Smile

Chapter 21: Valentine's Day

I opened my locker to grab my books for my last class of the day when a single rose fell from the top shelf. I bent down to pick it up and noticed a note attached to it.

Be my valentine?
- Logan
P.S. Even if you don't accept, it's our two months anniversary, so I'm taking you on a date. Picking you up at 6:30. Amanda and Kelsey will know what you need to wear.

"We're ditching," came a voice I knew all too well from behind me.

I turned around to face Amanda and Kelsey with the rose and the note still in my hands. I frowned, confused. "Thanks for letting me know. Kelsey, I would've thought breaking rules wasn't in your vocabulary, to be honest."

Kelsey grinned sheepishly. "This is a once in a lifetime thing."

"And you're ditching, too," Amanda told me.

"Why?"

Amanda rolled her eyes, making me feel like I'd just made her lose all faith in humanity. "We need to get you ready for your date, duh! I mean, come on, Chloe! Keep up!"

I huffed. "No! I'll have plenty of time to get ready after school, there's really no need to ditch. Plus, I'm not even sure my dad will allow me to actually go on the date. I'm grounded, remember?"

Kelsey waved me off. "We've worked that out with him already. He even called the school this morning to explain away your absence from your last class of the day."

That took me by surprise. "Isn't he still mad at Logan for the thing he didn't do?"

Amanda hesitated. "Kind of, but I think he likes Logan too much to stay mad at him. He's probably doing his best to look like he's still mad."

I couldn't help but agree. "That sounds like something he'd do."

Amanda laughed. "I know. So, are you coming or what?"

-/~\-

I regretted my decision almost instantly.

"Why do we always have to go shopping when I have a date with Logan?" I complained as I followed my two best friends around some store. "Last time, I didn't even end up wearing the dress we bought, so what's the point?"

"The point is that, this time, we actually know what you're going to do," Kelsey. "So we can dress you up properly."

"So, you know where we're going?" I asked them, hoping for a hint.

"Don't even think about it," Amanda pointed at me threateningly. "We're not telling you anything." She threw a gray sweater at me and I struggled to catch it. As she didn't say anything afterwards, I took it as a hint that she wasn't done picking out clothes for me to try on yet. Kelsey walked by and dropped a dark blue cardigan on top of the sweater.

"I already have one of those," I told her. "Only mine is white."

"Exactly," she responded, like that should be enough of an explanation. I rolled my eyes, but decided against starting an argument. No matter how much I hated shopping with them, I knew I could trust my friends' fashion sense.

"Alright," Amanda announced a few minutes later, dropping a few more tops into my arms. "Go try these on and come back with each item to show us. Not that you don't have an eye for fashion, but..." Sensing my upcoming glare, she took the wise decision of ending her sentence there.

"Go on," Kelsey gave me a slight push towards the changing rooms.

After many attempts at finding the right top, Kelsey and Amanda finally agreed on a dark red cardigan, adding to it a black tank-top and a long gold necklace. When we got back to my place, they chose a pair of ripped jeans from my closet along with beige ankle boots. The boots' heels were about two inches high, which was pretty much the tallest heels I could wear without face-planting. For the make-up, they agreed on letting me do my usual routine; foundation and mascara. As for the hair, they let me keep it in a messy bun, which made me wonder what kind of magic trick Logan had pulled on them. He had to have been very convincing for them to dress me up so casually for a date.

"Okay," Kelsey smiled at exactly 6:20PM. "I think you're ready."

"You think or you know?" I asked her. "Because Logan will be here in ten minutes and I don't want you guys to realize you forgot something at the last minute."

Amanda rolled her eyes. "You're ready. You look great and everything will be fine. Don't you trust us?"

"Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have followed you two crazies around for the past four hours."

Three of us laughed at the truth of my words.

"So," I attempted one more time. "Are you sure you can't tell me where—"

"No," the both of them interjected at exactly the same time.

Well. It was worth a try.

-/~\-

"You know," I smirked. "For a guy who took me Christmas decorating instead of a school dance, you've really outdone yourself."

He glared at me playfully. "In my defense, it did result in us kissing, if I remember correctly."

I nodded slowly, pretending to be reluctant to agree as my heart skipped a beat, remembering our first kiss. "True, but I still think you've done a great job with this one."

His face got closer to mine as he said, "Good enough to get me a kiss?"

I smiled about two seconds before our lips met. He scooted closer in the bed of his truck, messing up the blankets all around us as the movie continued to play somewhere in the background—but I wasn't paying attention to any of that anymore; all I could think about was how good his lips felt on mine and how much I loved him.

"I love you," I whispered to him, my lips brushing against his.

"I," he said before kissing my left cheek, "love," his lips traveled downward until they met my collarbone, tugging on the sleeve of my cardigan until my shoulder was exposed, "you," he finished with a kiss on my shoulder. Then, his eyes met with mine once more and he smirked. "More than you ever could love me, anyway."

My eyebrows rose. "Is that a challenge?"

"Maybe," he replied, after which the teasing glint in his eyes was replaced by a faraway look. Right then, I got this weird feeling, as if he was seeing his past play before him over my shoulder. I probably shouldn't have shrugged it off, but I did.

I placed two fingers on his jawline and forced his troubled gaze to meet my worried one. "Hey, Logan," I spoke. "Look at me."

"I am," he said, but his eyes said otherwise.

"No, you're not," I left no room for argument. "Look at me," I said more forcefully as I grabbed his hand with my free one, which seemed to bring him back to reality. "You're staying with me tonight, okay?"

He simply nodded, sinking down the truck's bed until he was almost lying down. I figured I shouldn't push it any further and just enjoy the moment, so that's exactly what I did.

Sometimes, I wonder if that night had somehow changed things. If I had talked to Logan about that faraway look—what he was thinking about, how he was feeling—would have things turned out differently? There was no way of knowing for sure. And that killed me inside.