by Amanda Abram
Other than just make out with his best friend behind his back.
“You don’t need to help,” Dylan said. His voice was getting louder, which meant they were heading for the kitchen.
Sure enough, a second later, Elijah walked into the kitchen, and the first thing his eyes landed on was me, leaning casually against the counter as if it were perfectly normal that I was at Dylan’s house alone with him.
“Oh, hello, Elijah,” I said coolly, examining my fingernails. I may have looked calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside, my heart was hammering inside my chest and I wanted to scream.
Neither Dylan nor I were ready to have the conversation with him about how we wanted to be together, so I could only hope he didn’t suspect anything. I could only hope there was no evidence that his best friend’s lips had just been on my neck.
“Hey, Cassie.” Elijah dragged out his greeting as a curious look came over his face. “What are you doing here?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but Dylan spoke for me. “She’s also here to help me clean.”
“Lauren was going to come too,” I lied, “but then she got feeling lazy last minute and decided she didn’t want to. You know how Lauren is.”
His mouth formed a small smirk as he nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
“We’re expecting a pizza delivery any second,” Dylan said to Elijah. “You’re more than welcome to partake if you want.”
“Thanks, man.” Elijah shrugged out of his jacket and flung it over the back of one of the chairs at the kitchen table. “I’m starving.”
I studied him for a moment, looking for any indication he might be suspicious about anything. He didn’t appear to be. In fact, he no longer seemed confused as to why I was there. I guess our explanation—which was mostly true anyway—had been good enough for him.
“So, how was your grandparents’ anniversary party?” Dylan asked him as they both sat down at the table.
And suddenly, as Elijah began telling us all about his family’s shenanigans at the anniversary party, it was just like old times: the three of us hanging out together and talking. After the pizza was delivered and we began eating, Dylan went on to tell him all about his party—including everything from setting up for it to rushing out to Target this morning to re-purchase his mom’s lamp. The only details he left out were the ones that involved making out with me in the laundry room.
“Man, I wish I could have been here.” Elijah took a big bite of his pizza and then nudged Dylan’s arm. “Oh yeah, how did it go with Claire? Did you get any action?”
Dylan’s hand froze halfway to his mouth as he was about to take a drink of his soda. “Actually, no.”
“Nothing at all?” Elijah pressed. “Not even a kiss? No hot make out session in the laundry room or anything?”
At that, I nearly choked on the bite of pizza I’d been in the process of swallowing. As I coughed and sputtered, Dylan threw me a cautious look.
Did Elijah know? He had to know. Why else would he randomly mention the laundry room if he didn’t know?
“Are you okay?” Elijah asked, patting me gently on the back.
I nodded. “Swallowed wrong,” I explained between coughs. “I’m fine.”
“You sure?” he asked as his gentle back pats turned into gentle back rubs.
“Yup. I’m good.” I cleared my throat and took a sip of my Coke as I subtly leaned away from his touch.
As he turned back to Dylan, I watched him closely. He honestly didn’t look like somebody who knew about what had happened in the laundry room the previous night between his best friend and his ex-girlfriend, so maybe it was just a coincidence that he even mentioned it in the first place.
“I’m sorry you struck out with Claire. I know you’ve been crushing on her for the longest time now, but don’t lose hope. I’m sure it will happen with her eventually.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Dylan mumbled unenthusiastically, pushing away his plate of uneaten pizza as if he’d just lost his appetite.
I could relate. I didn’t want to hear about Dylan’s crush on Claire, so I was relieved when Elijah decided to move on to a different topic. “So, when are you throwing your next party?” he asked Dylan.
“Ha-ha, good one. I’m never having one again. No thank you.”
“Oh, come on, it couldn’t have been that bad.”
Dylan cocked an eyebrow at him. “Oh yeah? If you truly believe that, I challenge you to have one of your own. It’s a nightmare, trust me.”
“Challenge accepted.” Elijah grabbed an untouched slice of pizza off Dylan’s plate and took a bite.
“Yeah, right,” Dylan said, rolling his eyes. “I’d like to see that.”
I frowned slightly as the two of them engaged in a friendly debate over whether throwing a party was hard or easy. It was no different than any of their other conversations, but that was the problem. This conversation was just a harsh reminder to me of what my feelings for Dylan threatened to destroy.
I stared down at the half-eaten slice of pizza on my plate. It was the only slice I had taken. I guess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought. Pushing my chair back, I stood from the table and walked over to the mop I had abandoned earlier.
“What are you doing?” Elijah asked me with a mouthful of pizza.
“I’m just going to keep cleaning while you two talk. We only have a few more hours to get this place back into shape.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Dylan said. “I don’t think it’s going to take much longer to finish anyway, honestly.”
“I don’t mind.” I pushed the mop around the spot on the floor where I’d almost gotten stuck earlier.
Elijah took a swig of his soda, wiped his mouth on his sleeve and stood up. “I’ll help you in a minute. I’m just gonna go use the bathroom first.”
