Shivley: A Now United Story

Ch 23: Dynamite

Shivani wiped her sweaty palms on her sweatshirt and took a deep breath in. It was just Bailey - her fake romantic interest for the week. Totally normal stuff. She knocked before she got too scared and almost immediately her mind started racing.

What if Bailey made fun of her? What was she talking about? Of course he would make fun of her. If she knew that, then why was she standing outside Bailey's door and turning to him for advice? It really made no sense to her. Maybe she should go. Yeah she should go, but if she did go then who would she talk to? Her mom had been busy with the other Now United parents all week, back home Kinjal was being weird, and she definitely couldn't talk to Hina or Noah about it. So here she was outside Bailey's room, only he was... no where to be found.

She looked around and scanned the hallway. Oh well, this was probably a sign from the universe. Just as she started walking back to her room and turned the corner, she slammed into someone hard and everything they were holding fell to the ground. Shivani rubbed her head and looked up at Bailey who was holding his rock hard, headache-inducing-if-bumped-into abs.

Then the weirdest thing happened and Bailey started laughing once he made eye contact with Shivani. "We really have to stop bumping into each other. I mean this is what... like the fourth time?"

Shivani shrugged. "Tell me about it. You seem to love running into me, hitting me with doors,... I mean seriously man! We're not even competing for the same spot."

Bailey laughed again. This was seriously weird; they never interacted like this. "Touché." He got up and then held his hand out to help Shivani up. She started at the hand.

"You see this? It's a hand...which you grab...to get up?" Bailey had a weird look on his face and Shivani shrugged, "Yeah, but you're not nice and with my luck you'll just make me fall somehow again."

Bailey smirked, "Mhm yeah. How did you know?"

Shivani shook her head and then sighed. She took Bailey's hand and got up, letting go of it immediately. Bailey noticed because he started laughing.

"Okay so I know when people are little, they say that 'boys have cooties!' Well, we don't actually so you can touch my hand for longer than a second, you know?" He laughed.

Shivani shrugged. "I obviously know that! That's why I was holding on to your sweaty hand during eliminations."

"Okay A, my hands weren't sweaty yours were! B, well this isn't really related, but what were you doing in the hallway where my room is?" Bailey raised an eyebrow. "Did you miss me?"

Shivani laughed, "Yeah dream on lover boy." She could've facepalmed. Lover boy. Lover boy? Why did she call him that? It just seemed like the right thing to say... ew, maybe he wouldn't notice?

Bailey raised his eyebrows. "Are we giving each other cute nicknames now? I think I sort of missed that memo." He laughed. "Maybe I can call you... oh klutzy one!"

"Me? I'm the klutz?" Shivani laughed, "You slammed the door in my face the first day!"

"Yeah but that wasn't an accident." Bailey crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

Shivani had figured as much, but it was weird to hear him admitting it. "So... why'd you do it?"

Bailey shrugged. "Why are you in the hallway near my room?"

He was ignoring the question, but at this point Shivani didn't really care. She just needed to talk about her fight or argument or whatever had happened with Noah.

"Well... something happened with Noah. And... I needed to talk to someone about it, and you're sort of the first person that came to mind." Shivani looked up at Bailey who had a strange reaction on his face. He seemed confused and maybe a little concerned?

"Are you okay? Did something bad happen?"

"Yeah...," from the look on his face she couldn't tell what he was thinking so she quickly clarified, "Well sort of. Basically we had a really bad argument and I needed to dissect it with someone but you're the only person I can talk to about it because you know about the feelings thing."

Bailey laughed. "So you had a little lover's spat? That's normal."

"You don't get it! Noah and I never fight, like ever. And there was yelling." Shivani sighed. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe Bailey wouldn't get it.

Bailey walked over to Shivani and patted her shoulder awkwardly.

"Um what are you doing?"

"Comforting you?"

Shivani tried to hold in her laughter. "That's how you comfort people?"

"I think so? I haven't really comforted people before...How am I doing?" He genuinely seemed confused.

Shivani burst out laughing and Bailey backed away awkwardly. "I'm sorry Bailey. I'm really sorry! It's just..." Shivani burst out laughing again.

"Let me know when you're done laughing." Bailey seemed a little offended and he turned around.

Shivani paused to catch her breath. "Okay okay okay! I'm sorry! I'm done laughing, I promise!" She ran to catch up to Bailey and tapped his shoulder to make him turn around. This was the longest they'd gotten along as friends and she really didn't want to ruin it in any way.

He turned, but he was smiling. "It's fine I guess. Want to come inside and talk?" He gestured towards room and then turned red. "Um that sounded really sleazy, but you uh know what I mean. I meant you come in to talk so other people don't hear and yeah." He shrugged.

It was funny to see someone like a Bailey, too suave for his own good, feel flustered all of a sudden. Why was he being so... normal all of a sudden? It really felt like Bailey and Noah had switched personalities in the past hour.

Shivani laughed. "That was real smooth, but yeah I think that's be nice... well not nice, but bearable I guess." She exaggerated her eye roll to let Bailey know she was kidding.

He opened the door to his room, and this time Shivani got further than his doorway. She was surprised by how clean his room was. "Woah."

"What?" He scanned the room quickly and looked back at her.

"It's so clean! I mean...how?" Shivani's eyes widened. Unlike her room, there were no piles of clothes and empty food containers. She laughed, "You should see my room sometime. It looks nothing like this!"

He raised his eyebrows. "Woah Shivani. Already inviting me into your bedroom?" Her face started to turn red, and he winked at her.

"Oh my gosh no! Stop! Ah this is weird!" This was probably the closest to flirting Shivani had ever gotten in her life. If it wasn't Bailey, she probably would've started catching feelings for the person. But he was Bailey...so that was out of the question.

Bailey cleared his throat. "Do you think you could take off your shoes before, you know, entering?"

"What? I mean...yeah of course." Who was this guy? I mean she was planning on taking off her shoes anyway, but Bailey didn't seem like the kind of guy who would even think about that. 

He shrugged. "In Filipino houses, you usually take off your shoes before you enter and...I guess it kind of stuck. But if it's weird, you don't have to!"

Shivani shook her head. "It's the same way in Indian households so I do the same thing! I just didn't think...well, I just didn't think that you were the type of person who would think about it."

Bailey raised his eyebrows for the millionth time during that conversation. At this point he should just leave his eyebrows raised. "I think there's a lot we don't know about anyone here." He shrugged. "Anyways...come in."

Shivani took off her shoes and entered his room. There was a single king sized bed that was neatly made, a desk that had a few notebooks in a stack, and a comfy looking chair. Basically it looked like her room, but cleaner. Way cleaner. 

"Feel free to sit anywhere," Bailey said. 

Shivani took the chair to be safe and turned it around. Bailey laid down in the center of the bed and looked at Shivani. "So tell me about the Noah situation. What were you guys even fighting about?"

Shivani looked at the ground. "Um, well...you."