"You're going to go do what?" Logan asks again as he stalks behind me in the hallway.
The last period bell signaling the end of the school day had just rang a few minutes ago. Everyone was trying to quickly exit the building but I preferred not to get smushed in the entrance so I took my time. In that time Logan had managed to maneuver his way over to me.
He instantly questioned me on my plans today and since he's probably going to notice Alyssa outside the school anyways I decided to just tell him. His left eyebrow raised in confusion after I told him as if he didn't expect me to have plans.
"Do you really need me to repeat it?" I sigh, adjusting my bag in the process.
"No its just that-" He falls silent for a few seconds "No, Never mind."
"Wha- What do you mean never mind? Do you have a problem with me hanging out with her or something?" I question.
His lips curve into a sour line while he shakes his head no.
"So then what's the problem?" I try to increase my walking speed a bit, who knows how long Alyssa must have been waiting by now.
"There is no problem." He sighs as he shoves his hands inside of his pockets.
The main entrance soon becomes visible and I take it up another notch. My legs were going into an almost jogging mode. The wave of students that typically appeared around the front had now vanished and it seemed more welcoming to exit the building.
I step out of the school, the harsh cold winds instantly blowing my hair away from my face. Skimming the street opposite of the school Alyssa's shiny car stands out among the buses and trucks surrounding it.
I let out a relieved breath, glad to find her in front of the school where she said she would be. Suddenly a large hand touches my lower back and I jump startled to see Logan behind me. I guess I forgot about him in the midst of searching for Alyssa.
The memory of Alyssa on the phone last night flashes through my mind. I quickly glance between her car and Logan repeatedly. I couldn't tell if she could see me and Logan, her windows were too tinted for me to see through.
"Uh, Well" I gulp, taking one last glance at Logan "I'll be going now."
I turn around ready to put as much distance between us as possible when Logan gently pulls me back and into a hug. It lasts barely two seconds but rapidly fills me with warmth. Just as quickly as his skin touches mine its gone.
"Bye Gracie. Have a nice time with Alyssa." He half smirks, walking backwards away from me.
Words take too long to form in my mouth so instead I give a small wave goodbye, my lips forming a thin line. When he turns arounds fully and continues to walk a breath I didn't realize I was holding escapes from my lungs.
The warmth inside of me disappears almost immediately once I regain my focus. My hands twitch by my sides as I approach Alyssa's car. I hear the door click once I'm near the side and I briskly open the door and slip into the seat.
Alyssa sits slumped forward with her arms crossed over the steering wheel. She flashes me a lazy smile and wiggles her eyebrows. I look away as a guilty feeling starts to grow inside of me.
"No Hello?" She jokes, putting the car in reverse and swiftly pulling out of her parking space.
"Eh, Greetings are formalities anyways." I reply before placing my bag near my legs and swinging the seatbelt over my body.
"Wow. Never thought about it like that." She mumbles before leaning over and turning on the radio.
The mood inside of the car is slightly lifted. The sound of cheery pop music fills the entire area of the car and Alyssa hums along to it as she drives.
"So where are you taking us exactly?" I ask trying to initiate a conversation.
"The Mall." The car smoothly comes to a stop at the sight of a red light.
"What for?" I question. I surely don't need anything.
"Well," She stretches out, "You remember Brett, right?"
I rack through my brain in order to match a face with this name. Alyssa must have noticed my confused face because she shoots me a look.
"The party!" She shrieks as she turns her attention back onto the road.
"Oh, Yeah." I frown.
I've been trying unbelievably hard to block out any memories from that night. Images of Brett and his flirtatious nature appear in my mind.
"What about him though?"
"Uh, Well we exchanged numbers and we've been texting..." She goes silent for a bit.
"And then what?" I push, wanting to know more.
"He asked me out." Her tone is undeniably filled with excitement although she tries to keep it to a minimum.
"And you said yes, I'm guessing?"
"Of course I did! You know, at the party he seemed really sleazy. I only gave him my number because I was trying to leave as soon as I saw your calls and I didn't want to seem rude. But after a week of getting to know him he doesn't seem all that bad." Alyssa's lips curve into a happy smile as she goes into detail about Brett.
I glanced at her, a small grin making it's way onto my lips.
