Chapter Twenty-Two: Matching Whistles

I basically rejected Pat, Sasha was still a hundred percent upset with me, and Mia said that she was as stumped as I was.

So should I take the bus now?

Wow, I forgot who easy I had it with Pat driving us to and from school. But if the consequence of that was to have him think that I was leading him on, then I guess that this was the better choice for all of us. Now I just have to figure out how I was going to make up with Sasha and somehow retain any semblance of friendship with Pat.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" mom asked as she shrugged on her blazer, "You look a little down."

"Sasha and I had a fight," I sighed, finishing whatever was left in my bowl of cereal.

"Is that why you spent time with Mia yesterday?"

Leon dropped me off a few houses away but kept an eye on me until I reached home. It was to make sure that mom didn't see him, since I did create a different alibi. When I got home, I told her that Mia's dad drove me home.

Because I was a hundred percent sure she was going to faint if I told her that I spent all that time with another guy in his house. She was still suspicious of what was my relationship with Pat, adding another guy into the mix was just asking for more trouble.

So while I felt guilty, I lied, "Yeah."

"I think you both just need some time apart to cool down before you talk to each other to sort things out," she suggested, pressing a kiss on the side of my head, "I need to go, have fun at school."

I hummed in response, hearing the front door faintly close. While I wanted to ask her so bad if she could go and take me to school, that was asking too much. If she realized that I had an argument with both Sasha and Pat, I was sure that she would get worried.

However, the moment I got down from the stool so I could put my bowl in the sink, the doorbell rang.

Did she forget her house keys or something?

I placed the bowl in the sink and went to the front door. In hindsight, I should have at least checked who it was before I opened it.

Because I couldn't even bother to hide my shock as I jolted up when I saw Leon standing there right in front of me. I was in so much disbelief that I closed the door, only to open it again after a split second as if I expected him to disappear.

Nope, still here.

I tilted my head a bit to the side so I could look behind him and I saw his car parked in the driveway, "What are you doing here?"

"Need a ride to school?" he chuckled, lifting up his car keys for me to see.

Can I hug him?

I could just picture him waiting until my mom left before actually going to my house just because he knew that I wouldn't be comfortable about her finding out yet. He actually got out of his car and walked up to my front door.

He better stop being this good or else I would be willingly escorting myself to heartbreak.

"You're an angel, do you know that?" I laughed, leaving the door open while I rushed back in to get my jacket and my bag.

When I went over to the kitchen island to grab my phone, I stopped when I saw the whistle right next to it.

We still haven't discussed it yet. Also, we've swept my sudden confession under the rug as well.

There were so many questions that I was asking myself. Did he go back in time specifically for me? But before the whole break up thing with Pat, we were barely acquaintances. We were so far from being called friends and we never really interacted much and so I saw no reason for him to go through all that trouble just for me.

Now what was the real reason why he went to the past.

So I tried to push that all away from my mind for now and put on the whistle. After I grabbed my phone and bag, I walked back to the front door where he was standing patiently for my return, "Can we pick up Mia too?"

"That's the plan," he chuckled, waiting for me to lock the front door once we stepped outside. When I faced him, I momentarily paused to see the whistle hanging on his neck.

After contemplating about the whole situation last night, I realized that Leon never wore his whistle like I did. Sure, he had it with him at all times, but it was usually in his pocket or bag. The fact that he wore it out in the open made me feel a little bit giddy inside.

For just a small second, let me pretend that he did that because of me.

As we made our way to his car, I shot Mia a text that I managed to get a ride for both of us. I tried contacting Sasha as well, but I got no answer in return.

Fine, let her sulk. If anybody had any right to be upset in this situation, it was me. She was the one who was about to lead me into a freaking mortifying predicament. I didn't even want to imagine what would could have happened if Leon wasn't there to pull me away.

"Did you talk to Pat?" I dared to question because like I said, I never want to be that person who got in between their friendship.

It was obvious from the way his face scrunched up that this was a topic he'd rather not touch, "I tried to, but he wouldn't pick up any of my calls."

"If it makes you feel any better, one of my best friends is ignoring me too," I tried to joke, but it was futile because both of us felt how severely saddening it was.

Why couldn't they respect the fact that all I wanted was to be friends? It wasn't that difficult.

I was currently sitting next to the guy I liked but you don't see me thinking every single second of a way to make him date me. I was happily satisfied with the way things were, even if the possibility of us being more than friends was incredibly slim. Because I would rather have a crush on Leon in silence than have him walk away from me in disgust because he found out that I liked him.

Even though that kind of happened already, in front of his parent if I may add.

But again, I was perfectly happy with this set up.

Mia was standing in front of her house when we drove by. As she got into the backseat, she let out a huge sigh of relief, "Thank you so much, Leon."

He grunted in reply, "Don't mention it."

And there we go, the same old moody Leon.

Mia lifted a brow at his attitude but I shrugged it off, she'll get used to him soon enough. But for now, my priority was the fact that our trio was broken, "Have you talked to her yet?"

