"Honestly, Grace, it was probably the most embarrassing moment of my life."
Her giggling didn't stop him from cringing, but it did make him feel a little bit better about the whole thing. "Well, what did you eat that day? Because that's important. What color was the spew? Were there chunks? Did it--"
"Okay, that's great. I'm gonna throw up again. Thanks so much."
Even on the other end of the line, David could practically see the grin on his sister's face. "What does it even matter, you know? You said it yourself, there was no connection between you two. So who cares if you threw up on her, it's not like you're marrying the girl."
"I think it's just common courtesy to feel bad about emptying the contents of your stomach on another human being. As a general rule."
"Yeah, that's fair."
David had spent the last half hour (the longest Grace had ever gotten to be on the shared phone) spilling his guts to his sister. It had been awkward at first, and having to be honest with her about how he had felt when he had visited that weekend, had been uncomfortable to say the least. But he didn't want things to be weird between them, he wanted to be there to support her.
If his friends could forgive him for all his grumpiness and stupidity, then he needed to keep spreading the love. He would never stop forgiving his sister.
Once all that stuff was out in the open, the two siblings went back to talking the way they used to. They blabbed on about anything and everything, arguing about silly things, and trying to give advice that probably wasn't that good, but it was nice having his sister back to at least try and speak gibberish into his life.
He had gone on to give her all the details on what had been going on with his friend group; how he actually sort of liked Ricky now, how he'd been an idiot with Hannah but they'd figured things out, and how he had completely made a fool of himself in front of Alyssa and at least fourteen strangers.
"So now what are you going to do?"
David sighed and dropped himself on the bed, putting his phone on speaker so he could lay back comfortably. "I don't know. Maybe buy that new video game. Finish high school, I guess."
She made a scoff sound from the back of her throat. "Not that. I meant when are you asking this Hannah girl out?"
"Hannah? I um -- what? I..."
Ah, who was he kidding.
He liked Hannah. A lot.
That feisty little blonde with the big brown eyes had been dancing around his head constantly for the last few days. It was like when she hugged him she gave him some sort of disease that affected his brain and how fast his heart beat when he thought of her. All he wanted to do was see her, or talk to her, or even just be in the same room as her. It was insane.
He wasn't sure when he had started to crush on her, or when it had snowballed into how he felt now, but in the end, it didn't really matter. The most important thing was that it had started. And he liked her.
A lot.
It had been stupid to even attempt a second date with Alyssa when it was so obvious that there was nothing there, and everything he thought should've been there was so clearly between him and Hannah.
"Oh David," Grace laughed. "I really don't want to be that person in every chick flick that has to tell the main character who they're in love with, okay?"
"No, I know, I--" He trailed off as Mack appeared in the doorway of his room, one hand buried in a bag of chips, and dropped himself on the bed waiting quietly for David to finish his phone call.
"Honestly from what you've told me about her, she seems cool, and if you like her I think you should go for it."
David's eyes flickered towards Mack for half a second. "Yeah, we'll figure it out. But um, anyway--"
"Alyssa?" Mack questioned around a mouthful of food. "Doesn't she know that you--"
"Oh, hey Mack!" Grace's voice poured happily through the speaker.
"Hi Grace, it's been a while, hey? I'm surprised David didn't tell you about all his stuff with his dream girl. I thought he'd--"
Before David could jump in, Grace was already launching into an explanation, "He did, he did, don't worry. I heard all about Alyssa. But we got on this discussion about making plans for him to come visit again, you know, to make up for the last time, and he was telling me about how when he was here he called this girl that he's only now realizing that he's super into, right? So I was just saying that he should--"
"Grace."
She stopped. "Oh, does Mack not know?"
David blinked, unable to look up. "Well, he probably does now."
Grace giggled a little bit, "Oops. I thought you guys told each other everything. My bad."
Mack's face was twisted up as he started to piece the puzzle together. "Wait, are you saying..."
"Maybe I should go."
"No, Grace, it's fine," David tried to assure her. He didn't want to have to stop talking to her. But mostly he didn't want to have this conversation with Mack right now. He was not mentally or physically prepared.
"Nah, I should go anyway. We'll keep in touch. I'll let you know when a good time to visit will be, alright?"
He sighed. "Alright."
"Love you, Champ."
"Love you, too."
