j o e y*
I know a lot of seniors don't like to be friends with people in younger grades, but I really don't mind. One of my best friends is a Sophomore. His name is Everest Daniels, and honestly, he's the sweetest, kindest, and most adorable people you will ever meet. Now, does he know I feel like that about him? Probably not, but it's cool or whatever.
It's October, which means homecoming. Which means I have to pretend to be straight and take a girl. I bring this up to my sister, Josie; I'm close with all of my siblings (I have four in total) but I'm the closest to Josie. She's a Sophomore in college but commutes to and from every day.
"Who said you have to take a girl?" Josie tells me.
"The guys--" I begin.
"Opinions don't matter. Alright, listen and look at me, if you want that boy, you've gotta man up. People are going to say crap, and they're going to say things, but if you really feel the way you tell me you feel about him, no one else's opinion is going to matter."
I fall silent. "How am I supposed to ask him, Josie? How do I know he won't reject me?"
"Jo, I could sugarcoat it and say that there's no chance that will happen, but I'm not giving you false hope. Okay, he may very well reject you, but you have to take that chance if you really want this."
"I do, I just...I don't know how to ask him."
"Well, you said he plays baseball, right?"
I nod.
...and that's how we ended up getting a poster board, markers, glitter, and glue, and writing
"Ev, I might STRIKEOUT by asking you this, but will you take a SWING and go to hoco with me?"
I'm not asking him at school, because I know he doesn't like to have a lot of attention drawn to himself at school, but today at school, I'm asking him to come home with me for a little bit.
"Hey, Ev!" I say, walking over to his locker. "What are you doing after school?"
"I don't think I'm doing anything, why?" he asks me, looking up at me. I'm about an inch or two taller than him.
"Well, I was just wondering if you'd wanna come over to my house after school and hang out for a little bit...? It's okay if you don't but...I could drive you,"
"Yeah, sure, it'll be fun!"
I internally exhale a sigh of relief. Shew!
"I'll just...I'll just come over here to your locker after school and we can go."
"Sounds good,"
He smiles and I nearly faint. HOLY HECK THIS BOY IS ADORABLE!
me- he's coming over tonight
me- can you get everything ready?
Josie- yep
We got a couple of baseballs to lay on the poster, some baseball balloons, and ribbon.
After school, I walk over to Everest's locker.
"Ready?" I ask him.
"Yep," he replies, looking up as I reach his locker.
"Alright,"
He follows me to my car and gets in the passenger seat.
"Your mom is okay with you coming, right?" I ask him.
He nods. "Yeah, I already told her," he says, smiling.
THAT FREAKING SMILE!
When we pull up to my house, Josie has tied a baseball balloon with a red ribbon to the mailbox. Everest looks over at me.
"What is going on?" he asks me. "Do you normally have balloons--baseball balloons--tied your mailbox?"
"N-no," I say, my voice faltering. "We should go see what's going on,"
"Okay..."
Everest follows closely behind me into the house. Josie is standing at the counter.
"Hey," she says, addressing Everest.
He waves at her with a smile and then looks at me, it's a look that says 'You weren't lying when you said he was cute'.
We've been home for a few minutes and are sitting on my couch when I say I have to 'use the bathroom'. 'Use the bathroom' really means I'm going to go get the stuff.
I go down the hall where Josie shuts a door so he thinks that I've gone into the bathroom, and take the board from Josie.
"I'm nervous," I say softly.
"Don't be, you'll do great!" she says. She's going to record it, and hopefully, he'll say yes! I walk back down the hallway.
"Hey, Ev?" I say. "Can you close your eyes for a second?"
"Sure...?" he says, sounding a little scared.
I walk in front of him and hold the board in front of me. I take a deep breath.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now," I say.
He opens his eyes, looks at the board, and then looks up at me.
"Really?" he asks softly. "Me?"
