The Improbability of Forever (Kismet #2) ✓

17. Baby Steps

A/N: Here's some old Quinn & Cody vibes for you ;)

Seventeen

Baby Steps

My perfect little plan lasted less than twenty-four hours.

In the end, it was actually Maybelline's fault.  She decided to make a very obvious show of affection with her apparent new guy, some senior who Julia explained was in her math class, between second and third periods the next day.  Since this particular instance of PDA was executed in the hallway, almost directly across from Elisabeth's locker, it was only natural that she would catch on.

She decided to act on this the instant she had a free second, which happened to be as I was walking towards the cafeteria to attempt a peaceful lunch.

"I thought you said Cody was dating Maybelline."

"Maybe she's cheating," I said absentmindedly, sending an SOS text to Julia as discretely as I could.

"Oh."  Elisabeth contemplated this for barely a heartbeat before she said, "That doesn't explain why he passed them without a second glance on his way to theatre."

"You know his schedule?"

She rolled her eyes lightly.  "Duh.  Anyway, he's obviously not dating Maybelline.  So nice try."

There was no response to this, so I settled for opening Snapchat and scrolling through that instead.  A flurry of pre-prom photos and videos ambushed me, and my anxiety heightened tenfold.

"Talk to Cody for me, okay?  Don't even sound like I asked you to.  Just be like, 'hey, I think you should ask out Elisabeth.'"

"You really think we're in that kind of place right now?"  I couldn't believe this girl.  I'd just broken up with my boyfriend and now she expected me to approach him and give him dating advice?  Maybe she was new to this whole relationship thing and all, but she should have known that wasn't how it worked.

Elisabeth reaches forward and grabs my sleeve, tugging me closer to her as if the group of freshmen skittering by would even be interested in eavesdropping.  "Please, Quinn.  He probably still cares about what you think.  He'd want your blessing before he moved on to another relationship?"

And you think I want to give him that blessing? I thought, but in the interest of getting away from her I said, "Fine.  I'll talk to him.  Just don't expect anything to come from it, okay?  And that means you can't tell anyone about the thing."

"As long as you try your hardest."

"Whatever."  I slipped out of her grasp.  "I'll try my hardest, sure."

She jumped up and down a few times, clapping her hands together in a show of glee which made me all the more eager to go find food to eat instead of talking to her.  "Great!" she exclaimed.  "Let's touch base before chem tomorrow."

Nodding absentmindedly, I scurried away, not bothering to look back in case she'd take that as I sign that I wanted to continue the conversation.

Of course, I knew that I did need to probably mention something to Cody about this.  Elisabeth would no doubt follow up with one of us, and if she realized I hadn't done my job then I had no doubt she'd tell Cody everything.  And while he needed to find out at some point, that didn't feel like the ideal time or way.

But how awkward would this conversation be?  We couldn't even talk to each other about a French project, much less a relationship.  I was starting to think that I needed to explore other options, some of which included getting Julia involved or blackmailing Elisabeth myself, when I spotted Cody walking alone.