Josh gave a tiny, nearly imperceptible nod, rubbing bashfully at the back of his neck. Though he hadn't scored any points with her…. the pink staining her cheeks still felt like a win.
It's not a win, he told himself, Stop imagining things. And stop saying stupid, sappy stuff, while you're at it.
"Oh…."
Violeta's brows knit together, concern flickering across her features. "Are you sure she didn't have plans today? Maybe she's at her dorm?"
Laura was never good with awkward silences. She was also never good with dealing with feelings. It was always nice having no strings attached. That way, she could easily act like a fox.
Josh… was trying to knock her down to her knees without even knowing it. God, if only he knew how conflicted he was making her feel.
“You know…” Laura started, mistaking his bashfulness as him feeling uncomfortable with it. “If you don’t want to hang out with me, you really don’t have to.”
Gray shook his head. “She tells me when she has plans,” he breathed. “Even if she’s out on a date, she always lets me know in case I ever need her. And she never leaves her phone off, no matter what.”
Josh’s head snapped up.
“Where’d you get that idea, Laura?” he asked, confusion crossing his features. “Of course I want to hang out with you, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”
“Where could she be?”
Violeta interlaced her fingers with Gray’s, knowing his friend was important to him. “Let’s go find her?”
Of course I want to hang out with you.
Laura’s heart soared. She hoped her face wasn’t as hot as it felt. Yes, she was acting like a teenager with a crush. She was hopeless. Utterly hopeless.
“I dunno,” she tried shrugging nonchalantly, but there was a stupid smile on her features. He said he wanted to hang out with her. Josh said that he wanted to hang out with her. “You seem pretty uncomfortable.”
Gray looked at Violeta, gratefulness on his features. She’d sacrifice her free time searching for someone she didn’t even know? She was amazing. No wonder Gray fell for her.
“We could try the courtyard first,” he suggested. “That’s the first place she’d probably at. Thank you, Vy.”
The look on Laura’s face whipped Josh’s poor heart into a frenzy. That smile…. had it always been so beautiful?
He forced the thought to the back of his mind, swallowing the lump in his throat. “I’m not uncomfortable, don’t worry. Are you?”
Tucking herself beneath one of her boyfriend’s arms, Violeta began to lead him in the direction of the courtyard. “Anytime, Gray. And—I was meaning to ask you. Are you free after class today? I was thinking—maybe we could go somewhere? A—On a first date? Or you could come over and we could order pizza?”
Laura popped a French fry in her mouth, licking her lips, missing the way Josh was looking at her. “Definitely not,” she shook her head. “I’m not uncomfortable. Not even a tiny bit.”
Gray pressed her closer to him, kissing her softly on her cheek. “We should go out,” he suggested. “Where do you wanna go? I’ll take you anywhere you wanna go, unless you’d like it to be a surprise?”
"Surprise me," Violeta agreed, a blissfully happy expression crossing her face. Cheeks flushed, she scanned their surroundings, but didn't catch sight of the girl they were looking for.
"I'm glad," Josh murmured, finally finishing his burger off. "This tastes exactly like meat. D'you think they scammed me and gave me an actual burger, but just pretended it was plant-based?"
“I will,” Gray pressed another kiss to her cheek. He pulled away and looked around, spotting a mess of pink hair sitting under an umbrella table, eating. Gray scowled.
Laura snorted. “I’d say yes, actually. What if they did? You were scammed, Josh. This burger was five dollars more than the regular, meat burger. What are you going to do about it?”
Before Josh could reply, Laura felt a shiver crawl up a spine as she felt a murderous intent aimed at her. And then she heard that voice.
“Laura Atkinson,” she winced, turning around to give her friend a sheepish grin. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Laura gave Gray a grin. “I’m eating?”
Her friend glared harder. “Why is your phone turned off? You disappeared without a word. Did you know how worried I was? You told me absolutely nothing!”
Laura felt touched. He was worried about her. He came looking for her. But then she furrowed her eyebrows. “My phone isn’t—“ she took it out of her pocket to find out that yes, it was turned off. She laughed nervously. “I might have forgotten to charge it last night. And I’m okay. I’m with Josh.”
