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

Chapter 32 - Ian

Truth be told, I had more than one question running through my mind but I was worried those would scare her away so I chose the one that seemed the easiest to answer.

I didn't ask the right question, did I? Because I've gotten nothing but silence on Attie's end since I brought up Chase. Curiosity got the best of me.

My hand softly touches her now stiff shoulder instinctively. "Should I have not asked?"

She shakes her head, still not facing me. "I told you to ask away, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but—"

"I'm just not sure if you want me to answer that question," she tells me. "I don't want to change anything."

"Between us?"

"Between you and Chase." She brushes her hair over to her other shoulder. "I mean, you guys are friends, right?"

"Meh." Hardwick and were good friends while he was on the team, sure. However, when he left, so did all the other reasons to hang out with him. Football is pretty time-consuming and now we just greet each other in passing. The dunk booth was the only exception.

Side note: we already know how that ended.

"I won't lie," Attie adds. "It would change your outlook on me, too."

My hand moves from her shoulder to her knee. I give it a small squeeze. "Nothing's going to change how I see you, princess. I promise."

Attie finally turns to face me and takes a deep breath before explaining. "You might want to rethink that statement after I finish telling you the story. Last year, I was trying to get over this huge crush I had."

"The guy you wrote the letter to?" I ask.

She nods before continuing. "Anyway, I had thought to myself, 'what's the best way to get over a guy? Date someone else.'"

She visibly cringes at the sentence falling out of her mouth. I don't blame her—if I were in her shoes, I would have felt the same.

"I knew Chase from an encounter I had with him at the school library. He had that injury that stopped him from playing football. And I thought he was cute so I decided to make a move on him—by that I mean, I asked him to watch my stuff, he took a peek at my sketchbook, and started a conversation about one of my sketches." She pauses for a moment. "I swear, I'm getting to the point."

I wave a hand in dismissal. "Take your time, princess. There's no rush." I could listen to her talk for hours and still not tire of the sound of her soft voice.

A small smile appears on her lips for a mere moment before disappearing, in a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of moment. "One thing led to another, and I found myself stealing any chance I could get with him. He had almost all my firsts. Those two months were a good distraction. At least, until they weren't."

"Almost?" That was a thought that should not have left my brain. Ugh, stupid mouth just won't cooperate.

"Chase wanted to move things a little faster and I wasn't ready, no matter how many times he begged or tried. So at Ethan Haynes's party—it was actually a year ago today, now that I think about it—we met up." She absentmindedly brings one hand up to her left knee, tracing circles on my wrist before resuming. It's a little soothing—I won't lie—but this might just be a warning to not freak out and kick a palm tree. I can't make any promises. "I can recall the moments before disaster all too well. He fetched me a beer and I drank the whole thing without even thinking, while Amy played a game of seven minutes in heaven. All of a sudden, I had this really bad headache and I went to go lie down somewhere. I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings before I passed out and woke up in my bedroom the next morning."