Chapter 12 - Why do I care

Liiza's POV

Do you ever just wake up in a good mood? The warmth of spring, seeping through your windows, the gentle chirp of birds outside? Well, let me tell you, I don't. Anything that wakes me up from sleep makes me very mad.

The day has come, the day we finally meet the mysterious Sierra, Stephanie and Christina. The girlfriends.

Through messages in the group chat, we decided to meet at B&W at 7:00pm. Plenty of time, especially considering it's only 10 in the morning right now.

I roll over, unplugging my phone from the charger. I scroll through my notifications, tapping on the W*****d ones. They always put me in a good mood.

2 of them are 2 story updates and the other is a reply to my comment.

It takes me a little less than half an hour to get ready for the day.

• • • •

I spent the whole day binging 'Pretty Little Liars' on my laptop. Until I get a text from Rilee. Here! I check my clock, surprised that she is here so early. 5:30pm the display blinks. I guess time flies when you're having fun.

Our shopping trip from last week was fruitless, so after letting Rilee in, I stare at my small collection of clothes, trying to decide what to wear.

Rilee pulls out a cute outfit for me and I headed to the bathroom, to change

"What do you think?"

Rilee grins. "You look hot" I look down at her outfit and immediately fell in love

"I'm jealous." I say as she strikes a pose, dressed.

Rilee winks, picking up her makeup bag and straightener. "I'll be right back." She presses play on our getting ready playlist and I sit down at my vanity to beat my face.

Half an hour later, I walk downstairs to grab a glass of water. When I open the door to my room, I see Andree, going through my side drawer.

"Are you alright?" I question sarcastically, grabbing his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm great actually." He responds, continuing to riffle through my drawer.

"Can you not?"

"Can I not, what?"

"Go through all my stuff."

"I'm looking for my char-" He starts but freezes as he turns to face me.

He's silent, for the first time in a while. Suddenly my cheeks feel warm as he gazes over me.

Is there something wrong with my makeup or something?

"You look-" He stops suddenly as he notices Rilee entering from my bathroom. "Hey, Rilee." He says instead, stealing a glance at her figure.

"Hey." She responds, flicking her straightened hair over her shoulder.

"Where are you guys going all dressed up?" He questions, and my heart pounds in my chest.

"Out." I say quickly, before Rilee says anything. For some reason, I feel this urge to stop Rilee from telling him about Zach. I don't want Andree to know about my boyfriend. Fake, or not.

"Party?" He asks, completely unaware of my anxious demeanor.

"Yeah, something like that." Rilee is the one to speak now, covering for me.

Andree only shrugs and walks out, pausing at my door frame. For a moment, I think that he is going to say something else, something about my appearance, but he only keeps walking and I'm left wondering.

Why I care so much.

• • • •

Soon, Jonah and Zach have come to pick us up. Jonah is driving and Rilee is sitting in the front seat, while I'm in the back with Zach.

The boys are dressed nicely, with Zach in a white button up shirt, with the first two buttons undone, and black skinny jeans and Jonah in a dark gray shirt with a denim jacket. 

Zach is trying to make conversation with me, but I can't concentrate. My mind is still racing from the encounter with Andree. It probably meant nothing to him, a friendly chat, but I repeat his words over and over in my head.

Wait, why am I even thinking about him? 

"Liiza? Are you even listening?" Zach asks again, and I push the thoughts of Andree out of my head. 

"What did you say?" I blink hard, and turn my attention to Zach.

"What do you think they will be like?"

"Who?"

"The boys' girlfriends. You know, who we were just talking about?"

"Oh, yeah, right. I'm sure they will be lovely." I cringe at my wording when I go back to staring out the window, watching the landscape rush by me. Soon, we turned into the parking lot of B&W.

I spot Jack and another girl, who I can only assume is Stephanie, walking towards the restaurant, hand in hand. 

Zach slings his arm around my shoulder lazily, and shoots me a reassuring smile.

We make our way to the restaurant and Zach and I walk over to Jack and his girlfriend.

"Hey." Jack greets us with a huge grin on his face. He and Zach bro hug and I introduce myself.

"Hey, I'm Liiza! It's nice to finally meet you."

"I'm Stephanie," She smiles warmly.

Stephanie is actually really pretty. She has perfect chocolate brown ringlets and matching eyes. Her body is amazing.

Dylan and his girlfriend are next to arrive, and Rilee and I walk over to introduce ourselves.

"Hey! I'm Sierra." The brunette gives us both a hug, and we reciprocate. 

"I love your dress!" I compliment. Sierra is wearing a black floral, silk dress with a black turtleneck as an undershirt. She looks so fashionable.

Finally, Caleb and his girlfriend walk in, and we say our welcomes.

