Heartthrobs Don’t Date Wallflowers (Texting the Boyband)

Chapter 6

six

From the moment Megan added me to the group chat, my phone did not stop buzzing for a minute. I had no idea people were so passionate about science here. I mean, sure, this was a private school where a lot of the kids seemed serious about academics, but this seemed a little excessive. Especially during the class.

I didn’t risk pulling out my phone mid-class—I really didn’t want to get a reputation as someone always on her phone by the teachers—and right after class, I was too busy trying to find my way back to my locker to be able to pull out my phone, so I couldn’t actually see what anyone was talking about until I was leaving for the day. I wandered down the street slowly, hoping I was going in the direction of the house, as I looked at it.

Group name: I promise this isn’t a group chat, Dad

Members: Ni-Ni, Bay, Sharky, Tis Moi Luca, Eggo, Not Zesty, I cheer you cheer, the fangirl, Iv y

My name looked so stupid tacked onto the end of a bunch of nicknames. Why did they all have nicknames, anyway? Was it some sort of Summerfield Prep thing? Something I didn’t understand because I wasn’t from here? Megan hadn’t said anything about it. I glanced over the names again and wondered which one she was. I had no clue, but then again, I didn’t know her at all. Sitting next to her once in class didn’t exactly make us besties.

I glanced over the messages that had come through in the two hours since Megan had added me. I had to scroll up so far to find the notification where she’d added me that I couldn’t believe how many texts had come through. Nobody seemed to have noticed that a new person was added. I guess she did it while they were in the middle of a conversation about something because then it just kept on going.

Not that the conversations made any sense to me, anyway.

Bay

LUCA GIVE ME BACK MY SHIRT

Tis Moi Luca

NOT UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHERE YOU HID THE CHOCOLATE

Eggo

You took his SHIRT??

Tis Moi Luca

It seemed like the easiest thing to grab off him

Eggo

HOW

Tis Moi Luca

Because he always walks around in just boxers anyway

He’s a bit of a show off

The fangirl

Omg Hudson walks around in boxers???

I’m gonna faint

CAN YOU GET ME A PHOTO

Ni-Ni

Y’know some guys (not me but some guys) MIGHT find it a little weird how excited their girlfriend is about seeing another guy shirtless

The fangirl

Well I don’t need to imagine you shirtless

I see it enough

I cheer you cheer

EW did not need to know that !!!!

Sharky

Seconding that

Tis Moi Luca

Can we get back to what’s important please

WHERE

IS

MY

CHOCOLATE

Bay

I didn’t take it!!

Tis Moi Luca

Don’t lie to me

It’s always you

Bay

WHAT ABOUT FI

HE ALWAYS TELLS US HOW WE SHOULD EAT LESS SUGAR

Sharky

Well you should

Bay

HA

Sharky

But I wouldn’t risk Luca’s wrath for that

Bay

I can think of someone who would

Not because of the sugar but because she loves to annoy you

Tis Moi Luca

NINA

Sharky

She’s not in this chat

Tis Moi Luca

SOMEBODY ADD HER SO I CAN YELL AT HER

Eggo

YOU’RE THE ONLY ADMIN

I cheer you cheer

Also you live in the same house

Can’t you just yell at her in person?

Take it from an older sister, it’s way more satisfying to annoy younger siblings in person

The fangirl

Take it from a younger sister, if you yell at her she will get revenge against you

Tis Moi Luca

She’s still at school

And we’re not in the house anyway, we’re at the studio

Eggo

I’m sorry

Bay is walking around in his boxers

IN THE STUDIO?

Tis Moi Luca

What you didn’t know your boyfriend likes to strip at all hours of the day?

Eggo

Believe it or not it’s never come up

BAY PUT SOME CLOTHES ON

Bay

I WOULD IF LUCA HADN’T TAKEN THEM

It only occurred to me as I got to the current conversation going on that none of this was about science, nor was the group name about the class. Now, I could be wrong, because nobody had ever really added me to a study group like this, but I was getting the feeling that this wasn’t the one Megan had meant to add me to. Between the nicknames, the confusing conversation, and the fact that there were only eight other people in here, it all seemed off.

Sure, it could just be a close group of friends who were discussing science class, but again, nobody had brought up science, and I didn’t see why Megan would add some random girl that she was meeting for the first time to that group chat. No, I was in the wrong place. A considerable part of me wanted to just dip out of here before anybody noticed. More importantly, before Megan noticed she made a mistake and had to have the really awkward conversation about it. But I was also a little curious about it, because I’d never really been in a group chat like this before—one where everybody was so active and seemed so friendly. I’d never really had a friend group before at all, period. It’s one of those things that I always saw in movies that seemed so fun, but between moving around and my utter shyness, I’d never managed to have it .

But was it weird for me to stay here knowing she added me by mistake?

I was just about to close the messages and decide I’d worry about it later tonight when a new one popped up that made me freeze.

Not Zesty

Rob says we can stop for coffee on the way home

I hadn’t looked over the nicknames that closely when I first opened the chat, but now it was staring out at me, so obvious that I couldn’t ignore it. Not Zesty . I tried to think back to the moment that he told me about why that was his nickname—something about his friend using it in a group chat they had. It couldn’t be this one. It couldn’t. There was no way. And yet, what sort of coincidence would it be that somebody else used the same nickname in some other group chat that I happened to be added to?

