Page 15 of Before We’re More Than Friends (When We Faced the Music #1)

Dallas

I f I had known how crowded this Saturn Frenzy thing would be, I would’ve stayed at home.

Seriously, the whole freaking city had come here. While most of the crowd was full of high schoolers, some families and college students roamed around. There weren’t that many places that didn’t have swarms of people around it.

The live music boomed in my ears as I strolled behind Kami, hands in my pockets. “Oliver never told us that was the event of the semester.”

Kami pushed me in front of her. “Come on, social butterfly. It’s just the high school version of a city carnival.”

“You’re right about the city part.” A gust of wind blew by, and I zipped my jacket up. “Are you sure we’ll be able to find Oliver? And even then, will I actually get a chance to hang out with you guys, or will I be the third wheel?”

“I’d never put you in the position of a third wheel.” Kami patted my back.

“I don’t know. You were really into him on Tuesday and have probably been texting him all week.”

“Doesn’t mean that I have.” Her dark eyes traveled around the area before her lips formed a sultry smile. “Hey, there he is!” She brushed her ponytail back. “Oh, and that Hayden guy.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you think you’re being smooth, you aren’t.”

She shrugged. “Hayden’s hot, but he isn’t my type.”

I jabbed her in the arm. “You don’t need to jump into a new relationship right away.”

Kami stopped walking and faced me, frowning. “What do you mean?”

“You should let yourself heal after things ended badly with?—”

She held up her hand. “It’s over, Dallas. I’ll never see him again.”

“But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

“It will.” She rubbed my back. “Don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing.”

I sighed. It would never be the right time to talk about this. “You know I’m going to worry about you the way you worry about me.”

Kami sighed before yanking me over to where Oliver and Hayden were standing, very close to the stage. “Hey, guys!” I could barely hear her over the band butchering a One Direction song.

Oliver turned around and beamed at Kami. “Hey.” His smile went to me. Even outside of the shelter walls, he still kept that award-winning grin on his face. “I’m so glad you guys made it. Welcome to your first Saturn Frenzy.”

Hayden turned around, his braids swaying with him. “Well, talk about a small world.” A grin broke out on his face. “I didn’t know you guys were the new volunteers Oliver was talking about until he told us your names.”

Warmth filled my cheeks at the idea that they had been talking about us. “I didn’t know you and Oliver were friends. ”

“Oh, we go way back.” Hayden wrapped his arm around Oliver, who was around half a foot taller than him. “Been solid since sixth grade.”

“I’m going to get myself a drink,” Kami said. “Be back in a bit.” She winked at Oliver before sashaying away.

“Sheesh, I didn’t know I was that boring.” Hayden put a hand to his chest. “Oliver, I’m not a fan of your new girlfriend.”

“Shut up,” Oliver muttered. “Maybe she’s actually thirsty.”

“For you.”

Oliver whacked him on the head.

I laughed. “I think she was just hoping to be alone with Oliver tonight.”

“Poor girl.” Hayden shook his head. “Oliver may be a flirt, but he’s deeply afraid of falling in love. Elementary schoolers stay in relationships longer than he does.”

“I’m not afraid of falling in love!” Oliver put his hands on his hips before facing me. “I’m sorry. Hayden forgets that he can’t be annoying in front of new people.” He shot a glare at Hayden. “And for the record, I’m the only one of the three of us who’s never had a chaotic breakup.”

“Because you’ve never made it long enough for the relationship to be chaotic.” Hayden rolled his eyes, but he shifted away from Oliver. “We just met Dallas, and he’s already getting dragged into our tragic love lives.”

“And who’s the one oversharing here?”

I snorted. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t have a love life of my own.

” Pain twisted in my chest as I thought about my conversation with Chloe yesterday.

Crap, maybe I had a tragic love life too.

“I haven’t dated since fifth grade. Though it was as messy as a fifth-grade breakup could be. ”

“That makes three out of the four of us.” Hayden smiled. “We should start a broken bachelors club.”

“Who’s the last person?” I asked .

“Right here.” I turned around to see a boy with a blond bowl cut and blue eyes holding a can of soda. “Caleb in the flesh.”

“I’m Dallas.” I reached out my hand for him to shake, but he gave me a high five with his prosthetic hand. “My family just moved here from Dallas a week ago.”

“Oh, is this the guy you’ve been telling me about?” Caleb asked Hayden and Oliver, adjusting his clear-framed glasses on his nose.

“So you guys have been talking about me,” I said.

“Yeah, we told him about how ugly and rude you are,” Hayden said with a grin. “All that trash.”

I was ninety percent sure that was a joke. “Thank you.”

Caleb’s lips curved into a smirk. “Don’t look alarmed. Hayden scares everyone off within the first two minutes of knowing him, and Oliver acts like he’s the smoothest guy on the planet until he accidentally spills soda all over his crotch.”

Oliver gasped. “That only happened once!”

“I still have the video,” Hayden said with a chuckle. “Your flavor of the week never came back for another taste.”

Oliver crossed his arms. “At least I have flavors to choose from.”

I laughed. “Yeah, you guys seem to be characters.”

Caleb slapped my back. Ouch . “You’ll fit right in, Dallas from Dallas.”

I smiled despite the pain. At least I’d already found my group of people. They loved music and animals and were weird—and single—as hell. Just like me and Toby.

Toby . My chest tightened. We’d skip big events like this to take our dogs for long walks. Now I didn’t have anyone to do that with.

