Chapter Twenty-Six
"Do you wanna come over? My mom is actually being a productive parent and working today, so we'd have the house to ourselves." Faith said as we walked down the crowded school hallway. It was the end of the day and everyone was pushing and shoving, everyone trying to make it through the doors first. I glanced at her, wanting to tell her to give her mother a chance and try to make things right with her, but it was a touchy subject and I knew better than to say anything about it.
"Yeah, of course." I grinned. Faith smiled in content and looped her arm through mine.
We walked to the parking lot arm-in-arm to her car, where I slid into the passenger's seat. She started the car, pulling out of the parking space and drove out onto the street. With music blaring from the radio, it was no wonder we received weird looks from the people driving next to us when they saw us bobbing our heads to the beat and singing along to Problem by Ariana Grande.
We arrived at Faith's house, leaving our backpacks and shoes in a heap beside the door and making our way into the kitchen.
"Hungry?" Faith asked as she opened the refrigerator and glanced at me with an expectant smile on her face.
Leaning on the kitchen island behind her, I frowned and asked, "Is that even a question?"
She laughed and opened the freezer, her eyes lighting up instantly. With a silly little grin plastered on her lips, she pulled out a box of frozen pizza. She held it up for me to see and wiggled her eyebrows. I laughed at her reaction because all I could think was me. After she placed the pizza into the oven, we went up to her room to distract ourselves while we waited for our food. She flopped onto her bed, while I sat in her desk chair.
"So," she started with a teasing tone laced in her voice, "anything new going on in your life?"
"Nope." I said, spinning around in the chair carelessly.
"Nothing's happened with lover boy?" She questioned with a smirk.
I shook my head and kept an emotionless expression as my chair spun. "Nothing at all."
"Really?" She pushed.
"Positive."
"Bull," She deadpanned, gaining my attention. I stopped the chair mid-spin and look over at her. "Something happened and you're keeping it from me."
"How would you know that?" I ask, crossing my arms.
"Because normally you're all giddy and girly at the mention of his name and you'd want to talk about Logan for the rest of the day." She cocked an eyebrow. "But now, you aren't giddy or girly, and you're trying to avoid talking about him because something happened."
I pressed my lips together and looked down at my feet, chewing the inside of my cheek nervously.
"He doesn't like me." I shrugged, attempting to be nonchalant about the situation, when really my conscience was bawling.
"How would you know? Why wouldn't he—"
"He told me." My voice was quiet.
"What?" I heard the disappointment in her voice.
"Yeah," I nodded, "we were just driving in the car the other day and out of nowhere he apologized for that little moment we had that day after his mom invited me over for dinner – you know, the one you had to ruin by opening the door." I added in, teasingly. She cracked a smile, but she didn't say anything as waiting for me to go on. "He said that he didn't know why he did anything. He said that he didn't do it because – and I quote – he likes me – because he doesn't. He just didn't know what came over him, and promised that he wouldn't do it again."
"That.. sucks." She said, for lack of any other words. "I'm so sorry."
I shrugged. "It's not like it was ever going to happen, anyway."
I avoided eye contact because I knew she was looking at me apologetically, and if I looked up to meet her gaze, I'd most likely burst into tears. So, deciding to reverse our roles and ask how things are with Tyler, Faith smiled, biting her lip bashfully.
"He's really nice and sweet. He actually invited me to go to The Coffee House to see this band perform later today."
"Ooh," I nudged her arm teasingly. "So, it's a date?"
"No, not exactly." She chuckled. "The guys are going, too."
"You'll get your chance." I smiled encouragingly. Mentally laugh evilly, I think about what she'd say if she knew Logan and I were going to make sure they got together.
But then, out of nowhere Faith started sniffing. "Do you smell that?"
I took a whiff, realizing it smelled like something was burning, and as if on cue, both of our eyes widen.
"The pizza!"
❧
An hour after Faith dropped me off back home, Logan called me. I was a little apprehensive to answer, just because I may or may not have still been upset and hurt, even though I really had no reason to be. I couldn't blame him if he didn't like me. He was still the same guy that I'd had the biggest crush on, and just for that reason, I answered.
"Hey," he said, sounding unsure of how I was going to respond.
"Hey," I greeted, trying to sound nonchalant, "what's up?"
"So, we're all gonna go to The Coffee House, and I was thinking that maybe you'd like to come?"
"Yeah, I'll go." I said, hating the butterflies swarming around my stomach.
"Great," Logan said, and I wished I couldn't hear the smile tugging at his lips. "I'll pick you up in an hour."
After hanging up, I tossed my phone onto the bed and walked into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Once I stood before my closet, I decided that I would ditch my sweatshirt and jeans and dress up a little bit.
The weather was quickly changing now that we were in the middle of November, and it was starting to get chillier. The looser, summer clothes was finally being pushed to the back of the closet while the warmer clothes were being pushed up to the front.
I settled with a stripped long sleeve shirt topped with a soft scarf, and blue denim jeans with light brown ankle boots. Smiling at my appearance through my full length mirror, I actually felt pretty even though I wasn't even trying so hard. Maybe I should start ditching the sweatshirts more often..
Just as I was dabbing lipgloss onto my lips for the final touch, the doorbell rang. I grabbed my bag and slid my phone in as I walked to the door. I smiled once my eyes landed on Logan, who was standing there looking down at the ground, his hands shoved into his pockets. He was wearing a plaid flannel and jeans, along with his black converse. Hearing the door open, he looked up. He returned the smile, but it was soon replaced with a look I had never seen before when he took in my appearance. It looked like he had just seen an alien and was blinking a lot to make sure it was real.
