LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 24: What Is This?
Smiling brightly, I reply, “Thank you very much, but I’ve got a lot of help already. I promise, I’ll let you know if I need something.”
My heart suddenly begins pounding like it’s going to jump out of my chest and what he said makes me almost want to jump for joy. What is this? Does this mean I like him? I mean, he is handsome. He doesn’t tower over me and he does seem to care about me, but I like Alla. I mean, Alla and I did talk about the ‘what if’ of me liking boys as well, but I don’t want to lose or leave Alla either. Very good questions and the only one I’m certain of is that I truly like Alla and that I want to be with her. Sighing to myself, I think, ‘I’m so confused.’
He smiles and nods. “You do that. Andrea, I’d happily do anything for you.” He gently pats my hand and stands up. Pausing, he says, “I hope you’ve been giving some thought to what I asked you.” My heart leaps up into my throat and I can’t speak to save my life, so I merely nod in reply. “Wonderful. I hope you’ll give me the answer I want to hear, soon. I’ll see you later, Andrea.” All I can do is smile, nod again and he turns to leave.
Once he’s out the door I pat my chest and let out a deep sigh.
“Ohhh my,” Alla drawls out in a teasing tone from beside me. “What’s this now? Why does he have you all flustered, Andie?” She asks in a tone that tells me without even turning to look at her that she had a shit eating grin. Blushing furious at her teasing me, I quickly lean back in my chair and pull out my phone to send a text to her.
‘I’ll admit, my heart started doing loops when he said that.’ I send to Alla before quicking typing further, ‘I think I do like guys as well, or at least, some guys.’
I glance over to see Alla read the messages and then flash another grin at me before quickly replying to me, ‘Well, there is nothing wrong with that, Andie. You know I do as well. I know we talked a little about this. However, we should talk about this a bit more after school to work it out.’
After reading Alla’s reply, I glance over to try and gauge how she's feeling about my admission. Looking back down at my phone, I’m about to reply once more, when the bell suddenly rings and our teacher walks in.
I almost daze my way through the morning thinking not only about our conversation, but Daniel as well until lunch, when Alla and I head down to eat lunch with our friends. After we get our food, we take our seats and greet everyone.
No sooner do I take a couple of bites, than Emma asks, “How was your morning? You’re doing okay, right? No one’s bothering you, are they?”
I shake my head and smile at her shotgun questions. “My day has been fine so far and I’m doing just fine. I have Alla to help me, so it’s no problem. Who would dare bother me? You girls would go after them like lionesses.”
All of them giggle at my statement, except for Victoria, who sits across from us and stares at me with a serious expression. After everyone settles down, she leans forward on her elbows and quietly asks, “Andie, Alla, have you heard the rumors about you two?”
I shake my head and look at Alla, who also shakes her head as well, and then ask, “How would we have heard of any rumors? We’ve been gone for two weeks, so what’s being said?”
She looks around nervously and murmurs, “That you two are lesbians.”
Stunned, I can’t utter a single word, but Alla immediately rasps, “What the hell?! Now taking care of another girl, who by the way couldn’t care for herself, make us lesbians?! People need to get themselves a new pastime!”
Victoria shrugs. “I know what the situation was, but you know how the rumor mill is around here. Personally, I couldn’t care less if you two are or aren’t. I was just seeing if you knew.”
Sighing loudly for a moment, I then murmur. “Can we not talk about this here? You know what the school would do if they decided we are.”
We finish our meal in silence and then head out to our usual place. When we get there Emma says, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I wouldn’t be comfortable around lesbians,” and Savannah nods in agreement.
I stare at her open-mouthed, literally shocked that sweet little Emma would say something like that.
Mia grabs her arm and makes her look at her. “Even if they are lesbians, how has that changed anything? Have either of them ever made you feel uncomfortable? Have they ever tried to hit on you? Done anything at all? You know quite well they are both great girls and good friends, so why should that change anything, even if it is true? It’s no one else’s business. Just like the fact that you and Savannah have had sex with your boyfriends is no one’s business. If the school found out they’d kick you two out just like they would Alla and Andie if they were lesbians.”
