Jonah wasn’t a complete jerk; he just knew when to appreciate something really funny. Like my embarrassing conversation at Chuck E Cheese with my dad last night and how he lectured me on dating and boys. Like I was completely oblivious to it all.

“You can stop laughing now,” I told him trying to hold in my own laughter as well.

“I’m sorry. It’s just...wow. Imagine how your dad would have reacted if you hadn’t heard him come in.”

I shook my head sobering up. “I don’t even want to think about the consequences of that happening. It would definitely be unforgettable. And not in a good way.”

His eyebrows rose and the humor of the situation started to die down, taking a more serious turn. “So, have you talked to Grace about all of this yet?”

No. That’s why I’m talking to you about it.

“Not yet. But I will. I’m just trying to figure out how, you know?”

He cracked a smile. “You better hurry. Friday is only four days away. Time’s running out.”

“I know,” I said already realizing that fact. I reached my hand out and gently placed it on top of his “Hey. This isn’t weird for you is it? Us talking about my love life and all.” I shifted awkwardly on the outside bench.

He shrugged looking away from me, staring at the other students. His elbows rested on his knees as he leaned on them “No. I mean, yeah I asked you to the dance and you turned me down, but it’s not like we were dating or anything. It was a risk and I took it. At least I know how you feel now.”

I blinked back in surprise. “What…really? You mean that?”

“Yeah.” He glanced at me and smiled. It was such a cute boyish smile that I loved so much about him. “We were friends first, right? That’s what we can continue to be if that’s what you really want.”

“I do,” I said immediately. “I really do.” I wrapped my arms around his neck taking him by surprise and squeezed him tight. He chuckled wrapping is arms around me in return. “I was so worried you might not have really forgiven me. I should have known you wouldn't held a grudge.

When we released each other we sat back and leaned against the bench. “I could never hold a grudge against you, Olivia. We’ve been friends since the ninth grade. One awkward moment of unrequited feelings isn’t going to change that.”

I placed my hand on his shoulder and tried to hide my sadness from his words. “One day you’re going to meet a girl who will feel the exact same way you that you feel about her.”

“Maybe.” He seemed doubtful.

“I know you will,” I told him. “And the worst thing you could do is stop looking for her. Be patient. You’ll find exactly what you need.”

Finally he gave in and grinned at me. “Okay, fine. But I’m holding you to that.”

After lunch I made my way to Food 1 with Julia who was strangely talkative today. She was blabbing to me some movie she and her friends saw over the weekend and how hot the lead actor was. I don’t know. I barely paid attention. I was too busy scanning the hallways for Thomas. I still hadn’t decided if I was going to confront him about Sunday and had very little time to make my choice.

As much as I hated to admit it to myself I wanted an explanation for his sudden disappearing act. But would that make me seem clingy or like those pathetic girls who didn’t know when to let go? However, if he could spend the night in my bead then he could at least face me the following morning. And especially now.

I felt immense disappointment when I entered the classroom and he was nowhere to be found. Julia was still talking to me and I still wasn’t listening. Not even when I took my usual set and she sat down next to me. The only thing I could do was give her a questioning stare. Was there a reason she was sitting next to me today? I don’t recall inviting her over.

“So are we good? You’re not mad at me or anything?” She asked.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. What?”

She frowned. “You know, about Thomas. If I’d known you two were…well together, I never would have hooked up with him.”

“Whoa.” I held up my hands in confusion. Where did that come from? “Julia, we’re not together. We’re even barely friends.”

Her brows furrowed together. “Huh. But I just overheard Thomas telling his friends that you two were going out this weekend.”

Was that still on? Okay. Now I was officially confused. First he skips out on me and then he tells everyone we’re going out? This guy was more confusing than algebraic equations.

“Oh. Uh…yeah,” I said trying my best to not to sound as confused as I felt. “It must have slipped my mind.”

She just stared at me like I was a foreign creature she’d never even seen before in her life. “You forgot about a date with Thomas? How?”

