Terrified of Love

Chapter 7

[Kitchen]

My mom and dad are fighting while I'm in the other room. After she gets up and walks away, I walk in, "Dad" I say
"You hear all that craziness?" He asks

"You got to let her come back" I say
"What—Want me to have a real heart attack next time?" He jokes

"Dad, I watched you collapse in the front yard. You scared me. Just let her take care of you, and be her annoying self just for a while" I say
"Alright, well, just for a few days" He says
"And if it helps, I'm still going to torture her" I say
"Promise?" He asks

"Yeah, I promise" I tell him

[Clayton]

I walk up to my locker and as I'm opening it, Izzie walks up, "There you are. I need you" She leans against the lockers, "My mom's loser ex-boyfriend just moved back in. Where've you been?" She asks

"Life stuff, dude. You don't want to know" I say as I open my locker

Izzie puts on lip liner, "Gotta love a guy who brings only the clothes on his back and a trash bag full of drug paraphernalia" She says

"Jeez" I say as I shut my locker

"Yeah" She says

She hands me the lip liner and I take it, drawing a smiley face on my hand. She smiles as I hand it back to her as I'm leaning against the locker, "Well, we thought my dad had a heart attack. Turns out it was just a panic attack caused by my mom being a tramp" I say
"It's a freaking miracle the two of us..." She places her hands on my shoulders, "...are still alive" She says

She moves her hands, "I know" I say as Nate walks up

He leans against the locker, "I knew you two were going to fall in love" We look at each other, "Hey, if you guys ever hook up, don't forget to include me, okay" He says

I give him the middle finger, "Yeah, okay" Izzie says before we wrap our arms around each other and walk away

[Lounge]

I walk into the lounge to find Izzie and Nate on the couch, "Ugh, I'm still starving. Frankie talked me into ordering the quinoa bowl. I feel like I just ate two pounds of air" I say

"Should have ordered pizza" Izzie says

"Dude, the pizza here tastes like a stale cracker with ketchup on it" I say

"Wow, I think we finally found something Newton's a snob about" Izzie says

"I'm spoiled. Our pizza place, Don's, is the best" I say
"Then maybe we should go there" Izzie says

"What now?" I ask
"Get a chance to try out Webster" She says
"No" I say
"Yeah" She says

"We shouldn't" I say

"Friday after practice. I'll tell the team" She says

"Well, Friday it gets a little crowed cause there's like, a lot of families. So maybe like another time, or never" I say trying to come up with an excuse

"No, Friday works" Nate says

"Yeah. Friday works" Izzie says

Nate stands up, "We're excited to see where Newton comes from" Nate says walking away
"Ooh!" I sigh

"It'll be fun. Or sad. Either way, I'm getting breadsticks" Izzie says as she starts to walk away

"I once saw a rat there. No I didn't" I whisper to myself

[Bedroom]

Jeremy and I are laying in my bed with our legs in the air, resting against the wall. Music is playing on my phone, "This isn't comfortable at all" He says
"That's because your hamstrings are too tight" I say
"How do I stretch out my hamstrings?" He asks