Page 55 of The Baby Dragon Bakery
“Sure,” she said with a smile.
“It’s a date.”
He kissed her goodnight, then was on his way, and she got into her car. Sitting down, she started the engine, and as the car warmed up, she pressed the cold fingers of her left hand against the vent while her right hand pulled out her phone from her bag. She touched the screen and it lit up, and she scrolled through her notifications.
Disappointment echoed through her. There was no reply from Theo. She had messaged him earlier today when she was going to the library to ask if he wanted to join her and Calahan, but he hadn’t replied, which meant no, obviously, but he could have just said that.
She had tried inviting him to join her and Calahan since she didn’t have too much free time with exams coming up, and this way, she could see both of them, but he either responded too late or made some excuse.
This was the third time in the last week, and she was starting to think it was on purpose, which was not good. If Calahan was going to be her person, the way she wanted him to be, Theo needed to be better friends with him!
As she drove home, she wondered what Theo’s problem was. He was being so moody, almost as if he was avoiding Calahan on purpose. Every time she even mentioned Calahan, he got this weird expression on his face, like he was pissed off and trying not to be and failing.
Ordinarily, he was never this weird with the guys she dated—he was usually so supportive! Something had changed, and she couldn’t pin down what, no matter how hard she thought about it.
A part of her did consider that maybe, just maybe, it was the kiss they had shared—but that was probably just her being delusional, and she didn’t need to entertain those thoughts because it only hurt.
Instead, she tried to think back to other instances he had behaved like this. Being friends for most of their lives meant she could usually track his behavioral changes based on their history. She knew him.
“What is going on?” she asked herself.
And then she remembered. This one time, in high school when they were seniors, he was really busy with the school’s football team, and she was really busy with the debate team. To make matters worse, they only had one class together, so they hardly ever saw each other.
She did, however, have almost every class with another girl—Ayushi—and they were on the debate team together as well. Lavinia and Ayushi became close, spending a lot of time together, and she recalled that Theo had acted strangely towards Lavinia for a few weeks.
He never wanted to hang out with her when she was with Ayushi, and when Lavinia finally asked him why he was being so weird, he admitted that he was scared she was replacing him.
She had laughed, thinking he was joking at first, but then she realized he was deadly serious, his face pinched with an expression of pain. “Theo, of course not!” she had told him, genuinely baffled he could think such a thing. “I could never replace you—I wouldn’t be able to.”
It took some time for Theo to truly believe her—but what if he was having a similar thought now? That she was replacinghim with Calahan? She had been busy this past week, and it was easy to see Calahan since he was already on campus and they could meet up to do work together.
But of course Calahan couldn’t replace what Theo was for her—no one could! And no one ever would. Theo was her brightest star, her constant.
Plans needed to be made.
The next day, on Wednesday, when she was supposed to be paying attention in her Principles of Surgery class, she opened the messages app on her laptop to send a text to Theo:Earth to Theoooo where are youuuu.
His reply came a minute later:Hiya, sorry, been busy.
She rolled her eyes to herself, but decided not to be petty and say something sarcastic in response. Instead, she wrote,What are you doing later today?
He replied that he had a football match, and another message came immediately after:Do you want to come?
Lavinia smiled, no longer annoyed with him.Yes!she replied,Send me the time and place xx
He sent a smiley face back, and Lavinia opened up her to-do list, rearranging her tasks so she’d be free in the evening for Theo’s game.
“Oh shit,” she muttered to herself, remembering she was meant to be meeting Calahan at the library for a study date after class. Lavinia bounced her leg. Shereallyshould have been paying attention in class, since she had a midterm coming up for this subject as well, but now she needed to text Calahan.
I can’t meet at the library tonight, sorry! I forgot Theoinvited me to one of his football matches, and I already told him I’d go.
This was technically not true, but it would look bad if she canceled on Calahan after the fact. Lavinia shifted her focus back to her professor, quickly jotting notes down from the PowerPoint before the slide changed.
After Principles of Surgery, she had her anatomy class, and Lavinia turned all her attention to the reproductive practices of dragons, turning her phone to silent so she wouldn’t be tempted to check her messages during her hardest class. As such, she didn’t see Calahan’s response until she was leaving class, heading in the direction of the parking lot. He hadn’t texted anything; she had a missed call.
Lavinia called him back, walking. “Hey!” she said. “Sorry again to cancel, but I’m sure you’ll have a much more productive evening without me distracting you, anyway.”
Calahan laughed. “That’s probably true, but I was thinking—mind if I tag along?” he asked. “I could use a break from thesis work, anyway, and maybe we can grab dinner after?”
