Unlikely

Chapter Four: Before Bed

Friends. She wanted to be friends. Normally, if a girl would have told me that, I would have left them alone. I wasn't trying to entertain friendships with potential hookups. But with Olivia, I knew it was going to be different—she would be mine.

I noticed that the closer I got to her, the more nervous she became. She stumbled over her words and would take a step back. She did it at school, and she did it again on the porch. She got flustered and I knew that meant she had some level of attraction towards me, she just wouldn't admit it.

I thought I had her figured out. She was a stereotypical good girl to the core. Good grades, good behavior; to be suddenly attracted to someone like me would be too crazy, too unlike herself. She probably got overwhelmed with how much she enjoyed my company and took her aggravation out on me, rather than herself. I could forgive that, forgive her, especially if she came around after all.

After our chat I went in my house where my stepdad was looking erratically through boxes in the living room. He didn't greet me, I didn't greet him, I just made my way into my room. It was still pretty bare in there, not that I've ever had much out anyways.

I kicked my shoes off and sat down at my desk, logging onto my computer. I scrolled around for a bit, checking my feed on several different platforms for a few minutes before I paused and wondered about Olivia. Did she have socials?

I searched her first name then paused again, realizing I didn't know her last name. And her name was so incredibly generic, I would never be able to find her. To be honest, I didn't even think she had socials. She very much gave off of the vibe of 'books over technology' or 'face to face over texting' vibe. I would have found that pretentious as hell, but imagining her snuggled with a book someplace or making full eye contact while chatting made me smile. I knew she had a phone, I'd seen it earlier in school, but she was barely on it, it was always in her bag.

I sighed in defeat and leaned back in my chair, staring at the window and remembering this morning with a smile. I looked over at the box tucked in the corner labeled 'Shawn's room' and stood up to walk towards it. I opened it up and rummaged through it to pull out the curtains that were neatly folded at the bottom.

The room already had a curtain rod installed, all I had to do was add the curtains. I walked over to the window and stared out, seeing that the curtains to her kitchen window were still closed. I smiled again to myself before stepping up on the window stool and pulling the rod off of its hanger.

I didn't know why it bothered her so much to have seen me shirtless, though my previous theory came to mind, but if she wanted me to get curtains I was going to do that for her. I figured if I won her over as a friend, she'd become more willing to let me take her out.

Once the curtains were set up, I quickly closed them, noticing the room get much darker. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and made my way to my bed to indulge in more doom scrolling. I rested my arm under my head and logged into insta. I noticed that I had a few new follower notifications. Upon clicking on them I saw they were girls from the school.

I smiled to myself picturing them scurrying around and trying to figure out who I was so they could follow me. I vaguely remembered seeing one of the girls today, and realized she was the girl who gave me paper in Bio this morning. She was pretty attractive, so I followed her back. The other girls I had no clue about, but the ones I found good-looking I followed back too.

Not too long after a few of them sent me DMs. One girl simply said 'hey, I saw you around school today just wanted to say welcome to the school'

Olivia's voice popped in my head: welcome to the neighborhood.

I simply responded 'thanks, happy to be here. Didn't know this place was so full of beauties like yourself.'

While I waited for her response I opened another DM reading, 'Hi, I'm Lacey from bio (the one who gave you paper, haha)...I hope it's not too forward or anything but I think ur really cute and I was wondering if you wanted to get coffee or something sometime...'