited him over and he came. But he misunderstood her invitation and thought it was a party. When he didn’t see anyone else there, he freaked out and told her he didn’t like her. She was so devastated, she disappeared from home for days. It’s her way of escaping. They found her days later wandering in a park, starved and pale.” Kyle explained “Even if you don’t like her, you should have had dinner with her. It’s her God damn birthday!”
“What? It is? She didn’t tell me…you didn’t tell me!” Anton closed his eyes as he imagined the possible chance she could be hurt “Damn it, Kyle!”
“Sorry, I forgot that bit of information! But she said that all she wanted from you was a dinner date. That would be the nicest gift she’s ever gotten for her birthday.” Kyle groaned, “God, Travis is going to kill us!”
“I’ll find her.” Anton said with confidence.
“How, you don’t even know—”
“I have my ways.” He interrupted “I’ll call you when I find her. Bye.” The wait for the trolley drove him to madness as he paced the floor. When it finally came, he sat even more impatiently for it to hit to ground level. He made a few quick phone calls around and by the time he got to the bus stop someone has spotted her roaming the streets of Kowloon.
The night life was crowded as usual as he searched for her but had no luck. He crossed a building and suddenly froze, taking a few steps back, he had a sudden urge to look up. It was the same building he had taken her weeks before when he saved her from her crazy stalker. There was her shoeless feet dangling from the ten story building. She didn’t appear to be drunk or ready to jump.
Thinking fast, he ran to a nearby take out food place to get two dinners and dropped by a bakery to get her a small cake. He took the stairs to the building half an hour later and reached the roof. The door creek open as Anesa turned to her visitor “You might want to leave before my infectious annoying disease takes you down too.” She snickered with sarcasm. The roof was barely lit, she couldn’t see the bag he was hiding behind his back.
“You’re not annoying.” Anton said firmly.
“Oh yeah? Then why can’t you even stand to have dinner with me?” she asked hurtfully.
“What can I say? I’m an idiot and a jerk for not having dinner with you.” He stepped closer and slid the cake box on the floor near her feet and showed her the togo bag from the Spaghetti house “It’s not exactly fancy, but I figured you’d be hungry.”
She was obviously pleased but decided not to show it “So? You think that this will make up for it? I wanted steak.” She turned away, hiding her giddy grin.
Anton lowered his head “Okay, I’ll just throw it away.” He didn’t move far until a hand reached out and stopped him.
“Don’t waste the food.” She grinned slowly and took the bag from his hand.
“I was going to give it to a homeless person.” He laughed and nodded “Thanks.” He took the box from her and the fork. He smiled when she wasted no time to dig into the food and began eating.
“What?” she asked with a mouthful when he stared at her.
Looking away, he shook his head “Nothing.”
“Nothing? What? Do I have dirt on my face? Why did you stare at me so long?” she asked with interest but the food in her hands took most of her attention.
“You’re…very different.” He chose his words carefully.
She stopped chewing and turned to him “So now you’re insulting me?”
“What?” he didn’t mean for it to be offensive.
“Yeah. Different means ugly.” She explained curtly.
“No, not in my dictionary.” He replied calmly.
Anesa flared her nose but relaxed her voice “So what does it mean?”
“Special.” He replied with a goofy grin, the red sauce slipping through the edge of his lips. She couldn’t help but laugh “Ah, she hasn’t lost it.” He teased.
She hastily refrained her smile “What? You think by finding me and getting me dinner that this will be okay? I’ll never forget being turned down so ruthlessly.”
Anton smiled as he put away his box spaghetti “Somehow, I guess it wouldn’t be that easy.” Reaching for the bag, he pulled up the cake box and opened it for her to see. Inside was a mango fruit cake shaped in a tiny circle “It would have been bigger if I knew ahead of time.”
She cooed at the cake “It’s so cute…Thanks Anton.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me it was your birthday?” he asked.
She shrugged it off lightly “It wouldn’t matter. I didn’t want to be treated special, I just wanted to have dinner with you.”
