2 3
law of attraction
"Whoa!" Liv lets out. "Slow the hell down!"
She drags me to an empty lab class after I've just uttered the most craziest words of Adelaide Hale history. By the look of the skeleton stand, the naked female body, and some weird form of a sperm, I deduced that this was the biology room. Certainly a great place for me to gush about how I might be falling for the most unlucky fall-worthy person ever. The school player. The socialite.
I pace around, heart racing. "I'm telling you, Liv, it's not possible — "
"Facts!" she blurts. "I need facts!"
"Like what?!"
"I don't know! How you feel around him?!"
I stop, biting my lip. Steadying my breaths. How I feel around him? Oh, God, what are feelings?!
"Um." I tangle my hands together. "I like the way he looks... and he's smart... and kind of funny when he wants to be."
Oh my God. I sound like Trey when he first described Justine.
Liv gapes at me. "That's it?"
No, no, that can't be it. Come on, Addie, think! "When he's around, I'm happy. I like that we're close enough to talk about almost anything. How I can be myself with him. How we complement each other. And out of all people, he chose to get to know me."
Well, technically, he didn't get close to me so he could know me better. But it led to that ultimate fact. He had to know that we would spend a lot of time together. A guy like him willingly wanting to hang out with a girl like me was a little bit hard to believe.
Liv is giving me the judgy face.
"Don't give me the judgy face!"
She rolls her eyes. "This is so confusing," she mutters. "You sound like you like him, but it's just not adding up. I just don't see it."
"Is it not obvious?" I ask slowly.
She cocks her head. "Not really. If someone knows you well."
"Thank God." I can not have Trey know about this crazy possibility. It would be the downfall of our friendship... and maybe his relationship with Justine, too.
Liv eyes me, waiting.
"I don't know, man." I lean against the table, suddenly drained. "I feel really comfortable... when he touches me. When he's with me, close. We understand each other." God. "Isn't that what love feels like?"
"Love?" she shrieks. "First you just waltzed in here and declare your apparent all-time crush, and we're talking about love now?"
"No! You know what I meant!"
There's sudden laughter outside the door and we both jump at the sound. My pulse kicks up a notch, but when I look, it's just a few underclassmen. I don't even see their faces.
My best friend turns to me and puts her hands on my shoulders. "Look, Addie, to be honest — that sounds boring. That's not love, not even attraction. I know for a fact that love feels like you're in a high, never-ending adrenaline that shoots up in your veins, and your heart's pounding and your head's spinning. What you have with Trey doesn't sound like that."
I raise my eyebrows. "And since when do you know all about love, Dr. Phil?"
She actually blushes, but I forget to ask further (stupid of me) when she says, "Let's just test it out."
"Huh?"
"Give it a few days," she explains, pacing around, unusually planning a bold scheme. Which is usually my part. "Do whatever you would normally do. Hang out with Trey, Justine, I don't know. Don't act weird; you're a terrible liar. But focus on how you feel around him, how you feel not around him and how you feel when Justine's with him. Then you'll know."
Silence. "And if I don't?"
"I'll be your knight in shining armour."
I slowly grin, remembering the time I said that to her during Iris's party. It feels like a lifetime ago, when I didn't even talked to the Reynolds twins back then.
"Forty-eight hours," Liv decides.
What?! "Seventy-two!"
She sighs. "Fine. Seventy-two hours. You got three days, my friend."
Yeap. Three days to figure out what the hell is going on in my mind.
As Liv and I are heading to the door, she peeks back and makes a teasing face at me. Her dark eyes are gleaming. Don't say it, I think. Do. Not. Say —
"Played by the player," she smirks.
I hit her shoulder. "Our friendship is officially terminated."
2 1 H O U R S
"The Law of..." I mumble, skimming the spines. Where the hell is — "Aha!"
I pull out a thick hardcover of The Law of Attraction by this couple named Esther and Jerry Hicks. But it's based on the teachings of this dude named Abraham. Like Abraham Lincoln?
I question my intelligence sometimes.
I've been constantly thinking about the possibilities all night. Couldn't even sleep. I want Liv to be right — that what I feel for Trey isn't attraction or, God forbid, love — but what if it's actually true? I wouldn't know, because I've never felt this way about anyone before. It's all very weird and confusing. Even the guys I dated weren't as complicated as this.
I open the first few pages, scanning the words.
The entire universe yields to you or begins to respond to you once you make a decision. It is in your ambivalence that you drive yourselves nuts.
What the hell does that mean? My eyebrows pull together. I've never been confused in my life. Did I even pick the right book?
I sigh, mentally slapping myself. If only this was a competition. At least, if it were, I know where I'm heading at. A dance competition, a swimming round, a mural challenge — I'd prepare, I'd have a specific goal, and it was all analytical and amusing at the same time. I'd prepare for quite the unknown, something I'd have no experience with, but it's always a rush to find out what holds at the end of the line.
