Noticed || Rhett and Link

Chapter 52 - Ice-Cream

*****Laurel's Point of View*****

I woke up later than normal. Midday sunlight entered the room from my window. How long had I slept? Well, the good news was I wasn't tired any more.

I climbed down the ladder and opened my laptop to publish the next chapter of my book. I had written it a few days before hand. The book itself was now 75,395 words and was nearly finished. I was proud of it.

I pushed upload and went downstairs, where Christy was sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop. "You're up" She said, sounding a bit surprised.

"Y-y-yeah" I said, sitting down at the table.

Christy took a sip of her coffee. "I'm reading your book," she said, "And it's really, really good. Like, this could challenge the hunger games!"

I laughed. "No, I'm deadly serious" she said, "This is really good".

I blushed and sank into the chair. "W-w-what's t-t-the t-t-time?" I asked.

Christy looked down at her watch. "It's 1pm, on the dot"

I nodded. Gee, I had certainly slept a lot these past two days. At least I was awake now.

"W-w-what a-a-about s-s-s-school?" I asked.

"I thought it best to just let you sleep this morning and wake up on your own" Christy said. I nodded. "The rest of the day is yours. You can do whatever you want"

"T-t-t-thanks" I said, getting up from the table. I walked up to my room and tapped the keys of my laptop. I was hoping to finish it this weekend.

I wrote about 5000 words in the next 2 hours. I really put my head down and worked hard. It was easy for me to write like that, I just didn't get distracted.

Christy poked her head in the door. "I'm going to get the kids from school, do you want to come?" she asked.

I sat down in the front seat next to Christy as we drove to the elementary school to pick Lando up. Sure enough, he came out of the school with a group of other kids. He was taller than a lot of them.

He jumped into the backseat and we drove off to the middle school where we picked up Lincoln and Lily.

Christy drove us to the ice cream parlour. "I thought you guys might like some ice-cream" she said. Lily, Lincoln and Lando cheered. I smiled.

We all piled out and went inside. "Laurel?" I heard a voice call.

Over in a booth in the corner was London, Cameron and Jake.

"H-h-hey g-g-g-guys" I said. Christy handed me some ice-cream.

"Go sit with your friends" Christy whispered. She was grinning really big when she said it. I made my way over to the booth and slid in next to Jake.

"Why haven't you been at school?" Cameron asked.

"I-I-I've j-j-just b-b-been s-s-sick" I lied. I didn't want to tell them the real reason. That would lead to telling them about my PTSD, then that would lead to my backstory and I didn't want to talk about that AT ALL.

I took a lick of my cookies and cream ice-cream. It was really good. "H-h-have I-I m-m-missed a-a-anything i-i-important?" I asked.

"No" Jake said, "We've just been revising for the upcoming exams"

"E-exams?!" I asked nervously. I didn't like exams. Not at all.

"Yeah, don't worry, you'll do fine!" London said. I smiled weakly.

My friends started talking about the stuff that they were doing later tonight. They were all going to the cinema together.

"Hey, you should come with us!" Jake suggested.

"I-I d-d-don't k-k-know..." I said nervously.

"Totally! You really should come!" Cameron said.

I got up and walked over to where Christy and the kids were seated. "M-m-my f-f-f-friends a-a-are g-g-going t-t-to s-s-s-see a m-m-m-movie a-a-a-after t-t-this a-a-and t-t-they w-w-wanted t-t-to k-k-know i-i-if I c-c-c-could c-c-come b-b-but I-I'd h-h-h-have t-t-to a-a-ask y-y-y-you a-a-and I-i-it's f-f-fine i-i-if y-y-you s-say n-n-no..." I said.

Christy cut me off. "Yes Laurel, you can go with your friends to the cinema" she said, opening her bag. She handed me $20. "This is for the ticket and snacks. Have fun, and call when you want to be picked up"

I smiled. "T-t-t-thanks C-c-christy" I said, taking the money. Christy winked at me and I went back to my friends.

"I-I-I c-c-can c-c-come" I said, a huge smile on my face.

"Woohoo! Night at the cinema!" London said.

We finished our ice cream and went inside to the cinema. We bought our Jurassic World tickets and took our seats in cinema 2. We all put on our 3D glasses. We wanted the ultimate experience.

As the previews started, I looked around. Somehow, I had ended up between Jake and Cameron. This was awkward. I was feeling a tad claustrophobic.

I took some of the popcorn as the movie started. It was really interesting. I was really getting into it, when Jake yawned and put his arm around me. I instantly tensed up. This was making me uncomfortable. Cameron looked at what Jake had done, and looked slightly annoyed.

"I'm going to the bathroom" Jake whispered after about 10 minutes of awkwardness. He moved his arm and I let out a sigh of relief. I knew that this was meant to be flirty, but I wasn't ready for a relationship. I wasn't ready for anything, really.

I got up and moved to the other side of London, where I was on the end. I didn't want another incident. I pushed it out of my mind and concentrated on the movie.

Jake came back and looked over at me, a little confused. I pretended not to see him. I just looked straight ahead and focused on the movie. Chris Pratt's raptors were pretty cool.

Finally, when the movie was over, we all piled out. Jake acted like nothing had happened. Everyone texted their parents, asking them to pick them up. I did the same.

We talked a bit about our favourite parts of the movie, before I saw Link pull up outside.

"S-s-see y-y-you t-t-tomorrow" I said to my friends. Jake and Cameron waved and London pulled me into a goodbye hug.

I walked outside to Link. "Hey, how was the movie?" he asked when he got in the car.

"A-a-amazing" I said. It was the truth, I loved the movie.

We drove home and I went upstairs to finish the chapter I was working on. I uploaded it, before saying goodnight and going to bed.

I couldn't sleep. I couldn't get the thought of Jake out of my head. I wanted to enjoy it. I wanted to be a normal teenage girl who loved it when boys flirted with them. But I couldn't. I'm not normal, and I never will be. And that made me really, really sad. I ended up crying myself to sleep.