Chapter 8: Peanuts

Payton spent the afternoon working on anything to keep her mind busy. She needed to be thinking about anything other than the date she'd just turned down, and the guy behind it all. She had just put the finishing touches on her English paper when her phone rang.

After a quick hello, Geoff asked, "You still coming?"

"Coming?"

"We were going to finish our project..." he trailed off like he was waiting for it all to click into place.

"Monday?" Payton answered more like a question.

Geoff chuckled, "No, now. Come on. Don't make me wish I had John for a partner."

"Sorry. Stupid memory. Make sure I put it in my phone next time, would you?"

"Sure."

After a couple hours, the pair finished up everything and had gone over their presentation. Payton packed up her bag, and after a quick goodbye, headed out the door. When she walked through the door, Hailey was grabbing her keys.

"I'm headed to Wal-Mart. Wanna come?"

"Only if you give me time to make a list. I could use a few things."

After a few minutes Payton had her list, grabbed her purse, and they were headed out the door. Hailey asked about Payton's day, and she told her about running into Ally, and the show she was doing. Hailey didn't always get the shows they had gone to, but she'd always been up to going to see them anyway.

As they walked the aisles of Wal-Mart, they filled the cart with most of the items on their list and a few that weren't. Hailey always complained because Payton wanted to walk up and down every aisle, and that always meant she'd pick up random things she just thought she had to have. As they passed by the peanuts, Payton realized she hadn't asked Hailey about taking her to the airport.

"I'm glad we walked down this aisle or I would have totally forgotten to ask if you could take me to the airport. I wanna go home for Fall Break, and Gramps wants me to fly."

Hailey looked up and down the aisle trying to see what held the key, "Seriously?! What on earth brought that up?"

"Peanuts."

"What?"

"Peanuts. They used to serve peanuts on planes, and planes fly, thus I need a ride to the airport."

Hailey shook her head, "I can't keep up with you these days. You finish up here, and I'm going to go get my shampoo."

Payton had grabbed the last thing on the list and was headed to the check out when she spotted Hailey with a lot more than Shampoo in her arms. Payton shook her head and grinned at her friend. Hailey could try to blame her all she wanted, but it clearly wasn't her fault.

Hailey dumped her stuff in the basket and gave Payton a look, "When were you going to tell me you turned down a date?"

"Huh?"

"Dinner. You and a certain guy," Hailey said trying to jog her friend's memory. "Oh come on! I know you know who I'm talking about. You can get airplane by seeing peanuts for crying out loud!"

"What the... how do you know about that?" Payton asked.

"What's it matter? I'm like a ninja. I know all."

"Well, I was going to tell you, but when I got home, you were gone. Then I got busy and forgot. Doesn't matter anyway."

"And why not?" Hailey asked putting a hand on her hip.

"He was just doing it to be nice. Besides, you know I don't date."

Rolling her eyes, Hailey said, "So don't call it a date. Call it dinner out with a very attractive man that you just might want to roll around in bed with. I mean honestly, what's one dinner going to hurt? It's not like you have to get married."

"Well, no, but I'm still not interested in a relationship."

"Who said it has to be that kind of relationship?" she said with a wink.

"I swear Hailey... ugh!"

Hailey crossed her arms over her chest, "I'm not taking you to the airport until you go."

"What?! You're blackmailing me?" Payton asked.

"One of us has to make sure you don't screw this up."

"Sometimes I think it'd be easier to be mad at you if I didn't like you," Payton sighed.

"I'm just looking out for you like any good friend should. He has an away game on Friday, so that will give us time to go shopping and get you something cute to wear."

Payton shook her head, "I'll wear something I already have, and I'm only going out with him once. Then you have to back off."

"I'll agree to the first, we'll see about the second, and not on your life."

*

Payton sighed in relief as she exited her final class on Friday. The week had flown by, and she was sure she'd missed something in there. Never the less, it was Friday, and as bad as it sounded, she was going to bed early.

Things with her mom were difficult, and she really just wanted to turn loose and head home right then. Earlier in the week Gramps had told her that her mom had gotten some sort of infection, and while her body was fighting it, she was still on the mend, it bothered Payton that she couldn't be there. Her worst fear was that something would happen to her mom, and she wouldn't be there.

Hailey had been on her all week to call Josh and see what his plans were for their date. Hailey had told her she couldn't dress her appropriately if she didn't know what they were doing. That suited Payton just fine. Besides, he's the one who had asked her out. It should be him to make the call or to set everything up. Well, she thought that until the week got away from her, and now that the date was tomorrow, she was kind of ticked off that she had no clue what was going on. She thought about just sending him an email and calling the whole thing off, but truth be told, she still really wanted to go.

Rubbing the back of her neck, Payton stood from the sofa and then stretched. Her head was hurting. What's new? And she was beat. "Night chica."

"So early?"

"Yup."

"See you in the morning then."

Payton was changing into the tank top and shorts she slept in when the phone rang. Hailey popped her head in, "Hey, it's for you."

"Unless it's Gramps, take a message. My brain has checked out for the night, and I'm practically in bed."

"It's Josh."

The sarcastic, witty response was on the tip of her tongue. She had a million of them, but she wouldn't use any of them because she was happy that he'd finally decided to call. That didn't mean he couldn't sweat it out a little. Payton took her time taking her dirty clothes to the hamper, and then slowly made her way back to the phone that was sitting on the desk in the living room. Before she said anything she looked around for Hailey, but her friend knew her well and was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey," she answered. It came out a little breathy.

"Hey, how are you?"

"Not bad, I guess. How was your game? You had one tonight right?"

"Yeah, we did. Lost by one."

"Sorry," she really wasn't sure what else to say.

Cue the awkward pause. This is why she hated even talking to guys like this. She didn't really have anything in common with them, so there was a lot of this uncomfortable silence.

"So?" she asked, just trying to get the conversation going again.

"So, I thought I'd pick you up at six."

"That sounds good. Where are we going?"

"There's this place up in Old Town I've heard a lot about. One of the guys says it's really good."

"Oh... we're going that far?" Payton asked.

"That okay?"

He sounded rattled. Payton was sure that he wasn't a guy that seemed to rattle easily, and wondered if it was somehow her fault. She hadn't thought he'd be the type of guy to question himself. Every time she'd run into him he was so confident. She was being pretty hard on him, though.

"Yeah, that's fine," she told him. "Holy crap that's a long time stuck in a car with him," she thought to herself after she agreed.

"Okay, sounds good. See you then."

"Bye, Josh."