Chapter Seven : did you go see her?
Paige
Malcolm came home a little later at night to find Parker and Nora reading one of her books she's supposed to be reading for her homework. She was cuddling with him on the couch as I was in the kitchen cooking dinner. Mom was traveling for business in Chicago while my dad was out with his buddies drinking.
"Are you guys dating or what?" Malcolm asked, coming over to me.
"What do you mean Malcolm?"
"I mean my best friend, who usually only comes over for me is here for the third time this week and isn't here for me but for you. So are you guys official yet or what the hells going on?"
I looked up from cutting the green pepper and looked at Malcolm, "No not dating yet."
"Okay so then what's going on between you two really? This isn't like Parker to hang out with you," he said it like it was wrong for Parker to spend time with me.
"I told you," I looked down at the green pepper not wanting to look at him in the eyes.
"Yeah and you catching feelings for Parker, isn't you and him catching feelings for you, isn't him. You guys don't click, you guys clash together and it's not a good thing," Malcolm stated his opinion too much here.
"What are you saying Malcolm? That I'll never be good enough to be in his life? That since he's popular and attractive and everything I'm not that he'd be stooping too low since Haylee? Is that it? I'm not worthy of Parker Greyson?" It hurt knowing part of the reason Malcolm was asking was because it held truth.
"Paige when you say it like that it sounds like I'm an asshole brother," he looked at me almost like he was surprised I even thought that but it was what he was thinking.
"Whatever, I'm going to go get a pizza, you made cooking seem too much right now," I bagged the pepper and went to grab my phone.
"Paige!" Malcolm called out like he had a chance of fixing what he said.
I grabbed my phone and went out on the porch before picking a pepperoni pizza just for the four of us.
The front door opened and I shook my head, "Malcolm I told you to leave me alone," I waited for a response.
"Good thing I'm not him then," Parker came over to me on the porch swing and sat next to me.
"You're lucky you weren't there," I muttered.
"I heard what you said and how he responded," he responded.
"And was I right?" I looked over at him and he shook his head.
"All I heard come out of your mouth was insecurities," he looked back at me, "Malcolm doesn't like the idea of us together so he'll be an asshole and try to get in your mind to make you change your mind. Malcolms worried about losing me to you and losing you to me. Two important people in his life and they are together."
I was quiet trying to understand something now, "Wait where has Malcolm been for the past three days if he's not hanging out with you?"
"I don't know," Parker shrugged his shoulders but there was that look on his face like he knew actually.
"Parker what do you know and aren't telling me?" I turned around to face him but Parker kept quiet, "Fine I'll go ask myself," Parker stayed seated and I went inside.
"Where have you been for three days?" I asked and Malcolm got up from the couch in a hurry turning off his phone, "what are you hiding from me Malcolm?"
"Nothing, nothing at all," he shook his head.
"Liar!" I shot back, "what is it!" I charged at him and he hid behind Nora for protection.
"You'll be pissed, give me two days and then I'll explain!" he looked at me with fear, not fear that I'm going to hurt him, this fear was different than any other time.
"No! I'll give you two minutes!" I glared at him.
"An hour then!" he begged.
"Thirty," I narrowed.
"Deal!" and he ran out of the house with his keys.
"Bubs is silly," Nora smiled playing with her dolls.
"Silly doesn't even describe it Nor," I muttered before going outside to get Parker back in here but he was gone too.
I was confused and worried at the same time, where did he go? Parker doesn't just disappear like this. I called him and it went straight to voicemail and I rolled my eyes before grabbing my keys.
"Come on Nora lets go get pizza!" I called out and she came running to get her shoes and jacket.
We drove to get the pizza and Parker ended up calling when I was grabbing the pizza, Nora answered the phone and talked to him.
"Parker wants to talk to you," Nora held out the phone for me as I was juggling the box of pizza and the keys.
"Tell him to give me a second," I responded, opening the door for us to get into the car.
"Parker, sissy said to give her a second her hands are full," Nora responded.
