Hearts Afar

...7...

CHAPTER 7

Over the next couple weeks, I really looked at Clay and Brent as really good friends. Even after having to tell Brent time and time again that I had a boyfriend, he still wouldn’t stop asking me out. I got so use to them tagging along when I took the kids out that it seemed weird if they didn’t go with me.

    "All I'm asking for is dinner and a movie," Brent said one day at the park while we had the kids at the park. I looked over to the skate park and saw Mikey with a couple of his friends and then I turned my attention back to the swings where Clay was pushing Hannah.

    "Brent, I'm not going to go out with you. You know I have a boyfriend."

    "Yeah, but it's a long distance. He'll never know," he smiled at me.

    "And we'll make it work."

    "That's what you think," he mumbled.

    "Brent, you're a great guy but there is something else factoring into the situation. I'm seventeen and your twenty-one. Even if I wasn't with Duncan, I wouldn't date someone that much older than me."

    "That much older? Are you calling me old? It's only four years," he started joking.

    "Brent," I smiled.

    "What?"

    "You are like my big brother," I said. Brent slapped his hand over his chest and gasped.

    "UGH! The evil sentence has been used. You're not like that with Clay."

    "I know. That's because he stays home with Caroline some of the time and you follow me around like a lost puppy. I bet I've seen you more since you've been home than your own family has." Brent thought about this for a minute, and then turned to me.

    "Woof," and then he licked my cheek.

    "Ew... Gross," I laughed, swiping at my cheek. Brent than sat at my feet with his tongue hanging out and panting. After sitting like that for a few more minutes, he started getting a sneaky look on his face. Getting back up and sitting beside me on the bench, he put an arm around me and smirked.

    "What's going on in that head of yours, Buchanan?"

    "I have it from good authority that dance team try-outs are in exactly two weeks,” he said. I looked up at him and he smiled back.

    "And?" I said.

    "I can make sure you and your sisters can get a spot."

    "That's cheating."

    "Aww, come on Claire. Their going to have sixteen spots and I can get you and your sisters in ," he smiled.

    "I don't even know if I'm going to try out but I know Cassie and Lacey will be excited about it," I said.

    "Claire, you have to try out."

    "How do you have connections?" I asked.

    "I can't tell you. If I do, I'd have to kill you," he smirked. I stayed quiet for a minute and then hatched a plan.

    "Brent. I'll make you a deal. If you tell me who your connections are, I'll try-out,” I told him.He thought about this for a minute and then came up with his own plan. He smiled as he thought about it.

    "Claire, I'll make you a deal. I'll tell you who my insider is if you go out with me. Not as a date, but as two friends who need a night out. If you don't have fun, I'll never ask you out again, if you do, I'll tell you my insider and I get to keep asking you out, no matter how many times you turn me down."