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I turned to look up at him. Our faces weren’t necessarily inappropriately close. But, they were close. His eyes finally softened and he brushed away a piece of hair that had got stuck to my lip-gloss. He left his hand resting against my cheek.
“I’m adjusting, Barlow.”
“You’re doing a stellar job of it,” I huffed sarcastically.
His eyes hardened again. “I know. Okay? I’m just… I’m trying here, Barlow. What did you expect? We’d have all this figured out straight away?”
I shook my head. “No. I guess not.”
He nodded. “Okay. Just… Give us some time, love. We’ll find our way back to each other.”
“How do you know?”
His thumb brushed over my cheek. “Because we’re friends, Piper. And I kind of love you, remember? That doesn’t just go away because Carter found his sack.”
“Those are some pretty nancy wanker words there, Lombardi,” I said, hoping to dispel some of the seriousness of the situation.
He gave me a grin almost as sincere as his old one. “I know, love. But, sometimes I need to say them.”
“And sometimes, I need to hear them.”
“Hey! You’re not the only one.”
“I kind of love you, too, you know,” I whispered.
We moved forward out of habit and we both only just moved our faces in time so I kissed his cheek. My lips lingered against his skin too long and I mentally kicked and berated myself for my complete idiocy.
We pulled apart – both clearing our throats and both tense – and it felt like we were back at square one. I flushed and looked down while he pulled the door wider.
“Come on. We’ve got to get going.”
He moved off to his side quickly and I climbed into the car by myself, no less awkwardly than I had the very first time.
As we drove along, he kept flexing his hands and rubbing his chin.
But, we didn’t talk.
Finally, he shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “So, being normal?”
I looked over at him. “What about it?”
He shifted again. “Well, Wednesday. Plans?”
I shook my head. “Other than school, no.”
“You want to help me tame the trouble, then?” he asked. “You know she’d love to misbehave for you.”
I looked away before he saw me smile. “Sure.”
He nodded. “Okay. Good. Normal.”
“Normal,” I replied with a smile, totally believing we could do this being normal thing.
My belief in our ability to do this being normal thing didn’t last long.
Tuesday was as stilted and awkward as Monday had been. Not helped by the fact that Hadley took a moment while I was talking to Roman to hit on Rio from behind me. Which then pulled me into a longer than necessary conversation with Roman and his buddies that had the boys hinting all sorts of things about Roman and me which Hadley really didn’t need to hear.
Things that made me wonder what Roman told them about me. Things that made me think there was something more behind those weird looks from Rio than just Rio being Rio – I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
