Falling For You

-XXIII-

Happy reading! 

**********

Harley 

"You have a what?" Drew repeats eerily calm despite his stiff posture. 

"A date." 

"With who?" I notice that even though he hasn't had an outburst his usually soft eyes are hard with a storm brewing within. 

"Cody," I say just above a whisper, side glancing nervously at Ally who's being ever so helpful by watching the exchange with great interest. She might as well have a bowl of popcorn. 

Roughly running a hand through his brown locks Drew mumbles out something sounding an awful lot like a swear word. "Why him?" He groans. 

"Uh," the warning bell chimes reminding me that we're basically the only ones left lingering in the halls. "Look can I explain this later, please?" I quickly add when I see his exasperated face. 

Turning back to our destination he mumbles a barely coherent 'fine'. 

Throughout calculus I feel tense as I can physically feel how annoyed Drew is with me, it makes this class more prolonging. I barely contain my breath of relief when the bell cuts off our teacher, who doesn't seem to realize the lack of interest his students have. 

Quickly catching up to Drew with Ally on my tail I attempt to walk beside him. 

"Drew please don't be mad at me." I couldn't tell how pissed he actually was since he wasn't looking at me. 

"I'm not mad at you." His long strides slow fractionally. 

Scoffing I raise a brow. "Sure." 

The next classes feel like they breeze passed as I know the minute it's lunch I'm going to be grilled myself. Nothing worse than being grilled by your best friend. 

The minute I have my food placed on the table he starts. 

"Why? Why him Harley?" He asks not giving away his emotions too much. Except as his best friend I can detect the slight twitching of the fingers, and the creases in the brows. 

"He hasn't shown any signs of distrust," I shrug looking down at my food not able to hold his intense calculating eyes. "I figured I'd give him a shot." 

"I tell you to stay away from him so you promptly accept his invitation for a date?" 

"It's not like you gave her a solid reason." Ally throughly enjoys her lunch munching on it looking back and forth between us; resembling watching a tennis match on tv. 

"It's," he pauses seemingly frustrated. "Complicated." 

"Look Drew, I get it you're trying to look out for me like a brother. But you're with girls all the time and I don't stop you, why can't I just go on one date?" I attempt to reason with calmness, shouting gets you no where. Except maybe the front cover of the school's Facebook gossip page. Shudder. 

"We all know one date will lead to more and more." 

"That's not necessarily true," I finally take a bite of my turkey sandwich. "Besides you're diverting from the fact that your views here are unfair." 

"I don't date any of them." 

"No, instead you do one night stands and make out with them, even better." I shoot back getting slightly frustrated he doesn't understand the imbalance. 

At a loss of what to say next Drew asks Ally. "Can you back me up at all?" 

She snorts unattractively. "Bah, nope buddy you're on your own here. I'm on Harley's side." 

He mutters something along the lines of 'of course you are' under his breath. 

"Okay," exhaling deeply he continues. "Since I  know there's no way I'll convince your stubborn ass to bail please just be careful, don't let your guard down." 

Rolling my eyes I start cleaning up my food wrappers and bags. "Wouldn't dream of it." 

Knowing I'm sarcastic he shoots me a glare but I know he's not as worked up about it as before. 

Drew decides to be a nice best friend and brings our garbage with him to the bin on the far side of the busy cafeteria room. 

"That wasn't too bad." Ally says looking at Drew's retreating back. 

"Yeah," I nod my head. "I'm a bit suspicious at how well he handled that." I really hope he's not secretly planning anything. 

"Oh well at least he's not furious," she shifts her body so she's facing me. "We should go shopping to find an outfit for your date!" 

I groan at her enthusiasm. Shopping with Alison Bennet takes years, and then some. "I'm sure I have something in my closet I can use. Besides it's just the first date, I don't want to go too over the top." 

"Fine," she props her head on her hand which is supported by her elbow that's leaning on the wooden table. "But I still get to help you with your outfit." 

Laughing I agree. "Of course, wouldn't want to deprive you of your best friend privileges." 

"Good, you better not." She replies with faux seriousness. 

Since we've for once finished our lunch early Drew has enough time to come to our table. Sitting down across from Ally and I he places his elbows on the table. 

"When is it?" He rests his chin in his palms looking rather defeated. 

"This Saturday," I respond knowing what he's talking about. 

Not sure what else would put him in that pissy of a mood. 

Right before the bell rings and we're gathering our bags Cody walks over. Regarding Drew warily he approaches me with his flashy smirk. 

"Hey, just wanted to let you know you can dress casually for our date." Without even trying Cody's large frame looms above me making me have to slightly tilt my head. "I figured you'd want to know since I've heard that's what girls freak out about the most." 

"Okay, thank you." I smile appreciatively. "I was actually going to text you about that later." 

"I assumed it'd be easier to just tell you in person," he brushes a hand through his thick blonde locks. "Anyway, gotta get to class, see you in bio!" 

The minute Cody turns Drew speed walks as far away as possible from Cody, which shows to be a little difficult as both are headed to the same room. 

"Good luck," Ally whispers to me nodding her head to our speeding best friend with a frown on his face. 

I might need it. 

Hopefully it doesn't take long for Drew to bounce back to normal and realize Cody's not a threat and isn't dangerous.