Lora POV (I know I'm sorry no Maddox today)

Parker James. My heart beats erratically just thinking his name. Saying it out loud would cause me to go into cardiac arrest. 

"Lora, yes!" Lacey wheedles. "He's perfect!"

I shake my head again, mimicking my movements for the last ten minutes. "No, I said no. It's not happening. Pick anyone else. ANYONE, Lacey."

She shrugs. "Well, if you don't want him, I guess I can go after him—"

I gasp and put a hand over my heart. "You wouldn't! Besides, you like that other guy—"

She smacks my shoulder. "Don't even say his name," she says, with a sneer on her face. "Rosen and I are done."

I whisper under my breath, "Done before you ever got started."

She shrieks and punches my shoulder, not lightly, might I add. "Ow!"

"How dare you?"

I put my hands up in innocence. "Calm down, I'm only stating the facts."

Rosen is the one guy that Lacey set her eyes on and wasn't able to get. Generally, Lacey can get anybody she wants. But Rosen said one word to her total and never spoke to her again. He won't even look at her and Lacey doesn't know why. I personally think something happened at that party, but I don't want to voice my thoughts until she's calmed down and gotten herself a new boyfriend.

"Well, now that you brought that up," Lacey throws me a pointed look, "it's final. I'm setting you up with Parker James."

My eyes widen. "Lacey! I'm sorry! No, please don't. Laceyyyyy," I whine. She holds a hand up as if she's shushing me.

"No, I'm already texting him now, see?" She holds her phone up with a message ready to send. Although I can't read anything from here, I already know it's bad and I dive for the phone. She holds it out of my reach though and I swipe at air.

"There, sent it," she grins maliciously. "Now what were you saying about Rosen?"

I groan defeatedly. "I hate you," I shout.

She grins. "No you don't. And even if you did, you need me." Her phone buzzes and her eyes light up. "Ooo, look, he already texted back! You admire that in a guy, right? Prompt?"

I roll my eyes at her and huff a sigh, crossing my arms and flopping back on my bed. "He says he's interested." She grins. "When do you guys want to meet up?"

"Preferably never. You already know how it's going to turn out, Lacey," I say.

"Fine, we'll go on a double date so I can watch you and make sure nothing goes wrong." My eyes widen.

"That's even worse! You'd just embarrass me the whole time." She rolls her eyes.

"Well, then, sucks for you, cause you guys are going on a date this Friday. Ooo, he's taking you to the amusement park!" I groan louder.

Why did our tiny little town decide to add one of the most popular amusement parks in this half of the state? Oh right, for the money. I want to die inside. I can't go on a date this Friday with Parker James. I need at least a year to get ready for a dinner with him!

"I'll be here Friday to help you get ready for your date. Until then, just dream about Parker and everything you guys are going to do together, and for God's sake, Lora, try to at least look a little bit more excited about it. If anything, you should be thanking me! You've mooned after this guy for forever and it's about time that you've, or I've, done something about it!" Lacey smiles mischievously and waves a hand in farewell. "Now, I'm going to go see what Rosen's up to," she grins.

I roll my eyes and don't bother saying goodbye. This is so irritating. And I don't have a thing to wear!

I decide to do the most girl-thing ever and Google it. Google should have all the answers, right?

If WikiHow doesn't even have it, how am I supposed to know how to do anything? The next best thing to do is to look at the "How to go from friends to dating" page, though Parker and I are anything but friends.

I groan when I read the results. "Think about where your friendship currently stands." Well, considering that it's non-existent, that's not to hard to figure out. 

"Build trust together." How am I supposed to do that if I've barely even talked to the guy? Every time I tried to say something to him, I'd become like Bianca on The Duff when she tries to talk to Toby Tucker. 

"Ask a mutual friend for their opinion." Lacey's already done enough of that and I don't have any other friends that I can trust with this crucial part of my life. 

"Decide if you are willing to lose your friendship." Well, considering that we're not friends in the first place, we're all good on that front. 

"Subtle flirting." UHHHHH, that's the first big issue. I. Can't. Flirt. Again, I'm Bianca. It's disgusting and I feel bad for the poor guy on the other end of me trying to flirt. I probably sound like a dying hyena and look like one, too. 

"Develop hobbies and activities between the two of you." I can do that. I can definitely do that. All I have to do is ask him what he wants to do and then pretend I'm in love with that and voila! Similar interests.

This is good. Note the sarcasm.

I'm definitely looking forward to Friday.

*****

It's Friday and I'm freaking out. The clothes that were once hanging neatly in my closet or folded nicely in my drawers are strewn all across my room. Lacey called to say that she's running late and I've been trying to pick an outfit for the past hour.

I've narrowed it down between two outfits and I'm waiting for Lacey's opinion about it.

The first is a plaid skirt that cinches at the waist with a thick belt that you tie into a bow at the front or side, depending on how you want to wear it. On top is an off-the shoulder V-neck white sweater that is more draping than a normal sweater and buttons in the front. I paired it with black ballet flats and a black handbag that's only big enough to hold my phone and wallet and not much else. I would leave my hair down, though I'm planning on curling it no matter which outfit I choose.

The other outfit is simpler and more casual, perfect for the amusement park. However, I'm scared it might be too casual. I want to make Parker look at me differently than he has in the past. Not that he has ever looked at me before. I brought out light-wash vintage denim short-shorts, shorter than I'm generally comfortable with. They're boyfriend shorts, so they're loose and high-waisted. I have a brown braided belt that I would cinch the waist with so that they actually stay up. With it, I paired a white top that's low-cut and tight, tight enough to almost cut off my air circulation. However, because I don't want to give a certain impression, I added a cardigan over it, brown and loose enough to breathe in and not die of heatstroke in the sun that's still out. I paired it with Adidas Superstars that I haven't worn in years but top the outfit off. With it, I have gold earrings, a gold necklace, and a pink clutch.

I hear the doorbell ring and I go down, expecting it to be Lacey. When I see who it is, however, my face reddens and my mouth drops open. I'm not ready, I'm not ready at all.

But I force myself to smile.

And I let him in.

hope you guys enjoyed! maddox pov next :)

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