Opposite Force

Chapter Seven

Mikaela Martin | Present

"He's not even trying to play it cool," Annalise comments through a mouthful of BLT. "Like, he saw you Saturday and immediately went for Monday to hang out."

"That's just because of his practice schedule," I protest. If I'm not careful, Annalise is going to start planning my wedding. I'm not exaggerating. She had a color scheme picked out a month into my last relationship.

Last relationship? Get it together, Mikaela. This is not a relationship.

"The Panthers don't have practice Wednesdays," Sarah says.

Annalise squeals in happiness. Internally, I'm doing the same. Peyton couldn't wait until Wednesday to hang out? This is crazy.

"Did he try anything Saturday?" Liam asks, his voice low and a little angry. He's been weirdly silent all lunch, probably irked because I'm hanging out with a football player despite what the team put Olivia through. He doesn't have a valid reason to be so upset; Peyton would never drive past a stranded girl or bully her like the other players did. No way was he involved in that.

"He kissed my cheek, but that's it," I reply, blushing.

"Our little Micky is in love!" Annalise sings. The goths and I glare at her. She seriously needs to work on volume control.

"Shush, Annalise," Sarah hisses. Turning to Liam, she says, "I like Peyton. I don't think he'd ever hurt Mikaela or anyone."

"Yeah, we'll see," Liam grumbles.

Will we see? Peyton is sweet and seems genuinely interested in me, but he's probably the most popular guy in our class. Could Liam be right? Olivia is shy too, and Nolan pursued her, and... So. Many. Similarities.

"Look what you did to her," Annalise growls.

"Want to take a walk outside?" Sarah asks me.

I nod, incapable of words, and let her escort me out the backdoors.

"Sit," she says softly.

I do as she commands, plopping down onto a picnic table. The same one Peyton and I sat on. Oh, God.

"I know Peyton. He's a really good guy. I've never seen him make sexist comments or catcall cheerleaders like some of the other football guys do. Liam's just worried because of what happened with Olivia, which is understandable, but he's wrong about Peyton."

"Yeah, maybe," I mumble.

"I'm serious, Micky. I know Peyton better than Liam does. If you were hanging out with Jake Anderson, I'd be with Liam warning you, but Peyton's nice."

"But why me?" I burst out.

Sarah furrows her brows. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I'm weird, Sarah. I barely ever talked to him before he started...whatever he's doing. What if he's—I don't know—talking to me on a dare or something?"

Sarah's eyebrows—she has the world's most expressive brows—raise in skepticism as each word leaves my mouth. "I'm pretty sure that only happens in movies."

"What if he got inspired by a movie?"

"Mikaela," Sarah laughs, "tell me you don't actually believe that."

"I don't know," I sigh. "It's just weird, right? Like, I can't be his type."

"Well, clearly you are. Don't turn around, but he's staring at you right now." My head instinctively moves, and Sarah hisses, "Freeze!" She leans over the table and waves.