Falling for you | FNF | Carol X Whitty

Chapter 7

Whitty and Carol anxiously looked anywhere but in each other’s eyes. They both were thinking the same thought, “Do I really have a connection with this person?” Both were trying to telepathically yell at their own best friends for putting them in this awkward position and both would be happy to know that Sunday and Hex were mentally shuddering in their hiding spot. Speaking of which, they were both watching from afar by the other side of the cafe.
“5 bucks that they make out,” Sunday said out of the blue.
Hex looked grossed out, “Please refrain from those jokes Sunday. And you’re on.”
Hex and Sunday had a little high five before going back to their stalking session.
Whitty was feeling extremely nervous, he was worried that his fuse would light just being forced to talk to Carol, his heart felt as though it was a bass drum.
“So… since our best friends are assumed friends, I guess we are obliged to be friends too,” Carol chuckled, half-joking. Whitty looked at her, faintly blushed, and looked away, “Yeah… I guess so.”

They sat there, awkward. This conversation was going nowhere. Both of them just thought about the millisecond of energy that was felt between them yesterday and how that would affect them as a whole in the long run.
“So, how did you meet Sunday?” Carol asked, leaning forward with intrigue. Whitty cleared his throat to concentrate. “Every Wednesday night, I go to observe artists at a club or night lounge, and that’s where I met Sunday. They performed and almost got kicked out because of profanity with children there.” Whitty nervously laughed, thinking how that event would forever change his life. Cause he’d originally planned to go to his regular place but it was closed for renovation so he went to that one instead. Now that he thought about it, would’ve he even met Sunday if that didn’t happen, and more importantly, would he ever have met Carol?

Carol chuckled nervously and face-palmed, “Of course she did, that’s just Sunday. Like any history documentary I show her, she always turns it around and says some historical events are fake. And don’t even get me started on the time I tried to get them to watch Hamilton.” Carol laughed and Whitty smiled.
“Gosh she has such a cute laugh,” He thought. He grew surprised at his own mind and felt his face heat up. He looked away, still with a small grin.
But Whitty got back on track. “Yeah, when they invited me over, the first thing they tried to do was go back to sleep on the couch. I wasn’t having it, so I flipped her off the couch.” Whitty laughed.
Carol started laughing too, “Oh my gosh, no way!” They both laughed together.
“You’re lucky, you have a robot for a best friend, one with an actual IQ.”
“You have to be kidding me, you think you have a dunce for a best friend? Hex is such a dummy! Artificial intelligence? More like Artificial Idiocy!”
Carol laughed at the joke and Whitty laughed too.
“No way!”
“Yes way! One time, I told him to meet me at the store. And there are multiple stores but there’s only one that we ever go to together. He went to the one on the opposite side of town even though we don’t even live anywhere near there! They obviously didn’t install a common sense chip in that tin can.”
They swapped stories of their best friends being idiots and laughed together. Normally, Hex and Sunday would totally be offended but since they were far away, they couldn’t hear anything. Hex does have a hyper-hearing feature but he didn't want to be rude by eavesdropping so he turned it off. All they saw was their best friends that they wanted to set up laughing together and looking like they were having a good time.
“Told you it would work,” Sunday said, crossing their arms.
Hex smiled, “I guess this was the exceptional plan after all.”
If only they knew what the topic of conversation was.

After about 10 minutes of story-swapping, the tension of the interaction had lifted, so the topic of conversation moved on to themselves.
“I heard you singing with Sunday, I’m guessing you sing too?” Carol said.
Whitty grew embarrassed that she actually heard him but he then focused on her wording, “Too? Yes I do sing, do you also?”
Carol grew shy that he had figured it out so easily, “Haha… you got me. Yeah, I do but just as a hobby.”
Whitty imagined her beautiful singing voice and smiled.
“I’ll have to hear you sing sometime,” Whitty said this without thinking and grew shocked at his own words, he saw Carol slightly blush and felt intimidated.
“Anyway… I-I saw you in a particular outfit when I first met you, do you do sport?” Whitty was hoping he wouldn’t make the conversation more awkward by bringing up the day that they had the tiny moment of spark between them.
Carol smiled, “I’m glad you noticed, I do golf. Sorry about intruding on your song by the way.”
“Hey don’t mention it, I bet we were super loud.”
“Yeah you were, but it sounded really good. You have a good voice, Whitty.”
Whitty felt his face turn red and looked away to avoid her seeing, “Thanks..” Whitty’s heart was now at the pace of a racehorse. He didn’t know why because he got compliments all the time from Hex (sometimes Hex calls himself Whitty’s hype man) but getting a compliment from Carol felt different somehow, it felt… nice. Whitty decided to take off his sunglasses but keep his hood up. Carol analyzed Whitty’s face. They were quiet for a moment but she soon spoke up.
“What… are you?”
Whitty was shocked at this question, “Excuse me?” He accidentally exclaimed with a tone, but just out of shock.
Carol realized how rude that sounded and drew back.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. It’s just…” Carol put her hands on the table, leaned up and forward, and put one hand on Whitty’s face. Whitty felt as though he would go into cardiac arrest from the physical contact. He tried his best to conceal his hyperventilating and red face. Carol closed her eyes and thought for a moment about the feel of Whitty’s face.
“Your face… it almost seems... metallic. It’s normal for someone not to be human but… You. You’re different. It’s like your human… but you’re not.”
Whitty’s heart was racing, but in fear this time, fear he had been discovered. All he could think was that Carol would turn him in as a threat to the world, his life would be over, literally. He felt his fuse heat up in his hood and knew he had to come up with a believable excuse, and fast.
“I- Um- Well-“ Is all he could spit out before…

