My Best Friend's Boyfriend | BxB

15. Dinner Invitation

Emily ambushed Gale the moment he stepped out of his classroom for lunch. Gale groaned when he saw her, leaning against the wall beside the door, in no hurry to get to the dining hall.

Why on earth he had said anything to begin with, he had no idea.

"Do you seriously expect me to lay off after you confessed there is a girl you like so much that you can't sleep?" She questioned him as they headed for the hall.

"Keep your voice down, Emily!" He instructed, irritated. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well I do," she said.

"You promised you wouldn't bother me about it," Gale reminded her.

She shook her head. "No I didn't."

"I'll tell you when I'm ready, how about that?"

"Ready? What's the big deal about it, is she a teacher? Or a college girl? "

"No, she isn't. Can you now leave it alone or do I tell our third neighbour of your obsession with him?"

Emily gaped and grabbed his arm. "Don't you dare!"

Gale smiled. "Guess we have a deal then?"

"It's not an obsession," she continued.

"Whatever you want to call it, Em. Deal?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you blackmailing me, Gale?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I believe that's what they call it."

She snickered.

"And you can't speak of it to anyone, either," Gale warned.

"Fine, fine!"

"Good."

"Gale!"

They turned, simultaneously, to find Mellisa Hayes hurrying up towards them.

Or, more specifically, towards Gale.

With an eye roll and a decisive turn away, Emily continued on her way, solo.

Gale didn't bother with her, preferring Mellisa's insufferable company to Emily's determination to find out which 'girl' he liked.

Gale left his truck and headed into the house, glad that yet another day was gone - without much incidence. Other than Emily's ambush about his very non existent love life in the morning, and Mellisa suddenly wanting to spend every other free minute by his side, the day had gone smoothly.

Maybe, so long as he didn't have to face Matt, no matter how many other things went wrong, he would still consider the day as having gone smoothly.

But there had been that breathless moment, when he had come out of a stall in the boys' room and Matt had walked into the room at that moment. He had stood there, frozen for a second, hands still on his belt that he had been fixing. Then Matt had noticed him.

He had taken flight.

The moment their eyes had met, he had moved, walked right past Matt without even washing his hands. He had a lab class next, and that's where he finally washed them.

Getting into the house he branched right into the kitchen. His mother was at the counter, talking to his father, but nothing was cooking. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost seven o'clock, were they eating out?

"Evening, Mum, Dad," he greeted, dropping his school bag on the counter and making a bee line for the refrigerator.

They replied, and his mother went ahead to point out that he was late.

"Coach kept us. He extended the session," he answered, grabbing a carton of apple juice. Another thing that Emily didn't like as much as he did.

His father looked at his wristwatch and picked his briefcase. "And I'm running late," he said.

Jordan Anderson was a tall man, dark haired like his son, but that seemed to be the beginning and end of their similarities. The elder Anderson was a medical doctor who worked at a hospital forty minutes drive from home, and he was currently on night shift. In less than a year, he would be a qualified surgeon. Over the years, it had become clear that Gale had no intention of following his brainy dad's footsteps. He was interested in sports, not medical school, not law school, or any other of those prestigious careers most parents wanted to see their children go for.

Luckily for Gale, his parents were ready to support whatever avenue he chose, without enforcing their own wishes and desires on him.

His parents exchanged goodbye kisses, which Gale's eyes made sure to steer away from, and his dad left afterwards.

His mother clapped her hands. "I forgot to tell you something."

Gale looked at her, the excitement on her face making him curious.

"What?"

"Lucy invited us for dinner."

"What?"

Who?

Lucy?

Matt's aunt?

"We are going to the Millers' for dinner, how about you go and change," his mother added.

Gale looked down at himself. He was still in his sports kit. Yes, he had avoided the locker room after practice for many reasons.

One reason actually.

"It's Tuesday, Mum."

She shrugged. "Yeah so? Have you ever known Lucy to conform to socially formed schedules? And it's just dinner, you will be back soon enough to get on with your assignments."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier on?" He complained.

He could have used the extra time to figure out how he would survive Matt's presence.

"Wanted to get something for them?" She asked, brow raised.

He picked his carton of juice and rose from the table.

"Be quick," she instructed.

Gale trudged out of the room and into the hallway, then took the stairs slowly, his mind unable to come up with a back up plan.

Although it did seem that at this point, nothing would save him.

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