Chapter 7 Cadence #2
I put the phone back into my pocket and get up to throw my cup in the trash. "Hey, you wanna go to the mall before the game tonight?" I ask, as she gets up from the table.
"What you need from the mall?" she asks as she tilts her head at me.
"Just feel like picking out a new dress to wear for Bray's party tomorrow," I reply as we walk toward the parking lot back to her car.
"Oooo. Trying to impress someone?" She teases, rubbing her shoulder up against mine. I just laugh at her, but really, she's not wrong.
Impressing Zach has never really been something I've attempted to do.
I've always believed that if someone is going to like me, they're going to like me for me and while that still stand true where Zach is concerned, it's also different.
I want to make a better impression knowing that he showed interest in me coming to this party.
I know it might not seem like much, and I don't want to seem so desperate, but if I'm going to keep trying to step out of my comfort zone this year, I might as well take the risk to make an impression in which he's likely not expect.
Ry backs out of the parking space and starts heading down the road to my house.
“You know,” she starts as she turns the volume knob to the radio down. “Zach has a bike."
I shoot her a confused look. "Okay?"
"I know how badly you've just been wanting to do something dangerous. And being someone's backpack is a pretty big deal…” she trails off and I glance at her with feigned disdain in my eyes, knowing what she’s trying to hint at.
But also, I can’t deny the butterfly feeling that starts up in my stomach at the mention of his name. It’s like just talking about him makes me nervous.
“When’s the last time you talked to Zachypoo anyway?”
“Ew. Please do not call him that,” I smack her arm gently and she giggles. “And we texted yesterday morning.”
“Yeah? How did that go?” She gives me a quick glance before turning back to the road.
“I mean, it was fine, but to be honest I think he was flirting with me.” I feel my heartbeat start to quicken when I recall the messages. Ryen pulls up to a stop sign and holds her hand out to me, curling her fingers in a give me gesture
“Let me see.” She requests for my phone.
“What? No, you’re driving.” I point out, looking around to see that we’re the only ones on the street right now, stopped at a stop sign, but still.
“Hurry up. We’ve got time,” she says as she checks her rear view to see if anyone is coming up behind her, and when the coast is clear, I reluctantly hand her my phone with a deep sigh.
I close my eyes and throw my head back into the seat while she scrolls through the messages. Silence fills the cab as seconds tick by before she says, “Yeah, girl. That man is totally flirting with you. And you too, Cadie! Girl, you kept up with him for sure!”
I feel a proud grin start to curl on my lips at her compliment.
“I don’t know,” I say as I turn my head to look out the window, not wanting to take too much credit because I really don’t know what I’m doing with Zach.
And then my smile falls when I think about the reaction Bray had when I had mentioned talking to him for a brief moment.
Could that really be something that he’d be upset about?
Is Zach right or is he just attempting to be cautious?
“He also liked one of my IG photos,” I mention, remembering the notification I saw after we stopped texting.
I look out the window and imagine what it would be like to ride with him on the back of his bike.
Would he even let me do that? What would it feel like to wrap my arms around him and lean into his back while the wind kicks past us?
Before I can let my thoughts dig any deeper into forbidden territory, Ryen’s reflection fades into view and I can see that she’s typing something on my phone.
“Hey!” I shout as I reach over and snatch it out of her hand frantically. “What the-” I look at what she typed out.
Hey, I’m bored.
“Ryen…” I look at her with horror in my eyes. Embarrassment floods me when I realize that she sent this to Zach.
She has an incredibly guilty but innocent look painting her features, as if she did nothing wrong but she also doesn’t regret it if she did. She watches me as I hard-press on the message bubble.
“Don’t unsend it!” she begs as she reaches out to stop me from deleting it.
“This is not something I would say at all,” I complain, waving the phone around. “He’s going to think I’m lame or something.” I drop the phone in my lap as I huff out an annoyed breath.
“Okay, but hear me out. What if it only opens up room for different conversations?” She explains, unconvincingly so, so I pick the phone back up and hard-press the message again.
“Wait, wait. Just see how he responds. No harm.” She shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly before relaxing her features.
And so do I, reluctantly letting go of the message bubble and deciding to stuff my phone away as quickly as possible so I don’t have to think about what he might say if he decides to respond to the message at all.
Suddenly, a horn blares around us and that’s when we notice a car sitting behind us at the stop sign.
“Shoot, my bad,” she huffs as she hits the gas and waves to the person behind us in her rear view mirror. That’s the closest to an apology anyone has ever really gotten out of Ry to be honest.
“You are insufferable.” I insult her politely as she speeds off down the road, but she just smiles at me, her devious, troublesome little smile, and turns the knob to the radio back up, I Write Sins Not Tragedies by Panic! At The Disco bounces through the speakers.
“I’m helpful,” she shouts over the music as she rolls our windows down, letting the wind breeze by around us. “Now, let's go help your lame ass brother with his homework so we can move on to more important things.”