"So when is this date?" I ask coughing slightly.
"Tomorrow night. I went through my closet and I have literally nothing to wear!" She whines. "I was hoping you'd help me find something I can wear."
"You know I would." I answer after jokingly rolling my eyes. Alyssa was such a drama queen. She had the world of clothes and looked good in almost anything. It's impossible to believe that she would have nothing to wear.
Half an hour later Alyssa searches through racks, judging each item of clothing with her eyes. We had only been in this store for about five minutes and she had ruled out more than half of the items that were in it.
She came to the end of the rack and pulls out a hanger with a shiny gold top on it. She holds it up in my direction and I quickly shake my head no, the bright sequins hurting my eyes.
"Ugh! I'll never find anything!" Alyssa groans out in frustration.
"Don't be so quick to say that, besides this is only the first store we walked into. If you don't find anything here we can go to another one." I say softly walking next to her and inspecting the rack. "And why would you want to wear that anyways? You'd look like the sun."
Alyssa laughs and pulls me away from the rack of clothes and out of the store. We step into another one right across from the last one. I watch as Alyssa quickly scans over the space, dragging her eyes over the mannequins for something eye catching.
She storms through the aisles of clothes, ignoring the dull toned clothes and heading straight towards the brightly colored and form fitting ones. I scrunch my nose as she picks up a crop top about the size of baby.
Quickly walking up behind her I pull the shirt out of her hands and shoot her a look.
"What?" She asks innocently.
"Alyssa, seriously?" I ask raising my eyebrows. She shrugs and continues to look around.
Forty minutes and five stores later we walk out of yet another store empty handed. I'm growing slightly annoyed but I don't say anything. Alyssa seems annoyed too, grumbling under her breath.
My feet begin hurting and I frown as Alyssa sets her eyes on another store. She gives me a look, a determined gleam in her eyes.
"Okay, This time I swear I'll find something." She says it more to herself than to me but none the less I continue trailing behind her.
"Alyssa.." I plucked at her sleeve five minutes later once her determined look turned into an upset frown.
"What?" She hisses, turning around quickly.
I flinch at first and then open my eyes to see her giving me a concerned face.
"I'm sorry." She sighs, her shoulders dropping.
"Look, don't worry about it. It's just- Why are you being so picky? What's so special about this that you have to find something so extravagant to wear?" I ask.
"I- I mean," She pauses for a few seconds and leans against a shelf of jeans, "I've never been on a date before. I don't know what I'm suppose to be doing." Her mouths quirks to the side and she shoots me a sad smile.
I stand there before her trying to think of a way to help.
"Did Brett tell you where he was taking you?" I ask, crossing my arms.
"No," Alyssa scoffs, "He said he wanted it to 'be a surprise.'" She finger quotes his words and rolls her eyes.
"Well then don't try to be fancy, just dress casual. And besides, it's too cold outside for short skirts and crop tops anyways." I tease her.
A smile returns on her face again and she stands up from her leaning position.
"Thanks Grace." Alyssa then wraps her arms around me and engulfs me in a hug.
I breathe in and hesitantly wrap my arms around her lightly. She lets go a few seconds later and flashes me a grin.
"Couldn't have told me this twenty minutes ago? My feet are killing me!" Alyssa complains jokingly.
"Whatever," I reply in the same tone, "Maybe we can finally leave now."
"Yes! I was wondering if the time would ever come."
Alyssa slings her shoulder bag onto her wrist and searches through it for her car keys.She walks past me letting out a string of incoherent words.
"Huh?" I ask confused.
She looks up out of her bag her keys now in hand.
"I said," She blows a piece of her bangs out of her eyes, "If I had known you had experience with first dates I would've just told you sooner."
"What are you talking about? What- What do you mean by experience?" I inquire, my voice sounding ludicrous.
"Yeah right," Alyssa chuckles "Play all innocent Grace."
"Seriously, what are you talking about?" I stop walking and stand there with my arms folded.
It takes a few seconds for Alyssa to notice I'm no longer following her and she turns around shooting me a expression.
"I'm talking about Logan, duh." She states in an obvious voice.
"I-I" Words get caught in my throat and Alyssa sneaks me a sly smile.
