I Still Need ✓

4. I get asked out by someone I don't like and I say yes

Dylan nodded.

He didn't look happy, but he didn't look disappointed either. He was just... surprised.

They said some things to each other and smiled and all that—I had no idea what about—and then Dylan took his leave. When he saw me leaning around the corner, he frantically waved at me to go away, so I took a step back to disappear behind the wall with an annoyed eye-roll.

"He told us to have fun," he summarized.

I nodded. "So when's the date?"

"I said this Friday."

"Okay... that's enough time."

"For what?" Dylan asked with a teasing tone. "To get the perfect outfit? To make sure you look all nice and spiffy for our date?"

"Don't be ridiculous," I scoffed. "You know very well I'm not looking forward to this at all."

"Neither am I," he mumbled.

Suddenly, Olivia was squealing in my ears, "How's it going with my favorite gay couple?"

Dylan and I both rolled our eyes—we seemed to have that in common, at least—and I told her Dylan had just told Floyd about our 'date'. She was disappointed we didn't ask each other out with him around to hear it himself, but she was happy enough that we did it. She even gave us a pat on the head. "Good boys!"

She then pushed Dylan aside and told him she needed to speak to me in private. For a brief moment, I wondered about what, until I remembered there was still that whole thing going on with Mr. Rosenberg.

It's about time she told me.

As I expected, when we came out onto the parking lot, she asked, "Do you still want to know about me and Fred— Uh, Mr. Rosenberg?"

"You can call him Fred, I know who you mean," I told her with a nod. If it made her more comfortable calling him by his first name, I wasn't going to deny her that. She smiled thankfully.

The name Fred didn't suit him, by the way.

"Do you wanna come home with me?" I offered her.

"I will have to tell Maman," she said, pulling out her phone.

She dialed her mother's number and the woman picked up the phone only seconds later. Immediately, Olivia's eyes rolled back in her sockets in annoyance. "Non, maman, je téléphone parce que je voudrais aller chez Hugo. Nous allons faire les devoirs." A pause, and then suddenly she yelled, "Non, pas pour se rouler des pelles—seulement pour se taper des devoirs! Je promets!"

She sighed and ended the call. "À bientôt, Maman..."

"Does she still think you only go home with boys just to make out with them?"

"Sadly, yes."

"You could've told her I'm gay."

"Oh! Yes, I will tell her that next time." She grabbed my arm. "Let's go!"

"Okay, so remember that time when we went on a trip with biology?" Olivia asked me. "Well, you went on the trip."

"Yes, you were left behind because you were late."

"I was. I came to the school and it was completely empty. I walked the halls for a few minutes, looking for people, until I got your text that you had already left without me, so I sat down in the library to read some books to pass the time. I had told Maman that I wouldn't be done until the end of the day and I couldn't call her when she was at work, so I had no other choice than to stay at the school.