I Still Need ✓

6. I'm surprised and I'm confused

 "Nooooo," Olivia whined when we told her we were officially done with her stupid games. "You have to go on more dates! Floyd won't get jealous from only one date, especially if he thinks it is not turning into something."

"But it isn't!" I objected.

"He doesn't know that. Our goal was to make him jealous, so make him jealous."

"Olivia, why do we have to do this?" Dylan growled.

"To make Floyd jealous," she reiterated. "I literally just said so."

"But Hugo's the only one who gains something from this. I don't get anything! Find someone else to do this!"

"Now, now, Dylan. You know you cannot quit now." She grinned maliciously, her thin eyebrows dancing around above her glinting eyes. "I have recently acquired a new friend, who has even more power than me."

"Are you, by any chance, talking about my sister?" I asked her suspiciously. The only person I knew who had power when it came to words, and a proper following to say them to, was Eve.

"What?" Dylan asked confusedly. "What does Hugo's sister have to do with this? We don't even know each other!"

"Because..." Olivia took a deep breath in a dramatic pause, and then continued in a whisper. "She is DukeCockroach."

Wow, I guess we have another person in our midst who is incapable of keeping secrets. Dylan's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "W-w-wha— Y-your sis— Hugo?!"

I held up my hands. "Don't look at me. I—"

"But," Olivia interrupted us, "that is not important. How did your date go?"

"Yes, how did it go?!" I heard someone ask from behind me. I didn't have to turn around to know who it was. The way my pulse accelerated at the sound told me everything. Who else could it be?

Oh Floyd, it went horrible. Can I take you out instead, maybe? I bet that would be a wonderful date we'll never forget. We'll go somewhere romantic and we'll have a lot of fun and we'll hold hands and kiss in the rain and—

"It was a lot of fun," Dylan said, an impossibly wide smile plastered on his face. If Floyd weren't so oblivious to the most obvious things ever, he'd have seen Olivia's foot coming down onto Dylan's—with the heel! I did not miss the tiny tear catching light in the corner of Dylan's eye, before he quickly wiped it away.

"Oh?" said Floyd. "What'd you guys do?"

"We went to the movies," I told him, forcing a similar smile to Dylan's onto my face. Olivia beamed with pride.

"A-are you," Floyd started uncertainly, "going to go out again?"

I inspected Floyd's face while he asked that question for any sign of jealousy, but I honestly had no idea if the blush on his cheeks meant that he was embarrassed, or angry, or jealous, or happy for us. It could mean anything. He was always blushing!

"Maybe," I said.

Olivia glared.

"Probably," I tried again.

Dylan said through gritted teeth, "Yes, we'll go again and see where it goes, huh, Hugo?"

Nowhere. That's where it will go.

I nodded, not trusting my mouth to form the right words.

"Hey, Hugo?" Floyd asked from where he was twirling around on my desk chair. I looked up from my homework and he stopped turning to face me. "Do you like Dylan then? Is he the person you were talking about before?"