She nodded her head but there was this giant frown on her face, "If you were only there when the whole mystery gang arrived, Sash and I got into this massive argument in front of everybody."

I flinched at the thought. Mia could be really explosive when she gets angry and I never want to be on the receiving end of her lectures again. Add to that, Sasha was probably already frustrated because I disappeared before she could create a spectacle.

I could only imagine the chaos that ensued when these two butted heads.

"She'll come around once she calms down," she assured, reaching forward to squeeze my hand comfortingly, "What about you, Leon? You basically betrayed your best friend yesterday."

Mia doesn't hold back, does she?

"Just like your strategy, I'll wait for him to calm down," he managed to respond smoothly, not even blinking.

She eyed him carefully, sizing him up and observing closely if there was anything she could get out of him. I think it was pretty established that Leon was a closed book, he wasn't the type to blab about himself or his life.

Whatever I knew about him before was the exact same thing that any other person in our school did.

Well, that was obviously before he brought me to his house. I could only imagine how Mia would react or worse, how Sasha would.

No, scratch that, it was Zoey that I should be thinking of. She already had the wrong idea of what was between Leon and I.

When we pulled into the school parking lot, I didn't know why I was thinking that everything would be different, as if everybody would have caught a whiff of what happened yesterday. Yet surprisingly for me, there nothing out of the ordinary.

"Thanks for the ride, Leon," I muttered once I was out, "We'll see you in third period."

He nodded and lifted a hand as a goodbye, making his way to the school doors. Before I could even take a single step to follow him, Mia placed a strong grip on my bag and pulled me backwards to her. I involuntarily let out a yelp, but she completely ignored it, "What's going on between you two?"

She let go of my bag and I whipped around to face her, gulping when she was posed there with two hands on her hips. I played dumb though, because this was a conversation I wasn't mentally prepared for, "What do you mean?"

"Oh sure, it just so happened that Leon suddenly appeared in front of your house because he simply wanted to," she rolled her eyes and then lifted a finger to point towards my chest, "And it just so happened that you both have matching whistles."

I gasped and immediately made a move to tuck the whistle under my shirt again, away from view.

"Would you believe me if I say that it was pure coincidence?" I dared to say and just from her unamused look, that was a complete no.

"Okay, answer this question then since you straight up denied it yesterday but every single sign points otherwise," she told me, crossing her arms, "Do you like Leon?"

It was amazing how fast my feelings could change in one day. In fact, it wasn't even a full twenty-four hours since I was given that inquiry. But in the time between the library fiasco and today, my response has completely changed.

And I knew well that I wouldn't be able to lie myself out of this one.

"Yes," I stated so bluntly that I managed to shock not only her, but myself. I was so sure of it that it surprised me how easy it was to admit it out loud.

But Mia must have been expecting more of a fight from me so she paused for a second when I didn't even deny it. So she lifted a hand, her eyes wide as saucers, "Hold on, you mean you really do like him?"

"Yes, I like Leon," I admitted out loud, a wave of warmth came over me when I did.

I like him. My heart yearned to be heard so much that it was painful, but I felt so comforted when I said it. I wasn't afraid to be hurt, unlike what I initially thought. All I felt was happiness, that giddiness of liking someone for the first time.

"My god, Avs," she laughed, finally dropping that sassy attitude, reaching out to hold both of my hands, "You like him."

I nodded rapidly, trying to push down the squeal of excitement, "I know, I like him!"

Maybe because after my last relationship, I have expressed my desire to stay single or perhaps because I've outright shown that I was uncomfortable with Pat's obvious advances, but either way, I felt so elated to see Mia happy for me.

While extremely excited, my heart dropped when I watched the smile slowly fade away from her lips. I nervously turned around to see what could have caused such a sudden change in her mood.

Pat got out of his car and exiting his passenger seat was none other than Sasha.

They spotted us and furthermore, they spotted us standing right next to Leon's car.

While I was dreading that there would be some sort of confrontation, they simply went towards the school entrance, not even daring to steal a second glance towards our way.

"It'll be okay," Mia said. Although just one look in her eyes, I knew that she was trying to convince herself as well.

It was definitely not okay.

When we entered the classroom for our first class, Sasha was already in her seat and was dead set on ignoring us. Since she sat in front of me, I passed beside her just to see if she would actually take the initiative to talk since I was the one who had been trying to contact her all morning.

But nothing.

Hey Sasha, you were about to put your supposed best friend through an extremely embarrassing situation and now you had the audacity to feel offended.

Fine, ignore me. If you'd rather throw away years of friendship just because of this, then so be it.

So that was how we went throughout the day. We had our seats next to each other so it was impossible to avoid one another but I was thankful that I always chose the seat next to Mia. It was an unconscious thing, but proved to be a blessing in disguise.

Though the tension between Sasha and Mia wasn't any better.

And here was the thing that either made it better or worse. When we managed to get to third period, Pat and Leon strolled into the classroom acting normally. It was as if yesterday didn't happen and they were back to being best friends.

