She stooped when he grabbed her wrist and turned to glare at him, though her glare softened a little bit when she actual saw him. She didn't really want to avoid him, but she didn't know how to address anything that happened the night before and she figured she should just end the relationship before things got worse.
She just, didn't want a relationship.
Not one that was more then what they had.
He didn't want to know her, he really didn't.
She sighed, rubbing her face with her other hand.
"Fine, if it will get you to stop trying to talk to me, then let's talk." She pulled her wrist away from him after she spoke, looking away.
"Okay…okay umm. Listen, I'm sorry, but you already know that and at this point, I don't think you even care. We're still friends, right? I mean yes, I got drunk, and yes it looks like we had sex, but maybe we didn't. There is a very large chance that we didn't I wouldn't take advantage of a girl while she was drunk. I just would never and you know that. I'm a douche but I'm not that big of a douche. Besides knowing you even when you're drunk you can probably kick ass. Just…please don't push me away. I still want to pick you up and bring you to school and do all the fun little things we used to do before. Is that so bad to want that?" Luca cracked his knuckles as he was very nervous about the situation right now. Not to mention he was staring at Rachel, not because it's rude not to look at someone while you're speaking, but because she looked exceptionally hot. Luca didn't exactly know how to handle it. Nor did he realize all these years he could've had an attractive girlfriend if he took a step further. He didn't and now he was stuck in the friend zone. Forever.
She sighed, nervously tapping her foot as he talked to her, she didn't know if she could trust him. She didn't want to loose the only friend she had though, so maybe she could just start from the ground up again?
Put him on the bottom level and let him earn his way back up to being her best friend again.
She looked around before dragging to where no one would be able to see them.
She stared him down.
"Do you swear on it?" She stared her down, waiting for an answer.
He was surprised by the sudden pull, but then straighten up when Rachel stared at him. "Yes, yes, yes. I do. I swear." His answer made him sound like they were getting married. "I won't tell anyone about what happened, nothing even happened. It's fine." He held his breath in the hope Rachel would give him another chance. Why was he hoping though? It's not like he liked her that much or need her or wanted her. He should've dropped her but for some reason, he didn't want. He saw her home for the first time. He wanted to see more of Rachel.
She studied him for a few minutes before saying anything. She decided to ask him one more question before doing anything.
"Why do you want to be friends with me so badly..?'
She let a little bit of her seriousness fall, not being so agressive like earlier.
"Don't lie." She looked at him before looking away and holding her arms. She hoped she didn't look as self conscious an insecure as she felt.
She had to ask though because she never really understood why this matter that much to him.
Shouldn't he just be the one leaving?
Luca thought for a moment. He honestly didn't know. It was many things, but none of them were good reasons. He gave a heavy sigh. "I…I just don't want to lose you. When I saw your house, I realized there is so much I don't know about you yet. Honestly, I want to know you, Rachel. I know we've been best friends for years, but there's so much I don't know. I want to." He scratched his head. "Is it bad that I want to care for you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "I know what happened was bad, but I just need you to understand that you're not alone. You have me, you know?"
A Small voice popped into her head when he said that, and as she looked at him.
do I really?
Usually she would think this voice was her own thoughts of caution, but..she was starting to think that it was an insecure voice trying to make her doubt what was clearly right infront of her.
Could she really trust him…? It didn't seem possible after all that had happened to her..but maybe.
Just maybe.
She could leave her door open just a Crack.
Just to see what would happen.
"So, I have you huh? Well I suppose that's better then nothing. If it even counts as that much." She joked to him, cracking a slight grin him as she joked.
It wasn't a big one.
However it was a start.
She didn't feel so hopeless in that moment.
Luca grinned and bumped her shoulder. "Damn right it is." Luca chewed on his bottom lip. "So…are we cool?" He stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Can I drive you home? Maybe we can pick up some food on our way. I know I'm a bit hungry. I treat you to anything you want?" Luca looked at Rachel almost pleading with her to go with him. "Just a tiny suggestion." He adjusted the backpack, playing and tightening the straps.
She looked at him, shaking her head playfully. She reached out and ruffled his hair, messing it up.
"Alright, fine. You can take me to get some food. It better be good food though.' She spoke as she gripped her backpack strap as well. She figured she might as well, she didn't eat when she had the time earlier bc she was busy avoiding him during the break.
She was really hungry.
She was surprised she had managed to last this long without getting hangry.
She stretched out her arms as she waited for his response.
Luca linked their arms feeling good in general. He liked that they were friends again. There was no angel. Nor was there a reason. He just thought Rachel was fun to be around. "So does Mcdonald's count or do I need something a little more fancy like Wendy's." He joked and began walking towards his car. "I recently went to the car wash to choose your place wisely. I don't want my car smelling like trash. You know what smell I'm talking about." Luca sighed out of relief. "Got any recommendations. If not then we're going to like the worst fast food place ever. WHat about pizza? Pizza is also good."
She rolled her eyes playfully as he went on, linking her arm with his as they walk.
"Pizza is good." She spoke, shrugging.
"I'm not eating from that worst fast food place if you take me there, just so you know."
She continued to walk with him towards his car. She looked around incase anyone decided to watch them and get the wrong idea.
