And? Do you?
Maybe. But that's for me to know and you to find out.
I don't think Ryan Gosling will approve of that.
My text message makes him choke, he gasps for water desperately making me laugh so hard, Coke almost came out my nose!
Ha. Ha. Ha. Ok we better eat and stop texting😂
Dale. I'm not stopping you.
Tobias leaves at 7 because January gets bored and fell asleep. Tobias waves goodbye to everyone and places a kiss of my cheek.
As soon as he leaves, Sinead and Sinead's mother stare at me with their eyebrows raised as if they're waiting for me to talk.
"You like him don't you?" Patricia asks.
"No." I stay trying not to make eye contact making sure they can't see it in my eyes.
"Give over girlfriend, you're blushing. And I know you were texting him at dinner. You were both smiling at your phones!"
"Uhh." I didn't know what to say.
Do I like Tobias?
"He just said how he heard you, when you said he liked me. No flirting." Sinead laughs hysterically like I said something stupid. I replay what I said, it wasn't funny.
"No one said you were flirting. That means you were. Girl. You just played yourself." She says snatching the phone out my hand.
She knew my password. She reads his message out loud.
"Laila asks him if he likes her, his response is; for me to know you to find out, that's a yes! Oh I'm so happy for you!"
I stay over to help tidy up. Then I make my way home.
Before I sleep I open up Instagram. Let's find Toby.
Tobias Pimentel
I type in. Some weird profiles came up but not his. I try again.
Toby Pimentel
No result again. I decide to text him.
Pineapple Pizza
What's your insta?
Why??
He replied instantly.
Don't have it. Waste of time.
I huff. I really wanted to find out more about him.
Maybe if I can find out the secret about Summer? No he'd be mad. We'd lose what we have. Another voice whispers, what do you have?
Fuck it! I'll just do it.
asummerjoy
Hey
Hey☺️
Um I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about Toby? I can't find his insta...
I don't know no Toby's.
At the park? You know? January's dad?
My daughter January's dad?
Yeah. Him.
No no. That's Joel. Joel Pimentel. Idk what he's told you but that's Joel.
Ohhh. Ok thanks for telling me.
Seen
That sneaky git. Why would he lie about his name? Should I even trust the man? Why would he- wait. I can search his insta now.
I find his Instagram Profile, but next to his name is a verified tick. The ones you have next to celebrities names. He's got 2M followers. He's a celebrity?
I scroll down finding pictures of him and 4 other boys on stage. In his bio is a link. I reluctantly click without even thinking and YouTube opens to a song. Mamita by CNCO. I'm guessing CNCO is the name of the Spanish band he's in.
I listen to the song, and immediately recognise his voice from the karaoke, but now it sounds more smooth and beautiful. His voice, is pretty beautiful, but I can't stop thinking about him lying about his identity. My eyes start to slowly give up on me as I'm tired from the party, but I'll look more into depth about this, 'Joel Pimentel.'
I wake up at 9:30 pm make pancakes to make me feel good, topped with smarties.
Without thinking about it, I text Tobias, I mean Joel.
Hey Joellybean. We meeting up later? It's Tuesday?
No. I'm sorry, I can't. I've got work to do.
I knew he'd avoid me today. Just because I said Joel. I shouldn't have said it and just popped the question at the meeting.
Well he can't just avoid me. I change into a fresh set of clothes. I wear a blue dress and denim jacket on top. It's usually my signature look, but I feel good today. I draw winged eyeliner and run to my car. I'm on my way to Tobias' house, so I play Hey Dj, by the band that he's supposedly in.
I knock hard, but he doesn't answer. He probably knows it's me. I carry on knocking, till my knuckles feel bruised, I hear him run up to the door, I wait.
"Come on Toby. I just want to talk." He finally lets me in, and I hug him.
I realise what I did, then slap him on his chest.
"Who's Joel?"
"Why do you care?" He says bluntly.
"Because, you're my friend? I think I have the right to know your real name."
"Look Laila, I thought- I thought we're more than friends. I was going to tell you sooner or later, but you don't like me in that way do you?"
"No, I-," I gulped.
Shall I tell him? I look into his eyes, full of hurt. He doesn't need me.
"No. I'm just your friend, best friends actually. But that's it. We can't be more. You deserve a good girl and January deserves a good mother," it hurt me saying those words, that tears were flowing. I run back into his chest and he hugs me.
"Give me a chance, to love you, to be your boyfriend, please?" he says teary.
"Okay," I say, rubbing away his tears. He really did like me, and I'm sure I could trust him. I really did like him, I was afraid of getting hurt.
"Make a fort?" I say wiggling my eyebrows. He throws a pillow at my head, shouting out, "headshot!" I guess that means yes.
After we watch Me Before You, I help tidy up. He connects his phone to a red Beats Pill, and Plays Hey Dj, I sing along to it as I had it on repeat from the first time I heard it, plus I'm half Spanish so I new the words quite well by now.
"Guess which part is my favourite part?" I say with my eyes lighting up. He shrugs,
"When some hottie says, ' baby tu me tienes loco, loco'" I laugh but then there's a sudden knock at the door.
He looks through the peephole. And whispers,
"It's summer! We'll make it round the back and we'll jump over some fences," he whispers, sending chills down my spine.
____________________________
Authors note:
Guys, I stole the nickname (joellybean) from @cncomoon on Instagram. Go check her out. There's so much to be unraveled, keep reading! ♥️much love Sabrina x