CHAPTER SEVEN
i spy
"where are we meeting him," asked maeve, walking behind me through the crowd of people leaving school, threatening to scuff my shoes. i was aimlessly wandering.
"yeah," i said blankly.
"hello? y/n." she snapped her fingers around my ears almost theatrically.
"i like walker?" i asked maeve in a zombie-like manner. i had been a zombie the whole day -- my body was moving with the power of my auto-pilot academics, but my mind was not with me. it was somewhere six feet underground in a graveyard, waiting for the dirt to be dug up.
"we already discussed this."
"the last thing i remember was me texting you."
"that was fourth period. are you sure you don't need to go to the nurse? she's probably still here after school."
"no. right now, what we need to do is find walker." i realized then that i had no way of contacting him. no phone number. no... telekinesis! all possible options were unavailable to us.
i pulled maeve and i into the next little alcove in the hall, where there would be less people to talk over. "do you think i should... d.m. him on instagram? no, that wouldn't work. he's probably flooded with thousands of those daily. he wouldn't be able to pick me out from a sea of twelve-year-old videostar percy jackson editors."
"true." maeve paused, scratching her head. "maybe we could follow the paparazzi? looks like they're back," she said, pointing out the window behind me.
i headed across the hall and peered out the window, noticing that they seemed to be trailing after something. then i saw what could have been walker or a mannequin with a curly blond wig. he was being concealed by two people i didn't recognize. they guided him toward a dark gray car, where he got in and drove away.
˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
maeve and i decided to hang out at mine anyway. we had to finish the partner work ( thanks jake. ) and get all our other homework done. we sat at our usual place, in the breakfast nook.
"i actually want to kill mr fennel," maeve growled.
"but then you wouldn't be getting educated on brutal wars, you're favorite thing!" i pouted.
"aw shucks!"
we were laughing when my phone buzzed. it was right next to my binder in which i was working. a notification from instagram: "walker.scobell requested to follow you."
"okay, i guess we don't have to try and d.m. him. he just added me," i said. i opened the app, waiting impatiently as it loaded in. i pressed "accept" and waited for what i expected was some kind of message.
a minute later, he d.m.'ed me.
walker
hey y/n i found you through the school's account.
you
hey, i was wondering what happened?
walker
sorry about that. my parents said i can't go anywhere after school cuz the paparazzi.
you
understandable. but still annoying!
i was showing maeve my phone as we were texting. "fuck them!" she yelled. we were home alone, luckily.
"who, the paparazzi?"
"no, his parents."
"you're in a mood today," i remarked.
walker
does your house still happened to be available?
you
yes... what are you scheming?
walker
sneaking out.
maeve's eyes widened. "holy—"
"sh!" i covered her mouth — i heard my father unlocking the front door.
"i'm home, y/n," he called. "got out of work early!"
"in the kitchen! with maeve!" i tried not to sound like i was holding back tears as i responded to him. this was not good. even though walker said we would read through the script after we do homework, my dad wouldn't like the fact that he would be coming over in general. why? walker is a boy. and i'm not allowed to have boys over.
you
look, walker. my dad just came home and he isn't a big fan of me hanging out with any guy other than my cousin lmao. maybe we could do this tomorrow? or at someone else's house?
walker
aw shit. okay. how about we meet at, idk. jordyn's? in gym he said he just lets ppl show up through his bedroom window?
this was true. i have many memories of climbing up the fence and onto the roof that leads to his bedroom window. when the curtains were closed, that means you weren't allowed in, but most of the time they were open. if you knew him at any level, you were just a knock on the glass away from a great time. jordyn's always in the mood for socializing, i don't know how he does it. but the occasional times that i am, i just walked down the block, usually accompanied by maeve. even though the time there is great, it's reached in quite the dangerous fashion.
you
of course! why don't we meet up in like ten minutes? i live right next to the bagel store. i'm sure you remember going there as a kid. then maeve and i can show you the way.
walker
cool see you soon
i didn't know i was holding my breath until i finally exhaled, swiping up the instagram app. "dad, maeve and i are going to jordyn's in a few," i told him as he walked in.
"hello, ms bishop." dad slipped off his work shoes and took off his coat. "you girls will be cold out there. need a ride?"
we gave each other frantic glances before saying simultaneously, "no, we're good!"
"alright then!"
