smiling critters

chapter 17 - advice

Anyway, it’s around early April now, a year since all this drama started. and Dylan's crush on Neil never went away, so he finally decided to tell at least the girls about what he’s been dealing with for the past year or so. They were at Penny's house while she was making lunch and they were sitting at the dining room table talking.

“Hey girls, can I ask for some advice?” he sighed, they turned to him and nodded.

“Soo, i’ve been dealing with this for a while, and i didn’t know what to do about it and eventually i thought about telling you because you seem to know a lot about dating and stuff when we watch those shitty romantic dramas.”
The girls gave each other an anticipatory look.

“I think. I…” he took a deep breath.

“Haveacrushonneil,” he finally spat out. The girls smiled deviously at each other before Hollie turned to the small serving gap and window that led into penny’s kitchen.

“Hey pens, fork it over,” she shouted, much to Dylan's confusion.

“Huh?” the pig asked semi aloofly.

“Dylan likes Neil, you gotta pay up.”

“What?!” Penny shouted as she walked over and lowered her face to be on level with the serving gap.

“You’re fucking lying,” she demanded.

“Were you guys betting on whether I liked Neil or not?” Dylan asked, now a little betrayed, but mostly finding it funny. Penny left the room.

“Yea, what else would we do with you two acting like idiots?” Hollie bobbed her head from side to side, her ears lagging behind ever so slightly. Penny angrily slammed 3 bills on the counter as Hollie took them and gave one to Camila and another to bobby.

“When did the bet start?”

“Around Camila's 14th birthday, we saw how you were acting with him and we were kinda giggling to ourselves about it and things escalated into a bet on whether or not you liked him. Kai also owes us money since he was eavesdropping and just had to get in on ‘free money,’" Bobby answered.

“So that’s what you were all standing in the corner for!” Dylan realized.

“Yea. anyway, what can we butch gal you on?” Hollie giggled.

“I dunno, how to ask him out I guess?”

“Ok, well one thing to know about men is that they’re oblivious,” Bobby smiled, waving her paw in front of her.

“Really oblivious,” Camila agreed.

“Super oblivious,” Hollie nodded.

“Blind,” Penny butted in, carrying a tray of food and placing it in front of each of her friends. the others nodded in agreement

“As a man, I'm a little offended.”

“Well it’s true, you guys are blind when it
comes to dating, because how likely are you to realize that someone has a crush on you?” penny asked, placing her own plate down and sitting in front of it.

“I dunno, I guess I'd notice if they started flirting.”

“See? you’re not even sure about your answer, which proves my point exactly.”

“You’re gonna use that to your advantage. That’s gonna buy you time to figure out what to say and where to say it,” Hollie told him.
“So think, what does Neil like?” Camila asked.

“He likes singing, swimming, the beach… what else?” he stopped to think. “Hugs, ice cream, reading, roller skating, talking to us, and I think that’s it. oh, and I think he's getting into tarot cards, too.”

“Ok, we can work with that. Maybe you can ask him out to the beach or to Cindy and Jim's,” Penny suggested.

“Or you can go to a roller rink?” Camila asked.

“Maybe,” Dylan nodded. Together, they brainstormed ways for Dylan to ask Neil out.

“I got it!” Dylan suddenly shouted, getting the girls’ attention.

“spill! spill! Spill!” Hollie chanted. Dylan told them the idea he had.

“Yea, that sounds great!” Bobby nodded. The next 3 weeks were dedicated to setting everything up for the surprise.

657 words

i know this is a lot shorter than other chapters, but trust me, the next one is LONG, so consider this an appetizer (it's gonna b mostly chatfic style again tho, so that's prolly where the length is coming from)