Only to Feel This Fully [Completed]

Ch. 11: Not Thinking Bout You

"Tough day at the office?" Julia queried, noticing how much I visibly relaxed as she started driving. I simply nodded in the affirmative. I had to hold back tears as we made our way to get food at the nearest fast food place, which happened to be Sonic, with its drive-in set-up. While hiding away in the storage room, I had texted Julia asking if she wanted to hang out. She had a car and the alternative was an uncomfortable but silent ride home from Theo; our mothers had worked out that he would drive me on days our shifts coincided. This also presented the perfect opportunity to get Julia to finally divulge what happened between her and Tate four nights ago.

Julia had only deflected when asked at school Monday morning, although her staring at Tate from across the lunchroom did not go unnoticed by anyone. I figured I had a better chance of getting information out of her one-on-one, with tater tots and slushies between us in her car. To my surprise, Julia was the first one to bring up events from Tate's party.

"Why'd you duck out of the party early?"

"Oh, I left with Theo..."

"The kid from the bookshop? He's on the Pine Wood hockey team, right?"

I nodded in the affirmative, explaining "we were teammates a few years back. Eva and Patrick had already paired off, I lost track of everyone else, and you were busy with Tate, and I was pretty messed up, so I made a French exit. But, more importantly, what happened with Tate?"

Julia smiled and averted her eyes. "He's not as much of a dick as people make him out to be. He can actually be really considerate and kind if given the chance."

"Yeah, he got liquor for me and Julia, but wasn't that all for show?"

"I don't know. He never tried to pressure me into anything. We just talked up in his room for a long while..."

"Wait, you were in Tate Ford's bedroom, presumably on his bed, engaging in pillow talk."

"Don't get carried away, Charlie. He's a great guy to talk to. I was the one who kissed him goodbye."

I was in shock from what I was hearing, both Tate's gentlemanly behavior and Julia's ease with the whole episode. "So what's the situation now?"

"Again, I don't know. He's not the easiest guy to read. We exchanged numbers, but he hasn't texted and we haven't talked since Friday night. I don't know what to do."

"Maybe he's waiting for you to make a move?"

"But I was the one who kissed him! Ball's in his court!"

I didn't know what to say to that. I was as much experience in these matters as she was, which was to say not at all. Perhaps it was selfish of me to be the friend to push her about this in private. While I always enjoyed some good drama, I wasn't as qualified as Eva or Patrick at actually dispensing relationship advice. My attempt at flirting today had gone down catastrophically.

Julia recognized that she wouldn't be getting a satisfactory answer to her question from me, so she turned forward in the driver's seat, staring out into the empty parking lot. She had grown as uncomfortable with this subject as I was. She usually played the role of advice-giver, but now she was an active participant and didn't know what to do. She changed the subject before I could, "so tell me about this Theo kid? Eva said you two were really close?"

"We were, as kids, I suppose. We lost touch after I quit the travel team."

"And, why the sudden reconnection?"

"Fate? I really don't know. I got a ride from his mom after last week's game and then ran into him at Tate's party. We ended up leaving together."

"Eva said you spent the night at his house..." Julia was a smart girl and, while I'm sure Eva never said told her, I was sure Julia could draw her own conclusions.