My Life In Pieces (Book #1)

Chapter 6

James shrugged. "She's got to get plugged in sometime. Might as well hit the ground running."

His grin grew slightly. James didn't know how accurate hit the ground running was for me.

The band started heading back to the stage so I silently sat back down, not knowing what more to say at the moment. Ari pulled up a seat beside mine. I looked over at his group. Elle was the only one paying attention to us. I gave her what I hoped was a friendly smile. She gave me a polite half smile in return. Better than the look Brenna was still giving me as I met her gaze up onstage. I then looked purposefully at James praying he could take the hint. Luckily, brains run in our family.

James got up and said, "I am going to go get a closer look."

Lame excuse but I was thankful he was letting me finally be alone again with Ari. I slowly gravitated my sites sideways to see if Ari was paying any attention to me looking so awkward. His pale blue-gray eyes stared back into mine and my mouth went dry.

I asked the first question that came to mind. "I know we didn't hang out a lot when I came here as a kid but do you remember me at all?"

He nodded, "Yeah I remember a set of sisters coming to visit for a few summers. You look a lot different though."

I knew exactly what he meant. When I was kid, I kept my hair as short as a boy and ran around like I was one of them too. I hated when Aunt Claire would try to make me play Barbies with Laura over touch football or street hockey with the guys. I knew how to run routes before I had to wear a training bra. I could skate before I could ride a bike. Now I had grown bitch hips, boobs, and my hair had grown out.

"You look different too. I have this picture in my house of my cousins and me. You are in it too apparently. I didn't figure that out until last night as I was getting ready for bed. "

He chuckled, "Yeah, I would say I was the black sheep but I think my brother is actually the different one in the family. All of us are pretty artistic except for Jake. He's all sports." He broke eye contact and looked uncomfortable as he ran a hand through his hair. "Listen, um, last night was kind of different for me. I'm not usually that uh... forward." His eyes returned to mine when he finished speaking, gauging my reaction.

I breathed a sigh of relief seeing that he was just as nervous as I was. It somehow put me much more at ease.

"You mean you don't normally catch girls in mid free-fall to the floor and then dance with them?"

He let out a small laugh, "Yeah you know I do that all the time actually."

I laughed that time. It seemed to break the ice. Neither of us broke eye-contact. Even as it was obvious we were thinking of the next thing to say. Ari finally asked, "So what made you want to come to practice today?"

Busted.

I tried to think of a valid reason. "I just wanted to hang out with James." That sounded like a perfectly valid reason to me. I hoped that he bought it.

"Well I am glad you did come. I'd hoped I wouldn't have to wait long to see you again."

Again with those damn flips in my stomach. "Really?"

He nodded and I blushed slightly. The band started back up. Ari turned to listen so I did too. I could not think of anything to say that would not sound completely lame. I wanted to impress this guy. I kind of wanted to text Patrick for advice, but I could see how that would go.

Oh hey Patty-Cakes. Can you please tell me how to flirt with this amazingly hot guy without looking like an inexperienced little kid? K thanks!

Instead of risking embarrassment I just tried to pay attention to the music. I genuinely thought I would like the music if I could have heard any of it over the blood rushing to my ears every time I looked in Ari's direction. Our chairs were close enough that our legs kept brushing against one another. Every time I felt the contact my stomach did those incessant cartwheels. It was really quite distracting. I just wanted to go back to last night when his arms wrapped around my waist and wouldn't let go. I looked over for the thirtieth time that hour and saw him yawning.
Great, he was bored. I watched as he stretched his arms up, his shirt slightly lifting, revealing a small patch of hair below his belly button. I wondered how far that trail went.

His left arm landed around the back of my chair. I had to tell myself to breathe. His fingers began to make little circles on my shoulder. I wished that I could feel him on my bare skin and not through my sweater. I shifted my weight slightly in the chair putting my open collar bone within reach of his warm fingers. Ari seemed to get the hint and he shifted his hand so that his finger tips ever so lightly were making the circles between my neck and collar bone. I smiled shyly and tried to pretend like I was paying attention to the band.

I found myself being looked at by Tyler. He was playing and singing but his line of sight seemed to be fixated on me and my collarbone. A strange expression kept appearing on his face. If I didn't know better I would say it was annoyance. Brenna noticed his staring too and it made her look even deadlier towards me. I stopped looking at the stage and tried to focus on anything else. Elle had her head resting on the shoulder of the same boy from last night, but kept looking at us too. I felt like I was on display here in the middle of the room and it made me very uncomfortable. The only thing easing my self-consciousness were Ari's fingers still slowly tracing those light, little circles. They were putting me in a sort of trance that I was more than happy to be in.

After another half hour or so, practice ended. I looked over at Ari. He smiled and squeezed my shoulder before letting his hand leave me and getting up to put his chair back in the right spot. I turned around after putting my own chair up and saw him smiling down at me.

I felt my shoulders give a small shrug. "I guess I will see you around then?"

Man that sounded pathetic.

"For sure," was his response. I like that answer. He slowly leaned forward and I responded in turn, allowing him to wrap his arms around my shoulders and pulled me in for a hug. I placed both of my arms around his waist, closing what little gap he had left. My face was pressed into his chest and my nostrils were filled with what I could only describe as boy soap. I felt him breath in deeply with his nose pressed to my hair and was happy that I had washed it last night. After a moment he released me and turned to go back over to his friends and I walked over to James.

James and I walked out of the warehouse to his truck. He looked at me quizzically. "So how did that go?"

My head was in my hands. "James I am so boy illiterate it's not even funny." He laughed and put an arm around me.

"I bet you did fine. He's almost your age you know? I am sure he thinks you are this awesome chick and he is just as scared to talk to you as you are to talk to him."

I thought about the hug. How sure of himself he seemed. "I doubt that." We were half way home when I asked, "James why do you think it was easy to dance with him last night but it was so hard to talk to him today?"

"Because you're a girl and you over think things"

"Point well made."

"I do understand the ladies."

"Ha, when was the last time you had a girlfriend?"

"I dated a girl named Richelle last semester. Before her I dated Brenna."

My eyes felt like they might pop out of their sockets. "Are you talking about the same Brenna who is dating your friend Tyler?"

James sighed and rolled his eyes so far back they actually disappeared into his head for a moment.

"Yep, same Brenna. We dated for a couple of months. Then I caught her making out at a party with one of Dylan's teammates. She moved right along to Tyler a few weeks later."

I shuttered. "Ew."

"Yeah that's about what I think of her too but try telling Tyler that. That boy has Brenna hook line and sinker and he likes it like that."

I shook my head. "I mean that is just disgusting."

"It happens. More often than you would think if you start looking at the families."

Now I had to know, "Does Ari date a lot?"

He looked at me sideways and smiled. "Not really. I haven't seen him with a girl in almost a year."

Good.