“Well..” I hesitate. “..not straight to your face.”

“Why not?” Tina pressed, obviously she loved watching me squirm.

“Your feelings might get hurt.”

“I thought you didn’t care if you hurt other people’s feelings?”

“Other people. I don’t consider you to be part of them.”

“What, are you saying I’m not a person?”

“No.” I shook my head quickly. “I’m saying that you’re too special to be considered part of the others.”

“Why? What makes me so special?”

“Cause you just are.”

“I am.. what..?”

“Special.”

“In a bad way?”

“Not even the least.” I smiled. “You’re just fishing right now, aren’t you?”

“Fishing what?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really? I thought you were smart?”

“I am smart.”

“Okay, so you’re just dense.”

“I’m not!”

“Fine, in denial then?”

“How can I be in denial when clearly, there’s nothing here to deny?”

I laughed at this. “Jeez, maybe you’re just blind. Or numb.”

“To what?”

“To the fact that I like you.” I tell her point blank.

She looked like a deer caught in headlights. A blushing deer, to be exact.

“Why are you so damn cheesy?” She turns her head away.

“Cause you bring out the worst in me.”

She turns deathly quiet, her eyes glued to the view outside the window. It took quite a while for her to recover her bearings. When she looked back at me again, the blush is gone – but there’s still that lingering patch of pink left on her cheeks. “What are you staring at?” She asks me self-consciously.

“Nothing.”

“Doesn’t look like nothing to me..”

I smile at this. “I was just admiring your features, they’re very nice. Did you inherit them from your dad or your mom?”

“My eyes and ears from my dad, my nose and lips from my mom. You?”

“Almost everything but my hair and complexion from my mom. Thank God too, cause otherwise, I’d be ugly. I would’ve been born tall, dark and ugly. You should see my father’s side of the family.. they’re all hideous. My dad is the only fluke, he’s the only good looking one in the bunch. All the others look like the sad products of in-breeding.”