Love Arranged (#1)

Chapter Thirty-Five

The kind that I could only fear might be... romantic.

The thought alone makes me shudder.

And it's not coming from a place of bitterness or jealousy... okay, maybe a little bit of jealousy, I have to admit. But the idea of your best friend having some sort of history with the same guy you started to acknowledge your attraction towards, does feel infuriating.

Because Beth is basically a sister to me. She's like family and the possibility that she and Evan might have been acquainted in the past does bring a sinking feeling to the pits of my stomach.

It felt bothersome and it wouldn't stop weighing me down ever since I sensed it days ago. That's why this discussion needs to happen.

"Um... Evan?" I said after a prolonged moment of not answering his question.

He stared at me with this encouraging look in his eyes, basically telling me to continue as he slowly dipped himself down into the pool "Yeah?" he asked, gazing up at me.

I cleared my throat "Do you and Beth... know each other, personally?" I began as he blinked at me, shocked "You know, way back?"

He swallowed, seemingly nervous "U-Um..."

"It's just that I've been noticing it a lot lately," I pressed on "This weird tension between you two, I've noticed it during lunch when you two were arguing about whose table I was going to sit at, and then every time I bring you up, Beth seems to only talk negatively about you-"

"Plus you get so tensed every time I bring her up in conversations as well, and so does Jasper, Jess, Colin, and even fucking Zach." I surmised, "So please, tell me, what's going on?"

His eyes bored into mine, almost as if he was struggling to get the words out of his mouth "I-I... it's just..." he stammered as he shut his eyes.

"I knew this was going to come up," he said instead, sighing "I was just too afraid and I didn't know how to approach you about this because I didn't think it would have mattered."

"What do you mean?"

"It means that... Well, I didn't think we needed to come to this, you know? Us trying to work out a relationship and acknowledge that we have feelings for one another?" he implied "I didn't necessarily think that past issues with your friends would've been a problem."

"Okay, okay, wait." I said "Past issues? What does that mean?"

He heaves out a breath "I'll tell you, don't worry. But first, we need some privacy before we even talk about-"

"Burgers are ready!" Jasper suddenly announced, interrupting Evan as he held up the plate of burgers in his hands, a big smile on his face.

Shaking my head, I forced myself to dismiss his declaration of said burgers, thinking I needed to attend to much more serious matters...

But then I glanced at the delicious pile of newly cooked patties and couldn't help but ogle, and Evan didn't fail to notice my expression as he chuckled.

"Do you perhaps wanna eat first?" he suggested.

I sighed, smiling sheepishly "Please, can we?"

* * *

Dang these stupid fucking burgers.

Just when I was about to find out the very information I was dying to ask about for days is when I decided it was the right time to be distracted by food.