Jordan nudges me with his elbow, jarring me from my stare off with Reece's body a few tables down from where we're sitting. He must get lonely sitting by himself all the time.
"Go talk to him," Jordan nudges me again. "I know you want to."
I roll my eyes at him. Ever since Luke spilled the beans about me sleeping over at Reece's to Jordan, he's been teasing me about how I'm supposedly attracted to Reece. He refuses to let it go even after I told him we were just friends and nothing more.
"I do not."
He raises a brow, "then why are you staring at him?"
"I'm going to play my hopelessly-in-love-best-friend card and remind you of all the times I caught you staring at Lena."
His cheeks redden and he glances at the girl in question sitting across from him. "I stared at her because I like her, what's your excuse?"
I sputter, trying hard to come up with an answer, "shut up."
"That's what I thought," he smirks.
"You still haven't thanked me for last night."
Jordan called me last night to go see a movie but I couldn't go because I'm grounded. Instead I decided to play a little matchmaker. I had called Lena to ask her to join us, but then I didn't show up. When Jordan called to see where I was, I told him that I forgot I was grounded and they should enjoy the movie together. A few hours later, Lena texted me flipping out in excitement because Jordan asked her out. My job was done.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he grumbles. "I owe you one."
"Damn straight."
My eyes involuntarily shift back to Reece and Jordan sighs heavily, "would you just go? You're killing me with all this creepy staring."
Knowing he isn't going to let this go, I get up from my chair and stroll towards Reece. His head snaps up from his lunch tray when I sit opposite him and he gives me a questioning glare.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm sitting with you."
"I can see that, but why are you sitting with me?"
"You're my friend and I felt like sitting with you today," I shrug.
He leans towards me. "You shouldn't sit with me at school. You're going to get the same treatment as I do."
In that moment, I realize how vulnerable Reece really is. His bad boy front doesn't hide the fact that the way people treat him bothers him, at least it doesn't hide it from me. I can see it in his eyes the way the rumours and stares affect him even though he tries to hide it.
"I don't care what other people think of me, Reece. I'm going to sit wherever I damn well please."
His eyes bore into me for what seems like forever trying to gauge my expression to see if I'm being serious or not. He must realize that I'm deadly serious as he nods and looks back down to his lunch.
"Look what we have here," an annoying voice sneers behind me.
I turn my head in Scott's direction. "What do you want?"
"Just coming to see how the happy couple is doing."
I raise a brow, "You seriously have nothing better to do?"
Reece's entire body tensed up as soon as Scott spoke the first word. He simply glares ahead, and unlucky for me, I'm sitting directly in front of him.
Scott's meaty hand drops onto my shoulder. "You sure you don't want to ditch this lowlife loser and take a real man for a ride?"
"Excuse me?" I sputter incredulously at the same time as Reece shoots up from his chair.
His hands are balled into fists with a glare so cold it could kill. Reece is spitting mad and if I don't do something right now there's going to be an all out brawl in the middle of the cafeteria.
Smacking Scott's hand off of me, I stand up and move closer to Reece. "Were you born on a highway?"
Both Reece and Scott look at me with matching expressions of confusion on their faces.
"No, why?" Scott answers.
I shrug, "that's just where most accidents happen."
Scott's jaw drops as Reece bursts out laughing
"Listen Dick," I begin, "do you mind if I call you Dick? If you ever have any hope of getting a girl to sleep with you that is definitely not the way to go."
Before he can respond I grab Reece's hand and drag him out of the room with me. Reece is staring at me by the time we get outside.
"What?" I ask, reaching a hand up to my face.
"Nothing."
"C'mon," I nod over to the parking lot, "we're going to my house."
"Why are we going to your house?" He questions, jogging to catch up to me.
"I feel like ditching and you're ditching with me."
He stops walking beside me and I turn to look at him. "Well? Are you coming or not?"
He reaches the bike first and passes me his helmet, "let's go."
We get to my house fifteen minutes later and I lead Reece to the basement.
"Why don't we make this more interesting?" he smirks as we set up the Xbox.
"What did you have in mind?"
"Loser cooks for the winner."
I match his smirk. "I hope you know how to cook."
Let the games begin.
Two hours later, I'm sitting comfortably on the couch boasting about my victory. That's right, I won the bet and now Reece has to cook for me.
"It's time to make me dinner, slave" I grin.
He rolls his eyes, "lead the way, mistress."
"So what are you going to make me?" I hop up onto the counter in the kitchen.
"Depends on what you have."
"Be my guest," I gesture around the kitchen for him to look around.
He searches through the cupboards for a minute. "How do you feel about spaghetti?"
"I love spaghetti. It's actually my favourite."
"Good because it happens to be my specialty," he says, gathering up all the ingredients.
"You can cook? I figured you would end up making me sandwiches or something," I laugh.
"I can actually cook really well. My mom taught me pretty early on and I kept at it after she died."
"Oh," I mumble awkwardly.
I didn't expect Reece to talk about his mother again, although having him tell me something about him makes me feel as if he trusts me enough to share that part of his life with me.
