Page 12 of Tell Me Everything
Her attitude was a bit snobbish, but that was part of the deal. Alex understood her now. Beneath her cold, haughty demeanour, Elena hid a sensitive heart that had been wounded far too often. Her façade served as a shield. He had to keep up the momentum. Maybe he'd eventually find a crack in her defences.
“So, what do you hate?”
Elena blinked once before answering.
“I hate hypocrisy.”
“Me too.”
“And pity.”
She wanted to send him a message; it was all too clear. Alex wasn't going to give up. He was so close. “Me too. See? Lots of things in common.”
Elena clicked her tongue. She'd hoped to find a flaw in Alex, but couldn't get through his good humour. He kind of liked this prickly side of her. She sighed and played along. In a voice lacking cheerfulness, she asked, “And what do you hate?”
Too many things.
“Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke. It's disgusting.”
“Are you kidding? Vanilla Coke is amazing!”
Alex couldn't help but wince, making her laugh. “I can't believe you like this crap. It tastes so chemical.”
“And the taste of regular Coke isn't chemical?”
“Touché,” he admitted with a sigh.
They turned their attention back to the screen, but the page still wouldn't load.
Alex closed the laptop and grabbed his notes. “Okay, it doesn't matter if the video doesn't load. I've already seen it, so I can explain. It's not that complicated.”
“It explains radioactive radiation. What do you mean, it’s not that complicated?” Elena frowned, her mouth set in a sceptical line.Here's a crack.
“You’re having trouble with physics?”
“You don’t?” she countered.
“No, I like it.”
“Oh, you like science?”
Unlike many people, Alex liked anything to do with numbers. There were rules and logic, and anything with well-defined rules was predictable. And Alex liked predictable things. Logical things were easy to control. “Just physics and maths. Chemistry and biology are more abstract to me.”
“For me, it’s the opposite. I understand chemistry and maths. The more I try to understand physics, the less I actually do.”
Alex smiled at her and opened his notepad. He explained and helped her solve the exercises. As they studied, Alex understood how Elena had managed to be at the top of the class every year. She was a hard worker. Even when she didn't understand, she was stubborn and kept going until she got it right. Alex was impressed.
After a few hours, they finally stopped. Deserving a break, they went out for ice cream. He was surprised to see that Elena only took a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a bubble tea. It was a strangely basic choice of flavour for someone with such a grumpy disposition, but he decided not to comment. If he said anything, she'd probably smash her ice cream on his head.
They sat on a bench in the park to watch the ducks swim. Alex didn't quite understand why she enjoyed watching birds in a pond so much. After all, they did the same thing every day.
“Tell me about yourself.”
Alex turned his head towards her, his palms getting sweaty. Her attention was still fixed on the water. It was the first time she'd shown any curiosity towards him. Now that Elena wanted to know more, he didn't know what to say. “What do you want to know?”
She shrugged. “Whatever you want. It feels like you know almost everything about me, even if I don't like that. But I don't know anything about you. Seems kind of unfair, don't you think?”
Elena turned back to him. Something in her blue eyes indicated that she had no intention of letting him off the hook. She was still struggling to hold his gaze, but she was trying.
