Awks. ✓

Chapter 38: Roses And Dandelions.

Through the tears and probably runny mascara, I managed to crack a smile. Alexander also mimicked the gesture, scrunching his face for a second in the process. "Ugh." I mumbled, pulling away from Claire and grabbing a hold of her hand instead. "So can we please become close friends?"

"Close, oooooh. Oh so close, ooooh." Claire began to sing under her breath.

"Want you close, ooooh." I sang along, to Claire's surprise, who shot me a toothy grin as we continued.

"Cuz space was just a word made up by someone who's afraid to get close, oooooh."

"This isn't high school musical." Alexander rolled his eyes.

"Nick Jonas mmm." Claire whispered.

"I agree. Don't you agree Xand?"

He scoffed. "Miss me with that gay shit."

"Are you homophobic?" Claire screamed.

"No. Do you have a hearing impairment?" He swiftly asked back.

Claire gasped. "How did you know?"

Silence followed as the conversation took turns we never really saw coming.

"I think that's enough bonding for today." Alexander said as he got up off of the floor. "Last person to stand up locks up tonight."

Just leave it to me to slip and fall as I was getting up.

***

"You didn't have to stay behind you know."

Dylan was almost done with sweeping the floorboards as I had just finished wiping down the last window. "It's fine." He replied, looking over to the stool I was sitting on and giving me a small smile.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, the concern heard clearly in my voice.

"Yeah, yeah." He replied, putting the broomstick back to its place. I could've sworn that he sounded like he was trying to make himself believe his own answer rather than me.

"It's just.." He began, taking a seat on the stool next to mine. "I've never lost someone before. I'm kind of new to this, okay? And it's scary, you know? Like, I don't know if the next memorial up on that wall will belong to Claire or Alexander or me, or even you."

At that point, he looked as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He wiped his face and heaved a sigh as I took a hold of his other hand with both of mine. He looked away from our interlocked hands and made eye contact. "Bethany was right. I need to stop following detours and start going straight after what I want." He looked so nervous and I could've sworn I saw his Adam's Apple move slightly. "I kind of.."

"Like someone?" I asked, in an attempt to ease the tension but instead, his eyes widened and his fave was beginning to change colour.

"H.. How did y-?" He stuttered. "How did you know?"

I dramatically threw my head backwards as I laughed nervously. "Funny story, you see. I might've found your notebook that just so happened to be open on a page of this poem you wrote about being a moon to an earth and stuff. So I figured you must've been talking about a girl that you liked."

The way his eyes sparkled at that moment only confirmed my theory. I pointed at his face and yelled. "HA! I knew it!! So, who's the mystery girl?"

He fidgeted on his stool and looked really uncomfortable. I caressed the back of his hand with my thumb. "It's okay, you'll tell me when you're ready. And oh my God, I can be your wingman, okay? I will help you catch that girl like she's the last Pokemon on Earth."

"That won't be necessary." He chuckled. "Because I like.."

He was cut off by my phone vibrating on the bar. "Hold that thought." I told him as I picked up the phone. "Hey Thomas, what's up?"

In the corner of my eye I saw Dylan move around quite a lot before he came over and whispered that he was leaving.

"Wait a sec, Thomas." I placed a hand on the bottom of my phone and looked at Dylan. "You're leaving?"

"Yeah, forgot I had something to do." He replied, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Okay then but this conversation isn't over." I told him. He pulled a hand out and waved before heading out of the café.

"You were saying Thomas?"

"I was in a meeting and just saw the text you sent me this morning. I'm sorry for your- well, Maroon's loss. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"She actually wrote a letter just for you?" He asked.

"Yeah." I replied. "And the little paragraphs in it for the guys and you."

"Speaking of which, I just wanted to say one more thing."

Well, that made me curious. "And what's that?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

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A/N:

Baby you got lucky cuz you're rocking with the best and I'M GREEDY, SO GREEDY.

Dedicated to TheRealistJacky for the lovely email and fan art attached to the chapter ♡

Feel free to comment, vote, follow, whatever :')

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