I put the pizza in the passenger seat and helped Nora into her seat before taking the phone from her as she struggled with one of her buckles.
"Where'd you go?" I asked, trying to get the last buckle.
"I'm on my way back, you'll see when you get back to the house though," he responded which made me confused.
"Did you go to see her?" I asked.
"No," he sounded like it hurt for me to even think that, "Paige when I promised I'd do this I meant it, I'm not going to be a fucking liar," I knew I hurt his feelings and didn't believe in him as I should it's just, I always expected failure. I always expected to be hurt in the end or used because I didn't see it coming or didn't want to.
"I'll see you at the house then," I hung up without saying goodbye knowing that if I apologized to him for thinking he'd fuck up then I'd start seeing Parker as a good guy and seeing him as a good guy will create feelings and I don't want feelings, I don't want to be reminded of that pain.
"Sissy are you okay?" Nora had unbuckled herself from her seat and was peaking over the passenger seat to look at me.
I wiped my tears and cleared my throat, "yeah just something in my eye. Sit down please and buckle up."
"Okay," she smiled at me and I never wanted her to get hurt, I wanted her to have a perfect life.
I drove back to the house and saw Parker's car parked where mine originally was so I parked on the street before grabbing the pizza and Nora was already rushing to get inside.
Madi was there and came towards me, why was Madi here.
"Hey!" she smiled taking the pizza from my hands.
"Hi, what are you doing here?" I looked at her confused.
"You'll find out, come on," she motioned me towards the house and I didn't like where this was going.
I walked into my house and there were rose petals on the floor which made me feel different.
"Where's Parker?" I looked at Madi.
"Come on," she motioned, putting the pizza on the island as the roses lead to the basement.
I liked this gesture when I knew I shouldn't, this was too far. This shouldn't feel real when it wasn't this wasn't real.
I walked down the stairs and it was just Parker with Nora holding flowers for me at the end of the steps and my hands shook as I took them, Parker had a smile on his face that made me forget for a second.
"Hi," his smile was perfect and I hated that I thought that.
I saw Malcolm in the corner like this would fix the forty minutes that passed by.
I walked closer to him and forced a smile, this was way too much, "Hi."
He held out his hand and I took it and squeezed three times which clicked in his eyes perfectly.
"Be my girlfriend," his smile was there but faded.
"Mmmmhm," I nodded trying to sound excited without panicking at how uncomfortable.
He put his hands on my cheek and whispered, "I'm going to kiss you now," he looked at me like he was asking for my permission.
Part of me was panicking because this would only be our second kiss since the hallway and also I didn't like the whole PDA, or even the idea of kissing Parker because then things can get messy, "Okay," I whispered.
His lips touched mine and I kissed him back, it was nowhere near a peck. His lips moved in motion and I followed like I knew how to kiss when in reality I gave him my first kiss in the hallway. I messed up big time.
He pulled away and Malcolm spoke up, "I'm dating Madi!" he looked at me like I'd take it well but at first I nodded before it registered.
I pulled myself away from Parker then and almost charged at Malcolm.
"I'm sorry but what!" fire fueled inside me, "you're dating my best friend!"
"Technically so are you!" he mentioned motioning to me and Parker.
"When did you two start dating?" I looked at him waiting for a response.
"Well," he scratched the back of his neck like the answer was not what I wanted to hear.
"Two years," Madi was on the steps and she looked at me like I'd understand.
"Two years?" I echoed, "you two have been together for two years and are just now telling me?" Parker grabbed my hand like that would help but it made me realize something, "and you knew?" I looked at him just as hurt.
He nodded, "yes, but it wasn't my place to tell you Paige," he tried to tell me.
"Right," I pulled my hand out of his grip, "Nora are you lying to me about anything?" I looked at Nora who shook her head.
"No, I am hungry though," she noted.
"Okay, so I'm going to go feed Nora and get her ready for bed after because well life goes on right," I handed Parker the flowers and went to get Nora up the stairs.
