Side Note: I Think I Love You (Side Notes Book 1) - COMPLETE

Chapter 23 - Ian

"Right now?"

I glance behind her shoulder to see her friend Amy watching the interaction. She's sitting on the floor but she might as well be on the edge of her seat if this was a movie.

"Yep," I answer Attie. "But alone." Can't risk her friend finding out about us.

She nods to Amy before stepping out of her room and closing the door. Attie then looks down the hallway, even though it's pretty empty. Jason had left almost after I arrived so I don't understand who she could be watching out for.

She's silent the entire time. Even the sounds of her breathing are quiet. Finally, she opens the door to Jason's room and motions for me to enter. "We can talk here."

We make our way inside and I close the door behind us. Since Jason's chaotic as all hell, it's an odd surprise to find his room clean and unsettlingly neat. It doesn't bother Attie though, not as she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a fake spider before hiding it under the covers.

The same fake spider I remember seeing in her locker only a couple of weeks ago.

"Is this seriously why we came here?" I ask.

She shrugs. "I needed to get rid of that thing somehow." Attie covers it up and neatens the bed as if it had been never touched before sitting down. I stay standing. Attie takes a deep breath and exhales before asking, "so what did you come over to talk about?"

I place both hands in the pocket of my shorts, and Attie's eyes follow the movement, resting on my leg. Her pale blue eyes dart from my face, back to my leg, and then back to me. She must have noticed the phases of the moon on my leg. In the past year and a half, I've noticed that Attie's the only one who's ever really paid any attention to both my tattoos.

I can ask her about that later. I've got more important things in mind. "Are you okay, princess?"

My question catches Attie off-guard. Her eyes are wider than normal and her face turns a bright shade of pink. This only answers my question and Attie hadn't even said a word.

"Why would you ask that?" Her voice went up a notch. Yeah, something is definitely up.

"You've been acting pretty weird for the last few days." Very standoffish. Not to be critical but she hardly even talked to me until this morning when she sent that accidental text. It was the first thing I woke up to and I even found it a little odd. Even then, I just knew something had to be wrong. But couldn't she have just talked to me about it? I wouldn't want anyone, especially her, to avoid it. She still wrote me the letter she had promised—once a week, on Fridays—but aside from that, she's been a little avoidant.

"What do you mean weird?"

"Weird since the bonfire." I know I've reached the tipping point because as soon as those words leave my mouth, Attie's face turns even brighter, something I didn't think was possible. It confirms my main suspicion.

I sit down on Jason's bed, placing my hand on Attie's shoulder and rubbing it in circles. "You know that I won't judge you, right? I promise," I tell her in a soft voice.

Attie closes her eyes. "Okay, fine."

"You'll tell me?"

"You're right," she answers. "But it has nothing to do with you."

"You sure?" It sort of feels like she's taking it out on me. I was a little worried because it reminded me of my parents. I was only eight when they divorced but I still vividly remember when the house would stay eerily quiet for days at a time. Like a burning match or until a star dies. The arguments burned brighter until they exploded and left nothing but destruction in its wake.