Maybe This Is Love, |✔️

Chapter 13

"Course I did, Pencils." The day of our detention, when we first hung out in school and she spoke about memorising all of Shakespeare's plays. I've never forgotten anything she tells me. I run and open the passenger door for her, feeling like the absolute gentlemen I was. She blushes, thanks me and tells me that I don't have to do that.

"Still won't stick!" She yells out the window about the nickname I gave her as I run around to the other side of the car and get in the driver's seat.

"Oh, I think it will." I chuckle as I start the car.

After a few minutes of driving, she turns to look at me whilst biting her lips. "I don't know if I should tell you this," She says, shutting her eyes in fake terror. My heart drops for a second thinking of all the things she could possibly want to say. After a brief pause, she hastily blurts out, "I hate bagels!"

I give her a sideways glance. "You're kidding, right?"

She shrugs her shoulders at me. "Sorry?"

"Are you some kind of monster? How can you hate bagels?" I chortle. Although, I kind of figured that bagels weren't her thing since I'd never actually seen her eat the ones I always brought her.

"I'm more of sweet than savoury kind of girl, I prefer Cinnamon buns." She moans in delight at the thought. "Bagels are too stiff."

"Cinnamon buns are good." I agree. I make another mental note of that in my head and shake my head. "Well, you sure are sweet, but you should've just told me, Pencils. I would've spent all my baking skills in some of them instead," I can feel her blush and giggle beside me and it makes my stomach melt just a little bit.

"No way did you actually make these bagels! I thought you just bought them from the Tesco Express." She looks at me incredulously in her seat. Her mouth forming an o and her eyebrows raise to her hairline. The hem of her orange t-shirt shifted slightly so I could see a slice of her toasted brown stomach as she sat up straighter in her seat. I nod at her with a proud grin on my face. "Parker, is there anything you can't do?"

I laugh. She'd be surprised if I told her what I struggled with the most. Except, it doesn't even seem that way when I'm with her.

We spent the rest of the journey laughing, joking and singing along to old Busted songs that we used to love when we were in primary school while she fed me pieces of ham and cream cheese bagel as I drove.

Close to 15 minutes later, Harley-Blair and I are finally standing outside of the school's huge front gates.

She turns and looks at me, sucking her bottom lip in like a little kid- a habit I noticed she always did when she was nervous.

"Are you gonna be okay today?" She asks.  I know she's probably still worried about the whole Brett incident. I haven't been in school since Rose's picture was posted all over the place and I've tried my best to push it out of my mind and just move on. Harley was so sweet, she wants to make sure I was okay.

What Brett did, trying to humiliate my sister to get to me was a low blow and I refuse to get any lower than him.

"Because if you're not, even if it's just for a little bit we can skip another day and stay at yours." She reassures me. I smile at her and wonder where she'd been all my life. Crescent was never this caring or thoughtful as long as we looked good together, she didn't care how I felt.