Under The Moonlight

Chapter 10-part 2

After a long day at school with daily tests and mind-wrecking classes, we were on our way to karaoke. The only addition in our little group was Laurie, who was chatting away with Leah. She kept glancing towards me though, every few minutes or so. Was that a cue for me to go up to her and make small talk? I wouldn't know. This was new to me and I was already planning for a way to let her down easy and hopefully cancel the date as well. 

Raven was with Mark which was unusual for him. Sure, he was a social butterfly but when we were to go out anywhere, he would always be by my side. He also hadn't come by our class during lunch break. I was undeniably worried. 

I turned to Liam who was talking exceptionally fast, a habit for when he had nothing to talk about. He hated silences and found them uncomfortable so I let him ramble about koalas for a while and then interrupted his somewhat interesting talk.

"Liam, how would you let someone know you're not interested? Hypothetically speaking?"

"Not feeling Laurie? I get it. You think that she's way too cute for you. I think that you should work on your self esteem. You look like a butt hole but she doesn't seem to think that way." Liam joked, giving an all knowing nod and I whacked the backside of his head. 

"Just tell it on the face, Seb. There's no way around it. It's going to hurt either way." 

I nodded in response.

---- 

Karaoke was fun. Leah was dancing in the middle, singing along to a Beyonce song. I bopped along, hooting when she did some weird move resembling a fish out of water. As more time progressed, I had joined in on the dancing. Fun fact, I was good at dancing. As a kid, before my anxiety kicked in, I used to do it professionally. Dancing was euphoric and I would forget about the world when I performed. 

So when the music and the singing stopped, I opened my eyes to a stunned room. Everyone was staring and I started to get conscious.

"What?"

"Oh my word! You need to join the dance team in school! I'm recommending you as soon as possible." Mark exclaimed, bounding like a kid on sugar.

"I second that! You are already half way professional with moves like that! We are going to make karaoke a weekly thing if we get to see you move." 
I blushed at Leah's words. The only person I got gotten such comments from was my  parents, and they had to compliment me being my parents and all. Hearing another person say something nice made my heart flare in joy.

Time was up before we knew it and we headed to a cafe nearby. I was seated in between Laurie and Raven and I became overly conscious real quick. It was also only then that I realized that I hadn't spoken much to either of them the whole time. Raven and I had shared glances multiple times and the last one was the proud and surprised look he had given when I was dancing. The only thing he had said was ' You are amazing' when we had left the karaoke but after that he seemed lost in his own world.

Laurie on the other hand had tried striking up conversations with whenever she could. I would try to answer to the best I could but it was always cut short by my lack of knowledge on how to keep a conversation going.

As I was dealing with my internal monologue, I missed the glances the rest of them gave each other. Leah announced that her mom had called saying it was urgent and Mark and Liam immediately followed her out. It was after that, that Raven decided that he needed to buy something as well. He gave a small apologetic smile and it was just Laurie and me.

The idiots had planned this and now I didn't know how to get out.

"They're not very subtle, are they?" Laurie said, chuckling as she shifted to sit across from me. I laughed as well, clearly fake, my mind plotting my friends' demise. 

We ordered food and as we waited I stared at the girl in front of me. She was cute, freckled with auburn hair and she did absolutely nothing for me when she smiled or laughed. Instead I began to imagine how it would be if it was someone else sitting in her place. Someone with a physique much larger than her. Someone with a dimpled smile and a rougher laugh. 

Someone named Raven.

"Laurie, I'm sorry." 

This caught her attention but she did not seem very surprised. Instead she huffed and leaned back into her seat, a slight frown on her face.

"I cant see myself dating you and it wouldn't be fair to you if I strung you along." I continued, hoping to get a reply out of her.

"Not going to lie, I expected this to happen. I just wasn't sure when." She paused looking at my shocked face and then continued.

"You never looked my way once. If you weren't doing something or playing, your gaze was always on Raven and he was doing the same thing too. I'm not going to judge or anything, but what's going on between you two?"

"We're best friends." I replied and it sounded like a lie and Laurie knew it.After a short goodbye, I slowly made my way home, the cold air nipping at me. I walked by Raven's place and when I saw the 'beautiful eyed' boy waiting, I knew what it was. 

I had a crush on my best friend.