IT SEEMED TO WORK

Chapter Eight//Date (part 3)

Tyler and I met yesterday again to work on the project. We were almost done at this point. We were supposed to submit the assignment next Tuesday but we planned to round up on Friday which was today.

School passed by quickly as usual. It was uneventful. Things with Linda and Sophia were still normal, well as normal as they could get.

Tyler was still stealing glances at me and honestly, I wasn't so irritated about that anymore. I was even beginning to like it. I think I was even beginning to like Tyler again.

Just Tuesday, he irritated me and I didn't want anything to do with him but now he made me smile more and feel giddy. I was trying my hardest to hide how I felt about him though. He seemed oblivious,  for now at least.

The thing is that even if I try to change my exterior. Lauretta was still a sweet girl who believed in romance and was quick to fall for anybody who showed her any form of love or attention.

.

"Hey," I said as I walked towards Tyler.

"Hey," he responded with his signature smile, "someone looks extra happy today. "

"I'm not extra happy. I'm normal," I responded before adding, "or maybe it's cos I don't have to be around you again after today ends."

"Ha ha," he responded sarcastically then rolled his eyes, "It's okay to admit you'll miss me, love."

"Dream on," I said chuckling.

We got to our spot and immediately started up on our work. It was almost as if we had an agreement beforehand to focus on finishing the work early.

2 hours later, we were finally done with our project. We were just going through it to correct any mistakes we might have made.

"So," Tyler started as he flipped through the pages, "let's get ice cream after this? You know, to celebrate all our hard work."

I contemplated it for a few seconds in my head, deciding on how to respond. I decided to play it cool in the end.

"That's chill as long as you're paying," I said while scrolling through my phone. Or at least I was making it look like I was scrolling through my phone, in reality, I was watching him through my peripheral vision.

"I know you're broke Lauretta. Thankfully I'm into helping the poor and needy," he responded cheekily then burst into laughter.

"Haha. Very funny. I almost died laughing," I said then rolled my eyes.

I did find it funny though but he didn't need to know that.

Before long, we rounded up and made our way to the ice cream parlour I chose. I chose the parlour because it was about 15 minutes away and there was a very low chance of running into Linda or Sophia.

Running into either of them would be terrible because it would seem like Tyler and I were on a date.

A date? Is that what this is? Is he taking me on a date? Does he like me?

Thinking about all of that began to stress me out so I had to remind myself that he most likely just felt we needed to do something fun after the past few intense days we'd had. That was definitely it. I was overthinking things.

.

"I'll have the banana cookie cream flavour," I told the person taking our orders.

"I'll have what she ordered too," Tyler said.

Does Tyler like banana ice cream?!

"You like banana ice cream?" I asked as we sat at our booth.

"Nah. I just ordered it to make you seem less weird," he responded.

There was no sarcasm or smile in his voice to make me know if he was joking or not.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yes," he responded seriously again.

I didn't know how to respond so I just picked up my phone. I felt hurt by what he said even though it wasn't something worth being angry about.

"I was just joking. I love banana ice cream. It's my favourite," he said chuckling, "you should have seen your face."

"Not funny," I said and rolled my eyes.

I felt relieved to know he didn't mean that.

"Not many people like banana ice cream so I was surprised to see you order it," he said.

"Right! And it's the best," I responded shaking my head in agreement, "they're missing out. More for us anyways."

"I don't think it works like that Lauretta," Tyler said laughing.

"Duh it does," I replied.

"Okay then," he said laughing.

We spoke about random things like our favourite drinks, movies and other favourite stuff. Then we argued about who had the better favourites. We also spoke about our kindergarten crushes. Our celebrity crushes and so many random things while we ate our ice cream.

"Is there somewhere you've specifically wanted to go for a while?" Tyler suddenly asked.

"Hmm. Weird question considering we were just talking about Sofia the First," I said then chuckled, "but yeah, what do you mean? Like a country or a place in this country or like what?"

"Yeah like somewhere in this country or this state to be specific."

I knew where this was going already. Guess I wasn't paranoid after all. I decided to play along anyways. I wasn't going to go on a date with him.

"Yeah. Like a beach house with friends and stuff. We're like chasing each other, eating marshmallows and stuff. Yeah, something like that."

"Oh," he said.

It was pretty obvious he wasn't expecting that response which was what I wanted. To catch him off guard and specifically mention friends so he wouldn't think I was interested in a date.

"Well, luckily,  my dad has a beach house and its free tomorrow. "

"Um okay? ", I responded as calmly as I could but I was panicking.

"We should go tomorrow," he said, paused for a few seconds then continued,  "I'm asking you out on a date. We go to eat then go to the beach house and make marshmallows and stuff. What do you think?"

I didn't know what to say.

Tag for the chapter:  chronesthesic