Only Fools - Chapter 23: Chapter 23

"Fuck!"
"Ok. I know you're nervous but-"
"I'm fucking freaking out, Naomi! She called this a date, a date!" I cut my friend off as I frantically pace my room.
"And you still aren't sure if that's literal or not so maybe stop pacing and calm down a bit?" Naomi tries to suggest sweetly, but it comes out rather passive aggressive towards the end.
"I'm sorry! I've just kind of liked this girl for.... let's just say quite a while now, so I personally feel like it makes sense for me to be acting this way. But if it's outrageous to you then-"
It's then that a knock resounds on my bedroom door, cutting off my rambling.
"Thank goodness. Tori's here," Naomi says with a sigh as she answers the door given that I have yet to stop pacing. However, the sight of my brother's face in the doorway does put an end to it quite effectively.
"Hey, Ass," Alex says with a sheepish smile.
"What do you want?" I ask him rather deadpanned.
"Could I speak with you in the hallway for a moment?"
I roll my eyes but follow him out into the hall nonetheless, closing the door to my room behind me.
"Who's that?" he asks me with a smirk that I can't explain.
"That's Naomi. You've met her before," I tell him.
"Is she...." he trails off as he wiggles his eyebrows.
"Is she what, Alex?" I ask, already getting frustrated with him.
"You know...."
Then it clicks and my eyes instantly widen at his implication.
"Do I have a crush on Naomi? No. I don't. Are we done here?"
"I don't know. She's nice and she's really pretty and I just thought-"
"I'm going to stop you there because she's one of my closest friends and is way too good for you,"
"I was talking objectively, Aspen," Alex tries to defend himself, though his red cheeks tell a different story. I hum as I raise an eyebrow at him.
"Hey, guys," a voice says from beside us, and we whip around to find Tori standing there.
"Hey, Tor. Alex and I were just talking. You can head into my room. Nao's there," I tell her with a smile. She nods in response and then proceeds into my room with the usual hop in her step that I doubt I've truly ever seen her without.
"Is it her?" Alex asks me as soon as Tori's inside my room.
"Alex, no. Now would you mind vacating the premises?"
Alex just puts his hands up in surrender before trudging back over to his room and shutting the door behind him. With one last eye roll, I turn around and reenter my room for Naomi and Tori's conversation to stop short as soon as they see me.
"Um...." I trail off, not sure what to say to them.
"Come on. You need to get ready, dude," Tori says as she grabs my arm and pulls me into the bathroom so that the "beautification process" can commence.
"You got a date for this thing or something?" Tori asks me as she begins to work on my makeup. The question catches me off guard for a moment as my mind races with the possibility that she knows something I didn't think she did or Naomi might have let something slip.
"No, Tori. It's just the dress code of a gala. Now can you get a move on?" Naomi luckily covers for me, allowing me to recollect my composure. Tori rolls her eyes at Naomi.
"What's up with you this evening?" Tori asks her.
"Nothing. Why?"
"I just can't ever remember sweet little Nao having that type of lip with me," Tori replies with a smirk. Naomi narrows her eyes at Tori before turning her attention back to her phone to search for a hairstyle that could work for my hair. My bets are that she most likely won't find much of anything.
"Well, if you don't have a date at the beginning of this thing, you will by the end," Tori says solemnly as she continues to apply my makeup, successfully making me smile in response.
"And if you can, maybe go for a doctor or lawyer's son. It'll probably be your best shot at marrying rich," Tori says with a shrug.
"Thanks, Tori," I tell her rather sarcastically.
"Don't talk. You'll mess me up," Tori snaps. I just chuckle at her before shutting my mouth.
After a little while, Tori finally finishes with my make up and Naomi starts on my hair. I try to turn around to look in the mirror, but both Naomi and Tori hold me in place, telling me that I have to wait until the end so that there can be a "big reveal". So I just roll my eyes and go along with it.
"On the topic of dates...."
"Naomi, we were talking about that like four topics ago. It's over now. Keep up," Tori says as she looks up from her phone which she was just previously so engrossed in.
"Well, we're back on the topic now," Naomi declares.
"We could always talk about something else. Music maybe?" I suggest as Naomi continues to have her way with my hair, trying to keep a more peaceful realm between my two friends.
"Yeah? Because you have such diverse music taste with One Direction being the only thing you listen to," Naomi says sarcastically.
"I don't know what you want me to say. Do you want me to apologize because my music taste is better?" I ask Naomi rather cockily.
"I want you to try listening to other artists for a change," Naomi clarifies.
"For your information, they are not the only band I listen to,"
"Yeah. Who else do you listen to?" Naomi challenges me.
"The Rolling Stones," I tell her quite truthfully, having listened to most of their music after Margot had mentioned them. Naomi's eyes widen before she narrows them again, clearly shocked that I had a genuine answer.
"Naomi. I don't even know why you're trying to fight Aspen on this. You like country music," Tori chimes in, resulting in a laugh from me.
"What's so bad about that?" Naomi asks, genuinely slightly offended as her voice raises a couple octaves.
"Ok, Nao. What did you want to say on the topic of dates?" Tori steers the topic back to Naomi's original intended direction so our friend's feelings don't get hurt.
"Oh. I wanted to ask you how things were going with Keegan," Naomi says in a rather sweet and innocent tone, seemingly already forgetting our previous conversation.
