Chapter Sixty-Seven:
I was totally correct; I spent all of the rest of the night apologising profusely to Bryce, but he seemed okay with it all for some reason.
He kept insisting that it was fine, and he was just glad that we no longer had to hide anything from my parents. I could tell that he was still a little upset about the whole situation, but he didn't let it show one bit, not even as he walked out the door to get home for the night.
We're holding hands right now, standing in front of all our friends, back to the lockers.
It's crazy to know that the eight of us aren't going to be together anymore after this year; Bryce and I will be in New York City, Mateo got into Western, so he'll be moving to London, Ontario, and everyone else has plans on attending different universities across our city.
"So . . . did you get in?" Jordan asks, teetering on his heels as he stands there, awaiting an answer.
I bite my lip, feeling excited all over again about Juilliard.
I nod at him, and Jordan gets a huge smile on his face, stepping forward and pulling me into a hug.
Bryce lets out a huff as the embrace forces him to drop my hand, but I ignore him as I squeeze Jordan back.
"Hell yeah! Good job!" he congratulates me as he pulls away.
I beam at him, just as Jasmine practically pushes him out of the way to get to me.
"You talented bitch! I'm super proud of you. I can't believe you're ditching me here though," she says, giving me a brief hug before stepping back beside my brother.
"I'll text you everyday. But on the bright side, we still have almost three months all together. Might as well make the most of them," I get to say, right before the bell rings, signalling that we should all make our way to class.
Jasmine groans, but she quickly grabs Daniel's hand to drag him away to the class that they have together first period, giving me a wave as she leaves. Mateo and Ryan head off too, both of them giving me a quick, "Congrats, Lexi!" as they leave.
"And then there were four," Charlie chuckles, glancing around at Bryce, Jordan, and I. I'm not sure which class him and Jordan have right now, but Bryce and I have cooking which means we need to start heading towards the kitchen soon.
"I'm still pissed at you, Charles. You knew about your parents' stupid ass game this whole time and you didn't bother saying anything to your sister?" Bryce suddenly cuts in, reaching down to wrap his arm around my waist so that he can pull me close.
Charlie gives him an apologetic shrug, but doesn't manage to respond before Jordan cuts in, asking, "What game? What did I miss?"
Neither of the boys seem to have any intention to respond to Jordan, and so I turn to him instead.
"My parents were apparently betting on when they though Bryce and I would get together. If that wasn't bad enough, my dad was a total jerk and interrogated Bryce like crazy afterwards after asking him to stay for dinner. It was madness," I explain.
Jordan's eyes go wide as if he can't believe that I'm being serious.
"Damn, really. They weren't mad about you two like you thought they would be though, were they?" he says, and I shake my head at him.
"You know, they first started betting on dates after the night Bryce and Leo came over for dinner. Mom only thought it would take a week, and Dad guessed a month. They were both clearly way off, so Mom ended up betting April and Dad went for before the end of March. Now, before either of you murder me, I'm just gonna quietly head off to class," Charlie says, before doing as he said and scurrying off down the hallway.
Bryce makes a move to go after him, but I grab his arm, preventing him from doing so.
"I know where you live, asshat!"Bryce calls out after my brother, who ignores him as he continues to walk away.
Bryce's yelling causes two girls passing by to pause in their tracks, turning slowly to look at Bryce.
Bryce obviously notices, and cocks one of his eyebrows up at them as if he did absolutely nothing to make them stare.
Their cheeks both turn a deep pink colour out of embarrassment, looking briefly at one another before heading off down the hallway quicker than they had been walking before.
When Bryce turns back to me Jordan and I, he has a totally innocent look on his face.
"Your dad hates me, doesn't he? He probably think that I'm not good enough for you. He's not wrong, but still," he says to me, and I wrap my arms around his waist, pulling myself against his chest.
He carefully strokes my hair, holding my face between his hands when I pull away from him as he bends down to kiss my forehead.
"You guys have known each other forever. Did he ever have a problem with you before?" Jordan asks, to which Bryce shakes his head, pulling me to his side by the arm he now has wrapped around my shoulders.
"Then maybe he's just being protective. Him and her mom are probably just sad to see their daughter all grown up and in a serious relationship. I'm sure they'll get over it, and I really doubt that you guys have to worry about it," Jordan says, and I find Bryce gaping at him.
"That's the only intelligent thing that I've ever heard you say in the six months that I've known you," Bryce comments, which makes Jordan give him the middle finger.
They both laugh it off, and I'm thrilled to, once again, witness how far their friendship has come.
"I'll see you two idiots later. I'm heading to class," Jordan says to us, giving us a joke salute before he walks down the hallway to whatever class he has next.
It's the opposite direction than where Bryce and I need to be heading, and so we shrug at one another, heading to the kitchen.
🌸🌸🌸
"Why do your dog and your cat like Bryce more than the other six of us combined?" Ryan whines to Jordan, patting his lap to try and encourage Jordan's dog to leave where she's sitting, curled up on top of Bryce.
Luna just eyes Ryan wearily, shutting her lids before snuggling herself up against Bryce again. Her tail wags, hitting me in the thigh, as Bryce scratches her behind her ear, shrugging at Ryan.
Jordan's cat is also insistent on staying near Bryce, as Draco has sat himself down on the top of the couch cushion directly behind Bryce's head.