It was probably the most unselfish thing he had ever heard from any girl. Pulling out a candle from his pocket, he lit it with his trusty lighter. She looked at the candle strangely “This was all they had left.”
Anesa laughed, “It’s okay, I don’t mind being eighteen again.”
He lifted the cake to her “Okay now, make a wish.”
“I don’t need to.” She lowered her head and blew out the candle “Do we have a knife?”
His face fell “Damn! I forgot that. I’ll run down and get it.”
She quickly pulled him back with a laugh “It’s okay. I’m not any classy girl anyways. I can use my hands, if you don’t mind.”
Anton shook his head “No, I don’t.” She tilted her head strangely and broke off a piece of the cake for herself. He noticed the look she gave him “What?”
She smiled “It’s that stare again.”
“I look, I don’t stare.” He corrected.
“If you LOOK for more than ten seconds, it’s STARING.” She cleared it up for him before taking a bite. She moaned with her body twisting “This is so good.” She widened her eyes.
“Glad you like it.” He smiled.
Anesa sensed the vibe again as she finished the bite “There’s the stare again. Something tells me you were lying when you said you’re not interested.”
He smiled, surprised that she could actually read his inner thoughts “What made you think that?”
“The hesitant in your voice earlier. Plus you cared to go looking for me.” She analyzed.
“Well, you’re right.” He smiled “I am quite fond of you…but—”
“No buts!” she broke into his sentence.
He raised a hand to her lips to quiet her “But…my past constantly leaves me this insecure feeling. It never actually goes away and to think that I might be the cause of anything happening to you or any of my other friends…it’s hard to handle. I can’t live a normal life, I’m constantly on my toes and searching for ways to keep my cover hidden.”
“Bullshit!” she cursed.
Anton was used to her cursing but he frowned in response “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Anesa said, “Sounds like an excuse to me. If you like a person, you don’t just make up reasons NOT to be with them. You do what you can to be with them. Maybe you haven’t notice but this doesn’t happen very often to me. I don’t fall in and out of love, I usually fall in and drown until someone comes and saves me.” He smiled at her analogy “I don’t want to give up our chance because you fear for my life. I don’t scare easily.”
He laughed with a nodding head “I know you’re strong…and stubborn. As much as I agree with what you’re saying, I cannot just shake this fear off. I remember what happened to the last girl that got involved with me.”
“They killed her?” she guessed horridly.
“No, gang raped her and threw her over a ten story building. The place your sitting right now was where I last saw her before she left this world.” He looked up to the sky and closed his eyes solemnly.
Anesa laughed nervously as she gulped back the fear in her throat “That…that was good. You almost got me.”
Anton lowered his head with a smile “If that didn’t scare you…then I don’t know what will.”
“So you were joking!” she sighed with relief. He narrowed his eyes strangely at her and was about to ask further when her cell rang. She picked up her purse and pulled out the device “Hello?” she turned to Anton and away “Hi daddy. Thanks, you remember. No, I’m fine…my friend is with me.” She tilted her head to the side “Yes, I got the gift you sent me.”
“Hi Kyle!” Anton blurted out.
She froze in her place as she turned to him “How…”
He pointed to his head “Just a wild guess.” She hung up her phone and smiled weakly at him “I called him earlier after you stormed out of the restaurant, he told me this story about you in high school when you were turned down. You disappeared for days and left everyone worried.”
“And it was a true story.” She confirmed.
“I’m sure it was. But as we all know Kyle was not very fond of you. Why the sudden change of heart? It just didn’t make any sense. Then I called my old boys to ask if they saw a girl in a black dress walking around by herself. Funny, Hak Chai called me and said he saw the same description of a girl that walked in and out of bar within five minutes. I figured you were trying to get his attention since he’s seen you before.”
Anesa clapped her hands “Great work, Sherlock. Did you know how many bars I had to walk into to finally see some familiar faces?”
He laughed “Serves you right. Playing a little joke with me is fun isn’t it?”
“Very.” She agreed. Reaching for her cake, she took off another corner and pigged out. He smiled and picked up his boxed dinner and continued eating.