Casey
"You're such a dick," I mutter, pushing myself off of Wall and walking into my house.
"Aw, c'mon, Case, don't be so butthurt just because I'm such a charm."
I scoff. "You are not a charm. You're an idiot."
He hisses. "Ouch," he whimpers, placing a hand on his chest.
I roll my eyes.
"I'm gonna make popcorn." He grabs two popcorn bags and pops one into the oven after unfolding it, turning the oven on, both of us listening to the satisfying crinkling and popping. "C'mon, Casey, don't be mad, I'm just trying to have fun with you."
"That!" I exclaim, referring to earlier when he kissed me on my neck twice. "Was not fun!"
He grins. "You loved it."
When the microwave beeps, signaling the first bag of popcorn was popped, I take it out and pour the popcorn into a bowl, putting the next bag in.
"Let's watch a movie," Wall runs over to the stacks of movies and picks out "Father Figures". "Yes!"
I roll my eyes and when the microwave beeps again, I take out the second bag and pour it into the same bowl, getting two glasses of water and walking to the living room, setting the items on the coffee table, Wall collapsing beside me and playing the movie.
"So," He turns to me. "Now that we're BFF's, how about you tell me stuff about you?"
I roll my eyes at the "we're BFF's" comment. "What do you wanna know?"
"I dunno. Something."
"My name is Casey."
"Woah, no way, dipshit. Come on! Interesting stuff!"
"I have three brothers."
"Okay, and their names are...?"
"Tony, Walsh, and Owen."
"Ooh. Okay, tell me more."
I sigh loudly. "How about we just watch the movie?"
"Come on...! Tell me about your parents."
I sigh softly and swallow. "I have a mom. Her name's Monica."
"What about your dad?"
I sigh and slightly shrug, keeping my eyes on the bowl of popcorn.
"Oh," Wall tightens his arms around me. "Okay."
"Your turn," I say softly.
He chuckles and pushes my hair from my face. "Well, I have two brothers; Auden and Dom."
I nod slightly. "And your parents?"
He sighs softly with a smile. "I don't got any."
I slowly look at him, my eyes wide. "Oh."
He clicks his teeth. "Yeah, they died a little bit ago. But it's okay. Shit happens."
"So you... take care of them on your own?"
He nods slightly. "Me and my older sister, Saylor. She's here for the month, so she's been watching them so I can see my friends more."
"That's nice,"
"Yeah."
It's silent for a while until I whisper, "My dad left a while ago."
Wall smiles sadly and brushes my hair from my face again. "Now we're getting somewhere."
******
It's midnight, Wall's been here for four hours, and the entire time we've been putting on movies and talking about our lives. We don't talk much about family which doesn't bother me, but he does enjoy telling me about his brothers. They're twins, both twelve years old, and he showed me a picture. They looked so much like him.
I realized how great of a person Wall was. He was seventeen years old, raising two twelve-year-old boys on his own, balancing a home, school, and work. I could never be like that, but I was proud that he could.
"Y'know," I tell Wall softly as we're cooking ramen noodles since we were hungry. I walk over to the stove where he is, stirring the noodles, and I turn it up a little. "If you ever need someone to watch the boys for anything, I can watch 'em. My brothers would love to hang out with them, they're at each other's throats almost twenty-four-seven."
Wall smiles down at me. "I'll keep that in mind." He then gasps. "Are we... bonding?!"
I gasp obnoxiously, then roll my eyes and look back at the pasta. "We were until you ruined it."
He laughs and wraps his arms around my waist, making me squeal, and he lifts me onto the counter, his hands on either side of my thighs on the marble top, leaning over me.
"Sorry, kitten," he murmurs, smirking.
I swallow and quickly push him away. "Quit."
"Quit what?"
"Quit calling me Kitten. And Baby. And trying to piss me off."
"I'm not trying to do anything, baby."
I groan loudly and push him farther away, climbing down from the counter and beginning to walk off, but he catches me in his arms and pulls me against him.
"S - Stop!" I cry, pushing him away. "Just quit, Haze!"
"Damn, what is your deal?" he asks.
I huff and sit on the couch, keeping my eyes on my feet. I didn't want to seem like a huge pussy and say I've never even had my first kiss, but I just felt uncomfortable and nervous when he did those things.
I can feel Wall's presence over me, and he's probably trying to figure out what's wrong with me. After a few moments, he lets out a large sigh and collapses beside me.
"I know what the problem is," he sighs.
I glance at him.
"You're a virgin to everything, aren't you?"
I swallow and look back down. "Except neck kisses."
He laughs, leaning back. "I make you nervous."
I roll my eyes. "Don't get too full of yourself, Beckett."
He hisses. "Ouch, used my last name. You're really mad."
