"Let's sleep like babies all night long together."
CLAYTON
I tried really hard not to overthink what Lucy had told me. Really, really hard. But it still repeated in my head over and over. Maybe I can see if J.K. and Abby can tag along? Then it would be one awesome friend hang out. Friend, friend, friend. Although it sounded arrogant, I had never been friendzoned by a girl I was interested in before. I was typically the one doing the friendzoning, but as polite as I could. I never wanted to hurt girls' feelings after all.
So there I was, tapping a pencil on my chin as my teacher droned about yet another boring lecture, thinking about it again.
In the end Lucy had texted me saying J.K. and Abby couldn't make it, but that only made me so happy. I would have been ecstatic if she hadn't of asked them in the first place to come. Maybe my intentions weren't clear enough with the matching t-shirts or wanting to spend as much time during the day with her, but I thought it was noticeable something had changed with how I felt about her.
What else did I have to do?
Of course there was the obvious option: I could confess my profound liking for her. Normally I wouldn't be so timid with my feelings about a girl. However, Lucy was different than any other girl I had met. She was quite the opposite of all the American girls I either hooked up with or tried to go on a date with. Granted, I never had good taste in seeking out a girl who was actual girlfriend material. But then I thought my luck had changed. Lucy was the type of girl any guy would want to snatch up and call his.
Yet the idea of telling her all of this shook me to no end.
I was too nervous about telling her in the fear of being rejected and harming our still forming friendship.
"Clayton, what do you think about the quote?"
My teacher snapped me out of my head and back to Earth I crashed.
When I couldn't give a response of any kind (not even a simple "uhhhh"), she shook her head and moved on to someone else. Whoops.
Luckily it was my last class of the day, and I only had to sit through another fifteen minutes. Of course that time felt infinitely longer, but somehow I pulled through without losing my head. The bell rang and I instantly flew out of the room just like that. I was supposed to have baseball practice that day since it was a Thursday, but I had told Coach Carter that I had some family matters to attend to.
"Hey, Lucy!"
Okay, maybe I had lied.
I was out of breath from running down the set of stairs to the front entrance. Lucy's last period was as a librarian assistant and she is normally one of the first people to exit the school. But not that day; I had to see her.
A smile graced her face which made me hold my own.
She had such a pretty smile. . .
"Clayton, hey." She sounded surprised, and I didn't blame her. She knew I was supposed to be heading out to the field by then.
I opened the door for her. "So it turns out I'm not practicing today. Did you maybe want to catch that movie tonight?" My face was beginning to get hot. "Just us though."
Lucy's gaze at her phone snapped to me, and for a moment it felt like déjà vu to when we first officially met outside of school at that record store.
"Oh. ." She began, but didn't continue.
My walking slowed down just a tad, the slightest bit of pep I had fading along with my speed.
Why did she look so turned off? Maybe I was over-analyzing her emotionless face, but there was such a drastic expression change after I said that.
"Hey, man, you are Clayton Hugh. Girls like confidence," I could hear Mateo's words of encouragement from a few days ago. When I told him about my feelings for Lucy, all he did was smirk. Apparently he could see that from miles away. "You got this, dude."
With that little bit of encouragement, I managed to pull out a slight grin. "It's okay, you can say no if you don't want to."
Instantly Lucy shook her head. Her eyes widened while her hand grazed my forearm as if she were trying to comfort me. "Why wouldn't I want to?" she asked as if I was dumb for assuming otherwise. "Of course I would. It's just I was supposed to do chores today when I got home. When did you want to go to the movies?"
Shit, I didn't think that far into it yet.
"I was shooting for like a five-ish showing." Hopefully they had a showing around then.
"Yeah, that could work. I'll just race to the house now and get everything I need to get done, done." She began to walk again towards the parking lot. A smile was sent my way along with a wave. "Let me know when you start heading over to my house!"
I was disappointed I didn't get to spend more time with her just then, but it was okay. I was about to have a whole evening with Lucy that could be considered a date. At least I considered it to be a date.
Lucy was already half way down the parking lot when I regained my motion. It was like a switch turned on. I moved as fast I could to my own car, which happened to be on the opposite side of the school.
Before I had a chance to drive off, Zeke popped up behind the car.
I sucked in a breath because that could have turned into a bad situation. Rolling down the window, I had to squint through the glare of the sun to look up at him.
"Hey, man." We did our handshake real quick. "So do you have any plans tonight?"
I wasn't quite sure what to say. One side of me wanted to blurt out I was going on a date with Lucy proudly, but the other side wanted to keep that information to myself. I guessed I could not be so specific.
