Not His

8. Girls Night...Plus Griffin

I felt my pulse race a bit. Thank goodness Aria was in the kitchen getting popcorn. Another thing about Aria - unlike me, she adored the topic of guys. Where my natural instincts at this point were to gag, for some reason I was starting to understand that interest she had...

"Ooo, Haley, you like someone?!" Aria squealed as she entered the room. Just my luck.

"What? Of course not, guys be real here," I chuckled, trying to play it off. I felt heat rise to my overly-sized cheeks as I questioned myself. "...But, would it be, like, bad if I did?" I asked sheepishly.

"Depends, do you?" Aria squealed again as she took a seat on the coffee table in front of me.

"Yeah, do you?" Bridget started looking eager herself, as they both inspected this rare occurrence.

I shrugged, "I don't know, I mean I've never really liked someone before so I don't know what it's like-"

"Is it Luke?" Aria asked excitedly, eager for any detail I could give her. "You know, the guy who asked you out?"

"What? No, of course not," I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, she would've said yes if she liked him," Bridget concluded.

"Hmm, that's true..." Aria pouted before scrunching her perfectly groomed brows together. "Wait, why did you turn him down?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Um, hello? He asked me out for today and my face is in no condition to be going anywhere," I chuckled. "Besides, contrary to what either of you might think, I don't like him that way."

They both looked at each other as they tried to figure out if I was bluffing (which I wasn't).

"Come on, let's just watch the movie," I rolled my eyes with a smile. They shrugged as we all got comfy on the couch, ready to drool over Ryan Gosling.

*Griffin's POV*

She said no.

She said no.

I paced my room back and forth as my heart pounded a little in my chest, a faint smile on my face. However, that smile didn't last as my excitement and thoughts grew as I thought back to last week.

Why did she say no to Luke?

Does she not like football players?

Would she say no to anyone, knowing how she generally feels about guys?

...Would she have said no to me?

My thoughts only escalated as my fears continued to gnaw at me.

Relax, Johnson. If she hated guys so much she wouldn't have spent her entire morning with 20 of them last week, I told myself as I tried to calm down. But nothing seemed to be able to curb these nerves right now.

But just like that, as a thought occurred to me, my excitement died down.

I remember what she said after she said no. She was getting her wisdom teeth out this weekend and would still be recovering.

I exhaled in relief as all my worry fell behind. And just as quickly as they left, my mind was now occupied with other sudden thoughts.

I should check up on her.

As I rushed out the door, I ignored the small part of me that feared maybe she would've said yes to Luke if it weren't this weekend.

***

As I pulled my car up to her house, I took a quick glance at the plastic bag on the passenger seat. I had brought a few tubs of Ben and Jerry's ice cream and several cups of pudding. When I had my wisdom teeth removed last year I remember that pretty much being all I wanted to eat. But in case she was one of those girls that liked to eat healthy, I also brought some applesauce with me, seeing as she wouldn't be able to chew through a salad in her condition.