Only Fools

Chapter Twenty Three

"Fuck!"

"Ok. I know you're nervous but-"

"I'm fucking freaking out, Naomi! She called this a date, a date!" I cut my friend off as I frantically pace my room.

"And you still aren't sure if that's literal or not so maybe stop pacing and calm down a bit?" Naomi tries to suggest sweetly, but it comes out rather passive aggressive towards the end.

"I'm sorry! I've just kind of liked this girl for.... let's just say quite a while now, so I personally feel like it makes sense for me to be acting this way. But if it's outrageous to you then-"

It's then that a knock resounds on my bedroom door, cutting off my rambling.

"Thank goodness. Tori's here," Naomi says with a sigh as she answers the door given that I have yet to stop pacing. However, the sight of my brother's face in the doorway does put an end to it quite effectively.

"Hey, Ass," Alex says with a sheepish smile.

"What do you want?" I ask him rather deadpanned.

"Could I speak with you in the hallway for a moment?"

I roll my eyes but follow him out into the hall nonetheless, closing the door to my room behind me.

"Who's that?" he asks me with a smirk that I can't explain.

"That's Naomi. You've met her before," I tell him.

"Is she...." he trails off as he wiggles his eyebrows.

"Is she what, Alex?" I ask, already getting frustrated with him.

"You know...."

Then it clicks and my eyes instantly widen at his implication.

"Do I have a crush on Naomi? No. I don't. Are we done here?"

"I don't know. She's nice and she's really pretty and I just thought-"

"I'm going to stop you there because she's one of my closest friends and is way too good for you,"

"I was talking objectively, Aspen," Alex tries to defend himself, though his red cheeks tell a different story. I hum as I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Hey, guys," a voice says from beside us, and we whip around to find Tori standing there.

"Hey, Tor. Alex and I were just talking. You can head into my room. Nao's there," I tell her with a smile. She nods in response and then proceeds into my room with the usual hop in her step that I doubt I've truly ever seen her without.

"Is it her?" Alex asks me as soon as Tori's inside my room.

"Alex, no. Now would you mind vacating the premises?"

Alex just puts his hands up in surrender before trudging back over to his room and shutting the door behind him. With one last eye roll, I turn around and reenter my room for Naomi and Tori's conversation to stop short as soon as they see me.

"Um...." I trail off, not sure what to say to them.

"Come on. You need to get ready, dude," Tori says as she grabs my arm and pulls me into the bathroom so that the "beautification process" can commence.

"You got a date for this thing or something?" Tori asks me as she begins to work on my makeup. The question catches me off guard for a moment as my mind races with the possibility that she knows something I didn't think she did or Naomi might have let something slip.

"No, Tori. It's just the dress code of a gala. Now can you get a move on?" Naomi luckily covers for me, allowing me to recollect my composure. Tori rolls her eyes at Naomi.