Chapter twenty-two - First Fight

~*~

Today has been hell.

Okay that was exaggerated.

Exaggeratedly softly expressed!

Lana and I had a quarrel.

Another understatement.

It's pathetic actually, that our first fight has to be about a boy. When we were both crazy about Dean, there was not a single trouble in paradise, but Wesley invaded the whole damn sea with waves with his stupid face.

I didn't expect Lana to pick his side over me to be honest.

But love is blind right?

That's another thing that's bugging me; the fact that she doesn't even wants to admit that she likes him. But every time I start a conversation about it, she pulls the Geoffrey-card.

It drives me nuts!

The difference between both of our situations is that I am aware of the fact that we have nothing going on - not that I like him - but Lana on the other hand, doesn't seem to have a clue that this means nothing to Wesley.

But hey, feel free to convince a person with a head filled with stones of that.

To prevent me from crashing everything In the house out of pure frustration, I hid myself underneath my sheets, with music loudly blasting into my ears.

Something in me wanted to text Lana, to apologize and to tell her that I will support her, whatever ridiculous decision she makes, but then I'd be lying big time.

I don't want to support her in this, because even the smallest and stupidest child knows that this can only end in tears.

And Wesley doesn't seem to be the type of guy that cries over nothing.

A frustrated growl escaped my lips, before I even realized I was hiding it inside my mouth.

Stupid Lana.

"Oh I think that I found myself a cheerleader," blasted through my earplugs, the first thing that could make me smile in long time.

A long time ago, even before New Year and before exams, I was sitting outside, enjoying the cold air, relaxing, chilling after my long day of doing nothing, when Geoffrey stormed outside.

"What's up?" I yelled, unknowing why he was acting all euphoric.

"I did it!" He called.

"What?" I asked, while I hoisted myself to my feet.

"I made it to the team!"

"No way!" I didn't believe him at first, but secretly I always knew that he was much better than he said was.

"Yes way," he yelled, "This is incredible," he continued, "I still can't believe it!" The smile that played on his lips was as genuine that it cloned itself onto my face.

"You're really serious?" I asked for the last confirmation.

"Yes!" I heard him shout before I wrapped my arms around his neck and threw me into his arms.

His euphoria seemed even bigger than I had expected, because he placed his hands on my hips and lifted me op in the air.

After a few rotations around our own axis, he put me down again.

"Without you I would have never done it," he said, and I smiled a bit like a fool, secretly honored by his words. "I mean it Loren, without you I would've never dared to go to try outs."

"Yeah yeah," I said, "Stop with the stickiness already." He failed at suppressing a cute smile.

"I still can't believe it," he looked at the sheet of paper that he, apparently, had been holding onto all this time, and tightened his grip on it, before turning it to me and then looked at it again, before I could even read a single word.

"Well, well," I smiled, he looked like a little kid that had just received the packet with the best Pokémon inside, "you better prepare yourself for all those screaming cheerleaders who will be following you 24/7 from now on." I laughed a bit bitter. I didn't want them to be following him. And what I definitely didn't want them to do was to offer him things that he could never decline, things that I could never offer him.

"That's just a side-effect," he grinned, his eyes still glued to the sheet of paper, "my mom will always be my most important cheerleader though."

I couldn't resist, so I stared shamelessly at him in aww.

"But," he started.

"But?" I repeated as a question.

"Since she isn't here anymore, physically, so I could use a new head cheerleader," it took a while before I meant with the wink he send.

"M-me?" My voice stammered for itself, since my power of speech had left me completely.

"Yeah why not?" He shrugged. Okay that did lessen my enthusiasm. "Do you know anything about football?"

"Football?" He nodded, "nothing at all."

"Perfect," he smiled whole-heartedly, before he turned his back on me and made his way through the lawn that he had just mowed - while being shirtless.

"Oh I think that I found myself a cheerleader, she is always right there when I need her," he beamed with a voice that clearly wasn't made for this kind of songs.

"Oh and Loren," he called with his head out of the window, "if you tell anyone that I like that song I'll send a whole bunch of Geoffrey-maniacs to come and get you."

I laughed out loud, "Oh please, I can easily handle a bunch of eight year olds."