“Okay,” I said with a nod as he left the room. As soon as he was gone, I turned to Dylan. “So, you’ve had a crush on Claire for a long time, huh?”
He turned a slight shade of pink as he got up and collected our plates from the table. “Elijah’s a bit misinformed about that. I had a small crush on her in the beginning of the year. I mentioned it to him, and he took it to mean I wanted to marry her someday. But I assure you, that’s not the case. I liked her for about a week or two and then I was over it. I just forgot to tell Elijah I was over it, so he’s just assumed I’ve been into her this whole time.”
“Well, I’m sure it didn’t help your cause when you told us you wanted to invite Claire to Winter Formal.” I stared down at the top of the mop handle. “I don’t blame him for thinking you still like her.”
Dylan set our plates down on the counter. “Well, I don’t still like her,” he assured me.
“I know that.”
“I sure hope so. But if you need any convincing, I could find a way to prove it to you.” He gave me a flirtatious grin and a wink.
I was in the middle of giggling when Elijah returned to the kitchen and as soon as I saw him, I abruptly stopped and went back to mopping.
“Man, you guys are always laughing about something these days,” he commented with a smirk. “When did you two become such good friends?”
Dylan shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess being thrown together for a school project makes people grow closer.”
“No kidding.” Elijah grinned and turned to me. “Cassie and I fell in love after being paired up for a school project, didn’t we?”
I froze mid-mop at the reminder that, yes, Elijah and I did fall in love while working on a project together. And now here I was, doing it all over again—but with a different boy this time.
Dylan rubbed the back of his neck and lowered his gaze to the floor. “Hey, what do you say we speed things up here? I’ve got some other things I need to do before my mom gets home.”
“Yeah, sure,” Elijah said. “What would you like me to do?”
Dylan handed him an empty trash bag. “Cass and I have the kitchen covered. Maybe just go around the rest of
the house and pick up all the trash you can find.”
“I can do that.” Elijah took the bag and gave him a slap on the back. “We’ll get this done, don’t worry.”
As soon as he left the room, I let out a breath and glanced over at Dylan. He was already working on scrubbing the counters and I could tell he wasn’t in the mood to talk. So, I just went back to silently mopping, picking up the pace so I could finish as quickly as possible and go home.
Within only a few minutes, Dylan and I finished the kitchen and then separated to take on the rooms upstairs. Luckily, they weren’t nearly as destroyed as the rooms downstairs and it took us no time at all to complete. When the three of us met back up in the living room an hour later, the house was nearly back to normal. Maybe even better than normal.
“You don’t think the house is too clean, do you?” Elijah asked. “Because that might look suspicious.”
Dylan glanced around and shrugged. “I don’t think so. But if she notices, I’ll just tell her I wanted to do something nice for her while she was away.”
“And you think she’ll buy that?” I asked.
“We’ll find out.”
I chuckled and glanced down at my watch. “I should probably get heading home.”
“Do you need a ride?” Elijah asked.
“Yeah, actually,” I said. “Do you mind?”
He shook his head and smiled. “Not at all.”
I couldn’t help but feel bad. He wasn’t going to be smiling for long. I had already decided I would ask Elijah to take me home, and I was going to use that alone time as an opportunity to break the news to him that we were officially never getting back together. And that I was no longer going to Winter Formal with him.
I grabbed my jacket from the banister and let my gaze wander over to Dylan, who was watching me with a slight look of unease on his face. He knew what was going to happen on the ride home.
“I’m just gonna go grab my jacket and then we can get going,” Elijah said, disappearing into the kitchen.
“Cass,” Dylan whispered once Elijah was out of earshot, “are you sure this is a good idea?”
I nodded. “I have to do it,” I whispered back. “I can’t—”
“Okay, ready to go?” Elijah asked, returning to the living room as he zipped up his jacket.
“Yep,” I said brightly. I turned to Dylan. “See you in school tomorrow.”
“Yeah, see ya.” He followed me and Elijah to the front door. “And, hey, thank you both for all your help. I never would have been able to do this all by myself.”
“No problem, dude,” Elijah said. “Just remember to return the favor when I need help cleaning up after my party.”
“Yeah, okay,” Dylan snickered.
When Elijah turned his back and headed out the door, Dylan and I exchanged wary smiles.
“Good luck,” he said so quietly I barely heard him. “Text me later.”
“I will,” I said as I stepped out of the house. “Bye.”
“Bye.” He gave me a small wave before taking a step back and closing the door.
I caught up with Elijah at his car just as he opened the passenger door for me.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I got in.
The ride to my house was uneventful. While Elijah told me fun stories about his weekend in New Hampshire, I pretended to listen while simultaneously trying to work out in my head what I was going to say to him when we arrived. With every passing minute, my heart rate got faster, and my hands got clammier. I was going to chicken out. I could just feel it.
“You okay over there?”
I blinked and turned my head to look at Elijah, who was glancing at me sideways with a curious look on his face. “What? Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “It just seems like you’re zoning out over there.”
“No, I’m good,” I assured him.