"I'm gonna hang out with Lucy some." I shrugged nonchalantly. If only I were actually that calm about the whole thing. I was definitely shaking in my boots a bit. "Why?"
Zeke sighed at my plans and I didn't expect anything less of that. "Well, practice actually got cancelled today so I was gonna see if you wanted to join me at a party down in Angleton. The same place we went last year, I don't know if you remember." He chuckled. "You probably don't."
I definitely couldn't remember. I was sure though the night was full of a wondrous amount of drinking and girls and smoking. All stuff I wasn't interested in anymore, that's for sure.
Although I had no interest in attending, I raised my hands in the air with a frown. "Well, sorry man."
"Yeah, yeah. It's alright, I guess I can't blame you for wanting to hang out with your girlfriend." Zeke spoke so casually, I didn't fight his comment. After all that's what I wanted in the end - to be Lucy's boyfriend. "I guess I could do the same with J.K., huh?"
I ended up placing the car back in park. Zeke and I hadn't been talking much the past few weeks like we used to, and I definitely needed to do some catching up. Especially after J.K. was feeling on the fence about Zeke. He might not have been the greatest gentleman out there, but I knew he could turn out better. He just needed someone to whip his ass into shape.
"What's up with you two anyways?"
He began to rub his face, his nose scrunching up a bit. "I'm pretty sure I screwed up any chance of being with her." A laugh came out. "And maybe that's my problem, because the idea of being with any girl sounds exhausting and boring."
He was right in a way. A lot of work went into having a relationship work out. Sometimes it could be exhausting. In my eyes though, I could never be bored with a girl I truly felt over the moon for. We could spend the whole day together just watching T.V. and I'd still be excited and happy. Or maybe that's just the dream world I wished to be in.
"Well, if you don't want to. . . I think you should just cut if off with Jacklyn then. Quit wasting her time." Sometimes being a friend meant you had to be blunt, especially when it came to someone like Zeke. He needed some tough love. "But yeah, man, anyways. I gotta head home and get ready."
I wasn't sure what he was nodding his head at, but I knew he wasn't done with J.K. just yet. Something about the look in his eyes when I suggested letting her go told me that.
"Yeah, okay."
I felt bad leaving him like that. His shoulders were drooping, face looking as if his thoughts were overwhelming him. I knew how he felt. Feeling new things could have that effect on people. It definitely had it's effects on me until I accepted how much I liked Lucy.
"Can I ask you a question though? To get your opinion and stuff." I started the car back up while nodding. His face remained serious for the most part, but his lips tweaked into a slight, hopeful smile. "Do you think I ruined things between J.K. and I? I've been so on and off with her, and I feel like I've driven her away."
Zeke managed to amuse me sometimes. He might act like he was scared to genuinely like a girl for more than just her looks, but he obviously cared for Jacklyn Kate. "I thought you didn't want to be tied down because it would be exhausting and boring, remember? Was that not what you said just, like, a minute ago?"
He chuckled sarcastically while rolling his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. But be honest with me bro. You think I still have a chance?"
I began to pull back out of the parking spot, a smirk playing on my face. "Maybe if you take her out for ice cream. I heard from Lucy that's one of her favorite things to eat." I laughed a little. "If there's one way to a woman's heart, it's through food. Or at least that's what my dad says."
All Zeke did was bob his head, processing this new information to him. No, Lucy didn't tell me J.K. loved ice cream, but that was okay. I just needed to give him at least some idea to taking her out on a date and stop inviting her to parties she will never go to and baseball practices and games.
"Alright. Thanks. I'll see you later, Clayton. Good luck with your lady tonight. Don't forget to make your move, hot shot!"
I wasn't sure if he meant that in a more sexual way, but I didn't care. He was encouraging our relationship, and I honestly appreciated that. Approval was a big thing to me and my family and friends all liked Lucy.
The whole ride home I was thinking over how the night could go if I made a move. There were plenty of bad turn outs that could occur, but on the other hand an array of good ones. I would never see if I don't at least try.
I pulled into the driveway and heard my phone go off. It was the sound of Pikachu; which was Lucy's text alert for me. On her phone she used my favorite Pokemon, Squirtle, as my ringtone. We were definitely dorks at heart.
Instantly I took my phone out, and smiled down at the screen. I wasn't feeling too confident about the night before, but her message changed something in me. I felt a lot more at ease.
From Lucy ❤ : Just wanted to let you know I'm excited for tonight. I'll see you very soon. :)