The Way She Makes Me Feel

Chapter Twenty

♡ Sydney ♡
. . .

"Someone's happy!" Sami teases, wiggling her brows at me as we walk through the mall with Zoey on my back.

"Faster, faster!" Zoey yells, patting me on the back like a horse.

"I am happy," I state, settling for quickly walking circles around Nick-the closest slow-walking person here.

"Oo, was it Jacey?" Sami pries. Because I haven't exactly told her about Evelyn, and she was too busy flirting with curly-haired Hayley to notice, I shake my head. "Nooo," I chuckle, finally walking at her side again.

"Oh god, what is it now?" Nick questions.

"Evelyn," I beam.

Nick and Sami exchange looks. "Listen!" I laugh. "Hear me out."

"I don't think I want to," Nick half-laughs. I ignore him and with a roll of my eyes say,

"Evelyn and I are sort of kind of dating."

"Define sort-of-kind-of," Sami shoots me a look.

"Well... I told her I liked her, she told me she liked me-we've cuddled and kissed, and we've been in the same bed for like three-ish nights," I shrug. "She asked me on a date today, so I'm just waiting," I add, "to ditch you guys."

"Oh, wow," Nick snorts. "Productive."

"Huh," Sami nods. Neither of them seems quite fazed by the last part. "Finally," she nods. "You two can stop being obvious obnoxious duds!"

"Hey, we're not that bad!"

"Yeah," Nick snorts. "And Zoey's favorite person is me."

"Nuh uh," Zoey shakes her head quickly-I'm not looking at her, but I know for sure she's glaring at him.

• ✿ • ✿ •

By the time Evelyn does get to the mall, my friends and I are in Build-A-Bear, getting Zoey a new stuffed animal as one of her birthday presents.

When Evelyn finds us-I'm not the one who notices; it's Zoey.

"Evly, Evly!" The girl starts jumping and reaching for Evelyn.

"Dang it," Evelyn smiles, taking Zoey and picking her up. "I was trying to surprise you."

Zoey giggles while I smile. "Well, my protector told on you," I joke.

"Sup, Hugo," Sami, from the unstuffed bench of animals, nods in recognition.

"Hey, Sami. Hi, Nick," Evelyn says.

Nick nods, playing with one of the hearts you put inside the stuffed animals.

"Mommy, mommy, I wanna panda!" Zoey squeals, trying to wiggle out of Evelyn's arms.

Evelyn chuckles and leans down to put Zoey on the ground-as soon as she's there, Zoey bolts off.

"So," I turn to her, "wanna make a child?"

Her face flushes red, and she stares at me blankly. I know what she's thinking, and I burst into laughter. "A stuffed animal bunny, Socks!"

"Oh!" She sighs. "I was legit terrified."

"Damn, am I that unsexy?" I pout.

"W-what-no," when she sees I'm laughing, she stops talking and traps her head in her hand.

"Come on," I chuckle, grabbing her hand and leading her towards the yet-to-be-stuffed animals.

• ✿ • ✿ •

"This show makes my brain hurt," Evelyn whines, burying her head further into my neck.

"You're not even watching it!" I chuckle. "You've been trying to merge inside of me for the past five episodes."

"Yeah, yeah," she grumbles, wrapping her arms around me and moving her head back to my chest. "You're way more interesting."

"I don't know..." I tease. "Hannah's kind of-"

"Don't even finish that sentence," she glares at me.

"You're cute," I kiss her forehead, and she tries her hardest not to burst into giggles.

"You're corny," she smiles.

"Here," I take the remote and pause the show. Next to us, Benny stares at the light brown bunny stuffed animal in overalls and a pink shirt-he desperately wants to chew it, but we won't let him.

"Now you can focus on me instead of the show, 10 times better," I tease.

"You're a jerk," she buries her head in my neck again.

"A jerk you find cute."

"Still a jerk."

"I dislike you."

"So..." I grab Cinnabon, the bear we made at Build-A-Bear-aka, our child-and hand the bear to her. "What happened after school with your family?"

"Uh..." she pauses. "He wants to see me."

"Is that a good thing?" I ask as I start to run my fingers through her hair.

After everything I did, he BETTER want to see her.

"I guess," she pauses. "I just... it's all confusing." She starts to play with Cinnabon's ears. "If I do see him... wherever that is... will you come with me?"

"I don't know if I can do that."

She looks up at me and pouts.

"Where are you guys even going?" I ask.

"His letter said he wants to take me out to eat on Monday-at Kelly's."

"Okay..." I slowly nod. "I could sit a few tables over and be emotional support?" I offer. "If you went."

"Okay," she lays her head back on my chest. "Thank you, Sydney," she says softly. "You're amazing."

"Anything for you," I smile-and I mean it.

I haven't even known her that long, but I'm hopelessly lovesick and would do anything for her.

. . .
♡ T A L E Y I A H ♡