Once in a lifetime.

⚠️16

July

This is nice, surprisingly nice, and comfortable. I thought this would be anything but comfortable. Dalton Tori, Alex, and I. A date, as Tori said. She and Alex had ordered pizza and were planning on watching a movie until my mom got home. I was surprised she brought him here, but in the end, I'm glad that she did.

"I can't believe your town is as small as it is," Alex says taking a bite of his pizza.

"Yep." Tori smiles watching me. I know she's trying to gauge how much Dalton knows and how I'm feeling about all of this.

Dalton puts a whole French fry into his mouth. "Dude, I was shocked too. I thought Juliet was being dramatic." He swallowed. "Turns out she was right."

"Jules, can I talk to you in the dining room?" this is code for 'you have some 'spankin' to do.' We stand and we barely make it far enough away until she explodes.

"What the hell?"

I pick at my nail. "Everything was fine, and then.....he..." I look at my feet to try and stop the tears.

"Do I need to kick some butt?"

"No I already told you, it's fine." I think back to what he said outside of Woody's. "He was actually great. He just changed my order was all, I freaked out really bad and made a fool out of myself. If anything I'm surprised he's still here." I look at her, "I expected him to bolt."

She looked at me, crossing her arms over her chest she whispered, "How much does he know?"

I let out a long breath, "The only thing he knows is that I had a panic attack after he switched my salad to a burger."
She nods as if this explains everything, and for us, it does.

"So that's it then? Are you going to tell him?"

"Gosh, I don't know." I look over at Dalton and he's watching me, I quickly look away. "I don't even know what we are."

I don't want to face my feelings any more than I have today. I feel exhausted and having her ask me, even simple questions makes my head hurt. Tori pushes me out of the boys' line of view.

"I'm sorry." She offers. "Just know whatever you do I'm here. I support you, just like you always have supported me. I think it'll be okay though." I glare at her. "I'm not saying spill your deepest darkest secret, I'm saying...he seems like a good one. If you wanted to I think he could handle it."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, he's here for one. Sometimes that's all it takes, for the person to just be there IF you need them." I hug her tight because I know there are so many things she is saying without saying them. "I love you."

"I love you too." I blink back tears. "I'm emotionally exhausted."

She laughs, "Girl I bet. Let's go exhause some more energy." She grabs my hand from around her neck and pulls me with her into the living room.

"We were worried about you two for a second."  Alex has moved over to join Dalton.

"Sorry, girl stuff. You know, boys and periods." Tori plops down and I sit next to her. My gaze goes to the pizza box in between the boys and us.

I look up and I realize when my eyes instantly meet his that he's been watching me. I can't tell if he's watching me for good or bad reasons. I give him a small smile anyway hoping that will make him stop. It does for the time being. Alex and Tori have fallen into a conversation and I stare at my styrofoam box in front of me. "So what's up in your room?" my head whips to look at him.