Chapter Eleven

'You all saw what was recently posted on Brendan and Drew's pages? Yeah, guess what? Our accounts were hacked by a girl very familiar to everyone: Shelby. She happened to be very jealous of Lili and went off doing something as crazy as this. What she doesn't apparently know is that it's never been Lili on the edge of the cliff in this friendship, it was her. And this little prank sure tipped her off. Nobody has any right to make fun of Lili because she's one of our best friends and one of the coolest people I know. Trust me.'


I read the post from Drew's page with a smile. I can't believe in one day my life went from having no friends to being right back to where I was with everyone.


"You think that's good?" Drew asks, leaning closer to see if I'm reading it.


"Thank you," I whisper.


He smiles. "I couldn't leave you out of it, I mean at first it was just going to be all Shelby... But I had to write some stuff about you."


"These last few days all seem pretty unreal to me," I shake my head, handing Drew his phone back.


"Yeah, for me too. It's been pretty rough," he nods.


"I'm glad we're just back to how we were," I sigh.


"Well, not exactly," Drew laughs.


"What?" I ask, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.


"We're sort of fake-dating," Drew says with a smirk.


"Oh, right," I say, rolling my eyes. "Yeah, thanks for signing me up for that job."


"Hey, who else would've done it? Shelby and me? Not a chance," Drew grins.


"Yeah, that'd be fairly torturous on your end," I nod.


We currently sit in my bedroom where he asked to come over this morning. I obviously allowed him to, and now we sit on my bed side by side. I think we're supposed to be working on our project thing, but I don't exactly know where to start...


"Okay, well, I think we may as well begin our fun little task," Drew says.


"Um.... What do we do?" I ask, feeling myself turn red.


"Why don't we just record a friendly conversation, so it's like the 'before really dating,'" Drew suggests.


"I'm so bad at acting, you don't even know," I shake my head.


"Think of it as a normal conversation between the two of us," he tells me, pressing the button to begin recording.


"I don't know you very well, Lili," he says.


"Yeah, you do, we've known each other for a month now," I say with a smile.


"No, I don't know the real stuff," Drew laughs.


"What the heck is real stuff?" I ask, raising my eyebrows.


"Like, what's your idea of a perfect guy?" He asks, looking at me carefully.


"What does that have to do with anything?" I ask slowly.


"Just answer the question," he tells me.


I feel incredibly awkward discussing this in front of Drew right now, so I have to avoid eye contact and stare at my shoes.


"Uh, I think the perfect guy would- wait, would you like physical or personality details?" I ask, feeling my face turn red.


"Either, both, I don't care," Drew shrugs.


"Well, he should be funny, nice, smart, athletic, at least taller than I am, fairly strong, he's got to have a good idea about his future, and obviously he's got to at least act like he likes me," I say with a smirk.


When I hear no response but silence, I look up and find Drew staring at the ceiling. He seems to be deep in thought.


"Uh..."


"Sorry, just making mental notes of that description," he winks.


I can't really tell if he was saying that for the recording or not.


He presses the button on the recorder again to stop it.


"I think that's enough," he says.


"What was that all about?" I ask, feeling confused and curious.


"May as well ask some questions I want to know the answer to anyways," he grins.


My eyes widen in surprise and I feel my cheeks burning. I swear he can hear my heart beating.


"Gosh, Lili, you're too cute," he shakes his head.


"Don't say that!" I say, letting out a deep breath.


"What? That you're cute? Do you prefer beautiful? Pretty? Guapa? Bonita? I've got a list," he says, watching me with a smile.


I look away quickly, feeling shocked. Is this a joke? Or is he serious? I don't want to ask, because that would be awkward if he wasn't serious.


"Look, Lili, I don't think you get it," Drew tells me. "You think nobody notices you, thinks anything of you, but you're more than wrong. I swear, you're so much more than you think you are."


I watch him carefully, trying to see if he's being serious, if he means what he's saying. There's nothing that would suggest otherwise. I shake my head.


"I don't understand, Drew," I shake my head. "Didn't you turn off the recorder? Aren't we done with the acting?"


