Liam Rawley
When my father said “bonding time” I thought that he meant going fishing or fixing up an old car but we were volunteering at the local library.
There were a few people there too and it didn’t take me long to see Laurel with her father. With the whole Dan thing that just happened, it was kinda awkward to see her without spilling it but I was just glad to see her.
“I’m going to go say hi to my friend,” I said to my father and went up to her.
“Thank god you’re here.”Laurel sighed as I stood in front of her, “At least this year, I won’t be bored to death.”
“You volunteer here a lot?”I asked.
“Yeah, once a year.”She mentioned, “Unlike your dad, who comes in every few months. So, good luck with that.”
“Hello, Laurel.”My father greeted her, “Here are the worksheets. You guys can arrange the shelf first.”
“That sounds easy.”I shrugged.
“Arranged it by colors and titles I mean.”He added.
“Let’s get started then, “Laurel suggested and we went to our first shelf, where everything was arranged unlike what my father just told us to do, not even a little bit.
“This is gonna take long.”I pointed out, “There’s still a lot more shelves.”
“Don’t worry, we’re not the only one volunteering,” She assured, “Let’s just finish whatever we can.”
After a while arranging the first few shelves, I decided to take a glance at Laurel, who was focused on the task.
“So, I hung out with Dan today.”I said out of nowhere,” Brady is helping him out with his Juilliards audition.”
“That’s so nice of him.”She said casually.
“Dan is amazing at the violin, don’t you think?”I asked.
“Yeah, he’s okay.”She shrugged.
I thought that it would be a good idea to get some intel on whether or not she likes Dan but so far, she barely thinks about him.
“He’s not that bad looking too, “I added.
“What are you doing?”She questioned, “Do you like him or something?”
“What?No?”I defended, “I just think that the two of you would make a great couple.”
“With Dan?”She let out a humorous laugh, “We’ve been friends for so long that I can’t see him in another way. And eww,Liam.”
That kinda made me frowned but I put on a fake smile when she looked at my face, “Yeah, eww.”I said awkwardly.
“I brought some muffins, do you want to have lunch later?”She offered.
&&&&&£
Brady: How’s your “bonding time”?
I chuckled when I got the text from Brady after I sat down with Laurel on a bench.
Me: We’re volunteering at the library, what do you think?
Brady: It’s a better way to spend your weekend than watching Dexter all day.
After a few minutes, I looked through Instagram and saw that Dan posted a story. It was a picture of him and Brady hanging out together at the town. Dan was smiling widely but Brady just stood there with a bitter face.
I decided to look at the tag that Dan put on Brady and I saw Brady’s Instagram account which came as a shock to me because he didn’t seemed like a guy to have social media. Even so, I looked through it and there were only a few pictures. There was an old picture of him in high school and a picture of him with his family that he posted 5 years ago. He looked young at both pictures and in the friends group one, he was wearing a jock jacket with greasy hair and on the family picture, he was sitting in the middle with his parents each holding a toddler in their arms. He had a wide smile in both pictures and it pains me that I will never see the same smile that he has in the photo.
“Are you listening?”Laurel asked me by waving her hands in front of my face.
“Yeah, what’s up?”I asked.
“Why does Dan wants to see me later?” She raised her eyebrows, “Isn’t he with Brady?”
Brady: Why is Dan buying flowers?
That was delivered 10 minutes ago.
“I have a call to make.”I stood up and rushed to a corner.
I dial Dan’s number but there wasn’t an answer. I then dial Brady’s number and he picked up almost immediately, “What’s up, the only person in the world that makes me not want to scream my lungs out when his friend decides to make me drive him to the store and not stop talking the entire way?”
“Hey, Brady, tell Dan to stop what he’s about to do, “I said on the phone and he was silent for a few seconds,
“Umm…I think it’s too late for that.”He said awkwardly.
I turned around and saw Dan standing in front of Laurel with flowers in his hand. Brady was also there but he was standing from a distance.
I approached them and stood next to Brady.
“I’m so sorry I got you into this,” I whispered to Brady, knowing that this won’t turn out pretty.
“Laurel, “Dan started, “I just want to start with how good of a friend you are. We’ve been friends for 12 years now and I can’t believe it took me this long to tell you that-“
“What is going on?”Laurel raised her eyebrows.
“Let me finish.”Dan cringe, “I just wanted to tell you that I have grown feelings for you. As crazy as it sounds-“
“No.”She blurted out, “I mean…Dan, “She sighed, “You’re like a really great friend and we’ve been there for each other for a long time but this…It complicates things. I don’t mean to be rude and I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, whatever.”Dan said casually with his eyes getting all teary.He was oblivious upset by it but he took a deep breath and sighed, “That’s cool.”
“I hope that we can continue being friends.”She frowned.
“Definitely.”Dan let out a weak smile, “I’ll see you…Yeah.”He walked away so fast that he couldn’t finish his sentence before jogging away.
“I’m gonna go check on him.”Brady gave me a chaste kiss on the mouth and followed Dan.
I couldn’t help but feel like this was my fault. I shouldn’t have encouraged Dan in the first place. I felt a real sickness in my stomach and wanted to cry for Dan.
Brady Hutton
I got on the driver’s seat while Dan just sat on the passenger seat quietly. He obviously was upset about it and I didn’t care but I was driving him to my house so that he could pick up his car.I did felt like Liam would probably want me to cheer him up.
I pulled over to my house and he was surprisingly quiet the whole ride home.
“Don’t beat yourself too much about it.”I said casually, “There are a bunch of other chicks out there.”
I was terrible at this. I didn’t knew the write things to say because I never had to have this conversation with anyone before.
“I can’t believe she just rejected me like that.”He said regretfully, “After all this year, I thought that she would feel the same as I did.”
“How long have you felt this way?”I asked even though I really didn’t want to know.
“Just a few weeks ago.”He mentioned, “It was sudden and after that, everything she did just turned out attractive.”
“Oh, she definitely is attractive.”I whistled. I may not be straight but the girl was really attractive. I was just surprised it took him that long to finally be attracted to her.
“Not helping.”He said seriously.
“You’re 18 right?”I asked.
“Yeah, why?”He raised his eyebrows.
“I know the perfect bar for you.”I turned the car around.
“The legal age of drinking is 21 here.”He pointed out.
“We’ll manage, “I said and started the drive.
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