Page 21 of Choosing Her

crossy

There was somebody watching my date.

Tino probably thought he was being so slick hiding behind the pillar that we walked past, but I guess he hadn’t realized half his body was sticking out one side, making me do a double take as we walked past. It was obvious that it was him, with his Hartwell Hockey hoodie and Valentine Brothers themed phone case—a gag gift from Lilah, since she knew how much he hated living in the shadows of his older brothers’ band—that was sticking out like he was taking a photo of us.

Except, when I did the double-take, I could have sworn I saw Mako and Bear with him again.

So I turned around a third time, and this time, there was nobody there.

I knew Tino wouldn’t have hidden again that quickly from me noticing him, so I had to assume I was right about Mako and Bear being there, and they hauled him back so I wouldn’t notice them all.

“Are you okay?” Katie asked. I spun forward again, reminding myself that I was supposed to be focused on the blonde girl next to me, instead of my idiot friends, who had not only set me up on this date, but decided to stalk me while I was here as well.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, playing with the straw of my boba. “Thought I saw something.”

“You mean, like a cute girl or something?” Her already incredibly high-pitched voice went even higher as she said it, and I wondered if she was trying to act like it was cool if I was checking out some other girl on her date. She really needed to raise her standards, if so.

“No, just a friend I thought was back on campus,” I said. I looked at her, since I remembered a girl on a previous date telling me how much she hated how I was always looking another direction, but immediately regretted it as I saw the way her eyes lit up at the mention of my friend.

“Do you want to go meet up with them?” She asked, her voice in that same high-pitched squealed as before.

For a second, I thought she was suggesting that we end our date early and was a little offended that she sounded so excited about the prospect of that, until I realized she meant we could meet up with them together .

I’d told Mako and Tino that any girl who was willing to answer an ad about going on a date with me, a guy they’d never met, was probably only interested because they were super into hockey players and would do anything to go on a date with them.

They’d both just shrugged and said they didn’t see the issue with that.

But it was obvious to me now, with the way that she was licking her lips, that she was more interested in meeting the other boys on the team than continuing this date with me.

“I don’t think it was him,” I lied, because I was not about to go hunting after the boys who were trying badly to hide from me. But she couldn’t just take my word for it and she started peering around me, looking for them—and, of course, that was the moment they all decided to come out of hiding.

“Are you sure?” She asked. “Because they’re looking straight at us.”

I bit back a groan of annoyance and decided I would need to make it clear to them on the next date that they were not welcome to join.

Well, maybe not the next one—because that was right after this.

Mako had set up three dates for me today, back to back.

I already met the first girl for brunch, then met up with Katie for boba in town, and after this, I’d be going to a cafe with another girl that Mako hadn’t told me anything about yet.

He seemed to be thriving from taking on this managerial role for me.

“Maybe they want to see us kiss,” Katie suggested.

Before I could even process that suggestion, she started to go up on her tiptoes like she was actually planning to kiss me in front of all my friends.

So, I did the most stupid thing possible and stepped away, leaving her to stumble forward without me there to help her balance.

She flushed bright red and ducked her face away and I winced.

“Sorry,” I said. “I just don’t really want to kiss you while my friends are watching.”

I saw her lip starting to quiver and I squeezed my eyes shut.

What was it about me that I caused girls to cry on all of these dates?

I must have been doing something to them, but I wasn’t sure exactly what it was.

The date hadn’t been going well until now for me to want to kiss her at all, but especially not in front of the boys.

“I should get back to campus,” Katie said. “I have lots of homework to do.”

Before I could say a word, she ran off. I stared after her, feeling I should call something that would make it better, even though I knew there was nothing that could.

The boys appeared around me a second later, all throwing their arms around me and patting my back and saying, “Better luck next time.” As if they weren’t the reason all of that happened.

“What were you guys thinking?” I hissed, pushing myself away from them. “I looked like I was possessed looking at you three times.”

