The Thing About Three

chapter ten | friendship-ruining things

A GIRL WITH dark hair and beautiful eyes bumped into me at the grocery store the next day after work. She said sorry, I said that she was fine and I never thought about her again. Until thirty minutes later when I was carting my buggy full of groceries up to the cash register and spotted her and Noah talking by the exit.

He was flirting with her, that much I could tell from fifty feet away. He stood close to her with a case of soda tucked under his arm and had his charming smirk turned up all the way, eliciting a laugh and a blush from her as she bashfully looked down at the sack of groceries in her hand.

I shouldn't have been so shocked that he was flirting with someone else considering that's all he did back in school, which was only months ago, but I was.

I also shouldn't have been all that hurt by seeing the two talk and laugh and flirt either, but I was.

My eyes kept wandering toward them as I loaded up my groceries onto the conveyor belt and checked out. I bit at my lip in anxiety, wanting more than anything to hear what he was telling her.

Actually, no, I wanted more than anything for him to stop flirting with her altogether, because, in my head, he was only supposed to flirt with me.

I know it's possessive to say that and a tad bit jealous, but my crush on him was starting to get bigger than I wanted it, and I was thinking those thoughts.

The couple were walking through the exit doors when I was paying the cashier, and I was hot on their trail with my buggy of groceries soon after.

I scoured the parking lot for them when I exited, my eyebrows drawn low. I couldn't tell if I was relieved or worried when I couldn't spot them, but decided to try and shake whatever it was off and head to my car.

I skidded to a stop when I spotted my car, noticing a shiny, black Mustang parked next to it, Noah leaning up against it with his eyes trained on me.

"Fancy meeting you here," he said, winking at me.

I wasn't in the mood, still unreasonably angry at him for flirting with that girl. So I did what any mature young adult would do in my situation; I ignored him.

I fished my keys out of my purse and popped the trunk of my car, plucking up a few bags from my buggy and setting them into the trunk.

Noah was quick to help me, and the trunk was filled in seconds.

"So, what're you doing after you take those groceries home?" he asked me.

"Nothing," I said, my voice snippy.

"Hey, is everything okay?"

I nodded and shut the trunk, grabbing my empty buggy. I was a few steps toward the cart return when he jogged forward and put his hands on the front of the buggy, leaning against it to prevent me from moving.

"You know, you're not as hot when you're being mean to me," he said, eyeing me through the dark strands of hair that fell over his eyes. "Is this you playing hard to get? Or are you mad at me?"

I pressed my lips together, pulling my buggy back and trying to move around him. He let me pass him, but stuck out his hand at the last second, grabbing onto the handlebar with my hands on either side of his as he stopped the cart. His arm was grazing mine as he peered down at me.

"Claire," he breathed out, "what's going on?"

I avoided his gaze, shrugging. "I'm just in a bad mood, is all."

I felt his eyes boring holes in the side of my head, and heard his laugh under his breath. He retracted his arm, folding his arms across his chest. "So you saw me and Jada?"