Page 102 of Just Forever

“You’ve got a crush,” I whisper.

“No,” she scoffs, then adds a loud, “Shh!”

“Ask him out.”

“So, I can ask him more intelligent questions about cake?”

I look at her, then at the door Charlie disappeared through.

“Why do you have that look?” Paige asks.

I hurry after Charlie and call his name in the hallway, just as he’s about to exit the building. He turns around the exact moment Paige comes to a halt behind me.

“What are you—” she says.

“Paige and I were going to grab a bite to eat. Want to come with us?”

Charlie blinks for a moment, eyes huge behind the lenses of his glasses. Then he shrugs. “Sure. Why not?”

We end up in a pub a few blocks away, and once there are drinks in front of all of us, Charlie gets up to go to the bathroom.

I send Paige a smug smile.

“Dick,” she says, lips twitching. “But thank you. And please, God, stop me if I go off on a tangent about cake. Or any dessert for that matter. I can’t bake!”

“But savory food is okay?” I ask innocently. “If you want to discuss soup flavors it’s fine?”

Paige laughs and drops her forehead on the table with a groan. “You don’t understand. I’m awesome with people. I was voted most social three years in a row in high school. But whenever I’m near Charlie, I just… My head goes completely empty and only stupid stuff comes out of my mouth. Every other conversation I have with him is about the weather, for God’s sake!”

“It must be love.”

“Ha ha.” She makes a face, and I nudge her foot with mine underneath the table.

“Relax. I’ll be your wingman tonight.”

“Wingman.” She rolls her eyes. “I need a miracle.”

Charlie comes back to the table then, and soon after, the waitress appears with our food.

We talk about school for a bit because that’s easy common ground. We discuss the exams and classes, then move on to more personal topics from there. The light, get-to-know-you questions.

“Indiana,” Charlie says when Paige asks him where he’s from. “Smack dab in the middle of the Corn Belt. My parents have a farm, and my brother and sister both work there, too, so I’m a bit of an anomaly. What about you two?”

“New York. Born and raised,” Paige says with a grin. She’s much more relaxed by now and more like her usual self. At least, the usual self I know from the few times we’ve interacted. “My parents run an advertising agency together. I’m an only child.”

They both look at me.

“Vermont,” I say. “There’s just me and my mom, and she lives in Australia.” I leave out the more complicated details for now.

From there, it’s easy to fall into a conversation and get to know people. New people.

It’s less scary than I thought. I don’t feel exposed in a bad way. It’s more that I’m choosing to invite people in and finding that I like the feeling.

That there’s belonging in it.

That maybe it’s okay to expand the circle. Open up. Let people in.

Okay, now it feels scary again.

---