We spend the rest of the time cooking and joking around. I actually end up helping Reece even though he's the one who lost the bet. Reece is actually pretty fun to be around when he isn't being moody.
He sets a plate full of delicious spaghetti in front of me at the dining table and looks at me expectantly. I roll my eyes, grasping my fork to take a bite to satisfy him. As soon as the noodles coated in a savoury tomato sauce touch my tongue, an explosion of flavour erupts in my mouth and I have trouble stifling a moan at the taste. I think Reece can tell that I really like it though because a satisfied smirk lifts his lips.
Reece decides he wants to see my room after we finish eating. I plop down on my bed as he takes in the pictures on the walls. They're of my friends at school, some of Luke, Dad, and Zach. As he continues to observe, I stand up from my bed and walk over to my desk to pick up my digital camera.
"Reece," I call to him.
He turns to look over his shoulder at me, his gaze drops to the camera in my hands and his eyes narrow.
"You are not taking my picture," he says firmly.
"Please? I have pictures with all my friends," I pout, giving him my best puppy eyes.
His eyes soften and he sighs stepping towards me. I grin to which he answers with a scowl, but I can tell he's trying to fight his own smile. I pull him closer then lift my arm in front of us to snap the picture.
After the flash goes off I lower my arm and press the button to see the picture. I smile when I see that Reece actually has a small smile on his face. Although I notice that he isn't looking directly at the camera but instead he is staring at me out of the corner of his eye. I turn my head in order to show him the picture, but when I look up he's already gazing at me.
My breath hitches at how close our faces are, I can even feel the heat emanating from his body. I glance up into his breathtaking brown eyes and there's an intense look in them before they flash down to my lips. I gulp harshly and instinctively lick my now dry lips. I don't know who moves first, or if we both move at the same time, but his lips lightly brush mine in a slow kiss.
Our lips move in sync and tingles erupted on my skin where his hand his cupping my cheek. One of my own hands tangle into the hair at the nape of his neck. His other hand rests on my hip and a shiver of pleasure courses through my body. This has to be the best kiss I have ever had. I mean, Reece definitely knows what he's doing.
The kiss ends abruptly when Reece pulls away and steps back with wide eyes. He stares at me as if he has no idea what just happened. Our breaths are harsh even though the kiss didn't last very long, maybe twenty seconds tops. I try to open my mouth to say something, but my mind is completely stuck on the feel of his lips against mine.
"I'm sorry," he blurts out. "I didn't mean to do that."
"What?"
"It was a mistake," he continues without looking at me, "a heat of the moment thing."
Something inside of me shatters when he says it was a mistake. I don't quite know what it is, but I don't like the feeling.
"Um," I blink, clearing my head, "yeah, a mistake."
"I should go," he murmurs, walking to the door without another word.
As I place my fingers on my tingling lips all I can think is what the hell just happened?
Soon after Reece leaves I decide to call Zach and ask him for advice. I know he's a guy, but he's also my best friend and I know he'll be able to help me even if I have to suffer through a bit of teasing before he dishes out his advice.
"Quinn, I've missed you," he says as soon as he answers the phone.
I laugh, "We talked a few days ago."
"A few days too many in between. You have to call me every day!" he demands dramatically.
"I can't call you every day. I do have a life, you know."
He sighs heavily, "you wound me."
"Stop being so dramatic. I actually called to ask for some advice."
"Advice about what?"
I stand up from my bed and start pacing around my room. "You know when you asked me if I met any boys?"
"Yes..." He answers wary.
"Well I lied," I confess. "I did meet a boy and I may have kissed him a little bit."
"You did what!?" Zach shouts after a moment of silence.
I pull the phone away from my ear. "I kissed him... or he kissed me? Ugh, I don't know who kissed whom. It isn't important, all I know is that a kiss happened."
"What happened after the kiss?" he asks in his serious I-mean-business voice.
"He pulled away and looked speechless. He said that it was a mistake and was just the heat of the moment."
"Hmm."
"Hmm? What does hmm mean?" I pinch the bridge of my nose in exasperation.
"Well it could be that it really was the heat of the moment, or maybe he likes you and didn't know how to react after."
"No, there's no way that he likes me. We've known each other less than a month and why would he even like me in the first place?"
"Because you're hot," he states simply.
"Zach! You're not helping," I whine.
"Okay, okay. You're a great person, honey bunches, any guy would like you."
"Yeah right," I snort.
He sighs, "I really don't know what to tell you, Quinn. I don't know this guy so I have no idea what he could be thinking."
"Thanks anyway," I throw myself onto my bed in sudden exhaustion
"Call me if anything else of the sort happens and I can try to help you out. Oh wait, what's his name anyway?"
"It's Reece Daniels."
"Reece Daniels?" He mumbles confused. "Why does that sound kind of familiar?"
"It sounds familiar? I don't think you would know him. How would you even know him?"
"I have no idea," he concludes. "It's probably just one of those names that sounds familiar."
"Probably. Anyway, Luke is going to be home soon so I should go."
"Call me soon. I love you."
"I will. I love you, too."
Hanging up the phone, I sigh heavily. My fingertips brush my lips as the kiss replays in my head one more time.
Reece, why did you kiss me?