I’d always heard of the term of six degrees of separation. The idea that everyone is connected to one another by a maximum of six “friend-of-a-friends.” But I didn’t expect it to be this close. I didn’t expect to find him this quickly, especially since I wasn’t looking for him. But he was here. Somehow, some way, he was connected to my real life.

I wasn’t sure if the idea made me excited or want to throw up.

I stuffed my phone in my pocket and took a deep breath. I needed space from this. I couldn’t worry about it right now.

I took about five steps forward before I realized I had absolutely no idea where I was. I spun around in a circle, looking for some notable landmark but every street in this town looked exactly the same—just a bunch of houses. The only place that stood out to me was the Starbucks across the street. Maybe I could go sit in there for a minute and try to figure out exactly how I was going to get home, so I wasn’t standing on the street corner, looking completely lost.

It seemed like a great plan until I stepped inside and immediately made eye contact with the boy from the window.

AKA Zach. If I was going to keep running into him, I should probably learn his name.

He was standing across the Starbucks from me, at the counter where you get the drinks, but the Starbucks was so empty that there was nobody in between us. His lips quirked as he looked me over—probably remembering the window incident again—and my brain froze.

Fight or flight. Fight or flight.

Okay, I wasn’t sure this counted as a total “fight or flight” situation because I wasn’t actually in danger, but I still felt frozen in place, trying to decide what to do. It may not have been a life-threatening situation, but I was at risk of embarrassing myself so much that I could never show my face again, so maybe it did count.

I was leaning towards flight and just running out of the Starbucks without saying a word, but then I heard the words I’d been dreading: “Hey, Ivy! ”

The voice wasn’t Zach’s but it wasn’t much better—it was Jude. With him, Sloane, and Megan being my only friends at my new school, I couldn’t really risk rebuffing him now. So, I mustered up all the strength I had in my body—which was not much—put on a smile and tore my eyes away from Zach to look at the boy who had appeared by his side.

“Hi, Jude,” I said as calmly as possible. I hoped he would just ask how I was then let me leave, but of course, he waved me over. I stepped forward slowly, feeling like my feet were cement blocks. Why didn’t I run the moment I saw Zach, before Jude noticed me?

“Lads, this is Ivy,” Jude announced to the whole group as I stepped up. This was the first time I’d seen any of them up close, but I recognized them all from the bonfires and my limited research on the band. The boy with a navy zip up and light brown hair was Finn. Brown curls and some band T-shirt that was notably not their band was Hudson, who I now knew was Megan’s boyfriend. And the blond boy beside him was Neil, the only Irish one in the group.

“Nice to meet you,” I strangled out.

“She’s new in town,” Jude added.

“Just like us,” Hudson said with a smile. “What part of town do you live in?”

What was with him and his girlfriend wanting to know where I lived? Were they planning on stalking me or something?

“Oh, you know…” I waved a hand, hoping they would take the vague answer fo r what it was.

But then Zach ruined it by going, “She lives next door to us.”

I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to the moment my dad announced his next job position was in Bibridge, so I could tell him to quit. Immediately.

If I did, then I would never have to know what it felt to have all five members of Take Five staring at me, and wondering if they’d noticed me watching them from the balcony.

They couldn’t know. I always sat in the dark. They wouldn’t be able to see me from down there.

I hoped.

“I just moved in,” I blurted. “A few days ago.”

A week and a half could be considered a few days, right?

“You should’ve come over and introduced yourself,” Hudson said.

Yeah, because whenever I moved to a new town, the first thing I always did was go introduce myself to the internationally-known boyband next door. Totally normal behavior.

“Oh, well I—” I was cut off from having to try to keep talking to them by a high-pitched scream from the doorway. I slapped a hand over my ear but the boys all looked completely unfazed.

“Take Five is in Starbucks!” The teen girl in the doorway screamed. She looked about my age, but she wasn’t wearing a Summerfield uniform, so she probably went to one of the public schools in the area— meaning she didn’t see them every day in class. I guess I could understand her excitement.

But the next thing I knew, girls were running down the street, heading straight for the door.

Oh no.

If there was one thing I hated even more than trying to have a conversation with five strangers, it was being stuck in a crowd of a hundred of them. As girls started pouring in from the door, someone grabbed my arm and tugged me toward the back door of the shop. It took me a second to realize the hand on my arm was Zach’s .

“What are you…” My voice was pretty much drowned out by the sound of girls calling on the boys’ names.

“I suggest you run before this place fills with fans,” Zach yelled over the sound. “I’d hate to see you get trampled.”

“But I…” I didn’t know what I was going to say. But I can’t leave you here? How stupid did that sound? Besides, he was obviously used to this kind of stuff and I definitely was not. It was for the best I got out of here.

He practically shoved me out the door and into the cold fall air. I might have been offended if I wasn’t too busy learning to breathe again now that we weren’t surrounded.

“It was good seeing you again, Ivy,” he said with a wink. My heart stopped beating and by the time it started again, the door was closed and he was gone.