Chapter 11
1019 Words
“Will you go out with me?”
I’m pretty sure my soul left my body.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
Fully detached.
Floating somewhere above the school parking lot while my physical form stood frozen in front of Landon Baxter like an absolute i***t.
Because surely I had heard him wrong.
Surely my sleep-deprived, overworked, emotionally unstable brain had just hallucinated the most dangerous sentence in the English language.
Landon stared at me, waiting.
And unfortunately, he looked far too good while doing it.
His hands were tucked into the pockets of his black hoodie, his hair was falling into those stupid blue eyes, and there was just enough uncertainty in his expression to make my heart hurt.
Which was deeply inconvenient.
Because Landon Baxter was not supposed to look nervous.
He was supposed to be cocky.
Annoying.
Impossible.
Not… this.
Not real.
Not vulnerable.
Not standing here after school asking me out like this somehow mattered to him.
I blinked at him.
Once.
Twice.
Then, because apparently humiliation was my brand now, I said:
“Like… on purpose?”
There was a beat of silence.
And then Landon laughed.
Actually laughed.
The kind that hit him in the chest and made his shoulders shake.
I narrowed my eyes.
“Oh, wow. Glad I could be your entertainment.”
He tried to pull himself together, still grinning.
“No, no— I just…” He ran a hand through his hair. “That was not the answer I was expecting.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting the question!”
He tilted his head, amused.
“You really had no idea?”
I stared at him.
“Landon, half the time I can’t tell if you’re flirting with me or trying to ruin my life.”
He smiled slowly.
“What if it’s both?”
I hated how hard it was not to smile back.
“This is exactly what I mean,” I muttered.
His expression softened just slightly.
“So?” he asked again.
Just one word.
But quieter this time.
More serious.
And somehow, that was worse.
Because now there was no hiding behind the joke.
No easy way to dodge it.
He was asking me.
Me.
And every part of me wanted to say yes.
Which was exactly why I knew I shouldn’t.
I crossed my arms over my chest, more for emotional support than attitude.
“Why?” I asked.
Landon frowned.
“Why what?”
“Why me?”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
And the second they did, I wished I could physically grab them out of the air and throw them into traffic.
Because I hadn’t meant for it to sound insecure.
But maybe it was.
Maybe I was.
Because girls like Kasey made sense for boys like him.
Girls who knew how to belong in his world.
Girls who didn’t get weirdly nervous sitting in expensive cars or overthink every social interaction like it was a courtroom deposition.
For the first time since he asked, Landon didn’t look amused.
He looked… confused.
Like the answer should be obvious.
“Because it’s you,” he said simply.
And wow.
Okay.
That was not helpful for my emotional stability at all.
I looked away first.
“That is not a real answer.”
“It is to me.”
My heart did something deeply embarrassing.
Again.
I needed it to stop doing that.
Immediately.
“Landon—”
“No, seriously,” he said, stepping a little closer. “You’re different.”
I laughed softly, but there was no humor in it.
“Different is usually not a compliment at schools like this.”
His expression shifted.
Something in his jaw tightened.
“I don’t mean different like that.”
I looked up at him.
And there was no teasing in his face now.
No smirk.
No game.
“You don’t care who I am,” he said. “Not really. Not in the way everyone else does.”
I swallowed.
He continued, quieter now.
“You don’t look at me like I’m my last name. Or my parents. Or what I’m supposed to become.”
The air between us felt thinner suddenly.
“And,” he added, one corner of his mouth lifting just slightly, “you’re mean to me in a way I weirdly enjoy.”
That made me laugh before I could stop myself.
“There he is,” I said.
“Who?”
“The menace.”
He grinned.
“I was wondering when you’d miss him.”
I shook my head, trying very hard not to look too affected by any of this.
Failing.
Horribly.
“You still haven’t answered me,” he said.
I exhaled slowly.
And because I was weak, and because his eyes were unfair, and because every decision I made around this boy seemed destined to shorten my life—
I said:
“Maybe.”
His eyebrows shot up.
“Maybe?”
I nodded once.
“Maybe.”
He stared at me for a second.
Then smiled.
Slowly.
Triumphantly.
Like a boy who had just been handed exactly what he wanted and was trying not to scare it away.
“I’ll take maybe.”
“You shouldn’t,” I said.
“Too bad.”
I rolled my eyes.
Then turned and started walking backward toward the parking lot exit.
“I have to go before my parents assume I’ve joined a cult.”
Landon laughed.
“See you tomorrow, Grandma.”
I pointed at him.
“Stop calling me that.”
“No.”
And then I did something very stupid.
I smiled all the way to my parents' car.
The second I got home, I regretted everything.
Not because he asked me out.
That part I regretted in a much more exciting, stomach-dropping, can’t-think-straight kind of way.
No, what I regretted was that now I had to think about it.
Constantly.
Forever.
For the rest of my life, apparently.
Because the moment I walked through the front door, my sisters attacked.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
(Chapter Theme Song: Sofia by Clario)
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