“You must workout constantly to stay so thin.”
She thinks I’m thin? Has she looked in the mirror?
“I don’t work out, actually—”
“Not unless you count moving chess pieces around a little board working out, huh Wills?” Jaden laughed.
I faked a smile and imagined stabbing him in the eye with my plastic fork. “Yup, that’s about as close as it gets.”
“Oh, you’re on the chess team?” the cheerleader asked.
“Mm-hmm.” I went back to twisting my fork in my salad.
“That’s cool,” she said before turning and talking to the girl sitting on the other side of her.
I flipped my fork into my plate and stood up. “I’m going to go say hi to Jenna and Tim,” I whispered close to Jaden’s ear, kissing his cheek and quickly stepping away before he could pull me in for another.
Dumping my tray, I tossed it on top of the bin and, wiping my sweaty hands up and down my thighs, walked toward the table where Jenna sat. I didn’t think Jaden could see Brody from where he was, but I couldn’t be sure. I’d know in about two minutes.
“Hey.” I sat in an empty seat next to Brody.
“Hey back to ya. Aren’t you living life on the wild side by sitting here?” Brody asked.
“A little. I don’t think he can see this part of the table from where he is. Or that he’s even paying attention.”
“Ah.” Brody nodded, looking down. He let his arm slip from where it rested on the table’s top. His hand brushed across my thigh before he propped it on his knee. My eyes darted to his; he was watching me through his lashes, a small grin touching his lips. He leaned back in his chair, stretching his legs out in front of him.
“So what’s happening on the other side of the world?” Jenna asked.
“Apparently, I eat too much dressing on my salad because, like, it has, like, a million calories and, like, fat.” I imitated her voice, bobbing my head back and forth. “And I should workout more because, according to Jaden, moving little chess pieces around a board is all I do… or something like that.” I rolled my eyes.
“Like, really?”
I laughed. “Like, yes. And, predictably, as soon as chess was mentioned, her eyes glazed over and she started talking to someone else.”
“That’s, like, too bad,” Tim said with a laugh.
“Like, I think I’ll, like, put that on a T-shirt. Wanna go to the mall?” I looked at Jenna.
“No. I’m done being your enabler. If you want any more of those crazy T-shirts, you’ll have to get them by yourself.” Jenna shook her head.
Brody chuckled, twirling a straw on the table.
“Eh, whatever. I’ll break you before the day is over. You’ll be begging to go to the mall with me. Begging.” I leaned back in my chair, pulled my knees up to my chest, and wrapped my arms around them.
“You’re delusional.” Jenna looked away.
“Okay. You’ll be home doing homework while I’m browsing the clearance racks.”
Jenna shrugged. “There can’t be too much new stuff. We were just there.”
“Eating a soft pretzel and drinking a slushie while I get a pedicure, soaking my feet in a lavender footbath—”
“You’re a bitch.”
“I know.” I laughed.
“But I can’t go to the mall tonight even if I wanted to,” Jenna said.
“Yeah.” I sighed, smacking my hand down on Brody’s straw when he spun it in front of him. “I can’t either. I have way too much calc. homework due tomorrow.” I popped Brody’s straw in my mouth and chewed on the tip, grinning at him. “But you have to admit, it’d make a great T-shirt.”
Oh. Holy. Hotness. Chewing on his straw is almost like touching his lips. His lips touched it and now mine… okay, I’m officially losing it.
“They wouldn’t get the joke,” Brody murmured with an amused smile.
“I know. That’s what makes it the perfect T-shirt.” I nudged his thigh with my foot and winked at him.
He laughed.
I love that sound.
I was lying across my bed, working on my calculus homework and grumbling at myself for waiting until the last minute to do it, when my phone chimed. I thought about ignoring it, but I was happy for the interruption. It felt like I’d been doing the same calculus homework for a week.
I grabbed the phone off the table next to my bed and smiled. My heart started doing all sorts of weird things and butterflies immediately started tickling the sides of my stomach and some other places that were… very new to the sensation.
Brody: Whatcha doing?
Me: Calc. You?
Brody: Same. Wanna talk?
Me: Sure.
My phone rang just a few seconds later. I jumped and almost dropped it. “Hello?”
“Hey,” Brody said, his voice sliding over me like velvet rope. It caressed me as it squeezed the air from my lungs.
“Hi.” I cringed when my voice came out all squeaky and breathy. “When you asked if I wanted to talk, I thought you meant texting.”
“Oh. Sorry, we can hang up and just text.”
“No! No, it just surprised me when the phone rang.” I giggled.
Jeez, I’m giggling like a little girl. I need to get a freakin’ grip.
“How much more calc. do you have to do?” Brody asked. I could hear papers rustling through the phone.
“I’m on the last three problems. You?”
“I have five left.”
We fell quiet. I could hear him breathing on the other end of the phone. Every so often, he’d adjust the phone or I’d hear papers rustling. I’d worked through the three problems I had left and picked up my things, throwing them in my bag. Rolling over on my back, I closed my eyes and listened to Brody breathe.
“Are you finished?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“What are you doing?”
I felt my cheeks heat, which was silly since he couldn’t see me. “I’m just lying here, waiting for you to finish.” I left out the part that I was enjoying listening to him breathe—that sounded a little like a freaky stalker.
“I’m finished,” he said. I could imagine him flipping his pencil into his book and flicking it close like he did at school.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked him.
“What are you wearing?” he whispered.
“Um, what?”
He laughed loudly into the phone. “I’m kidding, Willow,” he said when his chuckles faded.
“Oh, you were kidding? I was totally gonna to tell you if you told me…” I let my words trail off.
I heard him inhale. “Oh. Okay.”
It was my turn to laugh. “Kidding.”
“Bummer. I was hoping you were going to start telling me about your Victoria’s Secret lingerie.”
“Well, I am wearing this little pink—”
“Um, I think we need to move on to safer, more friend appropriate topics.”
I laughed. “Okay, you pick the topic.”
“You want to see a movie?”
“I can’t.”
“Do you have a TV in your room with satellite?” Brody asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. Turn to channel 235.”
Turning on my television, I flipped to the channel Brody suggested. “Oh, I’ve wanted to see this movie.” I pulled the blankets back on my bed and slipped under them, bunching the pillows behind my back.
“Good, I haven’t seen it yet either. We can watch it together.”
“Are you in bed?” I asked.
“Yeah.” His voice came out huskier than normal.
“Me, too. Hey, pause the movie for a minute.” An idea sparked, and a tingle of excitement ran through me.
“Okay. Why?”
“We should pop some popcorn. Do you have any?”
“Yeah,” he answered. I heard his blankets rustling through the phone as he climbed out of bed, and I had to force myself to stop imagining what he might look like. I really did want to ask him what he was wearing.