Third Love's The Charm [PUBLISHED]

Chapter Eight: Five Red Flags

"Avery Barber, will you go out with me?" Pat asked from the top of the bleacher and I only stood there with my eyes wide open in surprise.

Never in a million years would I have predicted this happening in this very day.

Alright, let's rewind this day, shall we? Just to see where everything went south because even I have no idea where it did.

Pat picked us up like every day and we just had an easy-going conversation with Sasha and Mia. Nothing was completely out of the ordinary. However, looking back, it wasn't from him that all the signs came from. No, it was from one of my best friends.

There might have been an incidence that could have signaled the red flags.

"So what did you do with the notes you worked so hard on yesterday?" Sasha questioned. It was History, our first period. Sasha sat in front of me and Mia was on my left because like I mentioned, math was the only subject where we got our seats separated.

"I studied them?" I replied in a questioning tone. Mia was also confused with her sudden inquiry.

Well, that was a lie because I gave it to Leon but that was just our little secret for now.

"Can I borrow them? There's a part about yesterday's lecture that I'm a bit confused of," she then added.

In hindsight, that should have been my first warning that she was on to something. However, I didn't think much of it. She struggled with the subject as much as I did so I waved it off.

"Mia's much better at explaining math than me," I told her, gesturing to our other best friend who was observing the situation.

The said girl nodded, "Yeah, I can teach you. Which part do you not understand?"

Like a fish out of water, she opened and closed her mouth as if an answer would spout itself out. Now we were both just staring at her with a beautiful mixture of concern and uncertainty. She huffed before turning to the front, "Never mind."

'What's with her?' Mia mouthed and I shrugged, clearly as clueless as she was.

Second period, she tried again. This time, it was Mia who sat between us. The teacher wasn't there yet so Sasha sat on Mia's desk, much to annoyance of the latter, "Where did you go yesterday when you left us?"

"I thought I already told you that I was going to locker room?" I replied coolly.

"What happened next?" she pressed.

I raised a brow and mentally praised myself for keeping my cool, "Do I really have to elaborate on that in the middle of the entire class?"

"No you don't," Mia said, shoving Sasha off of her desk with an accompanying eye roll, "Sash, what has gotten into you?"

"Nothing," Sasha stomped her foot and went back to her own seat.

Those were the signs, Avery, those were signs. Why were you not paying attention to them?!

Oh because Sasha was naturally nosey so her asking these random questions weren't out of the norm. It was something I eventually gotten used to so when she does these, I don't even think much about it at this point.

Especially since she was happily rooting for a relationship between me and Pat. I thought this was her usual pushiness.

Third period was a subject that we actually shared with Pat and Leon but they were seated far from us so we never interacted. And while I still didn't go to where they were, my phone was in my hands and I used every ounce of willpower not look their way or else it would be too suspicious.