He takes a breath and nods. "Yeah. Yeah, we are. We're done with the acting. Yeah."


"What? Why are you... What's going on?" I ask, feeling even more confused than before. He couldn't really think those things of me, could he?


"Never mind. Maybe we could talk about it later," he sighs.


"Okay..." I say slowly.


"You know what? Why don't we do something?" He suggests.


"Uh, like what?" I ask.


"Like, why don't we go to the park? Get some fresh air," Drew suggests.


I nod my head in agreement. "Yeah, that sounds nice."


"Alright, why don't you put on a jacket, it's pretty cold out there," Drew tells me, nodding to the one hanging on my closet door.


"Sure, mom," I roll my eyes and put it on.


"There's a park right down the street right?" He asks as we walk down the stairs.


"Yeah," I nod.


He opens the front door and lets me through first. "Then we should walk, it's really nice out."


"Alright," I reply, walking alongside him down my driveway. We make our way down the road silently, the cool breeze flying against us. Cars pass by every once in a while, but other than that, it's peaceful.


We turn into the park and walk down the hill. I end up tripping on a branch and fall onto my face and roll the rest of the way down. Well, crap.


Drew's laughing. I attempt to peel myself off the ground but the world's spinning. A hand grabs onto my own and helps me up slowly. As soon as my eyes focus again, I find Drew standing in front of me watching me with an amused expression, still holding onto my hand.


"What?" I ask, annoyed that he finds my pain funny.


"That was graceful," he raises his eyebrows.


"I never said I was coordinated," I roll my eyes.


We continue down to where the apple trees and benches are. We settle onto one that is right under the biggest tree. Drew finds a low branch and picks off two apples.


"You're sure this is edible?" I ask as he hands me one of the two apples.


"No, it's plastic. Of course it's edible," Drew says before taking a bite out of his own.


I cautiously take small bites out of the apple but soon decide that it's safe enough and finish the rest of it.


"I have a present for you," Drew says with a smirk.


I look at him questioningly. "What?"


"Hold out your hand and close your eyes," he says.


I slowly hold out my palm and watch him carefully until my eyes are all the way closed.


I feel something fall into my palm and open my eyes. It's his freaking apple core.


Drew seems to sense that I'm going to come at him because he's already running. I pick up both the apple cores and sprint after him through the orchard. As soon as I'm close enough, I chuck the first one at him as hard as I can. It hits him in the back.


He starts picking up apples that fell on the ground and throws them backwards towards me. I easily dodge them. That is, until he starts running backwards and throws them facing me. One hits me in the shoulder and I feel it stinging. I chuck the other apple core at him and hit him in the face. He stumbles over a root behind him and falls on the ground. I start pelting him from above while he's out of it. He's laughing. He should be crying. I throw harder.


"I surrender!" He laughs.


I don't end this until one of us begs for mercy, I think with a grin.


I run backwards away from him and find a pretty fat tree. I grip the lowest branch and start pulling myself up. I grab the next branch and hoist myself higher and higher until the leaves block any view if me.


I see Drew growing closer and closer, obviously confused as to where I went. I pull apples off the branches surrounding me and prepare for war. As soon as he's within reach, I start flinging them at him. He seems startled at first, trying to find out where I am, and then he sees me above him in the tree.


"Clever," he laughs even though I'm pelting him over and over.


And he starts climbing up after me. I don't see throw apples anymore in fear of making him fall out of the tree. Instead, I climb higher. The tree starts thinning out and I can't get any higher. I just sit on the branch and try to catch my breath. Drew is almost to where I am. I give up.


Drew sits on the branch next to me and we look out at the rest of the trees.


"And you said you aren't coordinated. I'm pretty sure you hit me with every apple you threw," Drew tells me with a laugh.


We both laugh, and I almost fall out o the branch. Luckily, Drew catches my wrist and saves me from falling out completely. I'm helped back to a seats position, heart beating fast and adrenaline rushing through me.


"I take that back, you aren't coordinated," Drew tells me.

Comment