Although he hissed loudly when Jordan had tried to pick him up to move him, he's now purring as he rubs his face against the back of Bryce's head.
Bryce chuckles at this, them turning to Ryan. "Beats me. Generally, everybody loves me, and I suppose that extends to animals now too," he says, a smug smile on his face, and Jordan bursts out laughing.
"You're sure that everybody out there loves you? I'm sure some people absolutely hate you," Jordan says smugly.
Bryce freezes for a moment at the words, and I wonder what's going through his head.
He shuts his eyes for a moment to clear his head before he then sighs towards Jordan, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Lexi loves me, and that's all that I give a shit about," he says dryly, and I can't help but to chuckle at that.
It was Jordan's idea to invite all of us over to his place after school today, and so here we are.
Mateo couldn't make it, which I was little sad about, because his mom is apparently busy tonight, but his brother still needed a drive to his drum lesson.
The other seven of us are here though, scattered amongst the living room and kitchen.
Jasmine, Daniel, and Charlie are all chatting and laughing loudly from the other room. How they all get along so well after the awkward love triangle they had going on is beyond me, but my brother is happy and I'm happy to see him this way.
Bryce's phone suddenly rings loudly from in his pocket, startling Luna out of his lap. She instead curls up on top of Bryce's feet as he reaches into his pocket, retrieving the buzzing device.
His face contorts to one of disgust when he reads the caller ID, and when I peer over his shoulder, I see that the call is from someone named Anders.
I scan my brain for anyone I know with that name, but I fall short, then assuming that it must be one of his friends from Florida.
Reluctantly, Bryce picks up the call. "I can't talk right now, Andy. I'll call you back later. I'm not home yet," he says gruffly, and I realise that everyone seems to have tuned in to whatever is happening over here.
Bryce rolls his eyes at something that the Anders person must have said from the other end of the line, before he says, "I'm pretty sure that Carly has a graveyard fetish or some shit, so find and and force her to go with you. Really can't chat right now."
He sounds annoyed , but I find my eyes fly open at the mention of graveyards.
"Yeah. Bye," he says abruptly, before hanging up the call aggressively.
He shoves the phone back away, letting go a sharp breath before looking around the room at everyone.
"My apologies. That was just an old friend from Florida calling to bother me. No need to worry," he then says calmly, and everyone stares at him for a moment longer before resuming whatever they had been doing beforehand.
"Yeah, just casual banter about death and graveyards. The usual, of course," Jordan drawls sarcastically, and Bryce grabs a pen off the coffee table and hurls it right at him.
It ends up hitting him square in the nose, causing him to wince before he throws it right back.
His aim is lousy, and he ends up missing and hitting Draco in the furry back instead.
The cat hisses loudly, shooting up into a standing position before turning around to examine the pen.
He paws at the writing utensil before turning to stare at Bryce.
When Bryce notices, he swiftly scoops the cat up into his arms, placing him down in his lap where the animal then curls up into a tiny ball.
"God, Thompson. You've moved on to animal abuse now, have you?" Bryce mocks, and Jordan squints at him.
He mutters something under his breath in response that I don't quite catch, but whatever it was must've been nasty as Ryan shoves him hard in the arm.
"I don't understand why I spend any amount of time with you people," Bryce comments, rolling his eyes at Ryan and Jordan's actions.
He holds on to this demeanour for a second before the three of them all bust out into fits of laughter at how ridiculous this whole situation is.
I do my best to play along, giving them a smile that's as far from genuine as possible, and Bryce notices because he reaches down to brush my hair out of my face.
"What's on your mind? Is something wrong?" he asks me obliviously.
I know that I'm a lousy liar when it comes to Bryce, and so I shy away from his gaze, glancing down to the adorable dog asleep on the floor.
"Nothing. Just tired. I need to start working on the logistics of attending Juilliard and the idea is already exhausting me," I answer.
Sure, that's all true, but it's also been on my mind all day long. I've managed to remain acting totally normal all day long, and so it's obvious to myself that Bryce's mysterious phone call has thrown me off my game.
"Who was that? Was it really just an old friend?" I ask Bryce quietly so that nobody can overhear our exchange.
Bryce's eyebrows furrow, but he then nods at me. "Of course, Blossom. His name is Anders. He lives in Florida and he's annoying as fuck. Don't worry about him at all; we still just chat sometimes," Bryce explains to me, and I nod as I have no reason not to believe him.
I don't think he'd bother lying to me about this unless something bigger was actually going on, which I doubt.
He hasn't really broken my trust except for the whole Mateo situation, which I've promised to stop dwelling on as I'd rather move on with Bryce and I's relationship.
"I love you," I whisper, not really meaning to.
The words just slip out of my mouth, but they come right from the very bottom of my heart as always.
"I love you too, Blossom. Now let's move on from this crazy shit, shall we?" he suggests, now sporting a goofy grin on his face.
I nod at him, giggling a little bit until he leans forwards to press a gentle kiss to my lips, careful to not crush Draco who is still comfortable in his lap.
Jordan begins to make fake gagging sounds from where he's seated, and Bryce pulls away from me to glare at him.
"Fuck you, honestly," Bryce says with an annoyed sigh, leaning back against the couch.
One of his arms is around my waist and so he pulls me close, kissing me again despite Jordan's complaints.
A/N: Who could Anders possibly be? ;)