"Buh-bye!"
Click.
There was a quiet moment after the soft beep of the phone disconnecting, and David felt himself start to sweat.
"What's going on, dude?"
He had barely come to terms with his feelings, let alone reached the point of sharing them with anyone. And yeah, maybe he'd had a sort of inkling that he liked the blonde, but a part of him was worried because, well, what if Mack was still into her? He didn't want to stomp on his friends toes like that.
To be fair, Mack had called dibs all that time ago.
Swallowing hard, David lifted his head to look over at his closest friend, and knew that he could never let a girl come between them. No matter how cool that girl was.
But, he needed to be honest. And if Mack was mad, or even took a swing at him, he had to at least let him know how he felt.
"Um," David started, his mouth suddenly very dry. "I..." he didn't know how to say it. Groaning, he ran his fingers through his hair. Never in all his life had he thought he'd be in a position like this. The two of them had always had almost opposite taste in girls, not to mention David had been so caught up on Alyssa that he hadn't really even thought about anyone else. "I guess, I just... I think I might kind of have a little thing for Hannah?"
Mack blinked, "Hannah? Which Hannah?"
"Like, our Hannah."
"Like, our friend Hannah?"
"How many Hannah's do we know that I would refer to as our Hannah?"
Mack's frown got deeper, "Our Hannah. You mean the girl I've been flirting with for months? From pretty much the moment I laid eyes on her?"
David licked his lips, his muscles readying themselves in case Mack lunged at him. "Erm. Kind of. Yeah."
Mack was quiet for about five deadly seconds, and David was a little worried that he had just trashed years of friendship over a girl, when suddenly Mack lightened up. "That's sweet, man, you guys would be good together."
"Wait, are you... are you serious?"
He laughed at David's dumb expression, "One hundred percent. I'm not even into her."
It was David's turn to frown. "But you just said... dude, you've been flirting with her this entire time."
Mack leaned lazily back in the chair, getting comfortable. "Yeah, I know. Her reactions are just so funny." He sent his friend a look, "I've told you tons of times that it was just fun and games. Hannah's cute, no doubt about that. But she's like a little sister."
"Oh my gosh. Please don't talk to a little sister the way you talk to Hannah."
Mack laughed loudly, "Okay, that's fair. But you two have a cute little thing going. And I wouldn't lie to you, I'm not interested in her. Maybe I was at the beginning, but I promise it never grew into anything more than just silly flirting."
"Oh," David was a little dumbfounded, but he knew he was being told the truth. His shoulders were suddenly lighter, and the icky sensation had dissolved from his stomach. "Okay, cool."
"So this thing with Alyssa is really over then, hey?"
David nodded slowly, "Yeah, I... I think it is. I think it needs to be."
"That's good, you have put her on a pedestal for the last year and a half," he chuckled. "It was good for you to realize she's a real person."
"What? What do you mean?"
"I mean, Alyssa's a babe, yeah, and she's super sweet but she's not perfect. I don't know," he shrugged casually. "Sometimes I kinda wondered if you were using her as a distraction from everything that was going on, and you made her out to be this angel that would solve all your problems."
David stared at his friend who didn't seem to realize the weight of what he was saying. "Dude."
"Huh?"
"And you didn't think to mention any of that to me?"
Mack laughed and shrugged as if it didn't matter. "I don't know, man. I was kind of rooting for you two, either way. If you got in the Harvard family I'd finally have the rich best friend I'd always dreamed of."
He had to fight the smile pushing it's way onto his face as he shook his head. "You're the worst."
"Whatever, you're still ending up with a babe in the end, so why does it matter?"
David could only laugh.
After another moment of silence, Mack sat up as though he had come to a sudden revelation. "Wait. Does this mean I'm not allowed to use pick up lines on Hannah anymore?"
"...yes, Mack. That is what this means."
"Dang it."
⋈ ⋈ ⋈ ⋈ ⋈ ⋈ ⋈ ⋈ ⋈
Considering the amount of time David had spent trying to ask Alyssa out, he had never really thought about how to break things off with her.
This concept was making him much more nervous.
When you ask someone out, the worst-case scenario is that they reject you, but at least they feel a little bit flattered in the end. Calling things off with someone, on the other hand, has pretty much the opposite effect. And so David wasn't feeling very confident about this particular situation.
