Your Side and Mine

Chapter 3

Four Years Earlier

Liv and I were bored and watching a movie on a Saturday morning. Her movie had come out the previous weekend, and it was getting great reviews. Someone had even recognized her when we went to the grocery store.

"Aren't you that girl from that new movie?" the woman behind us had said when we were checking out. My family just stared at her, baffled that it didn't even take a week.

Always the confident one, Liv turned around and proudly said, "I am!"

My phone dinged in my lap. I looked down to see Connor's name, and I quickly turned my phone so Liv wouldn't see. My palms were already sweating as I swiped my phone open.

Connor texted me: Just got back in town yesterday! You want to come hang out at my house today? We can swim.

Of course, I wanted to. I wondered if he meant just me or Liv too. Maybe I still had a chance. Maybe he did like me. Maybe Liv wouldn't want to go.

"Connor just texted me. He wants to hang out at his house."

"Yes, please. I want to get out of here," she said.

Dang it. I should have said he wants me to hang out. I texted him back: Yeah! We're down. What time?

He answered: Now?

Be there soon!

Liv and I went upstairs to grab our swimsuits and a bag of extra clothes, and our dad drove us over to Connor's house.

"Y'all have fun," my dad said before pulling out one of his dad jokes. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Liv and I both rolled our eyes as we got out. My heart picked up a little as we rang Connor's doorbell. I had gone from spending almost every day with him to nothing. He'd been traveling across the country promoting the movie, and I'd hardly heard from him. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I figured he was just super busy.

"Hey!" he said, smiling wide when he opened the door. He waved at our dad.

"Hey, Connor." I was trying so hard to not be awkward. Liv said hello as we stepped inside, and I moved out of the way quickly so Liv could fit in the foyer. We'd been there a few times over the summer, so we knew his house.

"I'll go grab some towels if y'all want to go outside. My parents aren't home, so don't worry," he laughed.

His parents were never home because they were workaholics, according to Connor. My mom worked as a math teacher at our schools growing up, so I saw her every day at home and at school. Maybe that's why she liked perfection—math is sort of like that. There's only one right answer. And maybe if she hadn't worked where I went to school, she wouldn't have been so involved.

Liv and I made our way out to his backyard. There were lots of white lounge chairs around the left side of the pool behind the diving board and one huge unicorn inflatable sitting across two of them. Liv and I took off our clothes and put our bags on the closest pool chair before we slipped in at the shallow end and took over two floating inflatables.

Connor came out of the back door shirtless with three towels. It'd only been a few months since we'd jet skied, but I was already looking at him like I'd never seen someone so hot. I hoped he would maybe try to get me alone. I wondered if I should try to get him alone. Or maybe I was getting my hopes up too much that I thought he was going to kiss me on the beach.

He put the towels down on the nearest chair next to our bags. "Don't think y'all can come over here to swim and not get your hair wet!" he remarked as he made his way to the diving board.