“We thought we should keep an eye on you,” Bear said in his dry voice. “Never know what you might get up to on your dates.”

I glared at him. “Should we start sending a chaperone around with you and Poppy?”

He just glared right back. “I mean, if you want to watch us make out, I guess that's your prerogative, but…”

I huffed and brushed past him, storming down the street to the cafe I knew my next date was at. Tino caught up with me first, and grabbed the boba out of my hand.

“Can I have this?” He asked, then took a sip before waiting for my answer.

“Have at it,” I muttered. I didn’t even want the drink anyway—since I’d never gotten boba before, Katie had suggested a drink to me, but I guess she thought I wouldn’t like something with sugar and she suggested what had to be the most bitter-tasting drink on the menu.

Tino made a face as he took a sip that made me think he thought the same.

“Who's next on the docket?” I asked, looking at Mako over my other shoulder. He ran to catch up and shoved his phone in my face, showing me the application of a girl with dark brown hair and green eyes. I stared at the photo until I swore it morphed into a new one, of a girl with similar hair but brown eyes and the softest lips I’d ever touched.

“Her name’s Kira,” Mako said, breaking me out of the daydream. I blinked and the photo went back to normal, leaving me feeling a little dizzy. Had I just imagined that girl was Saylor? “Her name’s Kira. Junior girl, super into lacrosse.”

“Kira. Junior. Lacrosse,” I said. Then I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to remember those facts. Junior. Lacrosse. Her name… I’d already forgotten. “What’s her name again?”

“Kira,” Mako said. “Key. Rah.”

“Kira,” I repeated back. “Okay, I can remember that.”

Bear snorted behind me, clearly coming to the same conclusion as me—there was absolutely no chance of me remembering.

My head was swimming with facts about all the girls I’d gone on dates with in the last couple of weeks.

There was the girl with three poodles, the one whose boyfriend dumped her on Valentine’s Day, the one who was convinced we’d kissed over the summer even though I’d never seen her before, the one who was allergic to half the food groups…

I felt like I was stumbling through life, every girl’s face blurring into one another.

How was anyone supposed to find true love like this?

“Why are we going to another new place?” Tino whined as we reached the coffee shop. “I wanted to get boba.”

“You can get boba on the way home,” Mako said. “But Crossy can’t go there on another date or Katie might come back, and see him on a date with another girl right after he rejected her.”

“I didn’t exactly rejec?—”

“You stepped away while she tried to kiss you,” Mako interrupted. “That’s a rejection.”

I looked to Tino for help but he just nodded in agreement. I didn’t look to see what Bear thought.

“All of these girls signed up for a date via an application,” I said. “Shouldn’t they assume I’m going out with multiple people?”

“Sure,” Tino said, “but you don’t want to flaunt it in front of them. There’s a fine science to dating multiple people at once.”

“Says the guy who has been pining after the same girl for two years.”

He gave me a dirty look. “Yeah, like you’re one to talk.”

Okay, he wasn’t exactly wrong about that but I still glared at him anyway, because I was doing everything I could to get over my love for Saylor.

I was doing better at it than he was with his adoration of Lilah—at least I was dating other people.

Sure, I was being forced into it by my friends, but any progress was good.

We were early for the date when we got to the cafe, so I went to sit at a table while the other three split off to find their own spot to watch.

This time, they didn’t try to stay out of my view, which I preferred, since I wouldn’t be on edge, constantly looking for where they were.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t ideal, because they were all acting completely ridiculous.

Bear had his face buried in a newspaper.

Tino was pointing at random spots on the wall, acting as if he was seeing invisible objects flying around.

And Mako was trying to lounge on his chair, sitting sideways with his head resting against the wall and his long legs sticking out into the aisle.

It might have worked, except that he looked pretty much as uncomfortable as a person could be.

Group Name: The Penalty Box

Members: Bear, Tino, Crossy, Mako

Crossy

Stop acting so weird

She’s gonna notice you