Say You Like Me

Chapter Seven �" Say You Like Me

 

            “She is moving in today.” Eric said. We pulled into his driveway and he sighed. Josh shrugged; he couldn’t careless as long as he got to keep the money. We all climbed out of Eric’s car. I started towards my house; ready to mentally prepare myself for the next two weeks or so.

            “Clair!” Josh shouted. I stopped and turned to look at him. He gave me a questioning look. I rolled my eyes.

            “What,” I said, “do you want?” He started walking towards me. I turned back around to unlock my door. I could see him stop beside me out of the corner of my eye. He leaned against the door while I struggled with the key. It’s been getting stuck randomly for the last few days.

            “Need some help?” He asked, smirking. I nudged him, and yanked the key out while turning the knob to open the door. He nearly fell but regained his balance. I laughed.

            “Darn, I was hoping you’d fall.” I said and plopped my backpack onto the floor near the stairs. “Now what do you want?”

            “I was just wondering when you were coming over to Eric’s? He said you planned to come over, to rub it in Sammy’s face.” He grinned. I could tell he was enjoying this far more than Eric and I was.

            “I did, but not to rub it in her face. Just so she would see us and it would make our lie more believable.” I corrected. He scoffed and took it upon himself to get comfy on my sofa. I playfully kicked his foot to get him to remove it from the other cushions so I could sit down too.

            “So basically, it’s to rub it in her face?” He said again. I laughed. He propped his feet onto my lap. I gave him a look that said ‘hell no’ and he moved them back to the floor.

            “Yeah, basically,” I replied. “I’m going over there around eight. You know, I want to give Sammy some time to move in and get settled.” He nodded.

            “That makes sense. So what are you going to do until then?” He asked suggestively. I groaned in disgust and shoved his shoulder while standing up to grab my back pack.

            “Homework,” I said and sat back down. He laughed and picked up his backpack from under his feet where he had dropped it.

            “Great,” He grinned, “You can help me.” I sighed. He always found a way to annoy me. He started pulling out his textbooks. I did the same.

            “Fine, I will help you but no copying or cheating.” I said. He whined like a little kid. I ignored him and started on my history homework. He threw his book onto the sofa and stood up.

            “I’m getting some water.” He said and stormed out of my living room and into the kitchen. I laughed and tried to concentrate on my work.

            “Help yourself!” I added, and then really focused.

 

~*~

            Josh and I worked on homework for about three hours. Well, I worked and he messed around. This included singing at the top of his lungs, not a pretty sound I might add, and asking pointless questions about stupid things.

            Eric laughed when I told him that. Sammy thought it was odd for me to show up at Eric’s with Josh, but we lied about that too. We told her about how we worked together and that I gave him a ride here from work. It wasn’t a complete lie, since I do that often. Although, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be lying so much, despite how good I seemed to be at it.

            I wasn’t really sure what we were supposed to do after I showed up at Eric’s. Were we going to hang out, or maybe just talk for a few minutes, maybe pretend to leave for a date? Turned out none of those was the answer I got, at least not in the way I planned.

            “We’re going on a double date with Josh and Sammy?” I asked Eric as we walked out to his car. I gripped his arm so tightly that it probably hurt, but I was not prepared for a double date.

            “Yeah, but it’s not that big of a deal. Just pretend to argue with me a little bit so that Sammy will get the idea of us not getting along. It will make the break up seem more real later.” He whispered as he opened the passenger side door for me. I climbed in, still a little upset about it, but there was nothing I could do. It was happening already. We were going out for dinner to a small Chinese restaurant.

            The date was awkward, and not the getting to know each other kind of awkward. It was the every one hates Sammy, Sammy hates Josh, Sammy teases Eric and me, and I hate everyone kind of awkward. Sammy tried her best to make small chit chat, mostly involving facts about mine and Eric’s relationship.

            I dodged question after question only answering what I had to and Josh made annoying jokes all night. We finally left the restaurant at half past nine. Eric drove all of us home except Josh, who decided he was staying the night at Eric’s.

            I kissed Eric on the cheek goodnight and hurried into my own house. By the time I got in I had a headache and I felt dirty from all the lying, and it was only the second day. I decided a nice hot shower would make me feel better.

            I spent about a half hour soaking up the hot water until it started to turn cold and finally got out. I dried off and changed into my comfiest shorts and a tank top, and then headed downstairs to spend the rest of the night watching moving since it was the weekend and dad was out of town again.

            “Hey, nice shorts,” Josh said. He was sitting on my sofa again. I looked down at my shorts, as if I’d forgotten that there were tons of little pictures of blues clues all over them. I sighed and grabbed a blanket to cover up with and sat on the floor since his legs took up all the space. He laughed. “There’s room up here you know.” He said patting his leg. I punched his arm, which was fairly difficult my position on the floor.

            “How did you even get in? The front door was locked.” I said. He shrugged. I nudged his foot with my elbow to let him know I was serious.

            “The back door wasn’t.” He said simply. Damn, I need to start locking it.

            Josh had already turned my TV on and was watching some stupid show about turtles. I didn’t feel like arguing with him to leave or change the channel so I just lied down on the floor and watched the turtle show.

            “I don’t know why you act like you hate me, Clair-Bear.” He said. I groaned and covered my ears. He tugged at my arm until removed them. “Seriously, I know you secretly like me.” I laughed.

            “You wish.” I said. He nudged my thigh with his feet. “And keep your stinky toes away from me.” He chuckled darkly and stuck his foot in my face. I gagged at how stinky they actually were. He started cracking up and I scooted across the room to get away from the smell.

            When he finally stopped laughing, he said, “Just admit it, Clair. You like me, at least a little bit. You know we’re starting to become friends. Just say you like me.” He said, grinning.

            “Fine, I like you. We can be friends.” I said, exaggerating the word. He rolled his eyes and lied back down on my sofa. I moved back next to the sofa and went back to watching the stupid turtle show.