Him (2 page)

"Of course." I fake as much enthusiasm as possible.

Crap
. He’s chewing on the corner of his bottom lip. He always does that when he's thinking. Maybe he's onto me.

I exhale
. "I just don’t think Jessica likes me." I look at my feet.

"She doesn't
," he admits.

My mouth drops open
, and my eyes flick to his. "Then why do you want me to go?"

He
shrugs, his typical non-answer. He closes his locker and picks up his bookbag as we make our way to the side exit.

I knew it. "Why doesn’t she like me?"

He's shaking his head. "Don’t worry about her. She’s just jealous of you."

I stop walking, stunned
. "Why?"

He rolls his eyes
, and I punch him in the arm.

"You're so violent
," he grins, rubbing the spot I punched.

I raise my brows
. He still hasn’t answered my question.

He groans, tugging on my arm so I start walking again
. "Fine, whatever. She thinks I'd rather hang out with you."

I wrinkle my nose at him
. We both know he would. I have no idea why he's even dating her. She's such a bitch. Will's looking everywhere but at me. Sometimes he seriously sucks at just spitting something out.

"So
." I stop again. My hands are on my hips. "You freely admit your girlfriend doesn’t like me, but you still want me to go to the movies with the two of you and be a third wheel?"

He nods like he's thrilled I've finally figured out one plus one equals two.

"William Ethan Price." I pause between each part of his name. He totally hates it when I say his whole name. "You are like need-to-go-to-a-mental-institution crazy if you think I'm going to go see a movie with you two."

He turns to me, grabbing my hand
, and holds it in both of his. "Please Sarah. Come on. You know you want to see this movie."

I can't lie
. I am completely affected by his touch. I am almost tingling all over just because he's holding my hand. Get it together, you pathetic loser, I tell myself, but he's won. I just can't say no to him. No matter how much it breaks my heart to see him with her, I'd do anything for him. Sometimes you just can't help it when you're in love with your best friend, and he has no idea.

"You're paying
, and I want an Icee," I grumble.

He grins and gives the back of my hand an exaggerated kiss. My eyes widen as I feel his perfect lips on my skin. I think I must have forgotten how to breathe because suddenly I'm somehow choking on air. Will drops my hand and thumps me on the back
. How romantic. Not that I should be even wasting my time thinking about romance. He’s not mine.

"I still don’t get why you want me to go." I say
, once I'm able to speak again.

"Honestly
, I wish Jessica wasn’t going," he mumbles.

I smack his arm again
. "You're the one who's dating her," I exclaim.

"I'm thinking about
breaking up with her."

Do it! Do it! My brain shrieks.

"So do you think I should?" He looks at me, chewing the corner of his mouth.

Yes! "Look
, Will. I feel really weird giving you advice on something like this. I mean, come on. I have like zero dating experience."

"I think I like someone else."

No! "Who?" I can't look at him. This conversation is like a roller coaster ride. First, he tells me he's thinking about breaking up with Jessica, and now, he might like someone else. I don’t know if my heart can handle watching him date someone new all over again.

He hasn’t answered
. "Who is she?" I keep my eyes forward and nudge his toe.

"I don’t want to say. I don’t think she likes me like that."

My eyes snap to his. How is that even possible? He is only the sweetest, most wonderful, not to mention gorgeous, guy in our school. Scratch that. State. "Then she doesn’t deserve you."

He's chewing on the side of his bottom lip again. He pauses and shrugs before putting me in a headlock and walking like that with me down the hall. In vain I try to push off his stomach
, but he just laughs and keeps walking. He is so annoying sometimes. Turning my face towards his bicep, I lick it. He releases me with a stunned look on his face. I stretch my neck and stick my tongue out at him.

"I can't believe you just licked my arm
," he stammers.

"You deserved it
," I taunt.

"Oh, I'm so going to get you
," he says right before he rushes me.

I scream, running out the door and into the school parking lot. Will is hot on my heels. I just barely make it to his car and drop my backpack on top of the trunk. His pace has slowed
, and he lazily drops his on the hood. He has a very devious glint in his eyes. I'm in trouble, big time trouble. He starts towards the back of the car.

I head towards the front of the car
, saying, "Please don't, please don't." I have no idea what he has planned, and I don’t want to find out.

He's rubbing his hands together and doing his best impression of an evil laugh. It's making me laugh
, and I kind of have to pee. This is bad.

"Promise you won't tickle me
," I beg.

"No promises
, Miller Lite." He moves closer.

I scream again and am at the back of his
Jetta again.

"
Gotta face the music, Sarah. There’s no way you're getting out of this."

He lunges for me
, but I evade him by inches, just feeling the movement of air from his missed grasp on the back of my legs. I'm panting by the time I reach the front of the car. I look back at him and freeze. He's not there. Shit! Where the hell did he go? I crouch down to look under the car and don’t hear him until it's too late, and I'm airborne. Before I know it, I’m hanging over his shoulder, and he is racing to the field behind the parking lot. He flops me down on my back and sits on me straddle-style.

"Oh my God
," I yell. "You’re crushing me."

He just grins and waggles his fingers at me.

I try to buck him off of me, but he just laughs. "Don't," I gasp. "I swear I have to pee. If you tickle me while sitting on my bladder, I will never forgive you."

He chews on the side of
his bottom lip as he thinks it over. I'm still trying to push him off of me.