I was about to ask if he was okay, but he quickly snapped out of it, coughing awkwardly. He rubbed his neck and laughed nervously. "You, uh, you look nice."
I bit my lip in efforts to hide the grin wanting to appear on my face. "Thanks. You don't look too bad, either."
We walked to his car together, and I could see him shake his head frustratingly out of the corner of my head. I struggled to hold my laugh in.
We arrived at The Coffee House a few minutes later and met everyone inside. The guys all gave me friendly hugs and ruffled my hair, but Tyler picked me up and spun me around going on about not seeing me in forever.
"Hey, it's your fault. You've been too busy daydreaming about Faith, haven't you?" I teased.
"W-Wha.. How--?" He stuttered, his cheeks gaining color.
I laughed, patting his shoulder reassuringly. "I'm kidding."
Faith walked in then and made her way over to us. "Hi, guys." She greeted. She hugged Logan and I, and when her eyes landed on Tyler, she smiled at him shyly. I glanced at him and wiggled my eyebrows. He rolled his eyes but I caught the smile that he still managed to appear on his face.
We took our seats at the bar and looked up to the stage where Jack had everyone's attention.
"Good evening! How are you guys?" Everyone whooped and clapped, answering his question. "Tonight, we're going to have a band play for us. This is their first real gig, and they're excited to be here, so please put your hands together for Pale Moon!"
We all applauded as the band walked up to the stage from the table they had been sitting at. It was a group of three; two boys and one girl. They looked like high schoolers, but they couldn't have been seniors because I'd never seen them before. One of the guys had dark shaggy hair and a guitar slung across his chest, and the other guy had dirty blonde hair and wore glasses. The girl was petite and had dark brown hair that fell beautifully down her back. I noticed she was holding hands with the guy with dark shaggy hair. He stood in front of the microphone and smiled charmingly.
"Hi, everyone. My name is Forest, this is Matt, and my girlfriend, Taylor. Like Jack said, this is our first real gig and it's amazing to be here. " He said, earning a cheer from the crowd. Matt went to stand behind the keyboard and Taylor moved over to the drums. Forest stayed in the front, behind the microphone. "And she doesn't know this, but the first song we're going to play tonight is dedicated to my beautiful girlfriend. I love you." He said, turning to her and sending her a wink. Her cheeks turned pink and the crowd erupted in aww's.
They began to play a song, and I instantly recognized they were surprisingly really good. I knew I would be the first to buy their album.
As they played, Logan moved from his seat to come sit next to me. "Hey," He whispered, smiling softly at me.
"Hey," I whispered back, feeling my heart flutter at how he switched seats to be next to me. I felt my cheeks heating up and looked away to distract myself. "Do they go to our school?" I asked, nodding at the band.
"Yeah," He replied, "the girl actually used to be my cousin's girlfriend, but she caught him kissing some other girl in a janitor's closet and dumped him."
"Huh," I muttered, taking the time to look over at her. At least she seemed happy with her current boyfriend.
Then Logan nudged my arm, and I glanced at him. He pointed behind me with a sly smile on his lips. "Look."
I turned to see what he was talking about. My gaze fell on Faith and Tyler, who were talking and enjoying themselves. Faith threw her head back in laughter while Tyler chuckled and just stared at her in awe. It was the cutest thing I'd ever seen.
"They're so cute," I gushed, "they're gonna be dating in no time!"
"How much does she like him?" Logan asked.
"Oh, she's head-over-heels." I smiled. "What about Tyler?"
"Whipped."
"We have to set up that blind date soon." I commented. "Where should it be at?"
Logan chewed his lip in thought for a moment before his eyes lit up. "There's this really nice restaurant a few minutes away from here. We just need to find out when to set it up."
I nodded. "I'll talk to her when we're about to leave."
"I'll talk to him, too. Hopefully they'll agree to the idea."
❧
Once Pale Moon had finished playing, I decided to go talk to Faith while Logan went to talk to Tyler.
"Hey, guys," I smiled at the two. "Can I talk to Faith real quick?"
"Yeah, go ahead." Tyler smiled, getting up to walk over to the guys. I took a seat and glanced over at Logan who was talking to Tyler.
"So, what's up?" Faith asked with unknowing smile.
"Look, I know you like Tyler and everything but.." I gave her a sheepish smile.
"But.. what?"
"Well, there's this guy that really likes you, and he wants to go on a date with you. He's someone you're friends with, and even though you like Tyler, I think you should give him a chance." I explained, crossing my fingers discreetly and praying she would buy it.
"Who is it?" She asked with wide eyes.
"I can't tell you." I said. "I promised I'd keep it a secret."
She glanced back at Tyler. "I don't know.."
"Trust me," I began, "you'll like him. Just give it a chance. I know you'll be thanking me later."
I could tell she was war with herself by the way she was biting her lip anxiously. After a few moments, she nodded slowly. "Okay. I'll do it."
I grinned and threw my arms around her, squealing a little. "I'll give you all the details later."
"Okay," She nodded, laughing at my excitement.
I hopped out of the chair and walked over to Logan just as he finished talking to Tyler.
"So?" He asked as I sat down.
"She agreed to it." I grinned. "What about Tyler?"
"He said yes, too."
I clapped my hands together and grinned widely. "This is going to be perfect!"