The memory faded as well as my smile did.

Why was I friends again with someone that was so naïve that she believed in Santa until she was twelve? And even when Ricky announced it in front of the classroom, started a real war to prove he was wrong?

I shook my head, there has always been something wrong with the kid.

After a quick glance at my phone I stumbled right back into my hole of depression. No call, no text, no nothing.

I hated this feeling, we had never argued. That may sound perfect and cliché, it still was the truth. Well until now of course.

We had never fought because we never experienced any important stuff, we never had to take important decisions and we never had to worry about future heartbreakers. With Dean for example, we both new that none of us would ever make a chance, the same for Zac Efron.

That made our friendship as relaxing and loose as it was. I never bewailed the lack of jealousy and competition between us. On the contrary, I could never get enough of our excessive amount of enthusiasm and laziness at the same time.

That was pretty weird, like for one part of the world (including teachers and most students) we were like a passive turtle, who preferred to be lazy rather than tired. The other half on the contrary (people who passed us at public places, our parents and Geoffrey) compared us to a bunch of hyperactive kangaroos without a filter.

Of course after we had our daily overuse of films.

I sighed again, pissed at myself for using the past tense in my thoughts. Our friendship wasn't over was it?

I mean, this is just a normal friend squabble, right?

This area was completely foreign for me, and I had preferred to keep it that way.

Suddenly, my door swung open after which it banged rather loudly into the nearest wall.

Frustrated I pulled my plugs out of my ears, "Dude when are you going to learn how to knock?"

"I did, like fifty times but you were too busy ruining your ears with that loud crappy music of yours," he said and took a couple of steps forwards.

"What's wrong?" He lit my room up.

I turned so I could take a proper of him and not seem totally rude, after all he sounded sincerely worried.

"It's just a stupid girl-thing," I answered, a bit unsure whether I'd like to talk about it or not, "why are you all dressed up?"

He was wearing a white button down-shirt, covered with a black suitjacket, from which only two buttons were done, combined with a pair of black pants.

"Doesn't matter right now," I only now noticed that he was hiding something behind his back, "first tell me what's going on."

"Dude, I said, "if you are planning on killing me with that knife you are hiding behind your back, I friendly request you to postpone those murder plans 'till tomorrow because this pain-in-my-ass day may not in any way go down in history as my date of death." I said in one breath.

He chuckled silently, damn I'll never get used to that sound. "Don't fear, today I'm coming in peace."

"Then show me what you're hiding," I threatened.

He sighed and brought out a light blue flower from behind his back, not really understanding what his plan was, I arched my eyebrow. "I made dinner."

"And?"

"For us," he clarified.

"And what's the flower for?" Looking at it I realized just how beautiful the color was, a lighter shade of blue. My flower knowledge was rather limited, but I did recognize it as a Gerbera.

"See it as an invitation," he smiled a little nervous, "I know you're not the rose-type-of-girl."

"Okay now I'm confused," I concluded. "So you're inviting me for dinner?"

Date date date, the word flew like crazy through my head.

"Exactly, so are you interested? Otherwise there is a whole lot of food that's been standing to waste in the kitchen."

"Uh no, no," I examined the flower, there wasn't a bomb hidden in it, was there? "Are you serious about this?"

He nodded, "so are you coming or not?" he pointed at the door, making me aware of the fact that I was wearing my fancy sweatpants.

"Uh sure but, uh," he turned his head, waiting for the following, "would it be okay if I get freshened up first?"

"Of course," he said, "but don't take too long." He called when he had already disappeared out of my room.

Pressing the flower tightly against me, I headed over to my walk-in closet, please tell me I have something decent to wear!

When I walked inside, I immediately spotted one rack that hung far in front of the others.

A blue dress was hanging on it, the shade of it varied a bit with the color of the flower. A little note stuck to it, saying: 'If I were you, I'd were this."

And after standing there flushing red for a while, I deduced the one thing that every normal teenage girl would do:

The bastard has been in my room!

I swiftly changed into the dress, after changing into a matching bra of course.

It was the dress that I wore a couple of months ago to the engagement party, the one I secretly liked.

I walked over to the small table in the back of my closet, with the mirror.