The young male finally took notice of the other guy present. He stiffened.
Violeta's eyes widened slightly when she saw Josh, sitting awfully close to the young woman she and Gray had been looking for. What is he doing? she wondering, sending a slight eyebrow-raise in his direction.
Josh froze the moment a familiar voice slammed against his ears.
Gray.
Slowly, anxiously, he turned his head to meet the other man's eyes, but his gaze skipped straight past him and landed right on Violeta. Suddenly, his heart felt like breaking all over again.
"Laura and I were having lunch," he told Gray weakly, angling his face downwards.
Gray stared down at Josh, then at Laura. What the hell was she doing? The way they were sitting—so close together. Was she looking for trouble?
“Okay,” Gray finally responded, shoving his hands in his pockets. He never removed his eyes from Laura, who glared back, daring him to make a remark. “Lunch.”
“I invited him,” she narrowed her eyes. “I figured it would be nice for you and Violeta to spend time together, so I went out of your hair. Josh was alone, so I invited him.”
Violeta leaned into Gray, doing her best to calm him down while remaining silent. Her hand slipped around his waist, tugging him slightly closer.
The sigh of Josh…. it brought back so much guilt, so much shame. I'm sorry, she wanted to say to him, Forgive me?
Laura swallowed when Gray’s eyes bore into hers. She was with a man he did not like. Her, his best friend. She couldn’t imagine the coldness he was feeling. But she could make her own decisions, couldn’t she?
To her surprise, Gray’s eyes shifted back to Josh. They were relentless, but Laura detected no ill intentions.
“I was going to let you have her,” he finally said, squeezing his girlfriend’s hand. Laura caught the wince Josh gave. Her heart trembled. “Because I thought she liked you. But I couldn’t stay away from her. And she chose me, so she’s mine and I’m hers. And if you’re merely playing Laura just to get back at me, then I promise you, you will regret it.”
Laura’s eyes flashed. “Gray—“
Josh flinched visibly, his head snapping up. "What kind of a person do you think I am, Gray?"
I was going to let you have her.
I thought she liked you.
Each word struck him like a slap to the face. "Laura and I were just having lunch. It's not a date, Gray. I'm not playing her and I have nothing against you, so stop giving yourself that much credit."
Laura winced at Gray’s words. Of course he’d think that. He’d been there with her when she had been a rebound. His concern wasn’t just because of the dislike he felt. It ran much deeper than that.
And then the way Josh flinched. He was just a good guy. He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve seeing the girl he likes holding the hand of the man she claimed she hated.
“Stop it, both of you,” Laura finally stepped in, narrowing her eyes. “That’s enough. That was a wrong thing to say, Gray, though I don’t blame you for it. And Josh, he doesn’t mean it like that. I promise. Can’t you both just stop glaring at each other like that and get along?”
Josh clenched his teeth and looked away, ignoring Violeta's attempts to catch his eye. "Since your friend evidently doesn't want me here," he told Laura softly and rose to his feet. "I guess I'll be going. Don't want things to get too heated. Have a nice day, Laura. You too, Violeta."
Gray felt a bit of regret at the wince Laura gave when he said that. Her eyes were shining in panic.
“No, wait,” she reached out for him, “We still haven’t finished lunch yet. Josh, stay. With me.”
Gray finally sighed, running a hand through his hair. “If you want to hang out with Laura, as long as you treat her right, I don’t have any disagreements with you. I don’t dislike you, either. The problem isn’t between you and me.”
"I'm not sure about that, Gray," Josh answered, quiet now. "Considering the fact that you look at me like you want to murder me all the time."
Purposely avoiding Violeta's eyes, he turned back towards Laura. "It's fine, Laura, I should probably go, anyways. I promised my roommate I'd help him with something, but I'll text you later."
Before either of them could protest, he was turning around, and walking away.
Laura watched him leave, heaving a tired sigh, running her fingers through her hair in distress. She swallowed before looking at Gray, who looked away instead.