I nodded slowly. “Yeah, it’s just that I’ve had a lot going on. And yes, we’re good. It’s just a date. It’s not like we’re dating dating. He can do whatever he wants.” Even if that’s you, I thought snidely.

Okay so that’s obviously a lie. Yes, technically I was still pissed at him, but that didn’t mean I wanted him going around dating other girls now that I lost the bet!

Great. And now I’m a hypocrite.

The images of Thomas and I making out yesterday come back into my mind harshly, like a smack in the face. What the crap is wrong with me? It’s not like I have any right to get upset with him over the same thing I’m doing.

“Oh!” she said a bit too happily for my liking. “Well, that’s good. And here I thought you might want to kill me.”

“Nope.” I said through gritted teeth trying to prevent myself from saying something stupid. “We’re great.”

“Oh my God. There he is!” she gushed as the very person of my thoughts entered the door. I glance his way but didn’t bother to let my eyes linger. He was still not forgiven in my book.

The moment Thomas sat down at our table he smirked at me. It wasn’t hard to miss seeing as he insisted on sitting directly in front of me and making his presence known. All I did was glare.

“Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” he snorted.

Ignore it and it will leave you alone.

“I hear we’re making crapes today,” Julia said trying to capture Thomas’s attention.

I rolled my eyes and brought my pin to my mouth to bite on the end of it. It was a terrible habit of mine, but was a great distraction. My eyes trained to the front of the class, waiting for our absent teacher to enter the room. I could feel Thomas’s eyes still on my face as I did my best to avoid his stare.

“I love crapes,” Julia continued. “They’re so good. They’re amazing with fruit. What kinds of fruits do you like, Thomas?

“Oh you know,” he shrugged. “Bananas. Chocolate. Watermelon.”

Out of the corner of my eye I could see her tilting her head. She giggled. “Chocolate isn’t a fruit silly.”

“No, but I like it?” There was slight teasing in his voice.

“Everyone likes chocolate.”

He chuckled, tearing his eye from her and placing them on me again. “They’re all Aphrodisiacs.”

I let the pin drop from my mouth in shock. Did he really just say that out loud?

When Julia remained quiet I glanced at her. No comeback for that? She was wearing a face of confusion. Really?

Thomas then felt the need to elaborate. “You know, something you consume that gets you in the mood.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively when he was finished explaining.

I felt the heat rise to my face and my eye widen. As did Julia’s and any female within hearing range. I didn’t have the nerve to let him see me so embarrassed and elected to cover my face up to hide it from him. I wasn’t fooling him though. He grinned widely, I could see between my fingers.

“What about you, Olivia? What is your favorite aphrodisiac?”

Doing my best to get a grip on myself I forced my hands away. Like I’ve ever slept with someone after eating those things to know if they actually work. Had he?

I straitened myself up looking him square in the eye with false confidence. I couldn’t let him get to me this way. “Chocolate of course. It really gets you hot, you know?”

He just sat silently for a moment and blinked back in surprise. Oh yeah! One point for, Olivia. I smirked. I don’t think I’d even seen Thomas so speechless. Or Julia. She was looking at me in complete and utter shock. At least that shut her up for once.

I looked around at the silent room finding stares of shock everywhere. What? No one here believed I could have a sex life? Should I be offended by that?

When Thomas finally snapped out of whatever state his was in his lips started to turn up at the ends. “Then allow me to buy you as much as you want. I’ll make sure I pick out a restaurant that serves plenty of chocolaty deserts for our date Friday night.”

The stares continued, but now there were looks of genuine curiosity mixed in with the surprise and for a few moments and nothing could be heard except for the breathing of the students. And that confidence I had only seconds ago had completely abandoned me. I didn’t have to nerve to fake anymore. He had rendered me just as speechless as everyone else.

Olivia zero. Thomas a million.

Then suddenly it occurred to me what he said. “Actually I can’t go anywhere with you Friday. I’m busy.”

He leaned back in his seat crossing his arms over his chest with that stupid smirk still on his face. “Sorry. Not my problem.”