How can I fix my face in rapid speed?

I popped down into the chair and came face to face with another letter that was efficiently taped around my mascara.

'This is all you need.' It said, followed by a wink.

The only things situated on the table were the mascara and the necklace my grandma once gave me.

When I fixated my attention to the mirror, so I wouldn't poke the mascara into my eye, I noticed just how red my head was being, and how I couldn't get the goofy grin of my face.

I was fed up by the fact that I lost my earrings, they would have gone well with the outfit.

Five minutes after Geoffrey left, I exited my room, still holding the flower into my hand.

I let my arm slide along the banister of the stairs and pointed my attention towards my feet. Damn I should've cut my toenails. After I released a small curse, I lifted my eyes up and found Geoffrey's, who were examining me closely.

And instantly, my cheeks invented a new shade of red.

"Wow," he muttered silently. Then he pointed towards the counter, where two plates were set. He turned his back at me and stirred back into his casseroles.

"Smells good," I complimented.

"I hope it tastes good," he said and placed one of the casseroles one a shelf in-between the two plates.

Smirking, he appeared from behind his counter, "don't even think that I'm pulling back that chair for you."

"Thank god, I thought someone had dressed up like you, but you've just confirmed that you in fact are the one and only Geoffrey Rice."

He poured me some soup and the thing that caught my attention the most was that his hands were shaking.

Was he nervous?

I put the flower into the flower pot, which had other blue and white Gerberas in it.

Everything looked like he had this all well-prepared. I mean all the colors matched, and the plates and knives and stuff, nothing looked out of place.

"Can I ask you something?" He visibly tensed at my question, but gave me a cautious nod either way. "Why did you put so much time in all of this? Is there some kind of reason or ..." From the moment I started to talk I realized that I looked like some hopeless chick that desperately wanted to hear him pronounce the word 'date'.

"Here," he said, handing me a small box and an envelope, "Read the envelope first."

I expected it to explode from the second I opened it, but as I cautiously opened the envelope, nothing happened, except the card that appeared. It had his signature everything but neat handwriting on it.

"Happy 6500th day on earth!"

A smile as large as the sun edged itself onto my face, I probably looked like a perfect replica of the Joker himself, but I couldn't care less.

I still couldn't believe it, "You remembered," I whispered. I saw his face bright up until an unknown level.

This is nuts!

It's been months since we had one single conversation during which I mentioned my issue with the acceptance of years counting 364 of 365 days. And he remembered...

"Wow," I was speechless.

I, Loren Poole, was speechless.

Wow.

Staring down at his words I tried to find mine again.

But nothing came, not even a single vowel that I could make out.

And the silence remained.

Say something you idiot!

But I couldn't.

Nothing at all.

Eventually, I found the courage to look him in the eye, they were breathtaking as usual, blinding even, it was like the morning sun surprising you when you peek through the curtains.

And then those cheekbones, damn, as sharp that they could easily cut the earth in two.

His hair suddenly reminded me of grass that really had to be mown, that feels heavenly when you slide your fingers through it.

Those lips, my god, I could write a poem about them, and I hate poetry with a passion.

My stomach struck all kinds of weird poses and my heartrate was unhealthily high.

My lips, who seemed to be knit together for a long a time, started moving eventually but couldn't manage to bring out a single sound.

After what felt like an eternity he finally opened his mouth.

"Surprised?"

That's what he said.

I had been having a heart attack for several minutes, and he, he just asked in a plain tone whether I was surprised.

Did he not witness me dying right here?

"That's the least you could say," a shy smile appeared on his face. His eyes shifted from me to the package.

"Aren't you curious to open it?"

I nodded eagerly, placed the card on the counter and started opening the present.

Inside I found a small square box, after I shot him another grateful smile, I opened the box.

Oh my god.

"You bought me earrings?" My eyes started to shine half as bright as his.

"You lost yours and you already had that necklace from your grandmother, so..."

"Can I hug you?"

He fully grinned, nodded and opened his arms. It didn't take me any longer than two milliseconds to launch me around his neck.

"You never fail to surprise me," I inhaled his cologne, and felt like a creep for a second, until -don't kill me if I'm wrong- I think I felt him smell my hair.

