Utterly aware of our close proximity, I pushed Dannon away. He chuckled, bringing a hand through his hair. I glowered, standing up and fixing my shirt. “I didn’t mean that literally!” I shook my head. “You have no respect for the personal bubble.”
Dannon smiled, standing up as well. We were both soaked, which was not going to be easy to explain to my mom. I mean, she wasn’t going to react well to me attempting to drown Dannon in our shower. Putting all biased aside, she wouldn’t look kindly on murder in our household.
“You did the same thing to me earlier,” he pointed out, tugging his shirt back into place.
I refused to acknowledge how correct his statement was. And, to show my distaste for his retort, I huffed and spun on my heel, stalking back toward the house. Dannon, obviously not taking me seriously, laughed and jogged after me.
We entered the house, careful to wipe our soaked feet on the welcome mat set on the porch. My beautiful socks were brown now. Stupid mud. Though, it really made me feel better when I saw that Dannon’s socks were dirty as well. That was incredibly sad, but I didn’t care.
“Have fun?” Garrett inquired, still seated at the couch. He grinned at us, his teeth flashing. “Oh, and did you know that I have an incredible view of the yard from the window?”
I pursed my lips. Was there no privacy in this house? Obviously not. “That’s cool. Tell me, how is the view of your ass from here? ‘Cause, you know, I’m about to shove your incredibly inflated head up it.”
Garrett whistled. “Cranky are we?” His infuriating grin made its way to Dannon. “Was the first kiss not good?”
My cheeks burned instantly. “We didn’t kiss,” I forced out after a moment, seeing how Dannon wasn’t going to voice the truth himself. When I glanced at him, I saw that his eyes were to the floor in what looked like shame. I shoved any curiosity I had about that and turned back to Garrett.
“Way to deny it when I saw it with my own eyes,” Garrett said with a scoff. He hopped up from the couch and trotted over to us, slapping Dannon’s shoulder playfully. “Way to finally make the move, man!”
Dannon’s eyes finally left the floor and settled on Garrett as he smiled apologetically. Why he was apologizing for something that didn’t even happen, I had no idea. Tch. Men. “We didn’t kiss,” he murmured.
Garrett looked between us skeptically. His eyes cut through us, trying to see if we were lying our not. I didn’t really see why. If we had kissed, wouldn’t we be bragging about it? I mean, I’d never been kissed before—not that I was upset about that or anything—so wouldn’t my first kiss be something to totally brag about? Just sayin’.
Finally Garrett relented. He took a step back, sighing as he shot glares at us. “Well, can you kiss already?” He pointed at us sternly. “Right now, dammit! Kiss your freakin’ asses off!”
“Your excessive profanity toward the art of kissing is quite disturbing.”
We all turned as my mom appeared in the kitchen’s entryway, a spatula in her hand. I bit my lip, keeping down my comment about her cooking inside my head. All I knew was that I was not going to eat what was served tonight. And, just because I was a saint, I was going to warn Dannon not to eat it as well.
“Oh, hey, Mom!” Garrett called, waving.
My mom barely cast him a nod. Her gaze was settled on mine and Dannon’s clothes. “I see you’re getting a lot of work done.” An eyebrow raised.
“Yep,” I said with a nod. “We have to get to know each other. So, we got to know each other through combat.” I grinned, glancing at Dannon. “Right, Dannon?”
Dannon smiled. “Yeppers!”
My mom sighed, shaking her head. “Well, now you’ve gotten wet and Dannon has nothing to wear.”
Garrett looped an arm over Dannon’s shoulder, smiling brightly. “I’m sure he’ll be able to fit into something of mine,” he mused, looking Dannon up and down.
It took Garrett a moment, but he realized that leaning on Dannon was only going to get him wet. Letting out a small cry, Garrett pushed Dannon away from him, shooting a small glare at him like it was his fault that he has an idiot. And then he was off to his bedroom, to grab Dannon some extra clothes.
My mom stared after her son for a moment before sighing and turning her attention back to Dannon and me. “Can you two try and stay dry until dinner?” my mom demanded, pointing her weapon at us.
