The New Normal

Chapter Eight

It was lunch and the table had a weird vibe. Blake sat beside me, keeping a respectable distance, which was weird because usually he'd sit as close to me as possible; meanwhile Ariel sat across from me sitting stiff as board, with Tyler on her right and Chad on her left.

After Ariel's blow up in the car, she tried to hide her distress and annoyance with take-out and Netflix, barely uttering a word to me. I tried to talk to Chad when he got home but gave me a shrug and went to bed. Things shifted for the worse and I wanted to know why.

"Am I missing something?" I questioned, glancing at everyone.

Chad shook his head adamantly. "No, nothing why do you ask?"

I narrowed my eyes as I was about to respond but Ari cut me off with a nervous laugh. "I think everyone is just tired, first week of school and all that."

"Or," Tyler began, causing both Ariel and Blake to jump and Chad to shoot him a warning look.

"It could be the fact that you two-" He pointed at Blake and me. "Are back obviously getting back together and I personally think that your boyfriend is a Shit Head."

"Dude," Chad whisper yelled, trying to get his friend to stop talking.

Ariel looked pale and dismissed herself from the table and Chad had a look of worry on his face as he said, "She wasn't feeling well this morning, I'll go check on her."

I nodded my head and Tyler just shook his head as he leaned back in his seat. Meanwhile Blake had his fists clenched and his jaw was set tight. "I forgot that I need to go to the library to get some articles for my history project. I'll meet you at the front for our date, okay?"

I didn't get a chance to reply because he darted off quickly. Tyler sighed and leaned forward with his hands laced together. "I told you he was a Shit Head."

I rolled my eyes. "Why do you hate him so much? Why do you hate me so much?"

Now Tyler rolled his vibrant eyes and tsked. "Juliet, Juliet, Juliet. There is so much you don't know."

I scoffed at his answer and waited for him to continue. When he didn't, I threw my hands in the air. "Well, are you going to tell me?"

"No."

Later that day, I was back at home, in my room wondering what I was going to wear on this inevitably awkward date. After an hour of deciding that I did not care what I wore on this date, I settled on a simple yellow floral sundress and brown leather gladiators. I didn't put on any makeup, nor did I do my hair. I just kept is down, in its natural wavy state.

I wish I could be excited, but I wasn't. Blake had been ignoring my texts all weekend and then when I called him, he quickly hung up, but not before I heard a female voice in the background. When he hung up on me while I was in mid-sentence, it didn't make me angry and the fact that he may have been with another girl didn't even send a small pang of jealousy. When it came to Blake, I just felt neutral. Maybe tonight would change things, but I sincerely doubted it.

The doorbell rang and I answered the door with a small smile. "Hey."

"Hey," Blake smiled tightly. He looked uneasy but he also looked like he was trying desperately to hide it. He held out a hand and I cautiously accepted it. We walked to the car, got buckled, and started to drive. After a couple minutes, he looked over at me with a sideways glance. "I thought maybe we could catch that new Rom-Com?"

I nodded my head and feigned a smile. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the last thing I wanted was to see a romance movie but seeing his reaction when I told him I didn't like the chocolate chip frappuccino, I didn't want to upset him.

We got to the movies, again in silence, and stood awkwardly in the food line. Blake looked at the menu and pointed to the number two combo. "Want to split that? Comes with popcorn and candy."

I nodded my head. "Sure, sounds good."

We were served or popcorn, candy, and drinks and we finally made our ways to the seats. Blake insisted on being in the front row, despite the fact he knows I hate it because it hurts my neck.

Sitting down, the movie started to play. Throughout the film Blake would rest his hand on my knee but would bring it back to his lap, as if he decided against the gesture. He repeated this seven times throughout the film. Along with the awkward touching, he's check his phone every ten minutes and attempt to nonchalantly answer whoever was texting him.

Thankfully, the movie wasn't long because we were out of the theater before things could get even more awkward.

He had his eyes glued to his cell phone screen as we walked to the car, and when we walked back to the I watched him as he intently texted whomever was on the receiving end, he seemed to be really invested in whatever they were saying. He must have felt my gaze because he looked up and smiled slightly. "Ariel is throwing a party tomorrow because her parents are visiting some family in Vancouver so she wanted to know if we wanted to help set up."

I nodded my head slowly. "Sure, sounds good."

We stood in front of my front door and Blake tucked his phone in his pocket. "Well, tonight was fun."

"It was, thank you," I responded nicely, making a move to open my front door.

Blake leaned in and quickly kissed me on the lips. I jumped backwards slightly and Blake smiled. "Well, goodnight!"

He walked to his car, not bothering to look back. I wiped the back of my hand on my mouth and muttered, "Goodnight to you too, weirdo."