But this? Feelings? Attraction? Jealousy? All unpredictable variables. There's no way to prepare for such a thing.
"Greetings," a male voice says near me.
A squeal escapes my mouth. I jump, hitting my shoulder on a shelf in the process, and when I look beside me, I want to run the other way.
Trey is giving me a half-smile.
I shut the book and hide it beneath my forearm. "D-don't do that!"
"Do what? I was just greeting you," he chuckles. "It's only your ignorance that needs to be at fault."
"You sound like a thirteenth-century lord."
"I probably was a lord in a past life." He pauses. "Or an aristocrat. Someone noble."
I cock my head to the side. "And let me guess, I was probably a peasant?"
He grins, dark eyes sparkling. "You said that, not me."
The library is unusually empty, being the break time during classes. There are a few people in desks cramming for a test, and the Old Hag in the counter hissing people to "Ssshh!"
"What are you doing here?" I know he's a scholar and the definition of an academic student, but the Great Gonzalez, at this time in a library?
"I always go here," he replies calmly. He puts his hands in his jean pockets, stepping closer. He smirks at me. "The law of attraction, huh?"
My eyes bug out. "How did you — you saw!"
He laughs, softly, and says, "I've been going to this library for as long as I know. And I'm an honest man, Addie. I recognise this bookshelf and seventy-three percent of the books here."
"Your mind is an odd little thing."
"Most would say incredible, but that works too."
I laugh, and he laughs too, eyes crinkling at the corners. He's cuter when he's happy. A satisfied feeling comes over my chest.
"So why are you reading that book, anyway?" Trey nods to it. "Are you having an inner crisis?"
I graze over his slick black hair, his slightly tanned features, those eyes, and the concerned look on his face. The crisis is you. "Sort of. It's useless, though."
"Maybe I can help?"
"God no." The words come harshly out of my mouth before I have a chance to stop it. I wave my hands in front of my face. "Sorry. I mean, like you said, it's inner..."
He purses his lips. "Right." The chair abruptly scrapes backward as he rises up. "I've got to go. Things to do. See you later, Addie."
Great, I think as I see his retreating figure. Now he's pissed because I'm refusing his help. Or maybe he knows that I'm lying. I am a horrible liar after all.
I put my head in my hands. Ffffggghhh. This is just getting worse. I open the book again for good measure, maybe even find something that actually makes sense in my situation.
The only way to consciously deactivate a thought is to activate another. In other words, the only way to deliberately withdraw your attention from one thought is to give your attention to another.
Huh. You got that right.
Five minutes later I'm out the hall, quickly scanning the room to find that one guy who knows Trey maybe better than himself. If I talk to him, maybe he can give me a few pointers on what's happening.
Vic is standing near a window and a potted plant, holding something close to him. I'm surprised to see what it is: a pack of cigarettes. He takes one out and lights it, careful to be aware of anyone who's watching. Apparently he doesn't see me. After he blows a smoke, he flicks the end of his cigarette to the said potted plant, who's silent as the ashes land on the soil. I bet the plant is screaming murder right now.
I clear my throat.
He jumps and catches his cigarette from falling.
"Didn't know you were a smoker," I point out.
He smiles wickedly. "You don't know a lot of things about me." True. And I know he's not trying to attack me, he's just telling the truth. "What's up?"
"I wanted to talk about Trey."
He laughs while inhaling a smoke, and he coughs up. "Sorry," he chuckles. "It's just that you're not the first. All of Trey's girls end up asking me."
"I'm not... Trey's girl." I wiggle between my feet, nervous. "About what?"
"How to understand him."
Okay, change of plans: don't ask him that. But what should I ask him? "Vic, how do you know when you like someone? Like, really like someone?"
He looks surprised. "Well." He throws his cigarette into the tile of the window. "My heart beats faster when I see them. I'm constantly hoping, waiting for them to show up. I like being the reason for their smiles. Their laughs. I'm happy when she's happy, and I'm hurt when she's hurt. I want to be there during her best times, her worst times. And when I'm away from them... there's a physical ache in my chest. Like I'm hollow. And when I finally see her, it's like the first time, and I think to myself, she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."
I'm so dumbstruck that I actually take a step backwards.
"And which girl are you falling for?" I let out a surprise laugh.
He rakes a hand in his hair, but he doesn't blush. Doesn't even look at me or return my laugh, and shrugs. "You wanted an answer. There it is."
And he walks away, leaving me alone with the ash-filled potted plant. Damn.
Everyone is acting really weird today.
Or Love is the little bitch we all have gotten to know.
A/N: This little sub-subplot is separated into parts. Part 2 is coming next.
And poor Vic.