Honey and Spice | ✔️

Chapter 29

Ryder

In the days to follow until our date, we’ve been more touchy than usual: casually leaning against each other, linking our pinkies under the table, holding hands while we walk in that field behind the art storage room when Mae can’t make it to the library.

She saw us sharing (in)discreet looks one time and she lost her shit, saying something about ships and fanfics or something. But I’m not in the mood to entertain her any further.

Now, it’s just Nathan and me.

*

Holy shit. I’m panicking.

It’s now Wednesday evening and I’ve been too absorbed in Nathan to actually prepare my date clothes.

Fuck. Me. 

Here I am with a sufficient amount of brain cells and/or the balls to ask the hypothetical boy-I-like out (Nathan) and I'm almost ruining my first date experience. Damn.

Nick’s not here to help me - he’s out with his family today - so I’m standing shirtless in front of my almost-empty wardrobe, looking at the mess I made. I’ve never trashed my room before (unless things got really out of hand in the past) and the amount of clothes lying around just makes my stomach hurt. Shit, I only have an hour left.

I’ve just about given up when my conscience speaks up in my head: Mae! Call Mae! I’m about to rethink this but what do you know? It’s worth a try. So I call her, willing my hands to stop shaking. She doesn’t answer but she sends me a text instead.

Mae: Don’t call me

Mae: I don’t work well with that 

Me: Sorry uh

Me: I have a date with Nathan and idfk what to wear

Mae: SWJSVCDJSCW

Mae: Wanna hear something funny?

I squint at her reply. What’s she on to?

Me: Sure

Mae: We’re outside your door

What the fuck? We?! I’m about to ask her when, sure enough, she knocks on my door. Wow, she’s fast - I still don’t know how she got here so quickly, probably because she’s been stalking me or something. I get out of my room and open the door.

Mae wheezes, catching her breath. In her arms are multiple shopping bags. Beside her is a panting Connor, carrying two bags. “Damn, look at you,” they say, looking at me up and down. 

Oh right, I’m still shirtless. “Why the fuck are you both here?” I ask.

Mae waves a dismissive hand at me, still coughing. “To help you on your date, doofus,” she says.

I sputter, trying to wrap my head around this whole situation. “Huh- but what- you’re twisted.”

Her face scrunches up in consideration. “Well,” she says, “I have scoliosis. Very slight. Anyways- ”

Both Connor and Mae push their way into my house, and I can hear Mae complaining about the colossal wardrobe disaster in my room. I sigh, close the door, and head to my room. While Mae helps me tidy my clothes, Connor explains that they both just came back from the mall and were passing by.

“And then Mae was like, ‘Should we crash Ryder’s house?’ And I was like, ‘Nah, he’s probably making out with Nathan,’ and she was like, ‘They aren’t even together yet. And, I don’t know, I just got a feeling.’ So we were already up your elevator, a floor below yours,” Connor says, now laughing. “And that’s when you called her. Then, we ran like hell to your door.”