Chapter 30

AVERY

"Hot guy at three o'clock." Mariah called and our heads immediately turned in that direction.

Mariah, Jemima and I were currently at our usual spot at the cafeteria-now shared with Jemima-eating. Well, Mariah and I were eating while Jemima picked at her food. She didn't really eat it. To me, it seemed like she didn't like it.

Now that I thought about it, she didn't really eat the food from the cafeteria and I wondered why. There could be a lot of explanations for that. Maybe she didn't eat out. Some people had allergies and phobias. I knew better than to judge.

The guy Mariah was talking about was, in fact, hot. A square jaw, firm lips, mopish brown hair. He was hot, granted, but he wasn't Cyrus hot. No one could be as hot as he was, to be honest.

"Smoking." Jemima commented and I nodded, seconding her silently.

"So sad I can't do guys at the moment." Mariah sighed although her eyes lingered on the back of the guy.

"Why?"

"After that incident," that was enough. Jemima and I understood already. "I think I want to stay away from guys for a while. I don't know, I just need some time to process and to come to the conclusion that not all guys are the same."

I totally understood her. Even I was still suffering the aftermaths of that night. I was just putting on a strong face and acting like I was okay. When in reality, I wasn't. Sometimes I thought about that night-both nights-and what I had escaped and I still couldn't believe that I had been so lucky. Twice.

Was I a cat? Did I have nine lives?

"I mean, I know that what happened was totally unexpected and all guys aren't lunatics or insane." Mariah rumbled on, a sign that she was nervous, "I just..... Bro, I think I could have PTSD."

I almost snorted out water. This wasn't funny. Not at all. But somehow, Mariah made everything seem funny. I reached across the table to place my hand atop hers consolingly. She gave me a small but appreciative smile.

"I'm sorry." Jemima sighed, giving up on pretending she was actually interested in her food and dropping the cuttlery to the plate altogether. "What we all went through.... It was tough. It's okay if we all decide to stay away from the male species for a while."

"True." Mariah nodded, shoving fries into her mouth. She chewed hurriedly, "Not Avery through because my girl got a man." She said the last five words in a sing-song voice.

I smacked her lightly. "Would you bring your voice down?"

"What?!" Jemima's jaw dropped.

"Tone it down, both of you." I shushed them.

"Okay. Okay." Jemima mimed zipping her mouth shut while Mariah cackled with glee over seeing me riled up. "What's Mariah talking about though? Is she serious?"

I squirmed in my seat. "Well... There's someone, but he's not my man. It's still new. We've not really...." I bit my lip, "We've not had that conversation yet. It's still too soon."

"Okay." Jemima shifted closer to me, "Feel free to tell me to back off, but I would love to hear all the deets."

Okay, I wasn't going to lie. I was excited and I really wanted to tell them everything since they were the closest people to me and well, sometimes I really wanted to open up to people but I couldn't because I didn't have a lot of friends and one didn't go around telling their personal details to strangers. Besides, I had to get comfortable with a person before I told them anything.

But with Mariah and now Jemima, I felt like I could tell them anything. And I did. For the next thirty minutes and they took everything in, eyes wide with with excitement.

"He came to the bar?"

I nodded.

"Twice?"

I nodded again.

"And then y'all had a hot make out session in his car?"

"What?" I gasped. "No."

"So you guys didn't have a hot make out session in his car?"

"We did-I.... That's not what I'm saying! We made out in his car but it wasn't hot." I was pretty sure that my face had turned as red as a tomato, "I mean it was, but..... Oh my God." I covered my face with my hands.

"My God. Look at her." Jemima laughed in delight. "Stop. I'm just playing with you. He sounds like a real snack though."

"He is." I sighed, "Said he's vacationing. He doesn't live here. That's a conversation we're going to have to talk about too."

"Wait. He doesn't live here?" Frown lines appeared on her forehead.

"Nope."

"I don't know, this is such a weird place to vacation."

"To be honest." Mariah added, shrugging.

I was definitely in agreement with them. I had thought about the same thing too that day when he told me about it. This town, small as it was, was a very odd place to come to vacation. It was small and plain and not at all eventful. The bar and a few other places were the only things it had.

"I think it's weird too." I told them.

Gradually, the conversation died and Mariah and I went back to eating while Jemima got busy on her phone.

My phone vibrated and then lit up with an incoming text.

I grabbed it and my heart did little flip flops when I saw that it was Cyrus that had texted me.

Cyrus: Hey, what are you doing?

I smiled. I always knew he was the type of guy that went straight to the point. I liked how he didn't waste time dilly-dallying.

Me: At the cafeteria at school. Hanging with my friends.

Cyrus: Are you busy?

Me: Not really. You?

I could hear Jemima and Mariah talking, but I didn't hear what they were talking about because I wasn't paying attention. It was safe to say that Cyrus had all my attention right now.

Cyrus: I'm not. Are you free tomorrow?

My heart skipped as I read the message. And then re-read it just to be sure. Was Cyrus about to ask me out on a date?!

I wanted to shout yes, but since we were texting, a yes with many exclamation marks would suffice. But I also didn't want to sound too desperate. So I decided to be subtle.

Me: I think so. Why?

Cool. That was better. 'I think so' said that I could be free but I wasn't sure because anything might come up probably because I was a very busy person. Even if I actually wasn't. But he didn't need to know that.

Cyrus: I thought we could go on a date? If you want to, of course.

Oh my God. It was confirmed. Cyrus was asking me out on a date. If I could, I would be squealing right now. But I guess I didn't do a good job of hiding what I was feeling because I heard Mariah snickering and Jemima telling her to shut up.

"From the smile on your face, I can tell he's the one you're texting."

I didn't have to say anything. The smile on my face turned into a full blown blush.

"Leave the girl alone, Mariah." Jemima threw a fry from her plate at Mariah but there was a smile on her face, then she turned to me. "Go back to texting your boo."

I rolled my eyes and looked back at my phone. A new message had come in.

Cyrus: Or if you don't want to, that's still okay. If you're busy tomorrow, we could schedule it for another day. There's no rush, really.

Me: No! Tomorrow is okay. I'm free tomorrow. Just text me the time and place.

He must have taken my silence to mean that I didn't want to hang out for him to send that text. He didn't know that I had just taken too long to reply.

Cyrus: Good. I'll pick you up tomorrow by 4pm.

Me: Sounds good. Just text me before coming so that I'll be ready.

Cyrus: Alright.

And that was officially the end of our conversation.

This time when I looked up, I caught them staring at me with identical teasing smiles on their faces.

"You guys, I have a date tomorrow."

We all squealed excitedly.

"Girl, I'm gonna do your make up." Mariah smiled and that was when I remembered.

Shit. "I don't have anything to wear."

"We'll raid my closet." Mariah grinned. "You'll definitely find something to wear. Something very sexy." She wiggled her brows suggestively.

A minute ago, I was excited about the progress Cyrus and I had made and now knowing that he asked me out on a date, meant that he had been thinking about me all along. And that filled me with a fuzzy feeling.

Tomorrow, we were going to have that conversation. The one concerning what his intentions with me were. He had admitted that he wanted me, but that wasn't enough. He hadn't been clear enough. What did he want with me exactly?

A relationship?

And how were we going to cope with the fact that he didn't even leave here?

There were a lot of conversations we needed to have. And tomorrow, we were going to have them.