"You went on a date?" Tony asks, shocked.

I close my locker and then turn to look at Tony.

"It wasn't a date. We just ate food and talked," I reply.

"So... a date?" Tony smiles.

I roll my eyes. "It's not a date if we aren't dating."

"I'm not sure it really works like that," Tony laughs.

"Enough about me. Have you and Allie made up yet?" I ask.

Tony's smile drops. "No. Not yet."

I look at him sympathetically, "Just give it time. She'll come around."

"How is she supposed to forgive me if she won't even talk to me?" Tony sighs.

"She hasn't talked to you yet?"

Tony shakes his head sadly and I give a small smile to him.

"Well, I think you need to talk to her first and not avoid her. I mean, you're walking with me to lunch when you usually walk with her," I say pointedly.

Tony looks down in embarrassment and then looks back up at me. He takes a deep breath and nods his head.

"Let's get to lunch," I smile.

We walk to the lunch room and sit down at our table after getting our food. Kayla, Adam, and Jasper are already at the table.

"Where's Connor?" Jasper asks me.

"I don't know, he's probably on his way here. Why should I know?" I reply.

"Because you two are always with each other," Kayla states.

"We are not always with each other."

"Sure... it's not like you two spent all day with each other yesterday or anything," Jasper says with his eyebrows raised.

"I did not spend the whole day with him. I saw Tony yesterday," I respond looking at Tony for support.

"You talked to me for ten minutes Nova."

I open my mouth to respond, but I can't think of anything to say.

"So how was the date Nova?" Kayla asks, grinning.

"It wasn't a date!" I exclaim, "How do you even know about it? I only told Tony."

"That would be my fault. Connor told me that you guys spent time with each other yesterday. I just assumed you guys were on a date," Adam says.

"Why would you assume that we were on a date?" I ask.

Everyone at the table just looks at me with disappointed looks on their faces.

"You can't be serious Nova," Jasper says.

I look at him and wait for an answer.

Jasper sighs, "We all know you like him. And it's pretty clear that it's not entirely one sided."

"I'm pretty sure it's one sided," I grumble.

Adam turns to look at me with a small smile on his face. "Connor just doesn't know-"

"I don't know what?" Connor says sitting down next to me.

I slightly jump, startled by his sudden appearance. Adam looks up at him, startled as well, but quickly regains his composure.

"You don't know that it's almost my birthday!" Jasper quickly adds to the conversation.

Connor doesn't seem to think anything of Jaspers response and just shrugs his shoulders.

"So when is your birthday?" Connor asks.

"The twenty third. It's the Sunday right be for Thanksgiving. I was thinking we could all do something that day."

"What are we doing?" Sabrina asks as her and Allie join us at the table.

I jump when Sabrina slams her tray onto the table.

"We need to all get to the table at the same time. I keep getting startled when you guys just drop in," I mumble.

"Why so jumpy?" Connor whispers into my ear and I feel a shiver run down my spine.

I look up at him with wide eyes and clear my throat before taking a bite of my lunch.

Connor smirks and then turns his attention back to the rest of the table. I rest my chin on my hand and can feel my warm cheeks.

I see Kayla looking over at me with one eyebrow raised and I shake my head before looking down at my lunch.

"I was telling everyone that my birthday is on a Sunday and I wanted to do something with all of you that day," Jasper explains to Sabrina and Allie.

"Oh. Of course we'll be with you Jasper. We would never miss your birthday," Allie says.

Tony looks over at her and Allie makes quick eye contact before looking down at her lunch. Sabrina notices the small exchange and glares at Tony.

Tony looks over at me for sympathy and I just give him an encouraging smile.

Everyone else at the table seems to notice the tension and they try to figure out how to break it.

"So uh, the swim season starts today after school. Should be fun," Jasper offers.

"Yeah, except for the fact that we will barely see you guys anymore," Kayla replies.

"True. We have practice almost everyday after school," Connor says looking over at me.

"Well we have Thanksgiving break soon, so we will have plenty of time to hang out then," I say.

Connor nods and we all return our attention back to our food. Lunch goes by with a few more random comments but the tension between Tony and Allie seems to distract us all.

The bell rings and I can't help quickly packing up my things so that I can get away from the awkwardness. Connor follows my lead and runs after me.

"So can you tell me what's going on? Why was everyone being so weird at lunch today?" Connor asks.

"Tony and Allie aren't talking to each other."

"Why not?"

"Allie's mad at Tony for beating up that Caleb kid and Tony doesn't really know how to talk to her," I explain.

"He's just got to talk to her. It makes everything better," Connor sighs.

"I tried to tell him that. He'll come around though. He can't last very long without talking to her."

Connor gives a knowing nod and we continue walking to class.

"I had a really good time yesterday," Connor says shyly.

I smile. "I did too."

"I liked the little game that we were playing; with the questions. Would you like to continue it?"

"How about each day one of us gets a question. And as I recall, we left off on you so it's my turn," I grin.

"Go ahead Superstar."

I think for a moment before I realize something I don't know about him yet.

"Jasper was just talking about his birthday and guess what I don't know? When's your birthday?" I ask.

Connor sighs, "I knew this would come up eventually. It's December 24th."

"You're Birthday is Christmas Eve? That's so fun!"

"Sure, I always loved my birthday being overshadowed by Christmas," Connor grumbles.

"It can't be that bad. Here, I promise that this year you will have an amazing birthday."