"Paige are you okay with this?" Malcolm then asked.
"I'd be a hypocrite if I said no, right? But if I said yes then I'd be a liar and I apparently am not allowed to lie to you Malcolm. I'm processing, is that good enough for you?" I looked at him and he said nothing, no one said a thing.
Nora and I made it upstairs and I gave her a slice of pizza as I sat next to her just to keep her company.
Parker was the first one upstairs after a good long ten minutes and he sat across from me and waited for me to talk and when I didn't he spoke up.
"It wasn't my place to tell you Paige, you can't be mad about that," he said.
"Your right, it wasn't. I had just hoped that you would've pushed him to tell me sooner and not when you asked me out downstairs," I narrowed my eyes at him.
Nora yawned and I got up from my seat ready to get her ready for bed.
"Can Parker read me a bedtime story?" she looked at me hopeful.
"Yeah, let's get you in your pajamas and get your teeth brushed though," she got up from the table and stopped me from following.
"I can do it by myself, I'll come back," she ran upstairs leaving me with Parker alone.
"You can yell at me now," Parker waited but I stayed silent.
"Not yet I can't," I shook my head.
"And why is that?"
I pointed to my ears, "everyone in this house is nosey Parker," I got up and opened the basement and Malcolm and Madi looked up at me like they knew they got caught.
"Hey," Madi smiled and Malcolm laughed uncomfortably.
Parker grabbed my hand, "my car," he pulled me outside and opened the passenger seat before getting in the driver.
"What about reading to Nora?" I looked at him confused.
"We aren't leaving, we need privacy and here we are in my car, where you can see if someones trying to listen or not. Now get it over with, yell, hit whatever you need to do," Parker looked at me.
"I need to set boundaries, what you just did, the flowers, the romantic stuff you can't do any of that," I tried to stay calm.
"And why not?"
"Because Parker, it messes things up, I didn't know and I never had a boyfriend before. I don't want this fake relationship to feel real," I looked up at him and he looked surprised, "you didn't warn me either, I had to figure it out on my own. You literally could've told me we were dating and I would've gone with it. You didn't have to pull what you did. Didn't have to waste your money on a fake relationship."
"Malcolm knows the shit I did for Haylee, he helped with it. If I didn't do the same thing then he'd be suspicious."
"Malcolm doesn't have to be a part of this relationship though. He doesn't have to be there for every milestone. And you can't just kiss me all the time now that we're dating."
"At least I asked for permission if you didn't say okay I wasn't going to kiss you," Parker was getting pissed off.
"I'm sorry I didn't warn you in the hallway that I was about to kiss you! That was wrong on my part and I'll try to make it up to you okay!" I raised my voice.
"So then what Paige? No kissing, no romantic gestures, how the hell are people going to know we're dating?" Parker looked at me expecting an answer.
"Holding hands," I shrugged.
"What the hell are we in, fucking middle school! Let me guess you'll let me give you a hug before recess?" Parker smiled.
I opened his car door done with this conversation but Parker grabbed my hand and it made me look back at him.
"Are we doing this or not?"
"We are," I nodded, closing the door.
"You running off when I piss you off won't help us out," Parker mentioned.
"Okay, as long as you tell me before you do something big so I'm prepared and not put in the dark. And you can kiss my cheek but if it's the lips it's a peck nothing more," I looked at him who looked disgusted.
"You're making me give you grandma kisses? Come on Porter give me something a little more."
"Okay," I sighed, "how about you can kiss me like that but only once a week and only for three seconds."
"Three times a week and for eight seconds," he challenged.
"No Parker, that's my deal," I looked back at him.
"Fuck," he sighed before nodded, "fine deal."
"Now go read to Nora she's waiting," I opened the door.
"Wait, are you still mad at me for not telling you?" he waited and I shook my head.
"No Parker, you're right it's not your place. I just wish you could've but then that's selfish of me to ask for you to do. Go against Malcolm, it's not right of me to expect you to do that."