"Christina." She introduces herself softly, tucking a lock of her silky black hair behind her ear.

After we all say hi to each other, we make our way to our booked table, which is outside. It's a beautiful night out, and the restaurant's gas heaters mean we can't even feel the spring chill.

The waitress gives us all menus and we all begin conversations between ourselves.

Soon, we are onto the topic of our birth places.

"I was born in California." Jack starts. 

"I was born in Texas." Zach says. 

"Hey, me too." Caleb grins, as they high five. 

"Well, I was born in Minnesota. The superior state." Jonah smirks.

"I was born in Washington." Dylan finally says.

Rilee laughs "Do I really care where you guys were born?" 

Jonah gives her a playish deadpan look. "You don't care where I was born?"

"Nope." She responds cheekily, and Jonah lets out a laugh.

We soon order, and the faint sound of the live band inside the restaurant seeps outside.

Sierra takes a sip of her water and turns to her boyfriend, with a smile. "They sound pretty good."

Dylan shakes his head. "Not as good as me."

"You know Dylan was on American Idol?" Sierra teases.

"Really?" Rilee questions, interested. 

"Yeah. I got to Top 5." Dylan responds, deep in thought. "Should have won it though." 

"Are you a musician?" I say. I vaguely remember him mentioning music a few weeks ago. 

Dylan nods his head. "Aspiring musician."

"Dylan's so good." Sierra laughs. "He can play 5 different instruments!" She lists off a few quickly. "Saxophone, guitar, bass, violin, drums."

"Yo I play guitar too!" Caleb grinned.

"Me too." Jack chimed in. 

"Me too!" Zach finally said.

Did I ever mention that Zach is a musician?  He does covers of songs on his youtube. He has over 12000 subscribers. Jonah also sings, back when we were really close, he and Zach used to sing together a lot.

"Wait, so you guys are all musicians?" 

They laugh a little awkwardly as us girls grill them about their musical ability.

"How about you guys sing a song together now?" I blurt out.

They all looked at me blankly which made me blush and I looked down at my lap.

"That's actually a good idea." Jack says, suddenly inspired.

"We should give it a try," Dylan continues. "I have my guitar in my car if you want."

Jonah laughs. "You never go anywhere without your baby, huh?"

Dylan grins. "You know it."

Zach shakes his head. "We can sing it acapella. Too much effort to get an instrument."

"Fair enough."

"What do we want to sing?" Caleb asks, looking around at his friends.

"How about All-Time Low? You all know the lyrics?" Jack suggests.

"Yeah."

"Alright."

After a quick count in, they begin to sing in unison, it's a bit shaky at the beginning as they try to match each others voices, but quickly it comes together. 

♪ I've been trying

To fix my pride.

But that stuff's broken

Lie, lie, l-lie ♪

Next, they start simple harmonies. Their voices mash so well together.

♪ I try to hide

But now you know it

That I'm at an all time

Low, low, low, low

Low, low, low, low, low

Low, low, low, low

Low, low, low, low ♪

As they finish, we all give them a round of applause. 

"That was so good." Rilee cheers loudly. Thank god we were the only table outside.

Our food comes out and we all give our thank yous, as we continue to compliment them on their performance.

"Amazing!" Stephanie exclaims.

"I'm speechless," Sierra says.

"I loved it!" Christina grins.

"You guys have got to make a band," I blurt out, again. 

The boys look at each other expectantly. 

"Hey, that's actually a good idea. Like a really good idea." Caleb takes a sip of his water.

"You could also write a song about me you know" I suggest.

"No baby, you went over the line now" Rilee sighs, rubbing my back and I just stuck my tongue out to her.

They all laugh.

"So." Jack pauses, reading everyone's expressions. "Y’all wanna Do It"

"Yeah." Zach smirks. "Let’s Do It"

"Do. It." Caleb repeats, word by word.

"Do it?" Jonah joins in.

I look at the other girls to find a clue but they all have a blank expression just like me.

"Guys, we don't speak gibberish, you know? So if you could translate it into English for us?" Christina speaks for all of us.

"Do It" Dylan says finally, as it actually means something.

What are they on about?

• • • •

By the end of the night, I was really, truly tired. We stayed until the restaurant closed, talking about anything and everything.

Such a fun group of people! It got me thinking about how I was a little bit, tiny bit, grateful for Zach being my fake boyfriend. 

Still, I really need to talk to Zach. I feel like I haven't talked to him in forever.

"Thanks!" I call Jonah as he pulls up back at the car to drop me off. The lights are still on, meaning someones still awake. Still, I carefully unlock the door with the spare key that Cassandra gave me, and try to be as quiet as possible.

Never in a million years would I expect to see what was behind that door.