"See, there's no denying it Grace! I know you guys are going out." She places her hands on her hips and sighs triumphantly as if she's solved the mystery of the century.
"No- Him and I- We aren't," I take a deep breath and try to gather up my words,".. We aren't together."
Alyssa gives me a sour look and shakes her head.
"No no no. I don't believe that." She confidently states.
"Well it's the truth.." I begin to rock back and forth on my heels.
"Doesn't sound like the truth." Alyssa scoffs.
"I don't know what you expected to hear but-" I start but Alyssa cuts me off.
"Maybe more than just 'We aren't together'. I mean, first you and him are working on this supposed project, then a few weeks later at party he texts me saying he dropping you home and asks me for your number? I would like to think you two at least have something going on!" She mutters fixing the strap on her bag. "Why did he drop you home anyways, how'd he even find you at a party as massive as that one was?"
"Oh, I uh, I don't know. But, he did and w-when he found me I wasn't feeling well so he just offered to take me home." I mumble out. "Look Alyssa, not to be rude or anything but I don't want to talk about him."
"Why not? Got something to hide?" She smirks evilly.
"Alyssa." I say her name in a weary voice.
"Oh come on Grace, are you really saying you don't like him at all, not even just a little bit?" Alyssa looks at me right in the eyes.
"I- I- No. No, I don't like him. Now can we stop talking about him?" I ask suggestively.
"So you do like him." She states in an aha way.
"I literally just said that I don't-"
"Yeah but everyone knows that when you like someone the first phase is going to be denying that you like them." She cuts me off.
Rolling my eyes obnoxiously I side pass her and continue to walk away. My mind was racing and it makes me feel like throwing up. Do I like Logan? Would it even matter if I like Logan? No no no- I do not like Logan. Besides, even if I did I would never actually act on my feelings.
He wouldn't like me back. It doesn't matter how nice he may be to me now, it's probably just because of what happened at the party. He's not truly concerned about me. Sooner or later he'll just get tired of dealing with me.
"Hey don't be so sour." Alyssa chuckles, nudging me as jogs up beside me.
"I'm not being sour, I'm- I'm just tired." I sigh.
"You're not the only one.. And if it'll help you get out of the denial phase any faster I can happen tell you that Logan definitely likes you."
I pause, my mouth dropping open.
"And how would you know this?" The shock sounding evident in my voice.
"Oh don't sound so surprised Grace! You know that Logan is basically Finn's best friend, you know that Finn is my brother, and you've been to my house before so you know how paper thin those walls are!" She says taking a deep breath. "I thought girls were gossip central but thats nothing compared to guys."
"You heard him say he liked me?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion.
Alyssa makes a funny face, a sneaky smile crawling over her features.
"Oh wait, I thought you didn't want to talk about him?" She taunts me.
Dropping my shoulders I flash her a serious look.
"Okay okay, maybe he didn't say those words exactly but he said something along those lines."
"Which were?" I carry on.
"Hmm, I can't seem to remember. Probably won't be important to you since you don't like him." Alyssa shrugs mockingly.
"Yeah I guess you're right." I reply playing along.
"Aren't I always?" She smiles sweetly, walking out of the entrance and into the mall parking lot.
As we approach Alyssa's car she unlocks the door, the vehicle letting out a small chirping noise. The smile was still on her face and she looked pleased with what she just did. She seemed to have drop Logan as a conversational topic, well for now at least. That didn't seem to stop the current stirring going on inside of me.
Why would Logan like me? I constantly push him away and any time something did happen between us I was always to first one to end it. It doesn't make any sense.
I get in the car and sit silently beside Alyssa as she drives us home. My mind rattles trying to think of any possible reason of how this could add up. I glance at Alyssa as she pays close attention to the road in front of her.
Maybe she was just joking, maybe she wasn't really being serious. But then again what if she was telling the truth? A familiar throbbing pain begins to form in my head and I suppose it's because of all of this overthinking.
I shouldn't overthink this. Especially when it's something I can't seem to find a reasonable answer to.
Me and Fragile updates vs. School and two weeks of midterms. To anyone else taking exams I feel your pain severely. Sorry for not updating as often but my grades are very important to me and my spring break is coming up soon so I'll try to make it up then. Thanks for reading this chapter and sticking through the long wait. Hope you liked it! :)
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