Say That You Wanna Be With Me Too

Rule #1: When a guy is being a jerk to you, it does not mean he wants you.

“That’s it,” I said, grabbing my bagel from the oven. “I’m done. I give up. I’m throwing in the towel.” I burned my finger on the toaster. “Damn it,” I groaned, putting the finger into my mouth.

My best friend Nick slid the cream cheese packet towards me, and got a butter knife for me from one of his drawers. Breakfast was, as usual due to the fact that there was nothing edible in my house that wasn’t at least 3 weeks old, at his house. He laughed, and handed me the knife. “We both know you’re not giving up,” he said. “You’re not throwing in anything. You’re going to keep trying.”

“I swear I’m like a pillar for heartache,” I sighed, shaking my head. I started spreading the fattening cream cheese on my bagel. I didn’t really care though. Nick’s competitiveness when it came to sports he forced me to play with him would burn all of this off anyway. “I swear, it’s like I have douche lover written on my forehead or something.”

“Not your forehead, maybe your cheek though,” Nick smirked, biting into his own bagel.

“Ha ha ha,” I said sarcastically, glaring at him.

“Seriously though Skye,” he said after he took a sip of his iced tea. “You’re going about this all wrong.’

“Oh yeah?” she asked, still glaring at him. Like he knew anything, Mr. Rockstar had girls practically throwing themselves at him. “Do enlighten me.”

“Well first of all, you seem too desperate,” he shrugged. “Signing up for every blind date service out there doesn’t really add up to best candidate for a fun night out, you know? You need to let love happen on its own.”

“Well we mere mortals actually have to put a little effort in,” I rolled my eyes. “We don’t have girls lining up to have us just look at them. But I mean I guess I can always put out a few albums first, then have guys try to see me.”

“Okay point taken,” he laughed.

“So do you think I should call him?” I asked, staring at my phone as I took a bite out of my bagel.

“That depends,” he said warily. “Did he call you yet?”

“No,” I said disappointedly.

“After your date, did he say he’d call you?” he asked, taking another bite out of his food.

“No he said ‘well it was nice meeting you’,” I quoted.

“Oh no,” he said.

“Oh no?”

“Well it was nice meeting you at the end of the date basically just means you’re not getting a call back,” Nick explained.

“But he also said I’ll see you,” I persisted. Nick didn’t say anything, just looking at me pointedly. I sighed. “Well now that we’re not talking about my love life.”

“You mean your non-existent love life, right?” Joe said, coming into the kitchen.

I flushed slightly. Joe and I had never really been butt buddies. In fact, I was pretty sure he hated me. I knew the feeling should be mutual. But unfortunately for me, I had been lonely too long, and I now found Joe extremely attractive. I don’t know, there was something about his don’t-give-a-shit-just-want-to-have-fun persona that really turned me on. I sighed. What was wrong with me? I shook my head and glared at my best friend’shot older brother. “So clever Joe,” I said. “Tell me did you come up with that one yourself, or did you just rip it off somewhere else like all of your other insults.”

He glared at me as Nick laughed. “Funny you should talk about uninvited guests who don’t get that they should go home.”

“Um actually,” I said. “I don’t think I did.”

“Oh right, that was me,” he smirked, turning his back to us as he peered into the fridge.

I glared at his back until Nick cleared his throat. I looked at him to find him smirking at me. It was a too understanding smirk. It made me blush. I quickly turned my attention to my bagel, suddenly every interesting in gobbling it down. Joe grabbed the milk carton out of the fridge and poured himself a glass. “Just a quick question Schuyler,” he said. “Why are you always here?” He smirked and looked at Nick. “I mean other than your complete infatuation with my brother.”

I flushed even more. I noticed Nick did the same. I knew most people probably thought the same. But it wasn’t like that with me and Nick. We were just best friends. That’s it. He was my best friend, practically my brother. I couldn’t even look at him in any way more than that. “I am not,” I shot back.

“Oh clever come back,” Joe laughed. He put his cup into the sink and walked by us, grabbing the other half of the bagel off of my dish and walking towards the stairs again.

“Would it upset you too much if I killed your brother?” I mumbled to Nick.

“Probably,” he smirked. “And it might upset you too.”

“What?” I blushed. “Why would you say that? It definitely would not.”

He laughed. “Right, well, you know what they say. You always want to kill the people you secretly want.”

“And who says that?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

“Well just me, but I’m hoping it’ll catch on,” he said.

I laughed and shook my head. “No it won’t because it’s totally wrong. I mean he’s such a jerk to me.” Hadn’t it been Nick who had once told me a guy is mean to you because he secretly likes you? He had told me that when we were really little. Was that was he was trying to get me to see here? That his brother did secretly like me?

“I know what you’re thinking,” Nick sighed. “And no, he doesn’t. He can’t stand you actually.”

“Oh,” I said, pretending not to let it faze me. Really though, it dug deep. “Well thank God for that, right?”

Nick sighed, and shook his head. “It’s just because he thinks you’re annoyingly obsessive.”

“Gee thanks Nick,” I rolled my eyes.

“It’s not me,” he put his hands up defensively. “I just think you’re desperately obsessive.”

“So basically I’m obsessive,” I said.

“Well not exactly,” he said nervously. “You just – well it’s – you just expect so much too quickly.”

“Well while we’re bringing me down, want to throw anything else at me?” I asked, keeping my eyes down on the rest of my bagel.

“Sorry,” he said. I could tell he really regretted saying anything now. “Anyways, you were saying something before. About the guy you saw last night?”

“I should call him,” I said. “I mean, my phone died last night, you know? So maybe he tried to call me, but he couldn’t.”

“He would have left a message,’ Nick reminded me.

“Yeah but maybe he did but my voice mail was being weird and it didn’t go through,” I said. Nick just shook his head. “Hey, it could happen! You never know with technology and bugs and viruses and stuff.”

“Yeah but what are the chances of it happening the very night you have a date,” he said. “And computers get viruses, not voice mails.”

I glared at him. “I’m calling him.”

“Don’t do it,” he warned.

“I am,” I picked up my phone and quickly found his number.

“Don’t,” he said again.

“Look I’ll just say I’m going to busy today so if he was planning on calling it wouldn’t be good unless it was in the next half hour, otherwise I won’t be able to get the message until tomorrow,” I said. He just crossed his arms and stared at me pointedly. “What?” I demanded.

“I’m just going to sit here and wait for you to realize how stupid that sounds,” he said.

I groaned and hit the red button, clearing the screen. “Fine but I’m calling later,” I said.

“Are you Skye? Are you really?” he smirked at me.

“Don’t go all Sonny With a Chance Chad Dylan Cooper on me,” I crossed my arms and glared at him.

“Oh great you’re still here,” Joe said, coming back into the kitchen.

“Actually I have to go,” I said, standing. I took a sip of his iced tea and then went to go to the sink and clean my dish. I turned to smile at Nick before heading to the door.

“Don’t,” Nick warned.

“Dude let her leave please,” Joe said.

Nick punched his arm and then looked at me. “I’m telling you Schuyler. You’ll regret it. Don’t do it.” I knew he was talking about calling Josh from last night. I scoffed. Like I was leaving to call him. That would wait till I got home at least. God how pathetic did he think I was?