Chapter 36

“I’m sorry about your mom.” Said Lucy as we were seated outside of the school. She places a comforting hand over my left shoulder blade.

“She’ll be okay.” I say.

I had to believe it.

We have been seated out here for thirty minutes now. I told her that she could go to class, but she insisted on staying with me.

“Anyways, what’s with you and Mitchell?” I change the subject.

She’s caught by surprise. “Uh, he’s an idiot.” She says. “We’ve been texting, mostly arguing. Get this, he thinks that Jon Snow should’ve been king in the end.”

I shake my head. “No way, he’s delusional.”

“Right! Everyone knows Dany should’ve been queen.”

“Definitely.” I agreed.

A forceful breeze picked up, causing fallen leaves to rustle across the grass. I close my eyes and inhale a deep and calming breath, allowing it to fill my lungs.

“So…” Lucy started, taking a breath before continuing. “What do you want to do?”

I take another breath as I contemplated wether or not I should just go back inside.

From behind, the doors to the school’s building make a loud clank as the open.

Lucy and I both simultaneously turn around.

It’s Grayson…

His eyes are focused on the pavement below him as he walked suavely towards the parking lot.

“Where are you going?” I voiced.

He looks over at us and halts in place. “I’m headed out.” He answers.

“Don’t you have class?” I ask him.

He approaches us. “I could ask the same for you.”

“Fuck class.” I turn away.

“Is everything okay?” He asks.

“Not really.” I answer, sighing dramatically.

Silence ensued. The awkward kind. In the distance I could hear the sound of ongoing traffic, faint construction work, along with the songs of hidden birds.

“Well,” Grayson’s voice cuts through the silence. “I have a free period.. and I was thinking about going to the mall for some of those awesome cinnamon donuts that they have there.” He takes a few steps before turning and facing Lucy and I. “Do you guys wanna come?”

“Hell yeah!” Lucy answered for the both of us.

“Okay, let’s go.” He starts towards his car.

“I call shotgun!” Lucy said excitedly as she started to skip across the parking lot.

“First time ditching school?” Grayson asked her as he dug into his pocket to pull out his car keys. After which, he clicks the button to unlock his vehicle.

“I’ve ditched school before.” She answered defensively.

“No she hasn’t.” I corrected quiet enough so that only Grayson heard me.

“Your mom starts chemo today, right?” Grayson walks at a slower pace.

“Yeah.” I say.

“I hope it works.”

You and me both.

We get into the car and head to the mall. Since Lucy had called shotgun, I was seated in the backseat with my head slumped backwards against the headrest as a rush of cool air crept through Grayson’s open window and battered against my face.

Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift was playing on the stereo. Lucy picked it. In fact, she had connected her phone to the Bluetooth so that she could play all of her music.

My mother is a huge fan of Taylor Swift. So much that, according to my dad, she sometimes sings the lyrics to her songs while she is sleeping. Also according to my father, my mother was a terrible singer, not that he’d ever let her know that. Despite having a terrible singing voice, my father loves her singing.

We arrived at the mall twenty minutes later, give or take a few. “Where should we go first?” Grayson asks.

“Ooh, we should definitely check out that new clothes store they have. I have my dad’s credit card.” She pulls out a credit card and waves it in the air.

“Won’t he be mad that you’re skipping class to buy clothes?” I wonder.

“He’d have to care to be mad.” Lucy says. “I mean, he loves me, but he’s not really strict or anything. And he’s barely ever home, which is why he left me one of his credit cards: to do whatever I want.”

“Sounds nice.” Grayson says.

“What about your dad, Gray?” Lucy wondered.

“Lucy, you can’t just ask about someone’s dad.” I rebuked.

“It’s fine.” Grayson says, taking a quick breath. “My dad was a gargantuan bastard. I’m better off without him.”

“Ohh..”

We continue walking further into the mall until we see a clothes store which causes Lucy to halt. “Oh my god, look at that jacket!” She pointed to the mannequin in the window who was wearing a men’s leather jacket.

“Looks a bit large for you.” Grayson stated.

“Not for me, for Dallas!”

I examined it closely and my jaw actually dropped at it’s price tag. “Fourteen hundred dollars? Holy shit.”

“We don’t have to buy it!” Lucy says. “God, have neither of you ever been clothes shopping before?”

When Grayson and I don’t answer her, she continues talking.

“The best thing about clothes shopping is having fun trying on different outfits.”

“Sounds pointless. Why try on outfits we’re not going to buy?” I move away from the window.

“Because it’s fun!”