“Okay, cool.” Elijah turned onto my street. “Oh, hey, I wanted to talk to you about what we’re doing for Winter Formal.”
I held my breath for a moment. This was it. Elijah had just provided me with the perfect segue into the conversation I wanted to have with him. And perfect timing, too: we were only seconds away from my house.
“So,” he said, pulling into my driveway. “I was thinking maybe we could—”
“Elijah, we need to talk.”
He stopped the car and put it in park. He stared straight ahead for a moment before turning to me. “Okay. What’s up?” His voice was full of caution, almost like he knew this wasn’t going to be a good talk.
I unbuckled my seat belt and slowly shifted so I was facing him. “About Winter Formal…”
He watched at me as my voice trailed off. “Yeah? What about it?”
I cleared my throat and stared down at my hands resting in my lap. “I don’t think we should go together.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Neither of us said a word for what felt like the longest time. When I finally found the nerve to lift my gaze to look at him, he spoke.
“Why not?”
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I just don’t think…I mean, I know I said that I’d give you—us—another chance, but—”
“But that’s not what you want,” Elijah finished for me, his voice soft. “Is it?”
I bit my bottom lip and looked away. “No. It’s not.”
He sighed heavily and let his head drop back against the headrest. “I knew this was coming.”
I blinked at him in surprise. “You did?”
As he nodded, I could see a muscle in his jaw twitch. “It’s because of last night, isn’t it?”
A feeling of dread washed over me from head to toe. He knew. He knew about me and Dylan, and the whole time we were cleaning the house, he was just testing us. To see if we’d confess to him. And we didn’t. And now, he was going to—
“It’s because of that guy Lauren set you up with for the party, isn’t it?” he continued. “Chase, or whatever?”
The feeling of dread disappeared. He didn’t know. “Chad,” I corrected him, trying desperately not to sound as relieved as I felt. “But no, this has nothing to do with him.”
He seemed to perk up at that. “No?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Look, Elijah, I’m over the whole thing with you kissing Hannah. I’m no longer mad at you for it, and honestly, I even forgive you for it.”
“You do?”
“I do, but I’m no longer in love with you, and I don’t want to get back together.”
He flinched at the bluntness of my words and inhaled sharply. “Ouch.”
I hadn’t meant to be that direct, but there was no use in beating around the bush. I had to make it one hundred percent clear to him that we were never getting back together.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
Elijah shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. I screwed up. Why would you still be in love with me? Why would you want to get back together with me? But I thought we were going to Winter Formal as just friends anyway?”
I tilted my head to one side and gave him a pointed look. “We both know the intent of you asking me to Winter Formal wasn’t for us to go as friends. You only agreed to my suggestion because you thought going as friends would be better than not going with me at all. And, deep down, I’m sure you were thinking that going to a romantic school dance would remind me of what we once had. Am I right?”
Elijah’s lips formed a small smile as he nodded. “Guilty as charged.” He leaned over closer to me. “Cassie, I still love you, but I told you before that I would honor whatever decision you made about our relationship, and I meant it. If you just want to be friends from here on out, then that’s what we’ll be. And if going to school dances together is not appropriate for two friends who recently ended a romantic relationship with each other, then we don’t have to go together.” He gently placed a hand on the side of my face. “Whatever you want will be okay
with me. I just want you to be happy.”
I blinked back a few tears that had begun to form in my eyes. This was going way better than I had expected, and for a split second, I was reminded of why I fell in love with Elijah in the first place. He was being so sweet and understanding, and it gave me hope that when Dylan and I finally told him about us, he’d be okay with it. Maybe he would even be happy for us.
“Thank you,” I said, pulling him into a quick hug. “You can have my ticket back.”
“No,” he said when we parted. “Keep it. You should still go. Tag along with Lauren, or…” His smile faltered slightly. “Or maybe find some other guy to go with.”
My mind shot to Dylan and I was glad Elijah couldn’t read my thoughts. “Yeah, maybe. We’ll see.”
After a few moments of awkward silence and avoiding each other’s gaze, I opened my mouth to tell Elijah I should go but he beat me to it.
“Well, I should get going,” he said, glancing down at his watch.
“Yeah, me too.” I opened my door. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“For sure,” he said with a smile. “Have a good night, Cassie.”
“You too.” I climbed out of the car and shut the door behind me. I gave him a wave as he backed out of the driveway.
When he was gone, I pulled out my phone and texted Dylan.
Phase one of option two complete, I typed out. Mission was a success.
But now came the hard part: telling Elijah I had fallen for his best friend.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“I still can’t believe Chad told Jake he wasn’t interested in you,” Lauren lamented the next morning as she opened her locker. “I just don’t get it. You two seemed to be getting along so well. I thought you were hitting it off.”
I leaned against the locker next to hers. “It’s no biggie. I’m not offended or anything.”
“But how could he not be interested? You’re nice, you’re funny, you’re gorgeous. You’re the complete package.”
“Oh, stop, you’re making me blush,” I teased.