Breaking Through The Surface ✔

Chapter twenty-two

Thunder rumbles outside as Peyton, Dayna, and I sit on my bed after school on Friday. Two boxes of pizza and a box of garlic breadsticks surround us–all empty of course–and the scent of nail polish fills the air.

Dayna looks down at my half-painted fingernails. "It sucks that Natalie and October couldn't come over."

Samantha never bought me any kind of beauty products other than shampoo and soaps. Materialistic things never even crossed my mind until the girls pulled out a variety of nail lacquer, facial creams, and makeup. For the first time in forever I finally feel like I can be a normal teenage girl, a girl that doesn't have to worry about getting punished every second of the day.

"Where are they anyway?" Peyton asks.

"Natalie has a date with Kyle and October has some family dinner thing."

"Do you think October likes Cooper?" Peyton questions, glancing up from her light blue nails.

Dayna laughs, "It's that obvious, huh?"

I stare at them in surprise, "October likes Cooper?"

"It's so obvious, Lorelai. She's always sneaking looks at him whenever he isn't paying attention. Why do you think she's trying so hard with the prank war? She wants him to notice her."

I gape at her. I never realized that was why we were pranking the boys. I just thought we were doing it for fun. I guess I could see how they would be a cute couple since October is super outgoing and Cooper is sort of laidback. They'd balance each other out, that's for sure.

"Does Cooper like her?"

She shrugs, "Maybe. He does flirt with her from time to time but he does that with a lot of girls."

Peyton stares at us with a look of confusion, "Wait. What pranks?"

"Uh..." I hesitate unsure if I should explain.

We've kept the pranks contained to our group, with the exception of Cohen, and I'm not sure if they would want to include another person. Not that Peyton would tell anyone or get us in trouble with any teachers. The pranks have been fairly harmless so far but there is always a chance that October will want to do something extravagant that could possibly get us in trouble.

Dayna shrugs, "We have this boys-vs-girls prank war going on within our group."

Peyton laughs loudly, "That's awesome!"

"It's not really boys-vs-girls anymore with Cohen being on our side and all," I add matter-of-factly.

"Wait, Cohen? You mean that hot guy in gym class?" Peyton wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

Dayna snorts, "Looks like you've got some competition, Lorelai."

I groan but feel my cheeks warm up nevertheless, "What are you talking about?"

She rolls her eyes, "You like Cohen."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"Just for the record, I don't like Cohen," Peyton interjects.

"But I don't like him either!"

"Don't worry, I think he likes you too," Dayna says as if I hadn't spoke at all.

"He does not," I roll my eyes.

He doesn't like me. We barely know each other and I doubt the poor innocent little kidnapped girl would be his type. Now that I think about it, we don't even know that much about each other. I mean, I know what his personality is like since I've spent time with him but I don't know what he likes to do or what he doesn't. I don't even know his favourite colour!