Page 22 of This is Me

One thing that wasn’t as good as the rest of the day was me not being able to avoid Donny throughout it. Sadly, Andy hadn’t gotten to him, and I had to deal with him. The good news was, I didn’t get my face punched in. Blaire was currently asking all about the encounter as we leant up against my car out front of Blaire’s house while we waited for the all-clear from Bradly for my birthday party.

“He really doesn’t like you.” Blaire let out a laugh as she tried to get more comfortable against my car, though kept her eyes on me.

“It’s not a secret,” I mumbled, sliding my back left and right across my car, trying to keep warm.

“Is there a reason?” Blaire asked, propping herself up on her elbow.

“I rejected his sister.” I chuckled, but I could feel my face heating up.

“Oh, still that? I thought he would have gotten over that. It’s been, like, two years.”

“Yeah, I’m not that lucky.” I pushed off my car and hoped the cold air would be a good excuse as to why my face was red.

“Why’d you say no again? She’s pretty.”

Mentally, I was screaming. The conversation that was circling was simultaneously one that I wanted to have and one that I wanted to avoid at all costs. Was I going to tell Blaire the real reason? No. I wanted to, more than anything, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“She wasn’t my type,” I responded, shrugging. “And I didn’t say no. We dated for a day. Then I said no.”

It wasn’t a lie per se, as, technically, she wasn’t my type—mainly, because she lacked a particular pronoun.

“That pissed Donny off?” Blaire questioned with a chuckle, and I nodded.

“Yeah, apparently it upset her a little bit.”

“Ah, Pete. Such a heartbreaker.” Blaire’s chuckle turned into a laugh, and I leant back up against my car.

“Oh, yeah. That’s me for sure. Honestly, I don’t even know why Donny holds such a grudge. His sister doesn’t even care anymore.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve seen her at school, and she occasionally will still say hey,” I answered Blaire’s question with a shrug. “I think she’s got a boyfriend now.”

Blaire hummed slightly before we both fell silent. I felt as though Blaire was thinking a few things over, and I couldn’t help but hope she didn’t start asking questions about my dating life. It was bad enough I had lied to Andy and Leroy about liking Blaire, I didn’t need to spin another lie to her.

Thankfully, saving me from the possible onslaught of new questions, was my parent's car pulling up beside mine.

“Alright, everything is set,” Bradly's voice drifted to my ears as he stepped out of the car.

“You could have just texted,” I said, and he shrugged.

“He wanted to wish you a happy birthday in person,” my mum said, rolling down the driver's side window, and I saw my dad lean across the front seat to look at me out the window.

“She means dad.” Brad rolled his eyes, leaning up against my parent's car.

“While that is true, and a happy birthday, son, Brad also didn’t want to leave without saying it.”

“I thought you’d be at the party?” Blaire asked, and Brad shrugged again.

“Don’t give him ideas,” I whispered harshly to Blaire, who gave me a small push.

“Don’t worry about him, honey. Brad’s still freaking out about this audition,” Mum chimed in, and Brad groaned.

“Mum!”

“Oh, yeah. Have you decided about that yet?” I asked, rubbing my hands together, trying to warm up.

“Not yet. I have, like, two months before the audition, so I have some time to figure it out.”