"Keegan?" Tori questions her.
"Yeah. Keegan Maxwells," Naomi says.
"I know who you're talking about, Naomi Paine," Tori says, slightly annoyed.
"Ok, Tori Torres," Naomi says, giggling.
"Aspen Grayson feels left out of the loop," I pipe up but still get ignored.
"We're literally just friends, Nao. And you know I would tell you if there was anything more," Tori clarifies for Naomi.
"Really?" Naomi asks.
"Yeah. He's cute and all but-"
"So you admit he's cute?" Naomi asks, wiggling her eyebrows.
"Are we talking about Jaxon's best friend, Keegan?" I ask for clarification. Both of the girls nod their heads. I hum in distaste at their response.
"What. You got something against my best friend Keegan?" Tori asks rather defensively.
"I thought I was your best friend," Naomi says, slightly hurt by her words as a frown overtakes her face.
"Eh,"
"No. I just don't care for Jaxon all that much," I tell them with a shrug.
"Why?" Tori questions me.
He's always hitting on Ivy. He's trying to steal Ivy away from me. He's outright annoying, usually when Ivy's around. Too many reasons to name quite honestly.
"He's just annoying," I settle with the answer that doesn't involve my crush that Tori doesn't exactly know about.
"That's all?" Tori asks me.
"What do you mean?"
"Jaxon is actually a really good guy. So.... maybe you just don't know him well enough," Tori says with a shrug.
"Why are you defending him?"
"Keegan has just said a lot of nice stuff about him and it's hard to equate that to the villain you always act like he is,"
"So you hear some stories about him from this friend you've known for a couple months and believe that over your best friend who's had him as a coworker for over a year now?" I ask, slightly offended by the situation.
"No, Aspen. I believe you. Just, maybe don't judge him too harshly?" Tori asks rather sweetly, making it hard for me to get mad at her any further.
"Noted," I say, bitterness still slightly encoded in my voice.
————
As I look in the mirror, a smile overtakes my face. Naomi decided on using a straightener on my already nearly pin straight hair to diminish the frizz and it quite honestly looks pretty good. Tori went for more natural makeup per my request. And my dress makes me almost feel like an entirely different person. It's a red floor length dress with an off the shoulder type top and it hugs my figure, making me more confident than I was expecting it to. I just can't wait for Ivy to see me, and my heart flutters at the thought that she may just like what she sees.
"If Ivy can't see what an absolute catch you are in this, then shes fucking mental," Naomi whispers in my ear as she stands behind me in the mirror, successfully bringing a wide smile to my face.
"Thanks, Nao," I say softly to my best friend.
"Well, if we're done here. I'm gonna head home," Tori says loudly as she gathers her stuff, completely ruining the moment Naomi and I were having, "Natalie is questioning where I am for some reason."
"Alright, Tor. Thanks so much for helping. And tell your mom I said hi, she's only texting because she cares," I tell the girl.
"Whatever you say.... but the birth giver will be notified of your greeting. And, seriously it was no problem, Cap. Anything to help get you a mans,"
"Or a womans," Naomi whispers in my ear which results in her receiving a glare from me. It's then that my phone buzzes in my hand and I open it to see a text from Ivy saying that she's here to pick me up.
"Well, Ivy's here to pick me up," I announce to my friends.
"Oh sweet. You can walk out with me then," Tori says while Naomi gives me a knowing smile at the same time.
"Yeah...." I trail off.
"You'll be fine," Naomi says as she gives my shoulders a reassuring squeeze. I nod in response although I don't entirely believe her and then proceed to follow Tori out of my bedroom.
"Alex! I'm leaving!" I yell to my brother. And in just a few seconds, he's standing in the doorway of his room, looking at me with confusion clear on his face.
"What?" I ask him.
"You don't look as horrible as you usually do," he enlightens me. I roll my eyes at him and it's then that I notice Tori left my side to head downstairs, obviously in a rush. To be honest, she's most likely out the door already. But that's just Tori. Naomi is still in my room, gathering all of her belongings that she brought with her to help me get ready.
"Hey, sis? Um, just. Shit. This was so much easier when you liked guys," Alex says before scratching the back of his neck.
"I never liked guys," I say rather deadpanned.
"Fine. When I thought you liked guys," Alex sighs.
"Ok. What?" I raise my eyebrows at my sibling.
"Well I was going to say don't get pregnant or something, but that's no longer an issue.... I guess.... don't rent a U-haul tonight?" Alex concludes.
"Excuse me?"
"I looked it up. That's a thing. Lesbians apparently move really fast in their relationships and that's like a term for it...." my brother explains.
"You looked it up?" I question him, quite honestly rather shocked.
"I educated myself," Alex says proudly.
"Well, there's a first time for everything," I retort.
"Bitch," Alex hisses.
"Asshat," I counter.
"Stop talking about yourself, Ass," my brother mocks me.
"Are you purposely leaving Ivy waiting for you?" Naomi interrupts us as she steps out of my room. My eyes widen in realization before I quickly descend the stairs and scurry to the front door, finding that Tori indeed has already left.
After I slip on my heels and jacket and say my last goodbyes to Naomi, I walk out the front door to find Ivy sure enough parked in my driveway which instantly puts a smile on my face.
And so I open the car door and slip into the passenger seat.
Ivy only has one word to say when she sees me:
"Wow."