Booker.
"Booker." Kaplan tried to wake me up. I felt her get out of the bed but I didn't turn my back to face her until . . . "Oh sh. . ." My eyes snap open and I tumble out of bed.
When I reach the hallway, Kaplan and my dad stand in front of each other, neither of them knowing what to say. My dad, being the business man he is, is wearing a suit and tie with his car keys in his hand. Kaplan, being the one that went on a date with me last night, she is only wearing my t-shirt.
She took the shorts off last night because she got hot. She tries to tug the bottom of my shirt down further but she doesn't succeed. It rises up in the back giving me a perfect shot of the folded up boxers I gave her last night?
So she did grab them. She folded them up so they wouldn't show? Well doesn't she wish she didn't do that now, doesn't she? I laugh and mentally stick my tongue out at her.
"Booker?" My dad finally breaks the silence. I lean off of the door frame and stand in front of Kaplan trying to block her half naked view from a 40 year old man. "Who is your friend?" He doesn't sound as mad as I thought he would be.
"I left a note dad." I remember. "This is Kaplan, we went out last night. Her curfew was midnight but when she got home everything was locked and she lost her key in the water at the beach." I look between my dad and Kaplan.
"Kaplan is a very pretty name." He holds out his hand for her to shake. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Allan." He smiles politely and both, Kaplan and I, are confused. "Well I best be off. Have a good day." He looks at both of us and Kaplan smiles.
I laugh and Kaplan socks my shoulder again. She waddles into the bathroom and I walk to my parents room. My mom was sitting up against her headboard reading off of her kindle. I smiled and said good morning.
"Hi sweetie." She coos and I sit on the edge of her bed. "Are you feeling alright?" She asks and sits up straight. I nod my head and she feels my forehead. "You're burning up." She gets out of bed and walks to the cabinet in her bathroom.
"I'm fine mom." I groan when she tries to stick a thermometer in my mouth. I sigh in defeat and put the cold metal under my tongue. "Look only 98.3. I'm perfectly healthy." I hand her back the stick.
"Okay fine." She playfully glares at me. "Do you want me to start breakfast early?" She asks while grabbing a pair of pants out of her dresser.
"I think I will just stop by Micas on the way to school." Right when I said that a smack was heard in my room. "Oh that's probably Kaplan. I will be right back." I tell my mom and walk to my room.
When I get to the door, Kaplan is laying on the floor with her hands over her head. My eyes widen and I kneel on the floor next to her body. My kindergarten yo-yo was on the floor near the wall?
"I hate games." She groaned, still holding onto her head. I laughed at her stupidity. "I will choke you with your own toy." I help her stand up and set her down on the end of the bed.
"Who's the dumbass now?" I crossed my arms over my chest to seem stern. "Dumbass." I laughed once more and walked over to grab my yo-yo. I wrapped up the string and set it in a drawer in my desk.
"I was playing with it and the stupid string got stuck so I shook it and it hit me." She explained glaring at my laughter. I threw my head back and clenched my eyes closed. What kind of person gets knocked out by a damn toy?
I heard her huff and then my stomach was punched. I hunched over and she grabbed her clothes from the side of the bed. She walks downstairs and I try to catch my breath. Once I am able to move, I walk downstairs and open the front door.
Kaplan is walking into Macy's house. She is probably getting her clothes and explains her absence to them. But that isn't her family? She even said that Macy was mad at her? Why is she going into that house then?
For her clothes duh. I shake my head at myself and walk upstairs. I grab my towel and walk into the bathroom for my shower. I turn the water on and put my towel on the sink counter.
I take my boxers off and step inside the scolding hot shower. I wash my hair about five times to get rid of the sand. I give up and wash my body. Once I finish everything, I step out and wrap the towel around my waist.
I walk back into my room and stop dead in my tracks. Kaplan stops too. She grabs a shirt immediately to cover up her chest. It's not like I haven't seen her in a bra and panties before. I slept with them last night for crying out loud.
I chuckled and grabbed a pair of boxers from my dresser. I slid them on under the towel and grabbed a pair of black pants. I slid those on and removed the towel. I went back into the bathroom to hang it on the drying rack. I went back into my room and saw Kaplan parading around in my shirt and a pair of my pants.
She held some of her hair above her lip and made a duck face to hold it in place. I put my hands on my hips and furrowed my eyebrows at her.
"What are you doing dork?" I crossed my arms over my chest and held a stern glare at her. She starts singing some song and jumping around. "Kaplan?" I question again. She stops and looks at me as if nothing is happening.
"Yes?" She asks nonchalantly. I walk over to her and I take my pants from her body. Once they slide down to her ankles she jumps out of them and starts dancing around in my shirt and her underwear. What the hell?
I grab her jumping body and remove the shirt as well. She gives me a challenging look but I cover it by putting her shirt over her head. I hand her the pants she brought and show her a stern look.
She huffs and slides them up her legs. I joked and told her good girl while she buttoned them. I sat on the edge and tied on her shoes. I slid my shirt that she was wearing over my head and adjust it so it covers my upper half.
I grab my beanie and put it on over my head. Kaplan takes out her hair tie and ruffles her hair. She has never worn her hair down. This is new.
It was extremely wavy. Not like beach curls but somewhere close to that. She combs through it with her fingers and fluffs it some more. It flows perfectly against her shoulders and down her back. It doesn't cover her face like most girls' hair does. The blue, though it is extremely crazy and intense, it fit her a lot.