It was not fun.

To Lucy it might have been, but to me, it was anything but. “These are skinny jeans!” I shout through the changing room door.

“And?” Lucy’s voice called back.

I groaned. “And… I don’t wear skinny jeans! They’re tight!”

“Suck it up buttercup.”

I am definitely regretting my decision in agreeing to come to the mall.

After dressing into the clothes Lucy said would, and I quote, ‘make me look awesome’, I step out of the changing room and walk out to show off my uncomfortable outfit.

Along with the skinny jeans, I had on a denim jacket, which costed more than a trip to Disneyland.

Okay, that might be melodramatic of me, seeing as the jacket only costed $200. But to me, it still costed a lot.

Lucy let’s out a whistle of approval.

I stand awkwardly and pull at the jeans that felt as if they were suffocating my thighs.

“You look hot!” Lucy stated. “Doesn’t he look hot, Gray?”

Grayson’s eyes linger over my outfit before he responds. “You look cool.”

“Well, I don’t feel cool. I’m going to change.” I turn around and head back to the changing room.

Dumb skinny jeans.

How can anyone like wearing these stupid skinny jeans?!

Whoever invented these things has a special place in hell.

Lucy ended up buy $500 worth of clothes, plus a pair of combat boots which added another hundred, then she decided to get bright blue highlights in her hair, along with a manicure.

We were now seated in the food court waiting for Grayson, who said that he had to go to the bathroom.

“So… what’s going on with you and Grayson?” Lucy wondered, causing me to almost choke on a guzzle of cola.

“What?” I manage to say after coughing repeatedly.

“…Is going on with you and Grayson?” She repeated.

“Nothing.” I scoffed.

“Don’t lie to me. You’re both acting so weird and nervous, and he can’t keep his eyes off of you.”

To answer her question, I would have to know the answer. I didn’t know what was going on with Grayson and I. For all I know, it’s probably nothing.

“Nothing.” I repeat my earlier response.

Lucy was about to continue the discussion further before Grayson appears and hands me a gift bag.

“Here you go.” He smiled sheepishly, taking a seat at the table between Lucy and I.

“What’s this?” I asked him, looking from him to Lucy, then back to him.

“Open it, idiot.” He rolled his blue eyes at me.

I sit the bag on the table and open it.

It’s a phone?

“Grayson… you didn’t have to.” I say, completely surprised.

“Yeah I did. I broke your other one so.. you’re welcome.”

I pull out the phone box and examine it. “How much was it?”

“It didn’t cost that much.” He lied through his perfectly straight set of teeth.

“Thanks.”

He stands back up. “Now, I’m going to get some of those donuts that I’ve been craving.”

“Okay.” I begin unboxing the phone as he walks away.

Lucy let’s out a chuckle from across the table. “Nothing? Huh?”

I roll my eyes. “Shush.”

“I totally ship you guys.”

“Lucy…” I groaned.

“Oooh, I just came up with the perfect ship name! Dayson! It’s so cute.”

Oh my god.

Later that day after dropping Lucy off at her place, Grayson drove me home. “Thanks again for the phone.” I say.

“You’re welcome.” He indicates right before coming to a halt at an intersection.

“I thought you only had one free period?”

“I did.” He says, turning right.

“So why did you hang out with us all day?” I wondered.

“I drove you both there, I wasn’t going to leave you stranded.”

“Nah, you’re lying.” I playfully poke him in the arm.

“I’m not.” He says.

“Yeah you are, you wanted to hang out with us, didn’t you?” I poke him again.

“Stop.” He laughed.

“I won’t stop poking you until you admit it.” I poke him, yet again.

“Fine.” He takes his right hand off of the steering wheel and backhands me in the left leg. “I wanted to hang out with you.”

I couldn’t help but smile.

He pulls the car over and puts it in park.

“Why are you stopping? My house is a few blocks away.” I tell him.

He shifts his body so that it’s facing towards me rather than the steering wheel. “Before I take you home, I need to ask you something.”

“Okay?”

He takes a nervous breath as a car drives past. Then he takes another breath, and another.

I waited patiently for him to speak.

“Do you wanna catch a movie sometime?”

I smiled. “Is Grayson Scott asking me out?”

“Yes.” He responded with a grin on his face.

I contemplated on it for a moment.

How did I go from hating Grayson to liking him? Not in the sense that I thought he was an alright guy, but in the sense that I actually had feelings for him.

“Yes.” I answer. “But I’m choosing the movie.”

He laughed. “As long as it’s not some sappy chick-flick.”