Treat You Better

Chapter Twenty-four: The Drive

"Girl, you're really annoying, you know that?" Annie sighed.

"What?!" I squealed and tackled her into a hug, not minding that a few people stopped what they were doing to look at us. "Annie, that's freaking awesome!"

"I know," she giggled. "I have a lot to tell you so come on, let's go to the library!"

(╭☞•́⍛•̀)╭☞

Once we'd gotten ourselves a nice spot at the back of the library where we won't be easily heard by the grumpy librarian, Annie began with her story.

"Well, so yesterday after I left the cafeteria..."

"Nope. Tell us what happened before then. Why were the both of you in such a mess?" I asked, keeping my voice low for obvious reasons.

"Oh um..." Annie curled a lock of her fuzzy brown hair around her finger. "It was my fault. Jason and I got to know each other little by little as days passed and it turned out we have a lot in common. He made it obvious that he liked me and I pretended his feelings didn't matter... at least for a while. I kind of started to return his gestures and..."

Susan snorted, "Gestures."

"Yes," Annie frowned at her and continued, "we'd hangout and flirt and we even went to get ice cream together once."

"Like a date?" I asked. "And you didn't tell us?"

"I'm sorry, I just knew that you guys would start making it a big deal and all that," Annie confessed.

"Duh! That's what best friends do!" Susan shrugged.

"Keep your voice down." I whispered and gestured to Annie to continue.

"Okay, all-in-all I made him think that I liked him back."

"But didn't you?"

"I did, I just-" she sighed and went on with the story. "Well we were taking a stroll in the park, really early in the morning one day. It was cold but he told me the sunrise from the hills point of view would be worth it. And it was, it was so... beautiful and romantic... Then he asked me to be his girlfriend."

"Oh." I said, raising my eyebrows.

"I was waiting, you guys, I was waiting for the camera and the group of laughing friends and I was ready for him to tell me he was doing it on a dare or something.
It didn't happen though, so guess what I did, I...told him no and that I felt nothing for him just like a total idiot!" Annie groaned and put her face in her hands.

"I told him I didn't want to talk to him ever again and I apologized for leading him on. Then your dad called to tell me about your accident so I hurried away."

Susan whistled, "That was definitely dumb but I also don't blame you. I mean, I'd be looking for the cameras too if... like... Tom Holland came to ask lil old me to be his girlfriend like, we're light-years apart status wise..." Susan only paused when Annie gave her a pointed glare. "Jeez, continue, sorry."

"Anyways, we didn't talk at all till Cassandra happened and... Well, you saw what happened, he basically meant that I wasn't the only one with feelings. I guess seeing him like that made me realize that he was being genuine. He really did like me." Annie stared into space for a second, probably thinking about...well, her life.

"So what did you do when you ran after him?" I asked, quietly.

"He was heading home so I borrowed some junior's bicycle and..."

"A bicycle?"

"Yeah, I said something like: 'kid, this is a matter of life and death, the love of my life is driving away from me because of me so I need your bike or I'll be a cat lady for the rest of my life!' and she gave me a super determined nod and I pedaled after Jason as fast as I could, basically yelling his name and feeling all sorts of stupid. But I didn't care."