Chasing Charming ✔️

14 - You Couldn't Afford Me

I was acting unnecessarily bitter on Friday, and I was rather bad at hiding it. My nose scrunched every time I gawked at Eli, mad at my feelings for him. Feelings that he didn't reciprocate.

It was not his fault, of course, just like it was not Mike's fault that he never liked me back either. However, with Mike, I had known. This time, I had fooled myself into believing I stood a chance.

Even if Eli noticed my hesitations, he acted as if nothing had changed.

I stayed silent during lunchtime, which was something that only Taylor noticed.

"Hey Betty, do you want to come over to our house tomorrow? We are going to do some baking!" Taylor was smiling at me from across the table.

"We are?" Owen asked.

Taylor smacked him on the arm.

"Hey! Can we come too?" Kyle asked, beaming at the twins.

"No! Girls day!" Taylor snapped at him.

"I resent that," Owen scoffed, folding his arms.

"Shut up, brother, you don't count!"

---

I knocked on the twin's front door.

I half expected Owen to be covered in flour when he opened the door, but instead, a delicious smell wafted out onto the porch.

"Oh my god, Taylor can actually bake?"

"I resent the fact that you doubted me!" she shouted from the kitchen. I pushed my way past Owen to find Taylor putting the second batch of cookies into the oven.

"I figured we could decorate them!"

Overwhelmed with emotion for the wonderful friend that Taylor had already become, I pulled her into a hug. She took it with grace and squeezed me tight.

A chair scraped against the floor behind us, and Owen had pulled up, so I released Taylor.

"Now, don't let me go ruining the moment, but I would like to be a part of this juicy gossip going on in Betty's life."

"What gossip?" I choked out.

Taylor coughed. I stared at her, trying to decipher the look on her face. What were people saying about me now? Taylor, trying to act sly, pulled her hair up into a ponytail and turned away, suddenly acting distracted by her phone. I turned back toward Owen, who was still looking at me expectantly as if I had any idea what he was talking about.

"Come on, we all know something is going on between you and Eli. You two have been hot and cold since we met you."

I gulped. "I can promise you nothing is going on."

"But you want something to be 'going on,' don't you?" Owen was openly smirking as he leaned his elbow on his knee.

Was there any point in hiding anything? I could never seem to keep my emotions in check long enough to keep even an ounce of a secret.

"Well, I can tell you, I have never seen Eli act the same way towards any girl that he acts toward you." Taylor chimed in, looking up from her phone.

I tried not to scoff at her comment. "It's because, unlike every other girl, he has no interest in me." I could not keep the bitterness out of my voice.

'Be nice,' I tried to remind myself.

I did not expect the laughing fit my comment sent the twins into. "If you really think that Betty, then you truly are hopeless."