We both nodded simultaneously. I made sure to keep my gaze away from Dannon, not wanting to chance us looking at each other. If I did, I was only going to laugh. And then my mom would give us a lecture because she thought we were lying. It wouldn’t be pretty.
My mom grinned at us. “Now go do your project!” she ordered.
I didn’t have to be told twice. I spun on my heel, sauntering toward the staircase. Dannon followed pursuit, keeping a close distance. We separated after reaching the top of the stairs, me turning and heading into my bedroom while he turned and made his way to Garrett’s room. I closed my bedroom door behind me, quickly grabbing an outfit that would be more suitable for working on a project (AKA sweatpants and a tank top) and changing into it.
I sighed deeply, falling back onto my bed, my hands caressing the sides of my face. It was really sad how hot my face still felt. Usually Garrett’s teasing had no effect on me at all, but when Dannon and I were actually that close. . . .
No. We weren’t that close. Not that close at all.
Why was I even doing this to myself? We were simply fooling around! There was nothing to it. Dannon was just being his private-bubble-intruding self, and I was just being my sarcastic self, daring him to do stupid things.
Brianne, I thought bitterly, I swear, I was going to murder you if you keep overreacting.
The sad thing was that there was nothing to overreact about! Nothing happened. Yet, for some reason, there was this nagging feeling in my stomach that something had.
“Deeping in thought, are we?”
I jumped, scowling as I spotted Dannon, clad in one of Garrett’s sports shirts and a pair of jeans, hovering over me. How long had he been staring at me like that? And why hadn’t I noticed that he was leaning over me? And why hadn’t I even heard him come in? And why was he hovering? Hovering wasn’t even the word for it. I would call it looming, but that only made you think of threatening things. And looms. And that men that stole babies.
“When did you get in here?” I demanded as Dannon grinned and backed away. I sat up, scooting back and leaning against my wall. I stared him down, waiting for him to answer.
Dannon cocked an eyebrow, smiling mischievously. “Long enough.”
Oh gosh. Had I been muttering to myself? I really hoped I hadn’t. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped a littler harsher than I meant to. The fear of him hearing my thoughts seeped out into the open—hopefully masked by irritation.
Dannon chuckled, plopping down beside me. “It means nothing,” he said cheerfully. He smiled at me. “I was just here long enough.”
I hoped he realized that what he just said made no sense what-so-ever. “Whatever,” I muttered, pushing my hair out of my face. “Why don’t we actually get some work done?”
Dannon smiled. “Now, how is that possible without a camera?”
I pursed my lips together distastefully. I hated it when he was right.
| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |
“Dannon, get out of the neighbor’s tree!” I hollered.
My mom’s video camera grasped firmly in my hand, I aimed it at Dannon’s distant figure. We decided that interviewing each other in my room wasn’t the greatest idea. I mean, not only was it suffocating, but there were lots of things that could distract us. Seriously. We got side-tracked because of a slinky. A slinky. Yeah, we rolled it down the stairs. My mom hadn’t been very happy with us.
“This, everyone, is Dannon the Dufus,” I announced like the host of a television show. “He climbs up trees that do not belong to him and smiles while he does it.”
Dannon waved from the top branches of the tree. He was so lucky the neighbors were out of town. They would have skinned him alive. Well, maybe not. Maybe they’d instantly fall in love with him like my mom did. Probably. He seemed to have that effect on people.
Now, if my mom came out to find me just taping him in the tree, I’d be grounded. Dannon wouldn’t even be reprimand him, oh no. He was so lucky he was just a visitor.
“Dannon!” I screeched, my voice rising so he’d be able to hear me. “Get your scrawny ass—butt out of the tree right now.”
Yep, my swear was now on film. Whoops.
“I’m cooooming!” Dannon sang loudly, beginning his descent down the tree.
I tapped my foot impatiently, biting my lip as I watched him climb down. How the idiot managed to climb up the tree without falling, I would never know. And why he was climbing it in the first place was a complete mystery.
I grinned, holding the camera steady as Dannon hopped out of the tree and jogged toward me. “Ladies and gentlemen,” I called, “I present Dannon, the man who climbed the tree!”
I began to scream like an audience would on a show while Dannon took a dramatic bow. “Thank you, thank you!” He let his hands fall to his sides and smiled at me. “Now, you said you wanted an interview?”
