The Thing About Three

chapter twenty-nine | sleepover

WHEN I TOLD Hallie about the almost kiss between me and Dallas immediately after it happened, I got a text back from her telling me to come over to her house to spend the night and give her all the details.

I happily threw a bunch of clothes into my backpack, scrounging up all of my necessities before I even told my dad. He turned out to be okay with it, giving me the run down about being safe and making good choices on my way out of the door.

Hallie was sitting on her front porch when I pulled into her driveway. "Hey!" she greeted. "Come on, let's go to my room. I want to know everything!"

And I told her everything, right down to the nitty gritty of me wanting to kiss Dallas even though I was with Noah.

"I feel so guilty," I told her after it was all said and done. I was laying across the foot of her bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I really wanted that kiss, Hallie. I wanted to kiss someone that isn't my boyfriend!"

"But you didn't kiss him," Hallie pointed out. "Don't stress yourself out. I mean, you've said you liked Dallas for years now and this is the first time you've ever come close to kissing each other—of course you'd want to kiss him. I think it's only natural to feel that way."

"I know, but I still feel like crap. Noah's been so worried about me and Dallas and our relationship, and after assuring him constantly that nothing is going to happen between us, something almost did!" I threw my hands over my face, groaning. "I'm terrible."

"You're not terrible," Hallie reassured. "You're just human."

"Yeah, a terrible human!"

Hallie laughed. "Nope, just a human who makes mistakes. But now that you know what could happen between you and Dallas, what are you planning on doing?"

I dropped my hands, looking towards her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you stay with Noah? Or do you try to go for Dallas?"

"Stay with Noah, of course," I told her as if it were the obvious answer, because it was. "I mean, he's the one who shows me how he feels about me, and actually puts himself out there."

"Okay," she said, "so what do you do about Dallas? You can't just go back to how things were with your little movie dates and stuff. That'd just be asking for the whole almost-kiss thing to happen again."

My heart dropped. "You're right," I breathed out, frowning. "I need to keep my distance from him." Except I hated that idea. I couldn't just stay away from him completely. Just a week of trying to do so for Noah's sake had worn me out.

"Hey, someone texted you," Hallie interrupted my thoughts, handing me my phone from where I had been charging it in on her nightstand.

I felt even more guilty when I saw a text from Noah.

Noah:
Hey baby u home?

I know it's late but I wanna come by and give u something

Me:

I'm actually at Hallie's for a sleepover.

Sorry I didn't tell you, it was a last minute thing.

Noah:
Nah ur good

Send me her address I'll just come over there

"Noah wants to come over," I told Hallie, frowning as I handed her my phone and flopped back on the mattress. "I don't think I can see him. I feel crappy."