Only of You

Chapter Fourteen

On Friday afternoon Billie Joe invited me to come along to band practice with the guys to prepare for the party they were playing at on Saturday. I felt like I should have said no because it had been days since Harris asked me to read the damn library book and I'd barely read any of it. It was hard to read. I could understand it and all but it was just so boring that it was making my brain hurt. The book was called To Kill a Mockingbird. Hayley said it was a good book but I guess she was smarter than me because I could barely read a page at a time without my mind wandering somewhere else. It was all just kind of words on a page to me.

Anyway because I was a moron I decided to go with Billie Joe to Tre's house for band practice instead of staying home to finish the book. I brought the book with me though and I had every intention of trying to read the damn thing. Apparently Tre lived about two hours away, so I thought maybe I'd read in the car or something.

When we finished school Billie Joe and I met Mike out in the parking lot. He had Hayley with him, she said Tre had invited her for band practice and all, and she got Lint to drop her off at our school when she'd got out of class. That killed me, she had Lint running around doing all kinds of things for her all the time. I got the feeling he was in love with her, for God's sake. I couldn't blame the guy or anything, because she was really pretty and probably the best person I knew.

Since Hayley was already there she had taken the front seat, and Billie Joe had to sit in the back with me. He didn't seem too annoyed about it or anything, he actually seemed kind of pleased for some reason. When we started driving out of the parking lot he kept looking over at me and smiling a little. It gave me that stupid butterfly feeling in my gut.

"Did you read that stupid book yet?" I asked Billie Joe when I started digging through my backpack to find my book.

"A little. It's actually pretty funny but I haven't had much time to sit around reading."

"What's your book again?" I opened my book to the page I'd folded in the corner and glanced over at him. He was digging through his bag too.

When he pulled the book out he threw it into my lap, almost knocking my book out of my hands. The Catcher in the Rye.

"Never heard of it." I said. "What's it about?"

"I don't really know. Nothing. Everything." Billie Joe took the book back and opened it. I noticed he was more than halfway through the book, which was a hell of a lot further than me. I was only on page 30 of mine. I don't know why, but it made me smile. Billie Joe reading a book and all.

"Now that I think about it, you actually remind me of Holden Caulfield." Hayley turned in her seat to look back at Billie Joe.

"I don't know if that's an insult or a compliment." He frowned. I guessed it was an insult since Hayley liked giving Billie Joe a hard time and all.

She didn't say anything, she just smirked at him and turned back to the front of the car leaving Billie Joe scratching his head. I didn't know if Hayley would ever like Billie Joe because for some reason she seemed to think he was a moron. I understood that, I really did, but I guess that was partly why I loved him.

I tried to read my book for a while and Hayley chatted quietly to Mike in the front. At first it was hard to tune them out because I truly was a nosey kind of person and I liked listening to conversations. None of it was exactly riveting though, they weren't gossiping about anybody or anything like that. Hayley was just talking about going to the UK again, and telling Mike all about how we'd finished my passport application and everything.

I could feel Billie Joe watching me but I was trying to ignore him since I really wanted to finish reading the book. I didn't want to disappoint Harris, the guy truly did care and I felt awful about it. I figured Billie Joe was staring at me because he was bored and had nothing else to do. He was probably trying to get a rise out of me so I'd tell him off or something. I just kept reading my book though, and after a while he gave up staring at me and starting resting his head on my shoulder. It didn't even make me uncomfortable, it was nice. After a while I thought he had fallen asleep.