loverboy

chapter eleven.

// DELANEY'S POV //

I haven't been able to get what Alec said out of my head. It was absolutely ridiculous. He likes me? No, he can't. I mean, he's Alec. Alec, the asshole, loudmouth, annoying roommate that also happens to be my brother's best friend. No, he had to be fucking with me. One of his ultimate stunts to really manipulate my feelings. That had to be it. Honestly, I can't be too sure about anything right now, but I definitely didn't want to try and think it all over now either. There was one person I could confide in in my time of need. Before talking myself out of it I dial Hayden's number and ask her to meet me at the McDonald's down the street, one of our many get together locations. She quickly agrees and I hang up, scanning my room for something to change into. Scooping up a pair of black jeans lying wrinkled on the floor I shimmied my legs into them and zipped them up. Throwing an oversized hoodie on over my shirt and slipping on a pair of black flip flips I grabbed my keys and left.

Pulling into the McDonalds parking lot and parking I see Hayden standing by the front entrance already, waiting for me. She had a look that mixed concern with urgency and I sighed outwardly, preparing myself for this conversation. She goes to the cashier and orders our regular, two vanilla milkshakes and a large fry, and I grab us a booth closer to the back of the restaurant. Minutes later she slides into the booth, placing a shake in front of me, one in front of her, and the fries in the middle. After a moment of silence dedicated to eating and appreciating the greatness of the food she breaks it.

"So, what happened?" She asks.

"Alec said something." I reply vaguely.

"Ookaayy, what did he say?" She presses.

"So I was on a date and he kind of sabotaged it. When I confronted him about it he told me that he couldn't stand to see me with some other guy that's not right for me. He said that he's not right for me either, but he wants so badly to be." I answer quickly, looking down at the table slightly embarrassed even though I couldn't tell you why. Her jaw practically dropped to the floor and she stared at me wide eyed.

"What?" I asked after it'd been a few minutes with no response.

"What did you say?" She asked aggressively, fingers gripping the edge of the table and leaning in real close expectantly.

"I blew him off and told him to cut the crap and stop fucking around with my emotions, basically." I replied. The look of betrayal that swept across Hayden's face was undeniable and priceless.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? THAT BOY IS IN LOVE WITH YOU AND YOU JUST COMPLETELY SHUT HIM DOWN, ARE YOU AN IDIOT?" She exclaimed so loudly I'm pretty sure the whole place heard her as a couple people turned their heads in our direction.

"Woah, calm down," I say resting a hand on her shoulder, "I honestly don't believe he's in love with me, that's quite a stretch don't you think?" She rolled her eyes so far back into her head I was actually afraid they'd get stuck there.

"You are such an idiot. Anyone with eyes could see the way that boy feels for you. I was just waiting for you to see it on your own, but OBVIOUSLY that isn't happening." She said.

"You know what? You're not helping me, and I'm just going to go. Don't take it personally. My thoughts are clouded and I thought I could get some of it cleared and maybe some answers, I don't fucking know, but it's still just as bad if not worse. So, thanks." I say as I stand up. I take one last look at Hayden who just stares at me with a look I could only describe as "you're completely oblivious and in denial" and then I left.

Sitting in my car, still in that parking lot since I couldn't get myself to leave quite yet, I was again left alone with my thoughts. For some reason they drifted back to Derek and I remembered how terribly our date had actually ended. I kind of skimmed over those details earlier looking back on it, but he really got the rough end of the deal with that one. I knew I should call him, maybe try and reconcile and fix the mess that's been made, but something in me didn't really want to. Whenever I went to dial his number I couldn't get myself to press call and I'd delete the typed in number just to end up typing it again and repeating that cycle for a few minutes before throwing my phone off to the side frustrated. Sighing, I pulled out of the lot and headed home. Luckily, Alec wasn't home so I didn't have to have an awkward encounter with him in any room of this house and could just head straight to my room undisturbed and uninterrupted. I couldn't be bothered to wonder where Blaze was at the moment and just figured he was busy out doing whatever and fell back onto my bed, tucking myself under the blankets and getting into a comfortable position to lay and scroll through my phone for a little bit. Opening the twitter app, I somehow found my fingers typing in Alec's name into the search bar and then tapping on his profile before, like the stalker I am, I started stalking it. There wasn't much there out of the ordinary. Typical guy posts and retweets. There was one tweet my eye caught that I had to stop on. It read:

I think I'm falling, falling for you.

My breath hitched in my throat. If this means what I think it does, then I'm the biggest asshole. I tried to grasp the concept. Alec liked me? Alec liked me. Did I like him? I'm definitely not denying it, but I wasn't sure. Ugh, why'd he have to go and make things so complicated? Things were so much easier when I thought we both just hated each other. Before I had time to try and figure this out any further, I heard the front door bell ring. That's weird, the only two people I knew who'd be here this late at night both have a key. I shrugged and went to go answer it. Looking through the little peephole positioned just low enough for me to look through if I'm on my tippy toes my confusion only grew. I opened the door and came face to face with my surprise guest.

"I've been sent here to talk some sense into you."