Chapter Eleven

"Oh, Corey it's you." I say, slightly disappointed and surprised. My shoulders relax as I fiddle with the doorknob awkwardly.

"Yeah, um you weren't answering El-, I mean his calls, so he told me to come over and see if you were good." Ugh, he almost said his name! And why would he care if I was okay or not?

What happened? Was I drunk?

I suddenly become really paranoid.

"Yeah, I'm good. I just turned my phone off cause I didn't wanna talk to some people." I say simply wii a tight smile.

"Is he one of them?" He asks nervously, tilting his head slightly and leaning forward to whisper. I shift back a bit instinctively.

"Um...no, I meant my friends." I lie quickly, but I guess I didn't really wanna talk to him either. It wasn't completely a lie.

"Oh, I just assumed something happened last night and you were mad at him or something. You know typical girl problems are boy problems." He chuckles, nodding his head while showing me his bright, straight teeth.

"No, nothing like that. In fact, I don't even know if we are friends. Just so you know, your friend isn't one of my problems." I say, emphasizing the friend part. I try to keep the conversation as casual as possible, not wanting to tell him how much I hate him for not even telling me his name.

"Uh, alright then." He turns to leave, but remembers something and says, "gimme a second" before running over to his car to grab something. He comes back with a grey, Walmart bag. He grips it tightly in his hand before shoving it towards me.

"Here, he told me to give you this." He says, handing me the bag. I take it and simply say thank you before he jogs over to the driver seat of the car to drive away. He's got a a grey SUV, a little different than what I'd assume someone like him would have. I decide to grip the bag tightly and go inside, watching as his car speeds down the street and down the crescent to where I can't see him anymore.

I walk back into the house and cautiously open the bag. Inside are cupcakes and cookies, the ones I ate excessively last night. Assuming it's just a snack or an apology for taking away my man, as Avery said, I open the packages and begin snacking on them, while continuing to binge watch my shows.

A few dozen minutes later, I decide to turn on my phone only to see the lock screen filled with calls and texts from the one and only nose piercing boy, all of them reading hey did u get the bag or did Corey come over to give u my gift.

The funny part was, I didn't even get any other notifications. No pending YouTube videos to watch. No follow requests from Instagram. Not even my settings telling me to update my phone.

I quickly type in yes thank you, before clicking on the Instagram app to scroll through my feed. In seconds, I get a message.

did u like it

yes I did

I'm acc eating rn

Was it supposed to be an apology

for what

For pushing away the only guy that ever had interest in me

I'm not even gonna hide how pathetic that sounds, taking in he's literally seen worse.

come on I told u he wasn't the right guy

he doesn't know how to treat girls

But u cud have given him a chance

given him a chance for him to take advantage of u

Well not if I acc liked him

well he'd hurt u so be thankful

Whatever I'm over him

good

find urself someone who acc cares about u and feels the same way

Wow look who I'm getting advice from

I scoff.

trust me I've seen a lot in my life

tbh idk a better advice giver

And he's back to being overconfident and cocky again. To be honest, I kinda missed it. He's not him without his snarky comments.

Don't be too over confident ur only a few years older than me

age is just a number

Here we go with some philosophy

stfu I ain't joking

u haven't seen nothing yet compared to all that I've seen so don't be talking like yk everything

And with that the three little dots are gone, indicating he was gone too. Was I that much of an I know it all? I mean what was I thinking taking advice from a freshman in college. I said a plain

Ok

After a few minutes of watching my phone not beep with a message from him, I decided to click on his contact and press the call button, slightly nervous. Scratch that, really nervous cause at this point, my heart is beating as if I just ran a marathon. Which I've never done, but that's besides the point.

"Yeah I thought I made myself clear. Anyway shoot ur doubts." He mumbles, as there is shuffling in the background

"Um, I don't have any doubts actually, just wanted to say...sorry." I stutter, and manage to get out a really quiet sentence.

"For what exactly, I don't think I'm on the right page." Yeah, I don't think I'm on my own page either.

"Um, like for.." What am I actually sorry for?! Damnit Erin!

"It's fine, forget it." He says, a little more calmly.

Thank freaking god.

"Was that all you wanted to say?" He questions causing me my brain to do flip flops. Was that it? Come on, the call couldn't be this short.

God, help me think of English sentences.