The Way ✓

Chapter 8

Why aren’t you asleep yet, Ape?

I smiled even though I should be used to his text by now; it’s been a month since Trevor first messaged me.

Dad is on a business trip again, mom went to visit our aunt and Maggie took the opportunity to sleep over at Todd’s. I have the house all to myself on a weekend so I decided to do better things than sleep.

You are lying in bed, reading a book, aren’t you?

He knew me so well!

Well, it’s kind of solitary here. There are no noises to distract me so it’s perfect conditions to read.

If you feel lonely in your bed, you can always come and sleep in mine, Ape ;)

I snorted.

You are talking to April, remember? Not Maggie.

I never talk on the phone or text Maggie.

Why not?

Maybe I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Trevor, tell me now! Please!

I’ll tell you tomorrow, in person. I promise.

Oh, great! Now I won’t be able to sleep because I’ll spend all night wondering what his answer might be.

You pinky promise?

April, guys don’t do pinky promises. PS: Do you know how to send a disgusted emoticon?

This time I full out laughed.

Good night, Trev!

Night, Ape!

An hour later, I realized I’d been right: I couldn’t fall asleep while thinking about Trevor and the time we’d spent together.

The past month had been full of surprises.

I was taken aback because Trevor wasn’t as self-centered and inconsiderate as I always thought he was. It was a pleasant discovery but it had a downside: it only made my feelings for him stronger.

He was amazed to see that once I befriended someone and started trusting them, I’d become a lot more self-assured and even outgoing in their presence. I smiled, remembering him saying how he liked my confident side.

My friends were dumbfounded when I’d announced that I no longer would distance myself from that boy and that he and I were getting chummy.

Maggie and her friends were flabbergasted (or maybe I should say outraged) when the two of us started to eat lunch together. The first time we did that, my sister could barely wait to go home and rant to mom. Her exact words were “Tell the loser not to have lunch with him!” But like everyone else mom was too astonished to do anything at first. And then she did something that I still believed impossible: she told her favorite to let me be which made me and Maggie drop our jaws to the floor because the last time my mom stood up for me was… Actually, I can’t remember that long.

Needless to say, my sister and I were on worse terms than ever. At first she didn’t even want to speak to me but when she finally quit giving me the silence treatment she’d be meaner than usual and much more dedicated to her spiteful remarks on how I was crushing over our neighbor and running after him like a lost dog.

“So what?” I’d queried about a week ago when I’d had enough of her. “You don’t see me as a threat, do you, Maggie?”

At first she was goggle-eyed that I’d dared to talk back at her and then she glared at me and slammed the door on her way out of my room. That had been the day I’d decided not to give into peer pressure and hide my feelings for Trevor. I’d greet him with a smile in the hallways, I’d move to sit next to him in some of our classes, I’d laugh at his jokes and I wouldn’t care who saw us. And you know what the best thing had been? He’d smile back and laugh with me, not at me.

I looked at the time on my phone - 3:48 a.m.

Maybe I should drink some warm milk; they say it helps you sleep.