Magnetic

Chapter Twenty-Five

One o'clock in the afternoon.

I had two hours until Brady was to pick me up for our first-ever official date. Just the two of us. Nobody else.

Strangely enough, instead of being excited for this ice cream date, I just felt extremely nervous, as if there were thousands of butterflies fluttering about in my stomach, pounding on the sides of it, trying to get out.

Brady had texted me earlier this morning, making sure we were still on for our date. I had replied, of course.

After putting on my routine makeup of just a few swipes of mascara and a bit of concealer, my phone rang. I expected it to be Brady, maybe Tucker, or even Justine.

None of the above. Paisley.

"Hey," I said as I stood in front of my closet, surveying my clothes for something first-date worthy. Nothing. I'd probably end up going with my usual daily outfit, just a t-shirt and shorts. It was the very end of April, so I didn't need to bundle up anymore. "What's up?"

"Nicki! Oh my gosh, just as I was told about this, I knew I had to call you and tell you. I'm trying to not freak out, but I don't think it's working," she spoke quickly. It was hard for me to understand: when Paisley got excited, her voice sped up. And when her voice sped up, all her words slurred together, so it was almost impossible to understand a single word of what she was trying to say.

"Can you slow down? You were speaking too fast for me to-"

"Oops!" she giggled. "Sorry. Well, I've got big news. Not really pertaining to you, at all, really. But mostly me."

"Are you going to tell me?"

Paisley breathed in heavily. "I get to interview Trent Loggens!"

I furrowed my eyebrows, although I knew Paisley wouldn't be able to see me. "Why are you interviewing him?" I asked.

"For the newspaper. You know how we were trying to decide on what to do about the sports section? Well, I talked to Cassie, and she asked me to help her by interviewing the captain of the baseball team after their game next week. I didn't want to, but agreed, until I realized that the captain of the baseball team is Trent. I jumped on that opportunity with both feet." She laughed and I picked a red t-shirt from my closet. I got it from the drama department at my old school and it said "Save the drama for the stage".

"Really," I said. "But what about Alexander?"

"I know." She sighed. "I mean, Alexander's a great guy and everything, but I don't know how long we're going to last. Like, I've loved Trent for years, so this is insane to me. I know I'm dating Alexander and everything, but..." Paisley took a breath, obviously unsure of what to say next. "I don't know."

I honestly felt kind of bad for her. She had obviously liked Trent for such a long time, and she finally got to interview him. After she started dating Alexander.

I wasn't really sure who I felt more sorry for, Alexander or Paisley.

So, trying to change the subject from Alexander, I said, "Are you excited?"

"Try thrilled! Try overjoyed! Try nervous as hell."

I prayed that Paisley wouldn't freeze up during the interview like she did at prom, when I had just introduced her to Trent. Now that was bad.

"This might be the only time I will ever get to actually talk to him, you know."

"Why?" I grabbed a pair of denim shorts that reached the middle of my thigh. Unlike a lot of girls my age, I preferred to be conservative with my attire.