People’s eyes were still on us and it was making me more than uncomfortable. “We can go Saturday,” I said in a much lower voice hoping to keep our conversation a little more private.

“Sorry, I don’t reschedule. A date’s a date.”

I balled my fists up on the table trying desperately not to hit something and waited until my knuckles started turning white before I relaxed them.

Jeeze he was making me crazy. No one could make me as angry as he could and probably never would.

“Thomas,” I warned. “I can’t-”

“You can and you will. I don’t think I need to go over the terms of the agreement.”

Well this was certainly going to fuel the rumor mill tomorrow. Especially when I was given no choice, but to give into him. It wasn’t like it was an option to get of the whole date thing with him. If he would have lost I knew I would have made him be my slave for the day without a second thought. Stupid bet.

“Whatever,” I grumbled, internally hating myself for not coming up with something better to say. “It’s a date.”

The rest of class was extremely awkward and when we all piled out of the classroom Thomas was right beside me to no surprise. It wasn’t like it took much effort to match my strides considering he had much longer legs than I did and I wasn’t walking all that fast.

“What do you want?” I asked him not bothering to hide my annoyance. I wasn’t so easy to offer my forgiveness and he was far from being granted that.

“I’m just curious. What were your other plans this Friday you couldn’t get out of?”

My feet nearly came to halt at his question, but I merely just stumbled then did my best to compose myself. He was watching me with clear amusement.

“I never said I couldn’t get out of them,” I corrected.” I just didn’t want to.”

When we arrived at my locker I reached my hand out to input my combination, but he moved around in front of me preventing me. “Stop avoiding the question and just answer it,” he teased. It was obvious he thought this was just some big Joke.

My annoyance was back again.“I’d rather not. And besides it’s my business. Not yours.”

I side stepped him, trying to move around to my locker only to be blocked yet again. “Tell me, Liv.”

I narrowed my eyes. “No. Now move.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, closely resembling an unmovable wall. He wasn’t going anywhere and neither was I, so until he got what he wanted we were both stuck here having a stare down.

“Are you trying to intimidate me?” I asked him taking in his tall frame. “Because it’s not working.”

“Really?” He took an unexpected step toward me forcing me back one. His eyes were blazing into mine intently. All joking was now aside. He was serious now and I could feel in my bones “How about now?”

Our closeness was unsettling me and I gulped. A few more steps back from me were only followed by him leaving no space between us. Maybe I was just the tiniest but intimidated now. Pretty soon I was going to back straight in to something.

“Thomas, can we please not have this conversation here?” I didn’t want to entire school to witness anything else between us. It was really none of their business and I hated a scene.

“Hey, Olivia,” came a voice from behind the unmovable wall. I wasn’t exactly sure who was speaking to me until they rounded Thomas.

I breathed a sigh of relief when James’s face came into view. I was grateful for the distraction. Though I could tell from Thomas’s face he was not. He glared at him.

“Hey, James,” I smiled weakly.

“We’re busy,” Thomas told him.

James glances at me with apprehension, but I just nodded to him in confirmation. There was no need for him to suffer Thomas wrath again all because of me. I felt relieved when he turned in walked away from us.

“Are you two, friends now or something?” He asked watching James back until he disappeared.

I felt the intimidation I was feeling slightly waver allowing another emotion inside. “I have a better question. Where were you when I woke up on Sunday morning?”

Well, there it is. All out in the open now. He seemed surprised.

The warning bell rang sending hundreds of students scurrying down the hall but Thomas and I still remained in our spots. It relaxed me slightly that he no longer looked like he was about the shake answers from me, but I was still angry.

“Is that what this whole thing is about, because I didn’t stay with you?”

I narrowed my eyes. “No, it’s not. I really had other plans that didn’t concern you.”

“Okay then, I’ll make you deal. You answer my question and I’ll answer yours,” he offered.

I internally cringed. I couldn’t do that, could I? How would he handle the news about Deacon? For someone who didn’t commit himself to any relationship he sure seemed pretty territorial. Especially where James was concerned.

