𝐒𝐋𝐔𝐓! ʲ ᵇᵘʳʳᵒʷ

𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐭

CHAPTER FIVE          earn it

"Have a good day, Tally."

"JOE, as in Burrow?" Shayla asks, her jaw hanging. I nod slowly, wrapping the drawstring of the topic of our conversation's sweatpants around my finger. "I need a moment to process this," she says dramatically, pressing her fingers to her temples.

After a moment of silence, she folds her hands over her lap and smiles tensely. "Please, start from the beginning."

I waste no time explaining the tryout and Joe and I's run in. I tell her how he took me to his place and everything that followed suit. Her face remained neutral the entire story, until this point. "Everything was fine until this morning."

She turns her head slowly, blinking a few times. "And what happened this morning?"

I hide my face in my hands, my stomach immediately fluttering. "Oh, gosh, Shayla, he almost kissed me!"

"He did what?" she finally breaks her neutral stance, throwing herself onto the couch. "What, what, what?!"

"We were just lying there, and you know my awkward self! I told him it's weird that we're strangers in a bed and he was all like, 'I'm not a bad stranger to be in bed with, am I?' and I didn't know what to say," I spill, taking a moment to imitate his deep voice.

"I swear I was imagining it but he kept moving around in the bed, getting closer and closer, and his freaking hand was touching mine, and then he's staring at me, and gosh, Shayla, you don't understand, it's like he saw me while looking through me, and then we were both leaning in, and his hand was on my waist, and then it's like we just both snapped out of it! And then he almost fed me avocado toast, and he was cooking and eating and talking to me like everything was normal. Oh! And then when we were driving back here, he told me to put my number in his phone, and then when I was going to leave, he said he'd like to see me again!"

I breathe heavily after finishing my rant. Shayla's expression is a mutation of everything you'd imagine- shocked, cringing, giddy. "I don't even know what to say. There's too much to say. Are you into him?"

I'm taken aback by the question- of course I find him attractive, but I really don't know this guy. And even if I were, why would I give the media more ammo to use against me?

"I'm into him physically," I answer, slowly. "I mean, of course, who isn't? But I don't know him. And I'm too scared to get involved with someone, especially after Nick and the general Talullah's-a-slut thing."

She frowns before gasping. "Wait, pause, rewind! You almost kissed and you just stopped? Why not close the gap? Hello?" I throw my head back, groaning. "Shay, there was no gap. I swear his lips like... grazed mine? I don't know! I felt them and I felt his breath and it was just too much!"