You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

50

My extra—and free—cookie looked so much more delicious and tempting than the cookie I'd been given by the lunch lady. Was it because it was gifted to me by Nolan?

All I knew was that I wanted to eat that one first. It made no sense because they were both double chocolate chip cookies. It wasn't like the one that kept drawing my eyes to it had some kind of secret ingredient in it that I wasn't privy to.

Looking at it just brought warmth to my heart.

That was it. I couldn't take it anymore.

Dropping my spoon back into my bowl of minestrone, I picked up the cookie Nolan had given me when he'd first settled down at our lunch table with his food.

It was scrumptious.

As I nipped the final crumb off my thumb, I raised my head to see Ashley giving me a few glances.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing." She was scraping up the last bits of her potato gratin. "I was just wondering why you stopped eating your soup halfway to get started on dessert."

Oh no. I totally got caught. "I ... I just felt like it, that's all."

"This is Chelsea you're talking about," Derek said, evidently picking up on our conversation. "Nothing surprises me anymore."

Beside me, Nolan snickered.

I couldn't decide who to glare at first.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I said to Derek before turning back to Nolan. "And what are you laughing at?"

Derek merely shrugged. "I'm just telling the truth."

"He's right," Nolan said. "You can be weird when it comes to food."

"Hey!"

"See?" Derek said, shooting an amused grin at Nolan. "I know what I'm saying."

Deep down, I was kind of happy that Nolan was slowly opening up and becoming more vocal around my friends. Even if it was at my expense.

"Don't worry, it's part of your charm." Why did Nolan's smile have to look so endearing?

My heart protested weakly as a series of palpitations passed through it.

"Do-don't think that you're going to get away with it just because you said that! Flattery will get you nowhere!"

He just laughed a little more. My heart was doomed.

He was already getting away with it, and there was nothing I even wanted to do about it.

----------------------------------------

"I can't believe it," I continued, aware that I'd been regurgitating the same rant for the past thirty minutes, but I couldn't stop. "I still can't believe that this happened. I can't even look at him in the eyes without feeling shy! What am I supposed to do?"

Ashley, who was sitting on my bed, held a hand out to stop me. "Okay! Stop pacing for one minute, will you? I'm almost getting dizzy watching you."

She started when I grabbed her by the shoulders. "What am I going to do? What should I do, Ash? Help!"

"First," she said, wriggling out of my grasp, "stop shaking me! How do you expect me to think like this?!"

I paused and released her. "Sorry! But I'm seriously freaking out here!"

A small smile crept onto her face. "I can tell. You really like him, huh? I can't believe you pulled me aside purely to tell me that you realized you like him. When you said you had something really serious to tell me, this wasn't what I was expecting."