"So you like it?"

"Are you nuts? This is absolutely gorgeous!" I practically yelled, not really able to hide my enthusiasm.

I took the little diamonds out of the box and placed them in my ears, while Geoffrey followed my every move attentively.

"You're crazy," I chuckled.

"Never denied that," he smiled and turned back to the plates in front of us, "Shall we?"

I nodded, picked up my spoon carefully and then attacked the soup.

Damn this guy can cook.

A moan managed to escape, "Oh this is good."

His chuckle was rather modest, shy and really really cute.

The main dish followed and tasted even better. I enjoyed the meal in silence, letting al the flavors explode in my mouth.

"Are you mad?" He suddenly asked, his voice held a nervous tone.

"Me? Mad? Why should I be?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "You haven't said anything for a while, don't you like it? I can always call for some pizza if you'd l-"

"Geoffrey this is great! The food is awesome, I swear. I just have some stupid habits, like I don't usually talk or tie on a conversation when I'm eating." That certainly relieved him.

"All right," he said, "I should've known."

"The food is delicious by the way, if that wasn't clear already."

"I'm already satisfied by seeing you smile again," he admitted.

"Me too," I said, "and in case you want to know what happened, it wasn't anything huge or something, just some trouble with Lana."

"I did want to know," he cut himself another piece of meat, "trouble with Lana? That's odd."

"Yeah," I sighed, "a fight over a guy."

"Oh," the change in his voice was clearly noticeable, "same crush?"

"Not at all," I poured myself some water. He bought wine, but I won't drink that ever again, not since I spit it on a waiter the first time I tasted it.

"Listen, I want to apologize," I started.

"What for?" He took a sip of his glass and fiddled a bit with his watch.

"For not being the best company right now," I put my hand on his watch, so he'd stop all the fiddling; that shit was making me nervous, "and because I don't like wine."

"I really don't get how you can't like wine, for me, a proper dinner isn't complete without a glass of wine."

"Really? You're not the guy you'd expect to be a wine fan." Only now, I started pulling back my hand and resumed eating.

"That's because you judge by stereotypes."

"True, but most of the times, those things are right, look at Latoya," I mentally cursed myself, damn it Loren, did you really have to bring her up?

"Maybe a little bit, but she has been through more than you'd expect," is he seriously defending her? It has something gallant of course, towards her.

To me on the other hand, it feels like he's poking with a knife in my heart.

"Oh really?" I asked, keep your voice normal damn it!

"Yes, and no I'm not going to tell you all those things about her," he grinned, "you'll have to befriend her before she tells you herself."

I snorted, "That's not going to happen anytime soon."

He luckily dropped the Latoya-subject, "That was my plan to be honest, to you just blend into the crowd like one of those stereotypical flat characters, to keep people away from me," he confessed.

"Why would you want that?"

"Because I hurt everyone who comes near me, and most of the time it's not even intentionally," he put his fork down on his plate, while I secretly longed for a little more, "people mostly don't think about it, but for me, it's not at all fun to reject innocent girls."

My expression changed into a really surprised one, "What do you mean?"

"Well it has occurred a couple of times that a girl came to me, nervous as fuck and told me she liked me. Then I have to disappoint her and then you go home, knowing that she might be at home; lying crawled up in ball, crying."

"Did that already happen?"

"Yeah, I mean here at school a couple of times, makes me feel so bad. Some more potatoes?" I nodded and he raised my plate to fill it.

"Really? Well I've missed those gossips apparently."

"I'm not spreading those things Loren, it's already bad enough that I have to hurt those girls, then I'm not going to tell everyone so people can make fun of them."

"You're completely right," I agreed, "I think it's very brave of those girls, to stand up and tell the one you like how you actually feel about them, I wouldn't dare to do it." I shove the last potato in my mouth and wiped it with my blue napkin.

"Is there someone you like?"

"Uh-" my blood started boiling, gracefully I had already finished eating, or I'd be choking right here right now in a delicious piece of meat, "uh no," I answered and tried to hide my face behind the napkin, pretending to still be wiping my mouth.

"You're blushing," he smirked.

"No I am not," he snapped the napkin out of my hand.

