Smile

Chapter 10: Thomas's Last Moments

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked Thomas after he'd thrown the door open and lied down next to me, on my bed.

"Appreciating my last few moments," he mumbled in my pillow.

"Last few moments of what?" I asked, bewildered.

I thought Thomas was acting very weird for three reasons:

First, he'd just let himself into my house and in my room... and on my bed. This was usually his sister's behavior; not his.

Second, he was speaking nonsense. Last few moments? Who even said that?!

Third, this was the first time he'd talked to me since Saturday, when he'd come over with the rest of our friends to question me about my date with Logan, without being completely awkward. Today was Wednesday.

"Peace. Love. An unbroken heart." He sighed dramatically.

"Who's going to break your heart?" I asked. This was a very strange conversation I wasn't sure how to handle. He sounded like a character straight out of a Shakespeare play. Personally, I didn't like those plays—or any plays at all, to be honest. I was more of a movie kind of person.

"First," Thomas said, "you have to know that Noah is forcing me to do this. He says it'll make me feel better and he won't let me into his house until I do this—and you know how much I love his mom's cooking."

"Tom, where are you going with this?" I asked my best friend, whom still had his face hidden into my pillow.

"Chloe, you're my friend, right?"

"What a stupid question! Of course I am!" I answered immediately.

"And we're going to be friends forever?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Thomas Hall, what did you do now?"

He sat up, keeping his eyes set on my red bedspread. "Nothing wrong, I swear!" he said. "Well, at least I don't think so."

"Tom, you're starting to scare me. What's up?"

He breathed in deeply. "I... I like you. Like, more than a friend." My eyes widened. This was not what I'd expected. I had thought it would've been something along the lines of "I told Logan McCloud you loved Christmas decorating".

I found myself speechless. "Tom... You're joking, right?"

He chuckled without humour, shaking his head. "Unfortunately, I'm not."

"Why are you telling me this now?" I whispered, feeling hopelessly betrayed. I knew I shouldn't be feeling like this. As the girl who'd spent years liking the same guy, I was very well aware that feelings couldn't be helped. But this was Thomas. One of my best friends. He couldn' possibly like me in any other way than the one in which a boy loved his friend and knew with every part of his being that she felt the same way. Besides, he couldn't have chosen a worse time to do this. I liked Logan. Logan liked me. I was with Logan. Thomas was one of my best friends; he was like my brother. I thought he'd felt the same way. He couldn't like me like that. This couldn't be happening.

"You know..." he trailed off weakly. "Noah's mom's cooking."

"Tom, I don't..." I hesitated. I didn't know what to say. How could I reject him without hurting his feelings to the point of us not being able to be friends anymore? And as if that wasn't enough, if I said the wrong thing, I wasn't risking losing only Thomas—Noah knew of Thomas's feelings, meaning he would most likely stay with him. Amanda was his sister. Regardless of how many hours a day they spent arguing, I knew she'd always choose him before anyone else. That left me with Kelsey, and no matter how close we'd been before becoming friends with the others, I honestly wasn't sure who she'd choose to stay with if it came down to it; Amanda or I? "I just don't see you that way," I finally told Thomas. "You're like—"