Falling In Love With My Best Friend (Watty Award 2011)

Chapter 13

© Copyright Nicole Nelson, 2011

Grace's POV-

Just as Brandon had so annoyingly predicted a few days before, Paul made no effort to conceal his overzealousness to take things a step further between us when I climbed into his cherry red Cherokee Saturday morning. He had invited me to yet another celebratory football party Friday night but I had missed so many in my high school career that it would almost be awkward to show up to one now so I graciously declined. Apparently he felt the need to make up for the time we lost in our one night apart because he towered over the consol that separated the driver’s seat from the passenger, pressing his lips onto mine.

Initially I eagerly kissed back but seeing as we were parked in front of my house, I put my hand on his shoulder and lightly pushed him back to his own side of the car when his lips began to venture down my neck and his hands began to venture up my thigh. My parents weren’t home but ever since I was banned from dating, I couldn’t take any chances of the neighbors sighting us and mentioning it to them in passing. After letting out an exaggerated sigh, he sat upright and backed out the driveway.

“So where are we going?” I asked, wondering what he had planned for the day.

“You’ll see.” He replied and cranked up the radio drowning out any hope we had for a conversation with the deafening music.

My curiosity was at an all time high when we pulled onto the busy freeway going northbound, leaving behind our small town. Twenty minutes later we were squeezing in between a rusty old minivan and a pearly white Camry on the side of a bustling city street. Paul slid a few coins in the parking meter and snaked his arm around my waist while we strolled up the sidewalk. I peered inside the glass storefronts at beautifully dressed mannequins as we neared the corner.

“Um…When are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I questioned, trying not to sound too whiney despite the fact that I was a control freak and hated not knowing what was going on.

“It’s a surprise. You’re gonna love it.” He looked down with an arrogant smirk and winked, oblivious to how I felt about surprises.

We walked a few more minutes and suddenly were lost in a crowd of boisterous people, all wearing black and silver. I noticed the mass amount of San Antonio Spurs t-shirts; jerseys; signs.

Suddenly it dawned on me. We must be going to the basketball game. That was his big surprise. Not only did I hate surprises, I hated basketball. Had he known anything about me, anything at all, he would have known that. Brandon knew that. He never would have dragged me all the way to San Antonio to go to some stupid basketball game without even telling me what we were doing at some point along the way.

He pulled the two folded tickets from his pocket, reinforcing that he, in fact, did bring me to a basketball game. Not wanting to offend him, I put on the biggest smile I could muster up and put my arm around his waist.

At least he tried. I told myself to suppress the disappointment and avoid sounding like a complete and total brat. At least he tried.

“Paul, you shouldn’t have.”

“Well, I remember you talking about basketball so I knew you’d like it.”

Yeah, I sure did talk about it. Too bad it was about how much I despised it.

On that note, we took our tickets and found the end of the line to enter the stadium. Paul’s hand was placed firmly on my butt as if they had some sort of magnetic connection to each other. I couldn’t have been happier to find our seats and put an end to his constant touching, however temporary that end may be.