Surprises

I was at work when he turned up. I wasn't suspecting it. I wasn't ready, wasn't prepared. I was excited, sure, but when he asked me if I was busy I suddenly began brainstorming excuses.

"I think I'm going out to dinner with my family sometime this weekend," I said (for the record, that was not a lie). He said to find out what else I was up to and we could hang round on the day I was free.

But I didn't want to.

When he left, I wracked my brain for excuses. I went out back and asked my co-worker for advice. "Pretend you've got food poisoning from what you had at lunch," "pretend I had a drug overdose and you want to stay with me at hospital."

I eventually came up with, "I'm going to dinner at my grandparents house and my parents won't let me get out of it." He accepted that, but then asked what I was doing during the day. Shit. I needed another excuse.

"I'm working on my English assignment," I quickly texted back (once again, not a lie). He asked if I could take the morning off. I said,

"If I do that, I'll never get started. I'm sorry. I'll have to see you next time you come up."

"Why can't you just take the morning off? School isn't everything."

The more someone tries to make me do something, the less I want to do it.

"I can't. The courses I want to get into next year have limited places. I have to do well this year. I didn't know you were coming up. If I had known, I would've rearranged my weekend and taken some time off. It's not my fault. School's my top priority."

Why did I not want to see him? I was scared he'd expect a repeat of last time. One which I wasn't willing to give, because I had long since realised that I don't like him in that way. I don't get why he wanted to hang out with me so badly. Before we left for the army, we were hardly friends.

I don't like surprises.