All I Need

Part 8

She hadn't really expected anything else to happen that evening, so when Sasha called her and told her Finn wanted to know if he could have her number, she'd been completely surprised. She was still trying to process everything that Sasha had talked about in the car, and she didn't feel ready to talk to Finn yet, but she knew she couldn't tell Sasha no, besides there was still the very real possibility that Sasha was wrong and and this was just part of becoming friends, nothing more. She knew she had to say yes, so she did. Then she sat there biting her nails to the quick, waiting for him to call.

"Hello?"

"Bayley?"

"Yeah?"

"It's Finn. Sasha said you said it was okay for me to call you."

"Yeah, um, of course. So what's up Finn? Did you need something?"

"No, I mean yeah, well, I just wanted to talk to you if that's okay."

"Yeah, that's fine."

"So, um, how did the rest of your day go?"

"Okay, I guess." 

There was a long, slightly awkward pause before he asked,

"Which is your first book assignment, um, I mean in Ms. Hershel's class?" 

"Um, Les Miserables," she said, sure she probably mangled the pronunciation, "Why?" she asked. 

"Just wandering if it was one of the good ones."

"Okay. Um, well is it?"

"Eh, it's not too bad. I don't always have the patience for really long novels, I like to move too much, but that was interesting once you got into it. It is really long though."

"I know what you mean I like to move too much too. I like to read and be quiet sometimes, but I can't do it for too long."

"Exactly, and if I really want quiet I'd rather be out in nature."

"Yeah? What do you mean?"

"Well I like to go on hikes or bike rides, get away from people."

"That sounds nice."

"It is, very peaceful most of the time. Sometimes I drag Seth along with me, but he's not exactly quiet."

"Definitely not,"she replied laughing, glad some of the awkwardness of the initial conversation had eased off. The moment of silence that followed was a little more natural.

"You're welcome to come with me sometime if you'd like. I have a feeling it would be a lot easier to be quiet and peaceful with you."

"Yeah? That sounds like fun, we should definitely do that sometime." 

She really wished she didn't have Sasha's voice in her head, feeding her ideas, and making her question whether he was just being friendly or if there was more to it. The first time she'd talked to Seth on the phone, it had been nothing like this. He'd barely said hello before he'd demanded a rematch from where she'd thoroughly crushed him the day before, and the friendly trash talking that had ensued had been as natural as breathing. The conversation with Finn felt kind of stilted, like he was nervous or something, and she wasn't sure she trusted herself to interpret what that meant.

"So what do you want to watch tomorrow?"

"Huh?"

"On the network?"

"Oh! Yeah, sorry, and well honestly I have no idea. I'm so far behind at this point. I've been trying just to keep up with NXT by watching with Sasha, and Seth invited us both over to watch Summerslam, but otherwise I haven't seen anything in months."