My lips twitched. That was actually smart. Turning our obvious blooper into something that could actually work in a report. Ha! Yeah, like we’d be able to pull this off without laughing our asses off.
Maybe working with someone I didn’t like would be better for my grade. . . .
Oh well.
“Yes.” I nodded. “What do you like to do in your leisure time?”
Dannon cocked an eyebrow as the word “leisure” slipped off my tongue. What? Did he think I was incapable of using big words? “Well,” Dannon mused, “that’s rather difficult. I mean, besides football . . . climbing trees. . . .”
I sputtered out a laugh, covering my mouth with my hand. Damn, he just had to pull this crap when we were trying to be serious, didn’t he?
“I’d have to say,” Dannon continued, studiously ignoring my laughter, “that I mainly enjoy reading books, hanging out with some select friends, and not to mention those long walks on the beach. I mean, who doesn’t like that? With the gooey sand getting stuck between your toes and seagulls pooping on you. Romantic.”
I almost dropped the camera. I glared at him as I laughed. Did I tell him to stop being funny? “Okay, love the humor, man, but we’ve gotta be serious,” I said, aiming the camera at Dannon’s face. I zoomed in all the way so that the only thing you could see was his eyeball. I grinned. Yes, I was totally being a hypocrite. Sue me.
“What? Isn’t the project meant to show our real selves?” Dannon wriggled his eyebrows. Though, you wouldn’t be able to tell from the camera. I zoomed back out so that people could see how stupid the guy really was. “I think we’re succeeding right here.”
“Well, Mr. Barone,” I said, deepening my voice playfully as I positioned the camera right. “How did you feel when Shelley said that you are different with them than you are with my family? Any comments?”
Dannon grinned. “What can I say? You bring out the worst in me.”
I reached forward, shoving him playfully. “If this is your worst, I don’t even want to know what your best is.”
No, that didn’t make sense. No, I didn’t care.
Dannon smiled. He opened his mouth to say something more, but his cell phone rang, cutting him off. He pulled it from his pocket, tossing me an apologetic look. I nodded and paused the video camera. We didn’t need to film his conversation with his dad.
“Hey, Dad,” Dannon said cheerfully, looking off into the street. He paused. “What was that?” He glanced at me and smiled. I smiled back. “I sound cheerful? Is that a bad thing?”
I tilted my head to the side curiously. Did he not sound cheerful at home? I couldn’t imagine it. When he was around me he always had a bright smile on his face. It wasn’t fathomable for him to act any other way. Well, maybe it was. Like when he was on the phone with his dad at Aunt Jill’s house. Yeah, I hoped he was never like that again.
Dannon chuckled, bringing me out of my reverie. “Yes, I’ve been having a superb day.” He paused. “Oh. Okay.”
His expression seemed to fall, but a small smile still remained on his face. Good. Whatever his dad said wasn’t so horrible that Dannon lost his smile completely.
“Yeah, I’ll be right there.” Another pause. “’Kay, bye. Love you, too.”
He hung up the phone and sighed. “I have to go home.” He tossed me another apologetic smile. “Continue this tomorrow?”
“I have church,” I said, tucking my hands under my armpits.
“Good. I’ll go to church with you.”
Before I could even think to argue with him, Dannon was heading back to the house to get his things. I huffed under my breath, jogging after him. Dannon couldn’t come to church with us! We’d be much too loud! He could just go to another church. Like the lovely Baptist church two cities over. Mhm. That was a great idea.
“Well, my dad called and he wants me home,” Dannon announced as we entered the threshold. We crossed into the living room where my family sat on the couch. Stupid bums. Dannon smiled at them. “So, I’ll have to be going now.”
“Oh, okay!” my mom called, jumping up to give Dannon a hug. “We’ll see you soon, dear.”
Dannon smiled. “Of course!”
“I want my clothes back, Barone,” Garrett said pointedly, trying to look serious. He failed majorly, but I didn’t feel like telling him that.
“Sure thing.” Dannon pulled away from my mom and turned to me. “I’ll call you later.”
I nodded slightly, careful not to even so much as glance at Garrett. Him and his stupid “Kiss right now!” thing. I could strangle him, I really could.