I scoff. "Will you just go home since you're being a huge dick?"
"Casey, I'm just playin', what's the problem?"
"The problem is that I'm almost an adult and none of this shit is happening, and you're making fun of me for it!"
"I'm not making fun of you for it, I'm just commenting on it!"
"Well, stop!"
He scoffs. "You're so overdramatic, Jesus Christ!"
"Then get out if I'm such an issue!"
"I never fucking said that!"
"You're acting like I am!"
"Oh my God, just shut up!"
"You shut up!"
"Oh my fucking God, I'm literally gonna... "
"What, what are you gonna do?" I demand.
We glare at each other in silence for a long time until he grunts loudly and storms off into the kitchen. I look at my feet, my mind boggled with stupid thoughts. Soon enough, Wall came back and sat beside me, both of us silent.
"It's not that big of a deal," Wall says softly. "To not have done anything yet."
"It is in this world. Everyone judges on what you do and don't do. If you've done nothing, then no one likes you and you're a loser. If you have done stuff, then you're a slut. There's no win-win. And I know for a fact you're not a virgin."
"And...?"
Of course, the one time I didn't want to be right, I was. "And that's embarrassing for me. I know none of you are; you, Matt, Elias. Jovie isn't. I'm the only one."
"Elias is."
I sigh softly. "So two to five. Great. And I know he's at least kissed someone."
"Well yeah, he's desperate for a girlfriend, but he's not gonna fuck anyone till he's married."
"Waiting until marriage isn't my plan, I just don't want to waste my first... everything on someone who's gonna leave me and take it all away from me. Because then it's going to mean nothing."
He nods slightly. "Yeah. I get that."
I sigh again and bury my face in my hands.
"If this changes anything, I think it's good you're waiting,"
I glance at him.
"It'll make the guy feel special. Besides, saving yourself is good. I wish I wasn't a dumbass and had done that."
"But you're popular," I say softly. "And it's normal for popular people to not be virgins."
"Again; Elias."
"Okay, that's one person, Haze. Out of hundreds."
"Why are you so angry about this?"
"I - I don't know!" I rake my fingers through my hair in frustration. "I just am." I sigh. "Like I said; people judge on what they've done and what they haven't done. To people, I'm a prude, a killjoy, a 'goody-goody', and that sucks ass, it's not a good thing to be thought of."
"No one thinks of you as that, Casey. That's what you think of yourself as. Jesus, I'm boutta kiss you just to shut you up."
I roll my eyes and sigh, rubbing my eyes. "Whatever. I'm going to bed."
"Yay, sleepover!" Wall whoops.
I stare at him. "I am not about to sleep in the same room as you."
He grins. "How about we sleep on the couch?"
"Hell. No."
"Aw, come on, Casey, don't be a prude." He smirks.
"I'm about to kick your ass out."
He groans loudly. "I'm just PLAYING!" he screams, slapping his arms on the couch.
I groan. "You're so annoying." I pull him off the couch and pull the couch out, the couch turning into a bed. I grab some blankets from the closet and two pillows from my room, laying them on the couch-bed, Wall and I both laying on it.
"Keep your distance, I'll keep mine," I say.
"But what if I don't want you to keep your distance," Wall whines. "C'mon, I'm lonely."
I roll my eyes and ignore him, but arms suddenly wrap around me and pull me back, a hard body pressed against mine. My cheeks flush brightly and I hide my face in a blanket.
"So you've never had a sleepover with a boy?" Wall asks. "Never cuddled with a boy?"
"Don't even think about it, Beckett."
"Aw, c'mon, it's so comfy, though. It does consist of hardly any clothing, but because you're a Virgin Mary, you can keep your clothes on."
I scoff and ignore him, trying to fall asleep, and I'm almost asleep after about ten minutes when arms pick me up and I'm rested on a hard body, half of my leg hung over the body, my hand on the side of the person's neck so I don't fall.
"Mmm," Wall purrs, pressing his cheek to my forehead. "Better."
I ignore him and listen to the TV to help me fall back asleep when I jump at the soft touch of fingers stroking my hair from my face.
"Wall," I warn.
He chuckles. "Relax, Mustard. I won't do anything bad. This is how I help the boys fall asleep."
"You make them lay on you?"
He snorts. "No, I lay with them and mess with their hair until they fall asleep. Or I do this," His thumb suddenly gently rubs up and down from the bridge of my nose to in between my eyebrows. I sigh softly, my soul slowly beginning to disappear into the depths of sleep.
"It's working, hmm?" Wall murmurs with a soft chuckle.
"Mm," I grunt softly, unable to respond.
He, again, chuckles softly and places a gentle kiss on my forehead. "Goodnight, Mustard."
Goodnight, Wall.