The Best Dare

Avoid and Meet

'This is not going to be a good car ride.' I thought.

Usually, I wouldn't mind having silence in the car but this situation is just plain awkward. I refused to have eye contact with him even though I noticed that he kept glancing at me at certain times. This silence was killing me inside because I wasn't really a quiet person. I'm more of the talkative type so whenever there is silence, I get this itching feeling to start a topic. I finally gathered up the courage to tell him about what I wanted to do.

"Hey, starting tomorrow, you don't have to drive me to school anymore. Cathy can pick me up and we could go together." I tried to say it as politely as I could, chewing back my words so I wouldn't give away the things I really wanted to say.

"Why not? If I drive you, Cathy would save her gas and time." He tried to reason out. What was his purpose for even trying? He knows that I wouldn't give in no matter what reason he gave out.

"Look, it's because I don't want to be with you. Don't you get it? After what happened, what makes you think I could trust you again?" I stopped myself from rolling my eyes and saying anymore. I seem to get pissed off every time I talk to him.

"I get it. You don't want anything to do with me. But we can't avoid each other forever Andrea. We live beside each other and our mothers are best friends." Damn, he had a point. We would probably be seeing each other more often now that our moms live right next to each other. I scrunched my eyebrows together and tried to think.

"We don't ALWAYS have to show up anyway. If I had a valid reason, then I wouldn't need to see you at all." I said, proud of my answer.

"Whatever. I'm just telling you ahead. We can never avoid each other because you and I have history. You didn't even let me explain to you what happened on that day." I scoffed at him. Let him explain? Really? I think he didn't have to explain from what I saw and based on his expression, it proved enough that it was real.

We both ignored each other right after that. I saw that he finally reached school and I was thanking God for helping me in that car ride. I seriously wouldn't have survived it. When he parked at a parking slot, I immediately jumped out of the car, not even bothering to say my gratitude. I heard him sigh but I ignored it, heading towards the school. As I went through the doors, I immediately searched for Cathy.

I found her standing right in front of her locker. There was something different though. Derrick was with her, talking as if they were together for a really long time. I approached them and was greeted with warm smiles and good mornings. I greeted them back and asked out of curiosity,

"So what's up with you guys? You guys together now?" Cathy looked at me. She had this serious look on her face as if she was about to tell me something really important. She nodded after a mere second and I looked between them two. Derrick wasn't a bad guy. He was just a regular guy who plays football, no worries. I smiled back and congratulated them. I really was happy for Cathy. She looked happy with Derrick so I guess it's okay for me to allow Derrick to court her. 'I sound like a mom...' I thought.

I congratulated them and left them to have quality time with each other before classes start. I quickly went to get my schedule, forgetting about it since I was distracted with the Derrick-Cathy thing. As I was going to open the door, it opened and hit my nose so bad. I landed on my butt and clutched my nose from the pain I was feeling.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you. Do you need some help?" Hey, I knew that voice. Even if my nose was hurting so bad, I could recognize that voice anytime and anywhere. I looked up to see if I was correct. My shocked face was returned with another shocked face. There he was, Logan Fritzgraw, in his glorious body. The shocked look on his face was quickly replaced with a smirk once he found out it was me.

"Well, what do we have here? Andrea Carlton, the goddess of being a klutz." I just stared at him with a big, open mouth. When I finally found my voice, I said,

"This time wasn't even my fault! You were the one who opened the door too fast for the eye to see." I smugly said it, knowing that I wasn't in fault. He just laughed at me as if I were joking. 

"Okay, Andrea. I'm sorry. Better?" He still laughed, clutching his stomach already.

"Why are you laughing so much? I didn't even do anything."

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." He said and went away, still chuckling. I looked at his retreating back, still curious on why he kept laughing. I shook my head and went in the office to get my schedule. 

***

The day went by fast, faster than I thought it would be. I was happy that Luke did not interact with me for the rest of the day. Cathy dropped me off at my house in a quick manner since she was going on her first date with Derrick.

As always, I was greeted by Jorge at the door. I replied back and headed to the kitchen to grab some food. I noticed that my mother and a guy clad in black was in there. With all the grocery bags around, I guessed that my mom went to the grocery. She loved grocery shopping. Even if we had a lot of maids to do that, she forced them to not do it because she wanted to do it herself. She looked back from arranging the things into the pantry and saw that I arrived.

"Hi, honey!" She ran to me and hugged me.

"Hi, mom! You're early today." I hugged her back.

"I got off from work early since I wanted to do the grocery. There weren't much people in the shop anyway so I left and let Sarah manage them." Sarah was my mother's secretary. She's a really kind woman and gave us her homemade chocolate chip cookies whenever Christmas arrived.

"I see. So who's that guy in the kitchen? He seems to look young from the back." I asked curiously.

"Oh. I met him when my groceries fell when I got them out of the car. He helped me carry them to the kitchen so I offered to cook dinner for him as thanks. He seems to be around your age though. Come and meet him." She pulled me deeper into the kitchen and saw that the guy was still facing back.

"Logan, face here and meet my daughter." said mom. I was curious if this guy was actually THE Logan or some other Logan. I just shrugged it off but when he faced us, my jaw dropped so wide that a hundred flies could get in. 

"Oh, hey Andrea. I didn't know Amanda was your mom." He smirked at me.

"You guys already know each other?" my mom raised her eyebrows.

"Yes. We go to the same school, mom." I answered her quickly before Logan could say anything.

"Oh, since you two are already well acquainted, Logan, go wait in Andrea's room. I'll prepare some snacks for you guys and you two could do some homework together or something." She hinted teasingly and I groaned.

"Why my room? He's a guy, mom!" I complained. 

"It's time for you to step up your game and start hanging out with guys, Andrea." My mom tried to reason out.

"Okay, fine. Just this once though." I grumbled, knowing I wouldn't win against her. I grabbed my bag and mumbled a "Let's go" to him and went up the stairs. As I reached my room, I thought of thanking the maids later for keeping my room clean.

"You could sit on my bed or something. I'm gonna be right back." I grabbed clothes from my closet and rushed to the bathroom. I quickly changed into a tank top and shorts and left the bathroom. When I went back to my room, I saw that he was doing something with my phone while sitting on my bed. 

"Hey, stop touching my phone!" I went and tried to grab my phone away from him.

"Never." He laughed at my effort of trying to get my phone. He still refused to give it back to me after a minute when me, being the clumsy one, suddenly did something wrong. I accidentally pushed his chest too hard, not knowing that he snaked an arm around me. Now, our lips were centimeters apart from each other. Our eyes widened as we realized what was happening. I was going to get off of him when suddenly the door opened and my mother emerged from the white hallway.

"Hey, here's your----" She saw us and I swear her eyes were filled with amusement. She cleared her throat, still with those amused eyes.

"Care to explain what's happening?" She asked, teasingly.