"Deal
," he says suddenly. "I promise I won't tickle you."

I exhale and then gasp as his face drops to mine.

"Doesn't mean that I won't still have my revenge," he breathes.

We are almost nose to nose. Is he going to kiss me? I'm just about to close my eyes and dissolve into this fantasy when his tongue comes out, and he proceeds to lick the side of my face from chin to temple.

I'm horrified, and I must look it because he falls off of me to one side, laughing.

"Your face
." He's having issues breathing. "You should have seen your face."

I push at him and jump up, unable to suppress the involuntary shudder his revenge gives me. It only causes him to laugh even more.

"You are so gross, William," I huff, marching towards his car.

He catches up with me and pulls me into
a hug. "You licked me first."

I step on his foot
, and he kisses the top of my head and lets me go. Pulling his keys out of his pocket, he unlocks his car. I grab my backpack and sink into the front seat. He throws his backpack in the backseat and gets in. I know he's looking at me, but I ignore him. He pushes my knee, and I shake my head, still refusing to look at him.

"Ah
, come on, Sarah. Don't be mad at me," he pleads.

I huff and cross my arms over my chest. I'm trying my best to stay mad at him
. It never lasts long, but he's making it easier right now because he still hasn’t stopped laughing. He licked my face. Ugh. What bothers me the most is for a spilt second I thought he was going to kiss me. I am probably more angry at myself than anything else. How could I even think that? I'm such an idiot.

"
Wanna press the button?"

I snort. He seriously thinks press
ing the sunroof button is going to make everything all better?

"Well if you don't want to
, I will." He raises his hand.

"No, I'll press it
," I shout, pushing his hand away and pressing the button.

I wrinkle my nose at him
. Damn him. He knows I love pressing that button. I look over at him. He's holding back a laugh. I can tell. I roll my eyes and smile at him. I can never stay mad at him. He grins at me and parks in front of my house. I dash inside and straight to the bathroom. It's a miracle I didn't pee when he sat on me. After I wash my hands, I wash my face, my just licked face. He is such a punk. When I come out of the bathroom, he is leaning on the wall opposite of it, grinning at me. I roll my eyes at him, and he follows me into our kitchen. I pop some popcorn, and we go sprawl out on the sofa in the family room to watch TV. He sits up when his phone rings.

"Hey
."

I mouth
, who is it? He mouths back, Jessica. Ugh, I hate her. I look away, but I can't help but listen to what he's saying.

"You didn’t have to do that
." He looks at me.

I shrug.

"But I don’t think she even likes him."

I look at him out of the corner of my eye. He's staring at me and messing with his hair. I mouth at him
, what? He shakes his head. I take out my phone and check my horoscope, Taurus. Love is in the air. If you are in a relationship you’ll find yourself feeling closer to that special someone. Single love awaits on the horizon. Once I'm done reading mine, I read Will's, Capricorn. Your imagination is on overdrive today. Relax, take a step back, and reevaluate your goals. It is possible something has changed that will realign your future plans.

"Alright, fine
, I'll ask her." He puts his other hand over the mouth of the phone. "Jessica invited Kyle to come to the movies as your, um, date."

My eyes widen.

"I can just tell her you don’t like him, and he doesn’t have to come."

My brows come together
. "Kyle Nelson?"

He chews the side of his bottom lip and nods.

"I'm okay going with Kyle."

Will
looks at me as though I started speaking in tongues. I smack his knee and point to his phone.

He looks at me again before lifting his phone back to his ear
. "Yeah, Sarah says that's cool." He pauses as she speaks. "No, I'll drive. There's no point taking two cars." He's looking at me again. I make a face at him, and he smiles.

After Will hangs up
, he stares at me.

"What?"

"I didn’t know you liked Kyle."

I shrug "He's okay
, I guess. I've never really hung out with him. Besides, I hate being the third wheel to you and whatever girl you end up dating. Maybe it'd be nice to have someone too."

"You never feel like a third wheel to me."

I roll my eyes. There’s no way he could understand. I turn onto my side, pulling the popcorn bowl in front of me and stretching my legs out onto Will's lap. He leans back and puts his feet on the coffee table, his hands resting on my calves. Every so often he taps on my leg, a signal that he wants popcorn, and I turn to toss a couple in his direction. He's very good at catching them and always has the cutest oh yeah face after he does it.

"Are you wearing underwear?"

I'm amazed that my eyes are still actually in their sockets. I turn my head, incredulous. "Excuse me?"

"I can totally see your butt cheek."

My mouth drops as my hand moves to press down the back of my shorts. I guess somehow they rode up when I laid down. "Yes, I'm wearing underwear."

He shakes his head, looking at my hand as it press
es my shorts to my skin. "It didn’t look like it."

"Stop looking at my butt."

"Who's looking at your butt?"

Both of our heads turn to my brother
, Brian, as he walks into the family room.

"Will is
." I'm a total tattle tale.

Brian gives Will a weird look and goes to sit in a side chair closer to Will's side of the couch. He smacks Will across the top of his head as he walks past him, then points at him, then me, then back at him. Will nods, rubbing his head. It was like a whole conversation passed between them. I roll my eyes and pull the throw blanket off of the back of the couch, draping it over my torso and butt. Will just looks traumatized and keeps looking over at my brother every so often. He doesn’t relax until Brian declares we are watching stupid shit and leaves the room.