I followed Dannon out the door. He held his clothes in a Wal-Mart in his right hand, his books in his left. He looked back at me and grinned. I stared at him blankly for a moment, not comprehending. But then I realized: my mom didn’t even need to tell me to walk him out this time. I rolled my eyes and muttered, “Keep walkin’.”
We reached his car. Dannon tossed his stuff into the passenger seat through the driver’s seat opened window. I bit my lip to keep a reproachful comment about throwing books from slipping out. Dannon turned, smiling slightly. I returned the smile, shoving my hands into my pockets.
“Bye,” I said simply.
“Trying to get rid of me, are we?” Dannon teased.
I shrugged, my smile growing. “Your daddy wants you home. So go!”
Dannon grinned and trotted forward, closing the distance between us. Why he felt the need to hug me goodbye now, I’d never know. I refused to move my hands with my pockets, though, so he was going to have to deal with that. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” he said merrily, letting go and opening the car door.
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, shaking my head. “No one said you have to go to church with us!”
Dannon smiled. “God and I could use a little chat.”
What was that supposed to mean? I was about to ask Dannon exactly that, but before I could, he was in the car and pulling out of the driveway. You know those moments in movies when you knew a character was talking about something important but you couldn’t figure out what they meant by it? It was annoying, wasn’t it? Well, this was kind of like that.
I sighed, dragging myself back into the house. You know, one of these days I was going to slap him. He always left the house making me think! I didn’t like thinking! I preferred my brain to be mush. It was better for all of us that way.
“You guys are so cute!” my mom cooed as I shut the door behind me. It was really sad how I couldn’t even make it inside without being bombarded.
“I know right?” Garrett joined in. “And you should have seen them earlier.”
My eyes widened as he pulled out his cell phone. No. “You didn’t,” I hissed, glowering at him. Oh gosh, kill me now! If he got a picture of when Dannon tackled me. . . .
“Awwwww!”
He had.
“Oh my goodness, did you two kiss?” my mom squealed, practically bouncing up and down. That couldn’t possibly be good for the baby. “Does that mean that my baby’s got a boyfriend?”
“We didn’t kiss, and no, Mom, Dannon is just a friend!” I replied, absolutely humiliated. Why me?
My mom smiled, and I instantly knew what she was thinking: You might be just friends now, Young One, but soon enough you will be together.
Yes, she was actually thinking Young One. She was ninja like that.
“Okay,” she said instead of voicing what we all knew what she was thinking. “I’ll be in the kitchen!”
Well, that couldn’t possibly lead to anything good.
| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |
“C—A—T, cat,” I said, placing my scrabble pieces onto the board.
My whole family glared at me. Apparently my precious three-letter words weren’t contributing enough into filling the entire board. Way to be, family! What would they do if a little girl wanted to play? They wouldn’t be upset if she made small words—she was young enough. Where was the logic in that? That was right, nowhere.
“Someone should ban her from ever playing,” Garrett whined. “Not only did she play a sucky word, but she took my spot!”
I stuck my tongue out. “Serves you right. I told you to delete the picture, but no.”
“That picture is going to be a treasure to your future children,” Garrett defended himself as he quickly found a spot and made the word “dresses” with his tiles. My jaw came close to dropping. It was not cool that he was able to have three S’s and find a use for them.
“My future children?” I scoffed. “Really?”
My mom sniffed, playing her turn. “Are you saying that you plan on depriving me of grandchildren?”
“Of course!” I said with a grin. “I thought I told you that I was joining the nunnery.”
Garrett flicked his wrist dismissively. “Yeah, okay.”
I was about to continue the argument as my dad moved his tiles onto the board, but suddenly the house phone rang, cutting off any further conversation. I shot up instantly, skipping to where the phone was plugged in on the kitchen counter. I glared as Garrett muttered a quick, “Dump her letters!” If I hadn’t been looking that way, they would have, too. Oh well. Who needed to play with people who took the game too seriously anyway?
“Hello?” I asked as I brought the phone to my ear.
“Hello!”
I wasn’t at all surprised to hear Dannon’s voice on the other line. In fact, the only thing I was surprised about was how long it took him to call. It was like nine o’clock. “Hey,” I said, grinning.
