Back to You

Not So Invisible Anymore

 "Hey Faith!" A student greeted me as I was passing in the halls.

"Faith, lookin' good!" Another one pointed out too.

"Faith! Love your art on your locker!" A third one then exclaimed.

I didn't understand it, but ever since the game had been over for a good forty minutes now, in passing people just kept...talking to me. I liked it.

I was no longer that quiet girl that sat in the back of class anymore. Right now, I was just me.

"Looks like I managed to score a date with one of the most popular girls in school then, huh?"Ryder said to me clinging to my waist tightly, as we were walking down the hallway while people kept giving him high fives as well.

"Oh please, it's probably just because you're beside me." I shyly told him.

He smirked shaking his head vigorously. "Are you kidding? Definitely not. I'm tellin' you everyone and their Mamma knows that without that sweet and cute smile you always give me, I wouldn't have even won the championship. You're the full package, Harper." He informed shrugging happily.

"Well, maybe..." I joked, flipping my hair confident and sarcastically.

We both then laughed as he rolled his eyes playfully. "I think I'm starting to rub off on you a little too much. Should I be worried?" He then uttered chuckling.

Nice to know he knows himself in how he acted sometimes. "Why don't you tell me?" I asked now grabbing his shirt collar, as he smiled leaning his head down to come close to my lips—seconds away from sharing our first kiss.

But like luck would have it right now we just...couldn't.

"Excuse me, best friend coming through!" I heard Jasmine shout from behind, moving through the crowd of people trying to leave. Approaching us, we smiled at her together. She grinned back happily still in her cheer uniform.

"Seems like that sweet victory is gonna down in the history books now! McKenna, you did an excellent job out there!" She complimented. He proudly nodded kindly.

"Thanks, Jasmine! Both of your performances were pretty awesome too!" He replied.

"Oh come on if you can come to me minutes before the big game and clue me in on your big homecoming proposal, I consider you as one of my babies now too. Call me Jaz, hon!" She said.

I giggled as he looked down at me, appearing stoked that she practically adopted him to people she chose to associate with.

"Where's your boyfriend? I wanted to celebrate with us all at Pizza Hut." I offered.

"Short answer. He disappeared on me." She rolled her eyes.

I swear, sometimes I didn't know what was so wrong with that boy. Jasmine was too great of a girl to be toyed around and ditched more often than most by her own future husband.

"Join the club. After I broke up with Olivia last night, Adam and Andrea just disappeared on me too. They couldn't even come to my own game tonight. Some friends." He muttered.

Now I was indifferent about that.

I'm glad he was in my life for good now like this, but his friends minus Olivia didn't have to be so rude and cruel to him for it. But I guess Ryder's feelings were understandable. Adam was his best friend, and I didn't want to replace anyone if it meant that much to him for now.

"Hey, I can talk to him if ya want." I offered. 

He sighed and shook his head. "Nah don't worry about it. I figured they'd be mad at me, but not this much. Whatever. I don't care. They just need a few days to cool off probably which is fine, but as for me...I'm perfectly fine with being here with just you guys." He admitted, grabbing my hand and kissing the back of it smiling.

"Do you mean it?" I asked just for him to be sure.

He leaned his head down to mine and nodded. "Promise."

Clutching him tighter around his torso, he tickled me a little. Jasmine began fake tearing up and nodding her head. "Aww you two are so precious! But we still have a huge problem." She pointed out.

I knew what that could be. He still wasn't in love with me just yet. But I also knew she wasn't going to bring that up.

"And that is?" He asked curiously.

"Hello! Homecoming Dance! Now that we've got my best friend a date, you have nothing to wear Faith! No dress, no heels, no hair-" She began to explain, feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it. 

She did have a point there. I was just going to go alone if I didn't have someone to go with, and wear something I could find in my closet and dress it up.

"Jaz, relax. Everything will be fine." He encouraged smiling smugly.

"Oh yeah? How so?" She egged on.

"Easy!" He shouted, reaching out to his back pocket and taking out his wallet. Suddenly, he pulled out a few hundred dollar bills, before putting the rest back away. Eying us while we both stared at him weirdly, he cleared his throat. "Okay, it's babysitting money. I've been saving up for a special occasion. Also though, my parents give me guilt money when they're not around multiple days at a time." He explained.

"You babysit?" I asked a bit shocked. This was new information to me in both realities.

He nodded and shrugged shyly. "What? I love kids."

"Don't worry then! Faith will work on them in the future for ya." Jasmine teased.

Me and Ryder both then tensed up, pausing for a brief moment appearing flushed. If only that could've been true.

"Jaz!" I shouted. Oh my god. Felt like I was with my Dad now.

"Okay, okay! Not the point I was making, but thanks for the visual. I'll be sure to hold her to it." He told her, handing me now the cash in my hand as I looked to him baffled. "But, I do want my new and amazing date to have her dream dress if possible. So...get it. On me."

Dear lord. I wanted to do so many things to him right now. I was astonished.

"What?! Oh my god, Ryder, no! I can't take your money. And for me? Why would I want to?" I asked.

"Well maybe you don't want to, but I do. Faith, it's okay. I know what I'm doing. After all, I feel bad I didn't get to cover the cost for your car damages before anyway, due to a familiar Jamba Juice incident. Please. Let me spoil you for once." He begged.

Feeling my heart leap a thousand times doing backflips, I was still adamant about doing so.

"Thank you...but I-I-I can't take this." I voiced out completely flustered.

"But I can for her!" Jasmine answered, snatching the money from his hands instead. He chuckled, approving her actions. "You heard the boy, let's go shopping sweetie!" She squealed grabbing me out of the building.

On a Friday night at this hour, everything was closed.

But tomorrow night was the Homecoming Dance, which meant by morning...it was gonna be a lot of retail therapy.

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