AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He shifted on his feet. “Kaya, I just —“
I shook my head. “Andrew, I don’t want to hurt you. So I’m going to say this as directly as I can. We aremates. That’s all we will ever be.“
I could see the mutiny on his face even as I spoke. His pursed lips, usually in a smile for me, now a determined pout. “Well, you haven’t even given us a chance.“
“I’m going to ask you this, Andrew, and I want you to be honest with me. For the last year and a half, have we actually been mates, or were you just waiting to ask me out?“
He chewed his bottom lip. “It’s not like that. I just… I just think we’d have fun and we’d make a great couple.“
“And I think we make great friends. That’s if you even want to be friends after this.“
There was this thing about chaos. If it started to swirl around you, you could almost see the eye of the storm. That calm center where everything might be okay if everyone would just cooperate.
The problem was chaos itself. It would never let you get to the eye. That was the oasis that tempted you, pulled you in, and sucked you down.
Because once you were in the storm of chaos, there was no getting out.
“I just feel really misled, Kaya.“
Misled?
I blinked at him once, and then twice, mentally watching our friendship disappear, as I inhaled deeply. “Why?“
“I feel like you put out a lot of signals that said you were interested. And I am—”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Andrew. I’m going to stop you right there. Have I ever said ‘You know, Andrew, I quite fancy you. When are you going to ask me out?’“
He shook his head. “No, but—”
I lifted a hand to stop him. “And have I given you any indication that I don’t know my own mind?“
Again, he shook his head. “It’s just a drinks do, Kaya. You should just come."
If he was going to blow up our friendship, he was going to tell me the reason. “Why?” I was afraid I wasn’t going to like this answer.
He shifted on his feet then. “I might’ve mentioned that we were going out.“
And there it was in front of me. Chaos personified.
Before I could even dig into that kernel of shit, Gemma came bounding up the stairs. “There you are. I was at the cafe waiting on you.” She gave Andrew a sunny smile. “What are you doing here so early? You don’t have a class until, what? One, right?“
Andrew flushed. “I have to go,“ he grunted.
Gemma tossed up her hands. “Was it something I said?“
I ran a hand through my tangled curls. “No, it was somethingIsaid. You know how you warned him not to ask me out? Well, he did.“
Gemma cursed under her breath. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. And let me guess, he gave you that bullshit line about how you’ve been giving himsignals.“
My eyes went wide. “You knew he was going to do that?“
She winced. “He’s been saying it for weeks. How you were totally giving him clear-cut signals you wanted him to ask you out. I didn’t know he was dumb enough to believe that bullshit.”
I joined her jogging down the stairs my backpack flopping against my back as we went. “Well, now he’s annoyed. Can you believe he had the nerve to suggestIhad somehow been the reason he misconstrued everything? And he admitted that he’d just been waiting to ask me out this whole time.“
Gemma covered her face with her hands. “Oh, Jesus. He’s like every bad date on Bumble and Hinge right in front of our faces.“
“All this time, he was just thinking about how best he could get into my knickers?“