"thanks, dad!" i chuckled.
he trudged upstairs. we waited until he was invisible before we rushed to pack our homework in our schoolbags and shoving on our winter coats, both of which we would be taking on the wintery walk to jordyn's that we knew so well.
i turned to maeve once we successfully looked like we were hitchhikers. "do i look cute?"
"if i saw you on the side of the road waving fanatically, then i would pick you up in the blink of an eye, baby girl," she said in a jokingly masculine voice.
"i'm blushing!"
then there was a knock at the door. this was the one time i was so grateful to be lacking a doorbell -- one time we left a pizza deliverer shivering outside for too long at a family event. "that must be him," i whispered.
i opened the door and immediately held a finger up to my lips.
"y/n, i'm so excited to go to jordyn's with just you and no one else," exaggerated maeve just before she shut the door.
˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
walker chuckled. "he won't suspect a thing."
his cheeks were rosy and our breaths were visible. january was tugging at our skin even from under our winter jackets. but that didn't stop us.
"i don't think we've met," realized walker, reaching his hand out to shake maeve's. "i'm walker."
"maeve. i've heard a lot about you," she beamed. she better have been implying that she knows that lot through extensive research and not from my rants about every detail in my experiences with him.
"really? like how i'm the best actor the world has ever seen?"
maeve raised one eyebrow. "ohh, so the part on wikipedia how you're known to be insanely cocky is true?" ( phew, she's implying that she's a crazy stalker fangirl researcher like me )
i watched as my best friend and ( celebrity ) crush immediately began to banter with each other. maeve was very put together. when i first met walker, i was shaking. now she was shaking... his hand with confidence. i was impressed.
we started on the trek to jordyn's, the sky starting its descent into darkness. my shoulders were aching with the weight of my backpack. my nose was running from the frigidity. i had never walked to his house on a winter night.
"sorry again for disappearing after school," said walker. "my parents were so angry at me. you should have seen their faces. i mean, i bet you could now because the damn paparazzi got so many pictures of them taking me to our car."
"it was our mutual fault," i told him. "we made no way of communicating, so how were you supposed to know where to meet us?"
"true. i'm glad i found your account." now he sounds like a stalker.
"i'm bored of all this apologizing. wanna play 'i spy' to pass time," suggested maeve.
i was always up for a challenge, this one being seeing things in the fading light. "alright. i spy with my little eye... something... black!"
"my schoolbag?" guessed walker immediately.
"how'd you get it so fast?" i said, defeated. "ugh, you go, i guess."
"i spy... something...," he started.
"hey! you have to say 'with my little eye,'" maeve reminded him.
"oh yeah, oops! i spy with my ginormous, gargantuan, colossal eye...," he searched the landscape as we chuckled, "something, hmmm... reflective."
there was a moment where the only sounds i heard were our footsteps and my thoughts, asking myself what that could be. "one of our phones? i don't know, like the screen."
"nope." he crossed his arms, waiting. i kept searching. no stop signs, no... mirrors on the side of the road ( definitely a common occurrence ), just an empty sidewalk and a bunch of indistinguishable suburban houses.
"do you give up, y/n?" maeve asked me.
"yep. what is it, walker?"
walker pointed to the sky. "the moon, obviously." it was only slightly visible in the steel blue sky.
i scoffed. "way to go from my insanely easy one to your unreasonably hard one."
"that's what happens when you have a massive eyeball," he reasoned.
"sorry i'm not a nerd who didn't lose all their memory of earth science," taunted maeve.
"ohhohoho," he laughed. "that's just basic teenage knowledge."
"okay, let's see how much basic teenage knowledge you have about sneaking out, the most basic teenage activity," maeve challenged.
"well then, seeing as i just sneaked out to meet you two here, and i sneaked out of hotels multiple times in the middle of the night with my costars, i can say i know a thing or two about it. first off, you remember all the steps that creak in the floor, then..."
i stopped listening, it felt wrong. i had never sneaked out before. this little trip was probably the closest i would ever get to it. lying to my parents is enough. plus, i would prefer to keep my mindset that the only way to sneak out is to put blankets over pillows making the illusion of a body, which is always unsuccessful in movies. that's why i never did it. that's why maeve always had to sneak out and come to my house to have movie nights on the tv in my bedroom.
speaking of bedrooms, i realized we were only a few houses away from jordyn's. i could see the blue l.e.d. lights shining from outside. sweet, we were good to go.
✦•······················•✦•······················•✦
thank you for reading chapter 7!