“What’s the group chat say?”

“Well, if you would read it, you would know, but the bullet point list ranges from you’re head over heels in love, to you actually just hate all of us, to you’ve lost your fucking mind and we may never get you back. I might have added alien abduction as a possibility, but of course, everyone didn’t want to get on board with that one.”

That finally made me laugh. “I have no idea why they wouldn’t go along with it. It honestly sounds like the most plausible reason.”

“Agreed. You going to tell me which one it is?”

“None of the above? Somewhere in the middle of hate you all, and finding one person who doesn’t make my whole body scream in pain when they are near me,” I said, kicking the stool she was on until she was rolled a few feet farther from me.

Her eyes went wide, and she rolled closer. “Are you saying you are in love?”

“Hell, no. I’m saying that I might have found out that there are people in this world that I can touch without it killing me. No love needed, apparently.”

“Hmmm,” she said. “Sounds improbable.”

“Says the girl who had bets on it being alien abduction.”

“Exactly. Does this mean she will be coming around more?”

I shrugged. “Not sure. I guess it depends on how long she needs me around and how long Holt needs all this to believe me. Let’s hope it only takes another week or so.”

As though all of their drama alarm bells went off, the rest of the crew gathered around, but they weren’t looking at me, they looked at Carly.

“Well,” Jax said. “What’s the verdict?”

She nodded, her face falling as though it was bad. “I was right, you guys. He was abducted.” Their hopeful faces fell, shooting daggers at Carly before they glared at me.

“Come on, Kye,” Fox said. “We left you alone last night. Tell us what’s up.”

“What’s up is that Daisy had a shit day, and I thought it might be helpful for her to be around a group of friends that don’t secretly hate each other.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t what we were talking about,” Scout said, crossing her arms. I realized that all the girls were crossing their arms, and for the first time I realized it was because they were ganging up on me. Usually, it was one of the guys that they actually had to date.

“I already know how this goes, so everyone put away the claws. I have found out that there may be one or two people in this world that I can touch and not be disgusted by. No, none of you are on that list, but I promise I tolerate all of you. Daisy is apparently one of them. And before you go off like Carly did, no, I’m not suddenly in love, and yes, this will still be ending in the next week or two as long as we both accomplish what we need.”

Eyes rolled, and a round of groans went through the crowd.

“Are you guys good now?” I asked, my phone going off and giving me a reason to look away from all of them.

Daisy

I’m having a party this weekend.

Kye

And?

Daisy

And you’re invited?

The crew all leaned in, but only Carly managed to look at the screen. Her lips pursed together with a smile and she turned, walking away before I could yell at her.

The rest of the crew either cocked their eyebrows or narrowed their eyes, but followed after her to get the gossip, leaving me in peace.

Kye

Is this an invite like I can come if I want or is this fake boyfriend invite?

Daisy

......

Kye

Daisy.

Daisy

It’s a fake boyfriend invite. A ‘please show up because I decided to do this last minute to save face with the girls, and it would help if they see that we are still very much involved’ type of invite.

Kye

I can make it.

She sent back a smiley face followed by a heart. My stomach flipped. 

What the fuck did the heart mean?

Did that mean she was suddenly getting feelings?

Or was it just a thank you?

I looked down at the text again before looking up at the group of girls in front of me. If I asked them, there were going to be endless questions to get to the bottom of it. 

And if I didn’t ask them, I was going to be worrying about this constantly.

I looked back at the texts and immediately came up with a third option.

Kye

Okay, please tell me what the hell the heart means because I’m now wondering if you’re going to profess your love for me or something tomorrow. I don’t understand relationship things or this communication.

Daisy

Oh my god.

I forget you might not know these things.