“Ivy?”
I blew out air and then removed my hand from his face, flinging my attention to the windshield. “Why me?”
“What?” he questioned.
“Why me? Why would he want to take me?”
Sure, Andy had called me beautiful but still. Why me? I wasn’t special. I wasn’t like the other girls. I didn’t spend hours in front of the mirror every morning applying endless amounts of make-up to my face. I didn’t dress like a slut. I was just… normal. Ordinary.
Dawson rushed through his words. “Why would you ask that? Why wouldn’t he ask you? I’m surprised it took him this long.”
I was quick to respond. “Do you think I’m pretty?”
He stuttered. “Wh—what? You know I think you’re pretty, Ivy.”
I shook my head so hard the Camaro actually bounced a little. “No, no. I mean, like, try to imagine I’m not your best friend who you met in middle school. Try to forget about the fact that I used to wear high-water jeans and dingy ol’ Converse. Think of me like a normal girl, someone you just saw on the street somewhere. Would you actually stop and stare for a second?”
I turned to face him, grabbing a few chili fries on the way. The chili and cheese mixture hit my tongue and I let out a moan. So, so good.
I stopped chewing when Dawson started to choke on his milkshake, laughing before asking if he was okay and giving him a slap on the back.
“I’m fine,” he grunted. Then he turned towards me, eyes blazing with something I’d never seen before. It had me pausing with my fingers inches from my face, a few chili fries dripping their melty cheese back onto the plate.
“Ivy,” he whispered. “I think you are the most beautiful girl that I’ve ever seen.”
I stared at him for a few long seconds, his blue eyes pulling me in like the ocean drawing in the tide. Then I busted up laughing. His face contorted quickly as confusion washed over him.
“You’re not,” I laughed harder, smacking his bicep. “You’re not being serious.”
He gulped, still staring at me. He didn’t even so much as crack a smile, which had my laughter fading. A strange silence filled the Camaro, and even though the windows were open, I could have sworn that even the wind stopped moving.
“I am. I think you are so beautiful, Ivy. Inside and out.”
Suddenly, I felt like I knew how Alice felt when she fell into the rabbit hole. Confusion filled my body but at the same time, so did anticipation and excitement.
Dawson thinks I’m beautiful? Why does that mean so much to me?
“Really?” My voice was near a whisper and he nodded, causing my heart to skip a beat.
“But, I look nothing like the girls you always pursue. How can you think I’m beautiful but then cozy up with Angela or Jessica?”
I immediately thought about how different I was from the girls he surrounded himself with. Angela had bright red hair and her boobs were what wet dreams were made of. Then you had Jessica. She had strawberry blonde hair, and the clothes she wore… made her seem like she had the same type of boobs as Angela. Except, I knew she didn’t. I’d seen her without a shirt on in the locker room.
Then there was me: brown hair, usually wavy because I had a crappy straightener. By the end of a school day, it was always piled high on my head or in a braid that fell over my shoulder. I had forest green eyes which I always thought were dull looking. I wore jeans that weren’t meant to be super tight and usually some type of Hollister shirt that didn’t show any of the cleavage that I didn’t have.
All the girls Dawson had had his feel of were the same: slutty but pretty, and they gave guys their everything. That wasn’t me. I was totally different from every single girl he’d ever been with. Yes, there had been times that he’d snuck some touches in, and there had been times that I’d caught him staring at me, but I figured that was probably because I had something on my face. The butterflies that erupted in my stomach every time he did do something like that just taunted me. They reminded me that Dawson only saw me as a friend and that I should do the same. Besties for life.
“I never tell them they’re beautiful,” he quipped, taking back his hot dog and shoving the rest of it into his mouth.
I let out a shaky breath, ignoring our weird and out of character moment.
“But you’re still attracted to them…”
“I guess,” he answered, his mouth full of food.
A few minutes passed and he finally spoke again.
“Ivy…”