Connor looks over at me pointedly, "How can you promise that?"

"Because I'll be there this year."

Connor smiles and shrugs in agreement.

"You got me there. So when's your birthday?"

"July 7th. Yes, I have a summer birthday. I actually like having it in the summer. Everyone was always able to be there," I say quickly.

"Makes sense to me. I'm glad I learned something else about you," he smiles.

I nod and we walk into Creative Writing together.

The rest of the school day goes by pretty uneventfully. Teachers just keep handing out more and more homework, as if we don't have enough.

When the final bell rings Connor leaves pretty quickly to pick up Jenny. Tony and Kayla walk with me to my locker.

"Tony you have to talk to her," Kayla whined.

"I will soon, relax."

"No. You're going to talk to her now," Kayla says pointing down the hall.

Allie and Jasper are walking towards us and Kayla gives Tony a light shove in their direction.

We watch as he walks up to her and says something to her. She slowly nods her head and they walk away to find a place to talk. Jasper comes up to us, looking back at them.

"Do you think they're going to make up?" Jasper asks.

"Allie can't stay mad at him for long. It's not in her nature," I say.

"You're right. But you know who can stay mad? Sabrina. And it looked like she was pretty upset with him at lunch," Kayla says.

"She was just mad at him because of Allie. Allie is like a puppy to Sabrina. She doesn't want to see her hurt," Jasper explains.

"None of us want to see her hurt. But come on, we know Tony. He would never hurt her on purpose. He is absolutely heartbroken about the way everything went on Saturday," I say.

"Then let's just hope he tells her all of that right now," Kayla sighs.

I nod in agreement and say quick goodbyes to both of them. I start heading to my car when I see Adam running up to me.

"Hey Nova! I wanted to talk to you real quick!" Adam calls.

I stop walking and Adam soon stops in front of me.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"I just wanted to talk to you about something. I was going to talk to you at lunch but I didn't really want to with Connor there," Adam explains.

"What did you want to talk about?" I ask curiously.

"Well it was apparently obvious to everyone else at the table that you like Connor, but I had no idea. I mean I knew there was something going on between you, because I thought you two went on a date, but I didn't know for sure if you actually liked him," Adam rambles quickly.

"Slow down Adam. Take a breath. I'm not going anywhere," I say trying to calm him down.

Adam takes a deep breath and nods his head.

"So as I was saying, I don't really know you that well to know for sure if you liked him. But I do know Connor. And I think he's crazy about you," Adam says calmly.

I feel my face grow warm and I look down at my shoes.

"Don't say that if you don't mean it," I mutter.

"I think he likes you but he doesn't know what to do about it. You know what happened with his mom, he thought that his parents really loved each other and it turns out they didn't. He has a hard time trusting in love."

"He doesn't have to love me. Not yet, anyway. I mean, I don't think I love him quite yet. But I do really like him. But I don't want to waste my time on him if he's not willing to give us a chance," I sigh.

"Just give him a little time. He has to figure out what he wants. All I have to say is that he has never looked at a girl the way he looks at you," Adam smiles.

I glance up at Adam and smile. I shake my head and point a finger at him.

"If you're messing with me Adam Marshall so help me..."

"I would never do such a thing Nova. Trust me, I want you guys together more than you do," Adam smiles.

I give a short laugh. "You know what? I kind of believe that."

"Good. Now, can I give you a hug before I go?"

"Of course."

I reach over and wrap my arms around him. A hug from Adam feels like a hug from Greyson. He just seems like a brother to me.

When we finish our hug I wave goodbye to him and head over to my car.

Greyson is waiting outside of it, annoyed.

"Don't even day anything. I know you have much better things to be doing," I say sarcastically.

"I promised Lila that I would call her once I got home from school. She was at home sick today," Greyson explains.

"Well that's very thoughtful of you. Lila's a lucky girl," I say as I pull out of the parking lot.

Greyson stay quiet for a moment and then suddenly turns in his seat to look at me.

"I think I love her."

I almost slam on the breaks, but I regain myself before I get us into an accident.

"You what?" I ask, shocked.

"I think I love her Nova," He repeats calmly.

"You're fifteen . How do you know that you love her? How long have you guys been dating anyway?" I question.

"We've been dating for almost six months. And I can't quite explain it Nova. I just know that I would like to keep her in my life for as long as I can. I feel like we understand each other and match each other perfectly," he explains.

I think about what he said for a moment and my own insecurities come into my mind.

"What if she doesn't love you back?"

"I would still love her. I would wait for her to feel the same way. And if that never happens, then I'm just happy that I had the privilege of loving her," he says softly.

I feel myself starting to tear up and try to blink them away.

"How do you have so much knowledge for a fifteen year old? Shouldn't you be obsessed with video games or something? I didn't know that you were capable of saying things like that."

"Lila taught me how to make complete sentences," he smiles.

I laugh, "Man, that girl is a keeper."

"Yeah she is."

We sit in silence for a moment with just the sound of the radio going.

"You should tell her. Don't live your life with regrets," I say after a bit.

Greyson nods and we go back to our silence. Both of us comfortable in our own thoughts.

Maybe I'll be brave enough to take my own advice.

One day.

***

Thank you for reading!

This was kind of a short filler chapter but I thought it was kind of sweet. There will be plenty more going on in the next few chapters, don't worry.

Love you all!❤️