“Laura, I’m—“
“Save it,” his friend interrupted, scowling. “Just—save it, all right? I get it. I get why you did that. I get why you reacted like that. But you don’t—you don’t get to do that. I can take care of myself. I can do that perfectly fine and things were going good with Josh. Now he probably won’t even want to be near me anymore.”
Gray flinched again, not saying anything back. It made her far more infuriated than she’d ever felt. Then he opened his mouth and she froze.
“Do you like him, Laura?” He questioned and she swallowed thickly. “Do you?”
“No!” She shook her head immediately, “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. He’s—sweet. Different. I feel different around him than I’ve felt with any other man. I don’t know.”
Gray just stared her before he shook his head with a sigh. “You’re so much trouble, aren’t you?”
Violeta took a hesitant step back from the two of them, her shoulders tensing slightly as she watched them argue.
“Do you—Do you want me to give you two some time alone?” she asked meekly, afraid of making the situation worse.
Gray and Laura fixed their stare on Violeta before Laura broke it. She shook her head.
“No, we’re done,” she said simply. “There’s no point in arguing about this. Go have lunch. There’s thirty minutes left.”
“Do you want to come, too?” she asked quietly, unsure whether or not she should reach for Gray’s hand again. “Come and finish your lunch with us.”
Gray reached for Violeta’s hand, squeezing it tightly. He looked at Laura apologetically. She looked at Violeta instead.
“I’m okay,” Laura replied to Violeta softly. “You guys can go. I’m all right. I don’t have a lot left, anyway.”
“Laura, I didn’t know you were with him,” Gray tried again, “I’m sorry.”
Laura let out an exasperated sigh. “I told you it’s fine. I’m not upset. I know why you did it. It’s my fault, too, for not charging my phone and not telling you where I was,” she rubbed her forehead. “I just wish Violeta and Josh hadn’t crossed paths again this soon.”
Violeta flinched a little at the mention of Josh, her eyes flickering in the direction he’d gone.
“If you’re sure…” she murmured softly, squeezing back.
Laura merely smiled. “I’m sure. Thank you for inviting me, anyway. I’ll be going now. I’ll see you after school, Gray.”
GRAY:
Gray leaned against the building of his girlfriend’s dormitory, waiting for her to come out. They were finally free enough to go on a date and Gray would be damned if he let this time slip out of his hold.
So here he was, outside, picking up his girlfriend like a good boyfriend. And she, of course, had no idea where he was taking her.
Violeta was struggling to contain her panic by the time she stepped out of the elevator on the ground floor of her dormitory building. Her outfit had a lot of time and effort put into it——a knee-length black skater skirt and a pastel pink top with a white jean jacket (borrowed from Rae) on top——but what if Gray didn’t like it? What if he forgot about the date? What if she weirded him out?
Finally, she stepped out and into the cool air, wiping her clammy palms on her skirt. Where was he?
When Gray saw his girlfriend step out of the dormitory, his heart had just about stopped beating. He stared open-mouthed at the girl. Did she choose that outfit to give him a heart attack? That girl… He walked over to her and wrapped her in his arms, breathing her in.
"Hey, beautiful," he murmured. It took a lot out of him to prevent his voice from trembling. "God, you look amazing. Jesus, are you doing this to kill me?"
Violeta sank back against him, her heart kickstarting as an enormous smile overtook her lips.
“Hey—Hey, Gray,” she murmured, already breathless. Beautiful. For the first time, someone genuinely believed that she was beautiful. “Do I—Do I really look that good?”
Though he felt pleased to receive that reaction from his beloved, it did annoy him how she was made to believe she wasn't pretty. This beautiful angel in his arms, with her amazing smile and her breathtaking self… God, she was so perfect. He wished she knew just what she meant to him.
"You always look beautiful," Gray responded, nuzzling her neck. "But today you look extraordinary."
Violeta's breath hitched. Leaning into him, she craned her head and pressed a tentative kiss to his cheek. "You're so sweet…" she murmured, "Are you going to let me go so I can see how good you look?"
Gray chuckled and stepped back, letting her see him properly.
“I didn’t dress up as well as you did,” he shrugged, gesturing to his black button up shirt and blue jeans. “You’re going to steal the spotlight from me, love. Not cool.”