All Planned Out

Fifteen (Alex)

Stuart Crane is sitting in my passenger seat.

Stuart Crane is sitting in my passenger seat and does not at all look nervous. I hate how much this bugged me until I looked in my rearview mirror and saw that, on the outside, I looked as calm as ever.

On the inside, though?

On the inside, I'm a complete mess.

Next to us, I heard Montana's driver door close and so I peaked past Stuart to try to get any look I could at Charlotte. With the two of them eating lunch with us, it severely limited our chances to talk over how all of this was going to go. We split up five minutes ago, with her waiting outside the school while I walked off with Stuart. He had already been waiting for both of us despite how quickly we had gone through our usual end-of-day routine. Judging by how things have gone for us over the past two weeks, I think we are both starting to get a little sick of the charade and yet neither one of us are willing to make the move to out ourselves.

I know I'm not, at least, especially when I have now found myself sitting next to a boy who has been crushing on me. It still feels so weird to think about it - about him - like that. Everything about him has always screamed that he was a chick magnet above all else, even if he didn't know it or act upon it.

"I hope Charlotte doesn't mind that I had to move this seat all the way back." He said just as I started the car. If he noticed that I hesitated, I don't see it on his face. I don't really see much of anything on his face. There are still no nerves, even when I turn myself to keep him in my field of view to reverse out of my space instead of using my backup camera. He simply leaned back with me, tilting his head around to look over my shoulder and toward the entrance to the lot. "You're okay from the other way."

"I would think so. If someone's coming in here now, they're definitely a little late for school."

Stuart laughed and I tried not to smile directly in his face as I settled back down into my seat.

"That's what they would be. Totally."

"Uh, I'm just taking you to your house, right? You don't need me to take you to work or anything?" We had moved less than fifty feet and already the awkwardness was putting itself front and center.

"Nah, I don't have to be there for another hour or so." He had started to drum his hands on his knees. "And if you take me there, I won't have any way to get home."

"Oh, I'm sure somebody would be willing to pick you up later." I said, then heard the drumming stop. "Um, Montana probably would."

A quiet fell between us, but it barely lasted thirty seconds before Stuart laughed again.

"For a second there I thought you were trying to position yourself as, like, a chauffeur."

"In this car? No way."

"I mean, like, Charlotte has got herself into the job of Montana's camera operator so I thought that you were, like, trying to do something for me like she is doing for her."

Alarm bells sounded between my ears. I do not know how I managed to keep a straight face.

"Well, Char's doing that for a reason. She likes her."

"Yeah."

"I was just trying to be nice."

"...Yeah."

"I would take you to work if you needed, or pick you up if you needed that. It's not like it'd be a big deal. You live close by. We're good enough friends. I'm sure if you called Montana for a ride and she couldn't do it for whatever reason, she'd probably just give you my phone number and tell you to force me to do it for her sake."