“I need directions to your church, please!”
Like I knew that. “I have no idea!” I exclaimed, rolling my eyes. “You really think I pay attention?”
“It seems to me like she talks to Dannon more than Kyla now,” Garrett commented loudly. I knew that he meant for me to hear that. It wasn’t a bash on Kyla or anything. It was to prove a moronic point about setting Dannon and I up.
But it was true. Kyla didn’t seem to call as much anymore. She was probably hanging out with Oliver or Meghan. In some cliché story, that would probably bug the hell out of me because I felt replaced, but in reality? I was happy for her. Probably like how she was happy that Dannon decided to be friends with me. Sure, he was friends with her, too, but he hung out with me more.
Gosh, I was rambling.
“Well, you should,” Dannon said, a smile clear in his voice. “I mean, you’re going to be on the roads sooner or later.”
“Shut up,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “I’m giving you to my mom, and she can tell you.”
“Okie dokie!”
I trotted over to the kitchen table and handed the phone to my mom. She looked confused, but took the phone anyway. “Hello, Dannon!” she called cheerfully into the receiver.
I plopped down at the table. It was then that I realized my pieces were missing. And what was worse? My wonderful cat had been destroyed and replaced with a cactus! Who liked cacti anyway? I regretted ever thinking that I should be one. They were cat murderers.
I glanced around the table. “Who killed the cat?”
“Curiosity,” Garrett replied, laying out some boring word on the stupid board.
I wasn’t going to admit that that was a good shot. “Seriously,” I demanded. “Cat was a perfectly good word!”
“Yeah, if you’re there.”
“I am three! I’m many threes. In fact, I’m five sets of threes and more.” I put my hands on my hips. “I’m going to hold this against you for the rest of my life.”
“Go right ahead,” Garrett said, turning and smirking at me. “You’re going to forget about it by tomorrow morning.”
Yeah, I probably was.
“Okay, honey!” my mom said, smiling. “Okay, here she is.”
My mom handed the phone back to me. I snatched the phone from her, standing back up and retreating toward the kitchen’s doorway. I wasn’t going to sit there and watch my family play. No. Sabotaging their game was so much more fun.
“Oh yeah, Brianne, you’re out of the game,” my mom informed me.
“I noticed,” I drawled, turning and leaving the room. Who needed those scrabble players? No I! No, I refused to take part in such a stupid game ever again!
“Dannon,” I whined, bringing the phone to my ear. “They forcefully removed me from playing scrabble!”
“You poor thing,” Dannon replied, laughing. “What did you do to deserve such punishment?”
“Apparently my family doesn’t approve of the words cat, tree, and goat,” I muttered. “They’re perfectly good words, am I right?”
“You’re right.” Dannon chuckled. “We’ll have to play scrabble sometime. We can suck at it together.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I plopped onto the couch and turned on the television. An episode of Adventure Time was playing on Cartoon Network. I smiled, leaning back and enjoying the show. “So, are we meeting you at church tomorrow?”
“Yeppers!” Dannon paused. I waited, knowing that he was probably listening to something his dad was saying. “Yeah!” he called, proving my point. “My dad wants to meet you,” Dannon said, his voice directed at me now.
I opened my mouth to speak and then closed it. His dad wanted to meet me? His dad knew about me? Did that mean that Dannon talked about me? Well, obviously it did. How much did he talk about me? A lot? A little? I blinked, willing the annoying thoughts that were flourishing to go away. “Really?” I said finally, smiling. “Is that a good thing?”
“Yes, yes it is.” Dannon laughed. “So, for the project, how would you feel about coming to my house tomorrow?”
“I’m going to enter the lair?” I asked dramatically, looking up at the ceiling. I sounded casual on the outside, but on the inside, I was pretty freaking excited. I’d wanted to know what Dannon’s house was like for a while now. And now I was finally going to find out!
“Yes. Don’t worry, though. There are no coffins or bats hanging from the ceiling.”
I laughed. “Okay. So, you’re coming to church and then driving me to your house?”
“And then I’ll drive you home.”
I nodded, forgetting he wasn’t there for a moment. “Sounds like a plan.”