I nod and he gets up from the couch and walks the two or three steps toward me, stopping directly in front of me and taking the board from my hands. My heart is pounding; it's literally beating about nine million miles a minute right now. Everest looks up at me, then he grabs me and pulls me down to him, pressing his lips against mine. I put my hands on either side of his waist, holding softly, but tightly; he wraps both of his arms around my neck. He pulls away and looks at me.
"So..." I say. "Yes?"
"Yes, I'll go with you," he says, kissing me again.
Josie takes a few pictures. We're smiling in one, and kissing in the next one. We both post them to our Instagrams.
His caption is:
'@everestbarnes- i got asked to hoco today❤️🥰😘 @joeymliles'
My caption is:
'@joeymliles- 👀❤️😍 catch us at hoco @everestbarnes'
After we take pictures and post them, Everest and I go down the hallway to my bedroom; he turns to me.
"I didn't want to do this in front of your sister," he says and then he tugs me close, slamming his lips against mine. He bites my bottom lip, and I let out a tiny, fragment of a moan.
The next day at school, most people know about me asking Everest to homecoming. He walks up to me between third and fourth period.
"What's wrong?" I ask him, looking at him.
"Nothing," he replies, looking up at me. "I just missed you,"
"Oh...aww,"
He smiles and pulls me down to kiss him.
"Now go to class," I tell him.
"No," he says, kissing me again.
"Ev..." I say in a sing-song voice. "Don't fail school because of me,"
He sighs. "FINE,"
I laugh.
"Can I have one more kiss, though?" he asks, poking my backpack strap with one hand and grabbing my hand with his other one, sliding his fingers in between mine.
I lean down and press my lips against his. "Now, go to class," I tell him with a smile. "Meet me in the locker room ten minutes into class," I whisper in his ear as I kiss his cheek.
I've been in the locker room for about five minutes now, waiting for Everest to come in. Finally, I hear the door open and close.
"Sorry," he whispers. "I couldn't get away from mmmph--" he says, getting cut off by me as I pull him into me and kiss his lips, cupping his face in my hand. I stumble backward into a stall, which has floor to ceiling walls and close the door.
"I can't wait for Hoco," he says, leaning against me.
"Mmm, me either," I say, slightly humming the first word.
"I should go back to class," he says, slightly worried.
"Okay, fine, I guess I'm a bit of a bad influence by asking you to meet me here..." I say.
"No, I don't care about that, I'm just in class with Ms. Childers, and she will send out a search party if you're gone for too long."
I nod in understanding and kiss his lips softly.
I have a free period right now, so I just stay here for the rest of the period.
I'm standing at my locker at the end of the day when Everest comes up to me, grabbing my face and pulling me into him, kissing me.
"Hello to you too," I say when he pulls away, smiling.
He smiles back at me. "Can I come over?" He asks.
"Of course,"
He smiles wider.
When we pull in the driveway, I realize no one is home yet because this is the day that Josie has a class until 5 PM. I grab Ev's hand and pull him through the house and into my bedroom, shutting and locking the front door behind us. Once we're in my bedroom, I shut the door and turn to Everest who's looking around my room.
"Wha--" he begins but gets cut off by me grabbing his face, turning towards me and pressing my lips to his. He smiles into the kiss and puts both of his hands on my waist. I stumble back toward the bed and we fall on to it.
"What do you want to do?" I ask him a few minutes later as he lays against me while I run my fingers through his hair.
"Hey, since it's Friday," he begins, looking up at me. "Do you think I could spend the night?"
"Of course! But what do you want to do?"
"We should watch movies!" he says.
"I like that idea," I say, kissing him. "We could order pizza, too,"
He nods in agreement.
That night, after we've eaten, watched a few movies already, and are laying in bed, ready for bed, he looks up at me, meeting my eye.
"I'm glad you asked me to Hoco," he whispers.
"Me too," I tell him softly, leaning down and pressing my lips against his.
1/20/20
Okay, but this is pretty freaking adorable and you can't tell me anything else
