Can't Say No

Chapter Twelve

Kayla's POV:

It's been about a week since I moved in with my family. I've been going to school, seeing my friends, looking for jobs, everything a normal seventeen year old would be doing. But quite frankly, I was miserable. My parents were always working, my siblings never spoke with me unless they had to, and my room was so small a bed hardly fit into it. I missed sleeping in the tree house, talking with Toby, even running from the cops. And yeah, I still visit Toby when o can after school. But he's normally out doing hell knows what. The day I left he and I would guess Masky and Hoodie killed about twenty three people, including my old adoptive parents. Hearing that those two were gone put a smile on my face. I know of wish Toby was at the tree house more though. I do have other friends, but none as close as I would deem Toby. Everyone at school called him Ticci Toby, much to my annoyance. And whenever someone would start talking to me about him, they'd get confused when I only said Toby. It was just a miserable week. Ellen was happy, though. She had been so worried about me and when I finally returned to school she nearly tackled me with a hug. Now only about of month of school was left, and the day's seemed to last forever. After each school day I would go and try to see Toby, but he was always out. "Curse that murderer!" I said one day as I yet again walked back home from an empty tree house. "He's lucky I even come back to try!" Finally, one a Friday afternoon, I cli!bed into the tree house and saw Toby sitting with Masky and Hoodie. "There she is, girl of the hour!" Masky announced. I rolled my eyes at him and sat parallel to Toby. "You guys sure have been busy." I said. Toby shrugged. He was keeping his gaze on me, like he was studying me. "Just doing regular stuff." He said. I sighed. "You guys really should get out more. Sitting in here must only fuel a murder passion." "Is that a good, or a bad thing?" Hoodie joked. "Bad!" I said in between laughter. "Have you guys, I don't know, ever just gone out to get pizza or something?" They all shook their heads, which was sad. "Is that fun?" Masky inquired, and I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "Okay, you guys are coming with me to my favorite pizza shop. Right now!" They looked at me like I was joking, then realized I wasn't. "Kayla!" Toby moaned. "We have a place to be-" "I don't wanna hear it." I said. "Whether you have to go kill or not, you're coming with me. I don't care of you bring weapons and wear masks, but we'll likely have to run from the cops if you do." They each shot me pained glances, then one by one, all took off their masks and emptied their pockets. When I was certain none of them had anything dangerous in their possession, I climbed down the ladder and leaded them towards town. "You realize someone still may recognize me." Toby said, coming to walk beside me. "Well, of we're lucky it'll only be fangirls." Toby made a face, which made me laugh. "Please no." He said. "I deal with them enough." I laugh even harder. "That sucks." I said after a minute. "Well, they're not as bad as you." He jokes. I make a dramatic gasp and playfully punch him in the arm. "Meenie." I whine. We make it to the center of town no problem. Some people look at us, but so far no one recognizes Toby, Masky, or Hoodie. Which I weird since they're on the town's 'Top Wanted' list. But whatever. As we cross a road I smell something. It's sweet and strong and coming from...Toby. "Toby, are you wearing cologne?" I ask. I see him blush slightly. "So what if I am!" He says. I laugh. "Never mind." I say, still laughing. Toby glares at me, but he's smiling. I realize I hardly ever see Toby smile. That thought makes me smile even wider. When we get to the pizza place I ask the waitress for a booth. Masky and Hoodie take up one side, which leaves the other to me and Toby. I sit on the inside, while Toby sits as far on the edge of the booth as he can. "What's wrong Toby?" Hoodie jokes. "Can't take sitting next to a girl?" "Shut up!" Toby snaps, still sitting on the edge. I laugh and drape an arm over his shoulders, making him go tense. "We're must teasing!" I say, pulling him off the edge and into the seat. Even now, as I remove my arm and sit back over near the wall of the booth, Toby has plenty of room. His face is really red, and Masky is snickering with Hoodie on the other end of the table. "I hate you all." He mutters, making gn us crack up even more. A girl from my school comes over as ou waitress and upon seeing all the guys she begins to act odd. "Hi, my name's Diana." She said, scooting over near Masky. "Can I, get you guys something to drink?" I order a Pepsi, while everyone else gets water. "Coming right up." She says. As she walks off, Masky says "What was that?" I giggle, something that is awfully rare. "Dude, she was flirting with you." Masky pushes some of his auburn hair out of his eyes. I just noticed that Masky actually looked really good. Nothing was wrong with his face, it was perfect even. But I'm not the girl to drool over stuff like that. Hoodie had taken his mask off, but kept the hood up. Whatever, you can't change everything. The doors to the pizza place open, and I sneak a glance at who's coming in. "Oh great." I mutter. All the popular girls from school, including Amanda Highwell. They took one glance at our table and starts whispering to each other. After they were seated, Amanda came right up to out table and got in Toby's face. "Hi." She said. "I'm Amanda. And you are?" Stiffling a laugh, I watched as Toby said "Name's Toby." Amanda did one of those quick laughs. "Well, why are you hanging around such a dead catch?" She asked, pointing to me. I just smiled and continued biting my lip. "Why not you and your friends come join our table? Three free spots." I watched as Masky and Hoodie smiled, and Toby kjust chuckled. "Thanks, but no thanks." He said. Amanda looked at him, eyes widening with shock. "What?! Why?" I was nearly crying, I was laughing so hard. "Because I like people that are the opposite of you." Toby said. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I started laughing, and Masky and Hoodie joined in. Amanda scoffed, threw her hair, and sashayed back to her table. I couldn't stop laughing for the longest time, and Toby was chuckling to himself as well. "Oh man, that was awesome." I said when I had caught my breath. "Was it?" Toby asked. I nodded and wiped a tear from my eye. "More hilarious than anything. I wish I could have gotten her face on tape." After a minute of more laughing ouour drinks came, and I ordered an extra large cheese pizza for the table. Knowing Toby, he'd eat at least one fourth of it. So if Masky and Hoodie were the same, then Any other pizza size would be way to small. "Prepare for your tiny minds to be blown." I said when Diana put the pizza on the table. She tried talking with Masky, but he blatantly ignored her, and she got the message. I watched as they each took a bite of pizza, then started eating slice after slice. To ensure I got some for myself, I took three slices and stacked them on my plate. Then I just let them have at it. After about twenty minutes the pizza was gone and I was full. "Told you guys it was good." I said. Toby smiled, and playfully pushed me into the booth wall. "I gotta admit, that was pretty good." He said. "You come here often?" Masky asks. I shrug. "Sort of. I have a better hangout spot, though." "Oh really?" Hoodie says. "Where might that be?" I smile. "Guess you'll just have to find out."