Always You (SAMPLE ONLY)

Always You - chapter 2

Once my parents had left, Clay and I took the food and popcorn up to my room as usual. After stuffing ourselves with pizza, we caught up on everything that we had missed for the last month. We finally put the DVD on at about nine thirty. Clay changed into his pyjamas - which essentially meant that he just took off his jeans and T-shirt because he always slept in just his boxers - and jumped into the bed next to me.

The movie was scary, really scary. At one point I had my face pressed so hard against his chest that my nose was going numb. He already had his arm around me, so he brought up his other arm to hold the back of my head, tangling his fingers in my hair.

Finally, the movie was over. I looked up at him expecting the laughter that always came after we watched a scary movie. But he didn’t laugh; instead, he just looked at me, staring at every part of my face. My breathing started to speed up because something just seemed different, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but for some reason I was suddenly noticing how handsome he was. How his skin felt against mine. How his hand tightened in the back of my hair making my stomach flutter. The air seemed charged with something, getting thicker somehow, making my breathing shallower.

What the hell is wrong with me? I know I haven’t seen him for a month, but jeez, this is freaking crazy!

Suddenly he snapped out of it as if he came out of some sort of trance. “I’ll get the ice cream,” he muttered, jumping off the bed, stopping the movie before heading out of the room.

I sat up, rubbing a hand over my face, slightly dazed as to what was going on. What on earth is wrong with me today?

He smiled as he walked back into the room a couple of minutes later. “So, what’ll it be, Riley Bear?” he asked, holding out the two cartons to me. I forced a smile, deciding to ignore the confusion that seemed to be settling over me. He obviously hadn’t felt anything because he was behaving normally, so maybe I was just tired or something.

“Hmm, I’ll go for the strawberry sorbet,” I chose, taking it and digging in.

He plopped down next to me, talking animatedly about his football practice. “So, I’ve got something that I wanted to ask you,” he said, suddenly looking serious. I immediately tensed up; Clay was never serious. I raised one eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. He cleared his throat. “I was wondering if… well… now that you come to my school, I thought… well I wondered if maybe you would wear my number?” he asked, stumbling over his words as he looked at his ice cream.

“Wear your number, what are you talking about? What number?” I asked, frowning and taking my opportunity to steal some of the ice cream from his pot.

He just laughed and reached over, taking my half eaten tub of ice cream and handing me his. “I don’t know why I even make you choose, you always end up eating mine too,” he teased, chuckling again. I just smiled guiltily and dug into the cookies and cream. “So yeah, what I was saying. You know I’m running back for the football team, right? Well, now that you come to my school you’ll be expected to attend the games. Everyone goes, and there’s always a party after.” He winced, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Okay, I’d love to watch you play. I’ve never seen you play properly before, only in the park,” I replied, smiling.

He just nodded. “Yeah, so, well, the guys have this thing where you have to give your away shirt to your girlfriend to wear to, you know, show support,” he mumbled. “But I’ve never had a girlfriend. So I was wondering if you would wear it for me and be my number one fan, cheer me on?” he asked, frowning, clearly uncomfortable.

I felt the proud smile stretch across his face. “Of course I will, silly! I’m already your number one fan,” I stated, digging him in the ribs with my elbow.