"You are!" He sang.

"Oh shut up," I laughed.

"I've got some great connections you know, I could always spread some positive rumors about you," he proposed. I can't really tell whether he was serious or not.

"No thanks," was my answer.

"Hey, don't underestimate my capacities of playing cupid"

My brain was already picturing him as cupid, in that delightful shirtless way with a diaper.

Yum.

"The costume would look great on you," I smiled, bringing the glass to my lips again.

"Everything looks great on me," he cockily answered.

"Oh I so accept that challenge!" I shouted.

He looked at me with a puzzled expression, "What?"

"I have a couple of outfits that would look great on you, no doubt."

"Wanna bet that I look better in them than you do?" I dramatically placed my hand over my heart.

"Well that sure hurt like a bitch."

"Well that surely wasn't my intention," his voice dripping with sarcasm.

I shove him in the chest, but he was fast enough to grab a hold of my wrists," What were you planning on doing, horrible ninja?"

I tried to plant my knee into his crotch, but also that plan failed gloriously, "Really," he chuckled, "How slow can one be?"

"Mimimimi," I childishly mocked, still trying to release my arms from his grip.

After a short stare competition we got caught into, he opened his perfectly formed lips pronounced the words, "Dessert has yet to come."

"Sweet," I replied, as he let go of my arms. I kept on standing close to him, our eyes reattached to each other, "thanks by the way, for tonight."

"The pleasure was all mine."

"No seriously, I mean it, you even calculated my 6500th day of existence, no one has ever done that for me."

He grinned, "Those leap years really were a pain in my ass, I had to recalculate all of it like three times."

"Uh, you know that there exist apps for thing like that right?"

He face palmed, "Are you serious?"

"You're such a dork," I laughed and so did he, until something behind me caught his attention.

"Uh Loren, " he said. I turned around, not at all pleased by what I saw.

"Lana," I swallowed and threw my arms around her as soon as I reached her, pulling her into a tight hug, "what's wrong?"

Her face looked terrible to be brutally honest. Mascara and eye liner covered her face and on top of that her eyes looked tired as fuck. It was clear that she had been crying for a pretty long time, and I hated seeing her like this, especially since she rarely ever cries.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to ruin your night," she sobbed onto my shoulder.

"That's okay," I said, sending Geoffrey an apologetic look.

"No problem," he said lightly, "Meanwhile I'll put the dessert in the fridge and start clearing the table."

I led Lana to the living room, step by step. She looked so broken I was afraid she'd fall apart. After she safely reached the couch I grabbed a tissue box out of the closet and but on the table before popping down myself.

"I'm so sorry," she repeated, taking three tissues at once.

"Really Lanes, it's no problem, Geoffrey said it himself," I tried to calm her down by throwing my arm around her again.

"I'm not only talking about tonight, by the way you have to tell me everything that happened tonight," I laughed at the glimpse she revealed of the real Lana.

"What are you talking about?"

"Wesley," she cried even harder when she mentioned his name.

Pulling her closer towards me, I whispered, "what happened?"

"After our fight this morning, I drove over to his house. I just wanted a confirmation that you were wrong about him," she started, "but when I arrived there, I caught him in bed, having sex with another girl. I started yelling and he just laughed at me, 'you didn't think we were exclusive, did you?' That's what he said. Fucking bastard." She muttered and blew her nose, throwing the completely soaked tissue on the small table in front of us. Ew.

Tears kept on streaming down her cheeks, "What exactly was going on between the two of you?" I asked, after all I never knew exactly what their deal was.

"I slept with him," I took a deep breath, "repeatedly."

"How many times?" I asked, although that didn't really mattered.

She shrugged, "For the last couple of months." I rubbed her head. I'm one of those persons that is horrible at comforting others, if you hadn't already noticed.

"The last time we talked about having sex, I thought you said you weren't ready for it," I recalled, that was only a couple of months ago, right after she and Wes met.

All that followed was silence. She didn't move an inch and even stopped sobbing for a second. Oh no.

"Oh Lana," I soothed, "Oh you are so so stupid."

"I just thought he liked me," she whispered through her returned sobs.

