What It Seems | Wattys 2023

Chapter 17

"You're not gonna talk to me?" his faded Boston slang rang through the music-pitched room, and by the angle of my eye, I could tell he was glancing at me. I'd done nothing but just simply played with the ends of my long hair, twirling and twisting.

"You haven't talked to me so why bother if you're not going to talk back?" I questioned, more stating than inquiring.

"You haven't talked to me for, like, a couple weeks, so . . .," he trailed off, waiting for my response.

"You've been practically ignoring me, as if I never existed," I said, getting a bit annoyed. He seems as if it were me who canceled our speaking arrangements. Not only that, but he seemed as if I was never there to begin with. This isn't only his fault because I could've spoken to him first, but he didn't even glance at me in the cafeteria or in the hallways like he had done before. He didn't sit with Jo or me at lunch; he didn't come by for two weeks.

"I never ignored you; I've just been . . . busy."

With what? Kissing on other girls, too? I wanted to say, but I didn't want to seem jealous; that's what felt like at the pit of my stomach. Jealousy. Because they got the attention I wanted from Baylor.

"Hmm," I mumbled under my breath.

"Are you . . . mad?" I glanced at him. He had a gigantic smirk carved on his lips and I couldn't help but want to smack it off. That's one thing I'm not - mad, I mean.

"Why would I be mad?" I quizzed, wanting to know his answer. He shrugged his shoulders, implying that he didn't know why he wondered why I was angry, but then he said, "Because I've been with other girls, and I haven't been with you." Really? This man is really sitting here treating me as if I'm some sort of game to him.

"Y'know, there's this huge difference between anger and jealousy," I informed. Adalynne, you idiot.

"So, you were jealous instead of mad?" Baylor asked.

I chuckled while I began stuffing my books into my book bag. "Why would I be jealous?"

I missed him. Kind of. Then his lips curled up into a deep, cackling smile. "You know, if you missed me, you should've just come by," he pressed, his comment pushing my eyes to roll and let out a breath.

"I think you missed me more," I argued, no smile, nothing.

"So, you did miss me," Baylor smirked.

"Stop being so full of yourself, it gets annoying," I concluded.

***

Riding with Baylor when he wasn't nearly unconscious and in pain was entertaining. Road rage was in full effect and so was the system in his blacked-out Jeep Rubicon. His road rage was something else to watch - I thought Aiden was a pissed guy when it came to someone riding his tail.

Wrong. Baylor would sometimes slam on breaks just to receive a honk from the angry tail-riders. Sometimes I'd scream at Baylor over the loud music just for slamming on brakes, almost causing a wreck.

His Jeep is also too lifted for me. It's right where I need the step-up, which is right at my hip. I had to lift one leg higher than practically my head and pull the rest of my body up just to open the door. It left Baylor in bursts of laughter, leaving a comment of how "short" I was for his Jeep.

"You live here?" I nearly gasped, clearly shocked at the size of the condo building. This building is on the richer side of town, and the building itself has practically the most expensive condos to buy.

"It's not the cheapest place to live in either," Baylor said, parking the car in a parking lot. There was a park, just only a few yards away that little kids played at, and a water fountain that held possibly over a million coins. The bricks that built the water fountain had the city's name, Shady Grove, engraved into them. There was nothing that read cheap over it; even the building had too expensive for you written on it.