They were just friends.
That's it.
"Listen, there are the worst ones out there. McDonald's, though? No one can beat McDonald's. Since you want pizza, I guess we're going to get pizza. I was not using you as an excuse to get McDonald's." He dug around in his pocket before finding his key. He unlocked the door opening it for Rachel. "So what pizza slices are you getting. If you say anything other than plain and pepperoni, I don't know if I can call you my friend." Of course, he was joking, somewhat. Luca jogged to his side of the car and hopped into the driver's seat. He started the car and then slowly looked over to Rachel. "So?"
She rolled her eyes as she went into the car and put on her seat belt. Though he know it was mostly playful and she didn't mean it that intensely.
"Probably sausage.' She shrugged. "I could go for a meat lovers pizza." She watched as he got into the car and she leaned back a little in her chair.
"Which pizza place are we going to?"
"See, I could go through the list of names that end with an apostrophe 's' at the end, but we might as well just go to Enzo's. I think they have the best pizza by far. You can't convince me otherwise." Luca started to drive toward the pizza place he mentioned. "You sure you haven't been feeling a little enacious lately maybe feeling a little sick…" Luca was obviously teasing Rachel. He couldn't stay away from his asshat personality for long. "If you need anything you can tell me, I'll be there for you. Like the theme song for Friends." He turned the corner and pulled up to the pizza place. "I love how local this place is."
She was so close to swatting him, but they might end up swerving so that wasn't exactly the best idea to do. She just huffed at him, crossing her arms as she looked out of the window.
That is until they got there.
"Yeah? Well, we will see how good their pizza really is.' She spoke, moving to open the door and get out of the car. She shut the car door behind her when she got out, stretching just a little bit.
It was a bit stiff in the car.
"Oh, so now…" Luca got out of the car and started to walk with Rachel. "you're the judge of my immaculate pizza taste. When have I ever let you down." Luca regretted the sentence as soon as he said it. "You know what, actually don't answer that." Luca opened the door for Rachel. "Trust me on this one. Their fries are good as well." Luca stood in line to order. "Are we taking this to go or are we eating here. I can do both." He shrugged. "Eiter way we still have to pay first before sitting down. I feel like all restaurants should work that way, because you can just order food and then dip without people noticing."
Rachel totally hasn't dined and dash before what do you mean. Then again it's not like she did it recently, it was when she was a lot younger.
"Why would you want fries with pizza?" She asked, raising at brow at him as they walked into the pizza place. She looked around the area before back at him.
"We can eat here I guess." She crossed her arms as she spoke, continuing to look around the pizza place for anything amiss or wrong for someone to be doing. She ended up looking back at Luca once again before just looking at the person at the front desk.
Luca huffed as he sat down, "I don't understand what you mean. If you get a side of fries and pizza, it's the best thing ever. Of course, it depends on what type of pizza. I'm going to make fun of you for your choice of food now. You told me your preference and disagree, now you suffer." Luca waved over someone to take their order. "I assume you know what you're ordering. I mean, it's not hard to decide, you know." He ordered himself two plain slices and a side order of fries.
(What do you mean by "you told to be your preference"?)
(It was supposed me "told me your preference" my bad typo)
"Yeah, I know what I'm ordering." She made sure to order some sausage and pepperoni pizza with a drink of soda and no fries. She actually asked for a side salad because she keeps up maintaining her diet, or what she has of one lol.
She just knows you need to eat healthy to main muscules.
So that's what she does.
She ended up looking back at Luca, "so what do you judge based on what I ordered luca?"
Luca thought for a moment, thinking back to the order. "Well…since you ordered sausage, I can definitely tell you're straight. However, I would not expect someone to like sausage on a pizza. Pepperoni I get." The waiter came back with the drink shortly after they ordered. He gave thanks to the waiter and started to sip his Coca-Cola. "I'm just saying as long as you don't get pineapple on your pizza, then we're good. You know? I think we can both agree that the pineapple on pizza is a travesty."
She rolled her eyes at the straight comment, moving to take a sip of her also coca cola.
"Sausage on pizza is a good thing." She shrugged as she spoke, before leaning back against her chair. She looked around the restaurant as he continued to blabber before looking back at him.
"Pinenapple on pizza isn't the worst thing in the world, though that doesn't mean I like it."
She took another sip of her drink.
Luca nodded. "it may not be the worst thing in the world, but to think someone woke up and said this is the day I will make the worst combination of food ever, they clearly don't know what flavor is." Luca rolled his eyes and went back to being focused on Rachel. He was starting to notice things that not many people notice about someone, like the tiny habits that little glances he would get. Honestly, if anyone saw him through the window right now, Luca would look like a total creep. He tried his best not to think about it, but the more he stared, the more he wanted to…kiss her? "U-Um, about earlier, I just…I'm really sorry. I know you said you sort of take me back as a friend, but I just want you to know I'm genuinely sorry, and I usually never do things like that, I swear. I'm not going to lie to you, but I never knew you could be so attractive; I guess that is the word to use. I know it's awkward, but do you see where I'm going with this?"
(In a way he's like leading up to that. It not like a I love you let's data it's a would you like to go out on date with me not as friends)