~
Thanks for the ride." Kaplan says once I park in the back of the school. I nod my head and shut the car off. "Umm bye . . . boyfriend?" She looked at me with a face of uncertainty and awkwardness.
"Bye . . . babe?" I did the same thing. I cleared my throat to kill some of the awkwardness. Why weren't we this awkward last night? "Want me to walk you to class . . . . dear?" I looked away from her. She chuckled and opened up the door.
"We are so awkward." She shuts the door and I watch her hips sway back and forth as she walks away. I get out and run up to walk next to her.
"Booker!" My brother called after me. I turned around and saw him walking hand in hand with his girlfriend, Melissa. "Haven't spoken to you in a while." We bro hug and his girlfriend immediately goes to talk to Kaplan.
"Hey, I'm Mel." She smiles and Kaplan introduces herself. Hollywood starts telling me about his family trip. Well his trip with our aunt Parker and uncle Adam. I tell him about what has been going on.
"So Kaplan is your girlfriend, but not your girlfriend?" He repeats my words and I chuckle when his face turns to confusion. "Why are you pretending to have a girlfriend? Why not just have a real girlfriend?" He turns his back towards the chatting girls.
"I'm not into relationships. I am a hit it and quit it type of guy." I smirk and Hollywood shakes his head. "This girl is stalking me and I'm too nice to reject her . . . again." I look away and hear him scoff.
"You're so sure of yourself Booker." He crosses his arms over his chest and raises an eyebrow. I say his words in an annoying mocking voice.
"What do you know about relationships Holland." I used his name instead of his nickname. He hates his name and I love his struggle.
"I am in a relationship actually." He turns around and smiles at Mel. She smiles back at him and the way they keep looking at each other, anyone could tell that they are in love. "Why don't you and Karen? Why don't we double date or something?" He looks back at me.
"Yeah okay her name is Kaplan." I got really irritated when he said her name wrong. I don't even know why either? It was that feeling you get when someone makes a bad joke. You're just like 'seriously'?
"Oh my bad." He turns back around and hooks his arm around Mel's waist. "I'm Hollywood." He holds out his hand to shake Kaplan's. She smiles and introduces herself as well.
I walk next to Kaplan and intertwine our fingers. She yanks her hand away and glared at me. Hollywood and Mel look at each other with that couple look and I roll my eyes.
"Holland wants to double date." I change the subject and Hollywood glares at me. "What do you say . . . darling?" I still don't know what I'm doing. I am actually tempted to take advice from my brother. Not Jacob but Hollywood. Jacob doesn't even have a girlfriend. He is a loser.
Holland, though he is 2 classes lower than me, he has been dating Mel for a year, I think? He must be doing something right if he can keep a girl by his side. A girl that isn't mom, that is. Loser.
"Umm . . . who can say no?" She looks from me to the others then back at me. The bell rings, interrupting the awkwardness that is about to happen. Hollywood grabs Mel's hand again and says bye to us. "What the hell was that?!" Kaplan snapped at me when they walked away.
"What was what?" I snap back and begin walking after her. She rolls her eyes and walks faster. What the hell did I do? "Kaplan!" I grip her wrist and pull her back to me.
"Get off." She pushes me away and adjusts her bag falling from her shoulder. "I'm not your stupid little girlfriend!" She yells and my anger grows.
"I know you're not!" I shout back at her. I can't believe we are doing this in the back of the quad. I can't believe nobody has stopped to watch this all blow up.
"You sure as hell act like it!" She adjusted her bag again. She crosses her arms over her chest and glares at me. If looks could kill, I would be taking my last breath.
"That was the deal." I say more quietly. This is all so fucking great! Not Kaplan, who unfortunately is a bitch.
"I never agreed to pretend all the damn time." She tried to stay quiet as well. My temper rose higher and I snapped.
"All I did was grab your hand! You made out with me last night! You made out with me the first night we actually had a conversation! You don't wanna fucking pretend anymore?! Then go whore around somewhere else." I knew I should have stopped when her hand connected to my face.
"Here's a fucking thought! Get a real girlfriend so nobody has to pretend dumbass!" She screamed. I held my hand to my face while trying to glare at her. "Fuck you." She growled before walking away.
"Kaplan! Wait." I actually did need her. "I can't get a girlfriend." I admitted and she turned around. She walked back to me and laughed.
"Shocker there." Her arms crossed over her chest again. I rolled my eyes at her sarcasm and found the words to continue.
"Not because I can't, because I don't want to." I stated. "I don't like being with one girl. It makes sense to me." I shrug and roll my eyes at my own logic.
"So you're afraid of commitment." She raises her eyebrows. I shake my head immediately but then think about it for a second.
"Not afraid. I just don't want to commit to anything until I get ugly." I am a cocky prick. "It doesn't matter. Macy said that you didn't care for relationships so I figured you were the perfect girl." I bite my lip when I mention Macy's name. She doesn't know I spoke to Macy before asking Kaplan.
"Macy knew about this." She narrows her eyes at me. I nod hesitantly and she shakes her head with a sigh. "What exactly is this then?" She looks at me viciously.
"This is pretend." I shrug and she rolls her eyes. She walks away to class and I hurry to mine.