Pat chuckled some jokes towards Leon's way and the latter rolled his eyes in response but it was clear that it was all lighthearted.

I swear, boys make up so fast. It only took two classes and they were okay once again.

When Leon spotted me there sitting on my desk, he subtly gestured to the phone in his hand. I jolted up and immediately went to grab my phone from my bag pocket.

Leon Colten: Pat's going to talk to you during lunch.

Uh oh. Was this the part where alarm bells should start ringing in my head?

Avery Barber: Should I be worried?

Leon Colten: I already told him not to do anything stupid. You'll be okay.

I doubted that.

Then again, I wanted a friendship with Pat because after all we've been through, I still adored him. And I was a hundred percent sure that it wasn't in a romantic kind of way.

Huh, my heart stopped beating for Pat and I didn't even notice it happening.

I lifted my head up due to this wonderful epiphany and slowly glancing towards the boys' way, accidentally catching Leon's gaze and watching on as he flashed me a smile.

I shouldn't be affected by it since all I had was a tiny crush, but can somebody tell me why just one smile from him could turn me into this incoherent mess. I swear, I wouldn't be surprised if I melted into a puddle right there and then.

Okay Avery, I need you to stop at the crush stage. If you like him more than that, then this was going to be painful as hell.

"You're not really subtle, are you?" Mia chuckled from beside, watching me be a frantic mess in my seat, "You've got it bad."

"Shut it," I protested, pouting and crossing my arms in front of my chest in a childish manner. She laughed good humoredly at my reaction but when I looked past her, I could clearly see Sasha attempting to eavesdrop on our conversation.

Great, now she knows that I like Leon too.

Mia was supportive when it comes to my love life but she never goes the same extreme that Sasha does. If she likes me with somebody then she'll say it, but will never go as far as making me go through something compromising.

I wonder if Sasha was doing everything for me or was it all for Pat? Right now, I really think it was the latter.

I still ate at the usual place, especially since it seemed that only Sasha was holding a grudge against me. Pat was relatively fine and the others who were involved with the library plan yesterday appeared to come to this silent agreement not to speak about it.

Now although I was expecting it, thanks to Leon, I still jumped up in surprise when Pat called my name, "Avery?"

I looked absolutely ridiculous sitting there like a deer in headlight while the others on our tables paused whatever they were doing in order to look at me.

"Can we talk?"

Mia, who sat beside me, gave me a questioning gaze while our other friend didn't ever bother to look up from her cafeteria food. I felt Leon tap my foot with his underneath the table, a small gesture of reassurance that everything was going to be alright.

And I trusted him.

"Sure," I replied, squeezing Mia's shoulder when I passed her after I had stood up to follow Pat out of the cafeteria.

Somehow, I predicted that we were going to end up at the field. I didn't even flinch when he led me to the back door going to it.

When he stopped at one spot, he still didn't turn to me. In fact, I lost count of the minutes that I stood there just staring at his back.

But I was sure he was nervous so I let him be. The least I could do was be patient with him.

So I stared away, trying to find something to occupy my thoughts. When my eyes landed on the bleachers, my chest tightened. Every day, I've diligently waited for him to finish practice and yesterday was the only time that I didn't.

And yet, it felt like yesterday made such a huge different to whatever future I was walking to.

Though I had to wonder what would have happened if I never listened to Leon, if I went on ahead and watched the soccer team train.

Would I have found myself in a horrible future? Worse than the one I came from?

"Avery, I think it's very clear that I like you," he finally spoke, catching me off-guard.

I tore my gaze away from the bleachers to face him, but he was still showing me his back. Alright, looks like we were going to have our conversation this way.

"Pat, I think I also made it very clear that I want us to be friends," I shot back, praising myself for how calm I was acting.

And just friends, nothing more than that.

"You didn't watch practice and you left the library early because you knew, didn't you?"

Not exactly. I didn't watch practice and left the library because Leon told me to. I never knew what he was planning until I saw him literally on his way to me.

But I didn't want to say that, especially since him and Leon just patched up their friendship.

"Pat, I like you, okay?" I told him and from the way he stiffened, I knew we were on our way to a very grave misunderstanding so I had to quickly add, "You're a very sweet guy and I will always be grateful that I've met you. I think any girl would be extremely lucky to have you, but..."

But it isn't me.

I didn't want to say it out loud since he hasn't even confessed yet. Or wait, was the question earlier his confession?

I should have said it in the end, because he immediately turned around, his brown eyes practically piercing through me. He didn't blink, he didn't flinch, but only kept that extremely determined expression as he finally asked me the question I've been avoiding.

"Will you got out with me?"

And sadly, I think even he knew my answer to that.

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Since Avery doesn't want Pat, anyone would want to take him? I literally have a soft spot for that boy and I hate that this is happening to him.

Question: Should Avery forgive Sasha?

I hoe you guys enjoyed the chapter. Thank you so much reading and please don't forget to vote, comment, and follow. Love you guys and see you next chapter.