“Hi, guys!” A girl with wavy brown hair and tan skin bounced her way over to us. She faced me and beamed. “You must be Dallas.” She reached her hand out, and I shook it. “I’m Arielle. My friends said that you and your sister just moved here.”

“Yep. Nice to meet you, Arielle.” I smiled, surprised that a long-term established group of friends was so open to new people. My gaze went to her red tank top that had glittery silver paw prints over it. “I like your shirt.”

Arielle’s cheeks flushed. “Aw, thank you!”

Oliver whispered something in Hayden’s ear, but Hayden swatted at him with a glare. Shoot, did they think I was flirting with her?

“I’m back,” Kami sang as she strolled up to us with a cup of fruit punch in her hand. It took her that long to get a small cup of that? Yeah, right. Whatever flirting tactic she was using, I didn’t find it appealing. “Hey, everyone. I’m Kami.”

“Hello!” Arielle beamed and pulled Kami into a hug. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

Kami blinked in surprise as she took in Arielle. “Nice to meet you, too.” She pulled out of the hug and grinned. This was the happiest I’d seen her since before my parents announced the move.

We made small talk for a few minutes. Kami was the only senior while the rest of us were juniors.

Hayden, Oliver, and Caleb were in a band—apparently named Oliver’s Garage Band—with their friend Sienna, though they’d been together for less than six months and had never played a gig.

Everyone had been volunteering at the shelter since they turned sixteen, the age requirement—Hayden made it clear that he did not enjoy being the youngest by two months.

“Y’all want to eat before we do any activities?” Kami asked. “We didn’t have dinner yet because we were told the food was the best part.”

“It is the best part,” Oliver said before heading toward the area where the tables were. The rest of us followed behind him until he sat at a big table near a tree. “This should be big enough for all of us.”

We murmured in agreement and placed our stuff down. I practically ran to the food table. I should’ve eaten something before we left, but my stomach had been in knots all day thinking about this event.

Oliver had been right—this place was a food heaven.

Bread, seafood, desserts, and pizza galore, with a wide selection of sodas to go with it.

There even were chocolate and cheese fountains for fondue.

I grabbed three breadsticks and dipped them into the cheese before getting a slice of pepperoni pizza and sushi.

Yes, I know, I’d used to loathe sushi with every ounce of my being.

I’d decided to give it another shot, and now I was in love with it.

If I could have it my way, I’d have most of the food on the table.

I was surprised I was able to squeeze all of that on one plate.

I managed to grab a cup of root beer before I walked back to the table. I instantly regretted not taking multiple trips with the food because carrying this stacked plate with only one hand was too much to handle. I looked down at it to make sure nothing was?—

My chest slammed against another’s. All the food on my plates and my root beer crashed either onto the floor on said chest. Blinking, I moved back to see who had just slammed into me.

At first, I thought the victim was Arielle, with her brown waves and light-tan complexion, but she had shorter hair and a different outfit. She looked down at her purple tank top and small jacket that were now covered in my squashed food and melted cheese.

Her blue eyes traveled to mine. They were icy, intimidating . The girl could’ve killed me with them any second now.

A lump grew in my throat. Say something, man, say something. “S-Sorry about that. I-I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

Her grunt was almost as loud as the music that was blasting. “My best friend made this shirt for me, you know.” She grabbed a napkin from the table nearby and wiped the sushi and cheese off her shirt. “Was it so hard to look in front of you?”

“I was trying to make sure I didn’t drop my food,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady as I died inside.

She scoffed. “Yeah, you didn’t do a good job.”

My temper flared to match hers. “It was an accident. Simple as that.”

“You call this simple?” She gestured to her outfit. “I look like a breathing buffet.”

I huffed. “Well, if you had been looking—and I don’t see why you weren’t because you weren’t holding anything—you would’ve moved out of the way instead.”

“You know what?” She grabbed a cup of water and dabbed the napkin into it to clean the rest of her shirt. “Forget it. It’s just my luck, after all.”

Seriously? Yeah, her clothes were a mess, but she didn’t have to be this much of a jerk about it. I searched for my friends, but it was nearly impossible to find them with the crowd around us. A crowd that was watching this ordeal instead of stepping in to help.

“It was just a freaking accident,” I snapped at Sushi Sis. I carefully picked my battles, but this girl didn’t deserve my gentleness. Not after humiliating me at my new school before I even started. “I was going to help you, but you’re being a complete?—”

My heart stopped in its tracks as my eyes traveled to her bracelets. The purple-and-green bracelet with a black star on her left wrist. I’d seen it before. The same exact thing.

Because I was the one who had made it .

Six years ago.

For Chloe.

I knew it was mine because I’d messed up the pattern a few times. There were two greens and two purples next to each other when they weren’t supposed to be there. The bracelet looked more worn out compared to the others, which weren’t anywhere near as amateur as mine.

I met her eyes again, my breath stalling in my lungs. She looked almost exactly like Arielle. Chloe had an identical twin named Arielle. And her friends—I couldn’t remember their names right now—volunteered at the local shelter with her. In only a few seconds, I connected every puzzle piece.

I was glad my food was gone because it would’ve ended up on her shirt either way.

Chloe used to be a thousand miles, four states, and two time zones away from me. But now she was here, only ten inches away from me, wearing what was supposed to be my fondue dinner, looking like she wanted to shoot lasers through my skull.

If everything hadn’t shattered in front of me before, it had now.