Savannah and Emma swallow hard and eventually nod. Emma looks at us and says, “I’m sorry, you two didn’t deserve that,” and again Savannah nods in agreement.
Alla glances at me and I nod, then she turns back to look at the others. She takes a deep breath and quietly tells them, “Girls, the rumors aren’t wrong about us. We are together, but you are the only ones to truly know that. The rumors are just that, rumors, since we’ve never acted as more than friends in public. Andie and I really hope this doesn’t change the way you treat or see us. We trust all of you and that’s why we told you.”
Savannah hesitantly asks, “I thought you liked boys? You’re dating Brian aren’t you?”
Alla shrugs. “I like Brian and I also like boys, but Andie is special to me. Anyway, for a long, long time Brian has had no time for me or anything else and you already know that. He’s a boyfriend in name only. I suppose you could say that we stay together because everyone expects it. He’s on the basketball team and I’m a cheerleader.”
I finally chime into the conversation when I say, “Look girls, I’m fairly sure I like boys as well, but as Alla said, she’s special to me. You have nothing to worry about with us. Honestly, I think all of you are gorgeous, but I feel no attraction to you and Alla’s the same.”
Mia clears her throat and says, “I think I speak for everyone when I say you two make a cute couple and we’ll never tell anyone.” She looks around at everyone. “Right girls?” She turns back to look at me. “Andie, can you go out this evening?”
I shrug. “I’d have to ask, but my mom is worried about reporters trying to corner me. They hung around our house for a long time. The sheriff kept having to run them off.”
Mia grimaces for a moment. “I hadn’t considered that they might still do that. Don’t worry though, we’d never let them get even remotely close to you. Ask your mom if you can. I’d like for us to skip practice today and have a welcome back get-together for you.”
Smiling, I reply, “Sounds lovely. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to hang out without me being basically confined to a bed.”
Taking out my phone, I text Mom asking for permission. I’m happy to say, she allows me to go. She simply asked me to be careful and for us to keep an eye on our surroundings. We continued our normal lunchtime activity with everyone seeming to act as if nothing had changed until the warning bell rings.
Not much else happens at school today, except that when Alla and I were leaving the building, Chris literally runs up to me, grabs my left hand and twists it when he does. A pain-filled scream rips its way out of me and I’m barely able to remain standing. I catch a blur of motion that flies by me and raise my head to see Daniel punch Chris, knocking him to the ground.
Standing over him, he viciously growls out, “Don’t you ever lay a hand on Andrea again!” Turning back to us, he asks, “Andrea, are you alright?”
I nod, brush away my tears and take the small step to him. Reaching up behind his neck, I pull him down to my level, lightly brush his cheek with my lips and murmur, “Yes. Thank you so much for watching out for me.”
He hugs me gently to him and says, “I told you that I’d do anything for you and I meant it.”
Resting my head against his shoulder, I mutter, “Mhmm, I remember.” Stepping away from him, I look at Chris and ask, “Want to explain what that was about?”
“I-I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to ask how you are doing,” he says with a guilty expression.
I sigh and shake my head. “Why in the world would you grab hold of my arm that you know is broken? Oh, forget it, it doesn’t matter. Don’t touch me again, simple as that, understood?”
“I-… Alright,” He nods at me with a frown before continuing, “I am terribly sorry about that, Andrea. I forgot which arm it was that was broken, I merely wanted to see if you were alright, and I screwed up.” He stands up, straightens out his clothes and looks Daniel in the eye for a few moments before looking back to me and then bowing his head slightly in apology. “Once again, I am sorry about hurting you just then, Andrea. I’ll leave you be for today. I hope you have a good rest of it.” He says before finally turning to walk away.
I know he hurt me, but I feel bad, so I call out, “Chris?” He turns back to look at me. “I know you didn’t mean to hurt me, but please, do me the favor of thinking before you act. You’re stronger than you think.” He nods and continues on his way down the sidewalk.
Looking back at Daniel, I smile sunnily and tell him, “As for you, you’re coming with us. No arguments.”