I gave her a couple of clean tissues, "Come on, the asshole isn't worth your tears," I tried to convince her.

"In the future, I promise to always let you make my decisions for me," she carefully chuckled after a while, "Except for fashion decisions."

"Hey," I gasped, offended and hit her in the arm.

"Sorry," she repeated yet again, "I'm sorry for being such a stubborn bitch."

"I've gotten used to that by now," I snickered.

"We're both kind of stubborn," she placed her head on my own, it surprised me that she didn't bang our heads together, since her assessment skills are everything but well-developed.

"I'm not stubborn!" I defended myself.

"Bitch please, you still don't want to admit that you have a crush on-" my hand covered her mouth right on time. No one would be getting any better if she would yell all of her presuming through the entire house. She laughed through her tears, "oh come on, you guys are dating now right?"

"What? No!" I answered, a bit too quickly for my own liking.

She pulled her eyebrow up, "Oh really? Than what is all of this? You even got all dressed up, you rarely dress up for anything."

"This is just a gathering," she pulled her eyebrow up even further, if that was even possible, "with friends."

"Than why wasn't I invited?"

"Because you're ugly."

"Oh right, and you two are in the super-duper-ugly club, how could I forget about that?"

I laughed a bit too loud, Geoffrey isn't ugly, he's quite the opposite, he is jummie from head to toe.

"You're thinking about how hot you think he is, aren't you?"

"Shut up!" I yelled, cheeks burning red.

She smirked and gave me a hug, "I could use some dessert." She said shamelessly.

"You are unbelievable," I muttered, but stood up nonetheless.

Geoffrey was washing plates when I entered, so I decided to help him a bit, "everything all right in there?"

I grabbed a towel out of one of the drawers and started drying the knives, "Not really, but it will be." He nodded briefly.

"You don't need to help you know," he said. His jacket was gone and replaced by a towel hanging over his shoulder.

"Actually, I came in to ask you something," I started, ashamed for Lana.

"What do you need?"

"Lana would like some dessert," he laughed while my face burned up red by embarrassment. Damn you Campbell!

"You can just take it, it's in the fridge." I stood there for another few seconds. "Take it," he send me look saying as much as, 'it's really okay, just take it and get out of my kitchen.'

"Thanks," I smiled shyly as I took the cherry pie along with me to the living room. I stole some napkins from the counter along with a knife before popping down next to Lana again.

She was looking into a small mirror, erasing the black streams of mascara of her face.

"Wow that looks good," she complimented, "Where did you buy it?"

"Uh I think Geoffrey made it himself," I muttered a bit unsure, knowing that he doesn't like people to know about his undying love for cooking.

"I'm impressed," she laughed after she had devoured her first slice. I totally agreed as I finished mine.

In the meantime we had put on the TV and were all snuggled up into the couching, watching some re-runs of Geordie Shore. "Hey," I hit her arm away when she tried to take another piece.

"Oh come on, one more slice," she said, batting her eyelashes, going all puppy eyes.

"You know, puppy eyes don't work when you look like this dangerous emo that has just been run over by a bus."

She grunted, "Here," she gave me another slice. Okay now I couldn't resist.

A quarter of an hour later, Geoffrey passed by, "Do you want some?"

"Uh no thanks, you girls can eat it," he said. Ten minutes later he passed once again, now back in his regular clothes.

"I've got to go," he said while tying his shoes, "Enjoy," he winked. My stomach fluttered, but let's just blame that on the amount of food I have eaten.

I kept on watching him shamelessly until I saw him driving away on his motorcycle.

A pillow was thrown at my face, "Stop drooling you freak."

I decided against commenting on that remark and pointed my attention back to the TV. An hour or so later, Lana and I decided it was time to go to bed.

On the table, I put the last slice of pie, which I managed to rescue from Lana, and put a little note next to it. "Here," Lana grinned as she gave me her red lip stick. I smiled a little goofy as I placed my lips onto the note.

"Thanks for tonight."

~*~

Wow, I didn't even realize how long this chapter was, should I divide it in two parts?

Anyway, only two more chapters to go... Hope you're liking it!

By the way.... IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! YAY :D Finally seventeen!

So please vote and tell me what you think, that would mean the world to me!