Drawn to You | ✔️

6

It's Wednesday at noon and Chelsea and I are sitting in the cafeteria and eating our lunch. I chose a salad this time and Chelsea's eating a tuna sandwich.

"So, what are you all going to do when Brandon's home?" Chelsea asks.

"Oh, we haven't really decided anything yet. We'll probably go to that Italian restaurant on Friday evening, which we used to go to when it was our birthday. We haven't done that since I turned thirteen," I say.

"That sounds nice. Gosh! Your brother must be getting laid all the time at college," Chelsea looks like she's dreaming.

"Okay, you did not just say that."

"What? He's hot." She looks at me like I'm the crazy one.

"He's my brother, Chels. Don't say things like that about him to me." Even though I might sound a bit harsh, I know she's right. When Brandon went to high school, all the girls wanted to get a piece of him and his friends. When I was thirteen, my Mondays always resulted in answering the doors of Brandon's Saturday party mistakes, lying to those poor girls that he wasn't home but I would tell him to say hello. I guess he and I are very different at that part.

"Sorry. Just take it as a compliment. If he's hot then you're also hot," Chelsea says.

"Well, that doesn't really help me if only girls think I'm hot. Even though I don't have anything against lesbians. I just don't think that I'm into girls." I laugh.

"No, I know. 'Cause you're in looooove with sweet Landon, aren't you?" Chelsea winks at me.

"Sshhh... God, Chels. Keep it down, will you?" I whisper.

Chelsea laughs. "Relax, okay? No one heard me. But I guess I really haven't asked you about that. Have you talked to him since the party?"

I haven't told her about Landon and my meeting in the library the other day yet. Thinking it wasn't relevant since I'd probably never get to speak to him again.

"Um, no. And I don't attend to," I say.

"Why not? If I rescued someone from a big fight, I would definitely want to know how and who that person was." Chelsea looks at me with her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Just think about it for a second. Try and walk up to him, feel his muscles, and say something like 'Wow, your biceps are huge. No wonder how you pulled that guy off me without any trouble'." She smiles at me with an innocent smile, like what she just said was totally normal for me to hear. Well, I guess you get used to it with a friend like Chelsea.

"Okay, I'm not going to do that. Also, just because he saved me from a fight, which I, by the way, wasn't even in, doesn't mean that he would be interested in me. He would have saved any girl who was in my situation." I try to convince her.

Chelsea rolls her eyes. "Seriously, Shelby. How will you ever get a boyfriend if you won't ever take the risk and just talk to a guy? If a guy doesn't seem interested in talking to you, then it's his loss."

Yeah! That's pretty easy for her to say, miss perfect with perfect boobs and perfect legs and perfect lips... Maybe I should consider this whole lesbian thing. Maybe girls are easier to deal with than boys.

Since I don't answer her right away, she continues. "Sweetie, you've got to stop being so shy and try and act out, okay? You've got nothing to lose. You're beautiful and smart and so much more."

She really is a great friend.

"Let's talk about something else. Have you spoken to that guy Chris since the fight?" I try to change the subject.

Chelsea sits back in her chair and exhales. "No. He and Jordan were kind of jerks to Landon's friends. I don't dig those kinds of bad boys. Also, I found him and Laura Rogers making out in the pool fifteen minutes after the fight. I guess he was neither interested in me nor in helping Jordan get home. Some kind of friend, huh?" Chelsea rolls her eyes.