Chapter 3 3

"Are you working?"

"I am," I assured. "I'm a pizza delivery driver. Where do you think I know Julian from?"

"From around?"

"From around," I repeated. "He's my coworker. My parents are getting divorced."

"Don't mess with me, Cora. Why didn't you tell me? What happened?"

We walked to the street and stood by the university. Abbott looked at me with desperation, waiting for a response from me. He has always been the stronger one, the one who faces problems seriously and can diplomatically talk to others. I'm the complete opposite of that. I can't argue with someone because I start crying or feeling bad, and I end up crying. When I'm really upset, sometimes I shout despite the tears. And I hate that part of me. I don't like people seeing that they have affected me, that they have had some kind of control over me.

"My dad cheated on mom. We don't have food. I work, and mom does nothing, and it's stressful."

"Mrs. Stace is great. I don't understand how your dad could cheat on her. What a waste of a woman," he blurted out, looked into my angry eyes, and laughed. "Sorry, your mom is lovely."

"Oh well, she's also useless because she hasn't gotten out of bed and gone to buy food. Instead, she spent it on a nice set of crap."

"You should relax. Everything will be resolved, and if you need anything, you know where I live."

"I know," I sighed tiredly. "Your mom likes me more than she likes you."

"I'm sorry to say you're right," he closed his eyes, pretending to be in pain.

I laughed at his antics and waved goodbye. The pizzeria wasn't far from the university, so I could walk there and distract myself by listening to music. My father has always told me that one of my flaws is that I don't like people staring into my eyes, at least not for too long. I've always hated it when they gaze at me while we're talking. That's why I always avoid physical contact, even though they think it's easy or that it's just a silly thing of mine. It's not. It makes me nervous, it provokes anxiety when they do it. If only they would stop, I would feel better.

When he started telling me, I didn't understand why. To me, it was just like any other quirk. Until he explained to me that people in love like to gaze deeply into each other's eyes. I was scared at that moment and shouted "no" in desperation. He laughed loudly and told me that it was true. Men like to do it, and it provokes unimaginable sensations. I'm not sure what sensations my father was referring to. I've had two boyfriends in my life, and neither of them has made me feel that. I cared for them, but not to that extent. One of them was named Tommy. He was the weird one in high school. Everyone told me to stay away, that he did strange things when no one was looking.

What was considered strange to them was usually normal to me, so I didn't listen to them. Our relationship started progressing, and I noticed that the boy would talk to himself when he thought no one was watching, and that he would move his leg anxiously when someone spoke to him rudely. I thought I was going crazy, that I was paying too much attention to what people said about him.

But it wasn't like that. Something was wrong. One day during recess, I approached him to kiss him and let him know that I would be going to a friend's house. I needed to work on a project. I spent hours talking to him about how annoying my study partner was, how much it bothered me that he made so much noise while eating, and how detestable his way of speaking was. He used to spit a lot and it disgusted me. He listened attentively, always. Everything I said stayed in his brain like a robot. That should have been a warning sign too. But to me, it was attention, and I liked it.

After finishing my rant and seeing that he wasn't responding, I asked if something bad had happened. He was looking at me a lot, and I started feeling bad, isolated. He told me not to go there, that if I did, we would be over. I accepted. No one was going to deprive me of my freedom, and with all the things going on in my head, I didn't care what he tried to do. After a while, he started following me. He was crazy, always wherever I was. My parents had to change my school, and we moved houses without him knowing. It was difficult for me to get him out of my life, to leave behind everything I had built for a worthless person.

I opened the door of the pizzeria and smiled at the guys. I left the coat I was carrying on the rack and went inside to greet my boss and Julian.

"Mr. Gilbert, how are you?"

"Doing well, sweetheart. You need to deliver a pizza to this address," he handed me the slip, and I nodded. "I was going to send Julian, but he has more orders than you tonight, so you'll do it for him. The house is enormous, make sure to provide excellent service to the customer. We can't afford to lose a customer like that."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure the order leaves them satisfied."

"Perfect."

My boss walked away down the hallway, and I smiled at Julian knowingly.

"So, you have a lot of orders, huh?"

He laughed.

"That guy is unbearable. I would hate to set foot in his house again. I remember delivering a pizza to him once, he treated me like crap. He slammed the door in my face! That idiot made me so angry. I told Gilbert everything went well, but it was a lie. I don't know how he came up with the idea to order another pizza."

"You always exaggerate everything. I think you're doing it again. Relax. I'll do it right. He's going to love me."

"We'll see," he sang.