Hex and Sunday POV

As Sunday was squealing, jumping up and down at the physical touch from Carol to Whitty, Hex feared the worst.
“I TOLD YOU THEY WOULD MAKE OUT!! PAY THE FUCK UP!” Sunday yelled and held out their hand.
“Sunday, as much as I would love to upload my end of our bet, I fear that Whitty is in trouble.”
“Of course he is, I bet he’s having a stroke right now.” Sunday laughed. Hex looked at them seriously and Sunday instantly backed off from laughing. “No no, I am oh so serious Sunday, look at Carol’s face. That isn’t a ‘moment’ face as you would call it. That’s a curious face. And Whitty’s tensed up and his body language is telling me he’s afraid of something. We need to step in.”
“Come on, it’s not like Carol’s about to expose a dark secret or something, right?” Sunday laughed. Hex didn’t say anything and continued to hold his serious face. Sunday looked at Hex, “Right…?”
“We have to go.” Hex said.

Whitty and Carol POV

“I- Um- Well-“ Is all he could spit out before…
“Dear friends, I believe it is time we should get going!” Hex announced as he walked over to the booth where they were sitting. Sunday followed behind smiling.
“Yep Carol, we gotta get on outta here.” She said.
Carol looked quizzically at both of them and crawled back into her side of the booth. Whitty took the opportunity to quickly put his sunglasses back on. Whitty didn’t object to having to go because he knew that Hex came to save him. He mouthed “Thank you” To Hex. Hex nodded.
“Why do we have to go?” Carol asked. Sunday stood dumb.
“Uhhhhhh weeee have toooo…. Walk the dog?” She said with uncertainty.
Carol looked skeptical but stood up anyway, “Ah yes… I forgot about that. Well, it was nice to meet you, Whitty.” She smiled.
Whitty grew flustered, “I-It was nice to meet you too..”

Carol walked with Sunday and grabbed their arm. Before Sunday could say anything, Carol whispered in their ear, “You have some explaining to do Sunday…”
“Ha! Whatever do you mean?” Sunday laughed nervously. As they reached the door of the cafe, the next thing that Carol said made Sunday shudder.
“Sunday, we don’t have a dog.”

As Sunday and Carol left the cafe, Whitty clutched his chest and sank back into his booth.
“Thanks, Hex.”
“No problem buddy, do you want to go home?”
Whitty felt his fuse sink back down and the possible spark disappear. He thought about what just happened, but instead of thinking how he was almost just exposed, his only remaining thought was how smart Carol was and he smiled.
Hex smiled and analyzed his friend’s face. “I see you still had a good time?”
Whitty was about to say yes when he thought back to his original thought about the situation. He passive-aggressively laughed, stood up, and towered over his friend.
“Haha… I did Hex. And I think you have some explaining to do…” He stood over Hex and looked at him in the eyes.
“Uh, Whitty, friend, I promise you, it was all Sunday’s idea-“
Whitty walked slowly and steadily towards Hex, making Hex back up. “Doesn’t matter whose idea it was… matters is that you still went along with it… and lied to me.”
Hex put up his hands defensively. “Whitty, Whitty, Whitty, buddy, friend, amigo, you gotta believe me! I did not want any part of the plan but Sunday forced me!” He rambled.
Whitty still held his smile, which made Hex even more petrified.
“You have a ten-second headstart.”
Hex instantly knew what this meant and bolted out of the cafe.
Whitty just laughed that he could scare the little sucker.

He would give him an hour.