"You got this, man," Mack encouraged from their vantage point at one end of the hallway, watching the dark-haired beauty at the other.
"Maybe I should come back later," he swallowed. "I feel like I'm going to be sick and I think throwing up twice on the same girl will get some sort of curse put on me or something."
Mack pushed him forward. "Go end things with her right now, or I'm going to tell Hannah that you're two-timing her."
David sighed dramatically. It had been less than 48 hours since Mack had found out about David's feelings for Hannah, and he hadn't stopped teasing him about it. If Mack thought this was funny, he was not looking forward to what Ricky and Rachael were going to say. Let alone Hannah herself. Oh my gosh, she was going to laugh so hard.
Alyssa hooked her bag over her shoulder and shut her locker, and David groaned before rushing forward to stop her.
"Alyssa."
She turned, her long skirt swishing around her ankles, and when she saw who it was coming towards her, she smiled kindly.
It kind of punched David in the chest to see how far they had come from all the times he'd tried to flirt with her and she'd seemed disgusted, and now he was ending it just when she started to like him.
But he knew it wasn't David that she was smiling at. It was his alter-ego, Fancy David. Or the Ricky- David. And even though he was wonderful and charming, he was a way off from the guy that looked back at him in the mirror every morning.
"Can I talk to you?"
"Yeah, absolutely," she nodded, stepping forward.
"I uh..." he stammered. He should've prepared for this better. Made cue cards or something. What was he supposed to say? "I um... I play baseball."
"Pardon me?" she blinked, eyebrows furrowing.
"You told your dad that I play basketball. I don't. I actually kind of hate basketball."
Her lips parted and she glanced to the side for a moment, still looking confused. "Okay? Why didn't you correct me then?"
That was a good question.
"I think I was just really worried about impressing your parents. I uh, lied about a lot of stuff, actually."
"What? Why?"
David tossed his arms up, "Because I liked you! I did all this stuff; I started wearing ties and learned a bunch of fancy nonsense for you, but it's... not me. I love the Red Sox, and I eat a butt ton of meat. I literally don't know one single thing about flowers, and I pretty much live exclusively in sweatpants. That's who I am. Not... this," he gestured at his final coordinated outfit. He didn't even know why he had bothered.
He wouldn't say that she looked upset, but she didn't look particularly pleased with this information.
"I don't get it," she twisted her hands in front of her. "Why would you lie about who you are?"
"Because... I don't know. I thought, I thought maybe you'd like me if I was more of a gentleman."
"I've always thought you were cute, David. You didn't need to change yourself for me."
"Yeah but the whole thing with your parents and... wait, you what?" It felt like the hallway had just tilted underneath his feet. "You liked me?"
She shrugged, "Well, I liked the David that I saw goofing around with his friends. Not the one that tried to hit on me with sleazy lines and things like that."
David blinked stupidly. "So, basically what I'm hearing is that I'm a total idiot?"
Alyssa giggled but shook her head. "You're not an idiot. You just shouldn't have lied to me. I mean, I realize now that we don't have very much in common... but I've always thought you were a nice guy."
A nice guy. Alyssa Harvard thought he was a nice guy. Like, a good person.
He chest puffed the smallest bit. "Thanks, Alyssa. But you're right, I don't really think we would've worked out if I had done it the right way anyway."
There was a hint of sadness to her smile as she nodded, "I don't think so." After an awkward silence, she glanced at her phone for the time, "I guess this means that you're probably not taking me to the dance, then?"
"Oh," he blinked. "Was I supposed to? I wasn't even planning on going, actually."
She rubbed at her forehead like he was giving her a headache, but smiled tolerantly at him as she backed away, "See you later, David."
"Bye, Alyssa."
And he watched her walk away. The Alyssa Harvard. He almost couldn't believe that he was letting the girl he had been dreaming of dating for so long just walk away, with no intention of chasing after her. Junior Year David would've punched him in the face so hard.
But he knew it was the right thing to do. He felt it.
And man was he so excited to wear sweatpants again.
a/n: hey everyone! i know it's been 5ever since i've posted (ugh), i got real stuck on the next couple chapters (ugh), BUT this one is finally here (yay!) and i hope it's satisfying. (is that a weird thing to say about a chapter... i feel like it is). anyway! thanks for reading