The Middle - Volume Two ✔️

Chapter 66

Jamie

~ December 29th ~

"Hey, Superstar." Shaun whispers into my ear from behind me, and I spin around to face him.   

"What the fuck, Shaun?!" I scold him, "I almost shit myself just now!"   

He smirks at me before shrugging his shoulders. "How are you? Good Christmas?"   

"Yeah, it was fine." I glance over at Patrick. His lilac haired beauty is talking to him now, but he's looking over at me and Shaun. He's frowning.   

"Cool." Shaun says, and I feel a little rude because I didn't ask him how his Christmas was. I snap myself out of it. I just feel spooked because he sneaked up behind me just now! I shake it off. 

"How was your Christmas?" I give him a small smile, letting him know I am in fact a normal human.   

"It was good. Zara told our dad that she's a lesbian, that was a lot of fun. She said her mom was totally cool with it, though. That's all that matters."   

"That's awesome, I'm glad she finally felt ready to talk to her parents about it."   

"Yeah, me too." 

"Is she still dating Zoe?" I ask conversationally.   

"She is." He nods his head before eyeing me curiously. "What about you? Are you still dating Noah?" 

I don't reply right away, I need a second. Because, him asking me this is just a little awkward. I mean, him and Noah both thought I was carrying their baby when I crashed my car a few weeks ago. They sat around in the waiting room at the hospital together for hours, worrying about me, and the non-existent baby... Awkward. And I didn't realise Shaun knew I'd been seeing Noah since the Snow Ball. Word gets around, I guess.   

"We aren't dating." I admit sheepishly. "We've just been...hanging out. Seeing each other, I guess."   

"Right." Shaun says, raising an eyebrow at me in interest. "But you're here with Moore?"   

I turn back to look at Patrick and his mystery girl. They're still standing in the same spot by the bar, happily talking to each other. Patrick keeps glancing over in my direction, though. He's not fully focusing on the girl. I guess he wants to monitor the situation between me and Shaun. He hates his guts, so I'm not surprised.   

"Yeah, I am." I say to Shaun, and he flashes me a big smile.   

"Cool, well..." He hesitates, which is so unlike him. He's always so confident and sure of himself. "If you want some company later tonight, I'll be around. Bryan and Max are downstairs." 

I frown at him, because... It feels like he's suggesting... No, he can't be. I'm gonna choose to ignore what I think he's alluding to.   

"I'm cool, I'll probably head home with Patrick soon anyway." I say, hoping Shaun will take the hint. I am not interested. I should have just told him I was dating Noah.   

"You sure about that?" Shaun asks sceptically, inclining his head towards Patrick. I turn around and see that the girl has wrapped her arms around his neck so that she can stand up on her tip toes to whisper something into his ear (he's so much taller than her) and he's toying with his lip ring with his tongue while listening to whatever she's saying. Yeah, Shaun probably has a point. I won't be leaving with Patrick tonight.  

"So, you're officially all alone then." Shaun says, smiling at me triumphantly. It's not that I don't trust him, but I don't wanna lead him on. And I don't wanna do this with him. I'm not hanging with him and his friends. I just wanna leave now, like I was going to before Shaun started talking to me. But there's no way he'll let me walk home on my own. No, he might offer me a ride then try to invite himself in, in the hopes of... Ugh, no. Not happening.