There was a little voice in the back of my head that was telling me it wasn’t a good idea to let him know and I couldn’t ignore it. I had I had to agree.

“Then I guess neither of us is getting any answers today, are we.”

He frowned and clenched is fist by his side. Uh oh. “Damn it, Olivia. Does this have anything to do with that kid I beat up a couple of weeks ago? I thought I told you-”

“No, it doesn’t,” I snapped then immediately wished I hadn’t. He was already made enough right now. Though I refused to stand here let him tell me what to do. “You pulled a disappearing act on me Sunday so I assumed you weren’t interested. Then I met someone who was and he asked me out so I accepted.” Just as he was about to speak again I held up my hand. “And before you ask me who it is, he doesn’t even go to this school, so let it go.”

Angry and fuming I spun on my heel and stomped toward gym. It didn’t matter to me anymore that I wasn’t able to put up my books up before hitting the girls locker room to change. All I could do was think about how annoyed I was and how much I wanted to kill Thomas.

Good thing we were playing volleyball today because I really needed some way to expel my anger.

“Wow, Olivia. You really put up a fight today. I didn’t know you played volleyball so well,” Farrah said in amazement as we left the gym after class.

“I didn’t either.” I really surprised myself how much I could do when I was angry. Though, what surprised me even more was how much better I felt after the game. I was much calmer now and didn’t feel the need to murder someone.

When Farrah and I made it to the parking lot we said our goodbyes and split off to our separate cars today. Farrah drove her car and Grace and I rode together this morning. She was waiting for me when I made it to my Honda.

“You look terrible,” she said as we got inside the car.

I shot her a look and turned up the music. “Thanks.”

“No, I mean, you just look exhausted. What happened?”

“P.E was a little more intense today.”

I pulled out into traffic and made my way toward Grace’s house. We didn’t say much along the way, only listening to the music. I was still thinking up ways to tell her about Deacon and me and so far none of my ideas seemed right. Maybe I should just say it all at once and get it over with. She had needed to know.

To my relief Deacon wasn’t home when we arrived at her house. Then I remember he said he would be at college this week and wouldn’t be back until Friday for our date. A date that I now had to reschedule. I could only handle one Taylor at a time right now and Grace Taylor was the one who was at the top of my list.

“Hey,” I said catching her arm as she opened the car door to get out. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

She nodded and met my stared with worry filled eyes. “Sure. Is everything okay? You seem different today.”

I dropped my hands to my lap and stared straight ahead at the brown house in front of me willing myself to just calm down and tell her. It would be easier to say if I wasn’t looking at her.

“It’s about Deacon,” I said.

I was met with nothing but silence and my heart began to drop. I forced myself to continue despite my nerves.

“You see, something kind of happened between us yesterday and I thought you should know.”

Taking in a long, deep breath I let it out and started telling her everything from the piercing to running into Deacon at the store and inviting him to my house. Then I vaguely told her what happened after that trying to not gross her out.

Again I was met with Silence from her so I forced myself to look at her hoping her face would give away what she was thinking. To my surprise she didn’t seem angry at all. She looked more thoughtful thank anything. She reached out and gripped my hands in my lap and sighed.

“I guess I can’t say I didn’t see this coming,” she admitted. “I’ve been sensing something between you for a while now.”

I raised my eyebrow to her. “You have?”

“Yes. But then I thought that you liked Thomas so I didn’t expect it to go anywhere. I guess I was wrong.”

I shook my head. “No. You’re not wrong. I do like Thomas; a lot actually. But I’m not so sure he feels the same. I keep getting so many mixed signals from him it’s giving me whiplash. It’s probably best if I distance myself from him. He’s not good for me.”

“You know, I hear you saying the words, but I just don’t believe them,” she giggled. “You don’t want to stay away from him and you don’t want him to stay away from you either.”

So I guess she can see right through me then. I groaned and ran my fingers through me blond hair working my way through knots to help ease my frustration.