Presently Perfect (Perfect #3) (4 page)

I leaned away, put my iPod down, and jumped off the table. Her eyes narrowed as her brows squished together. The expression was priceless. Maintaining eye contact, I reached around to my back pocket. Slowly I brought my hand around and held up the two concert tickets.

“Performing Arts Center, three weeks, you and me, Tweet,” I said, grinning.

Her eyebrows shot up as her head tipped to the side and her jaw dropped open. She blinked several times, not quite registering my words. I waved the tickets in front of her face hoping to snap her out of her shock and awe. I worked and saved all summer for these tickets, cutting grass in the neighborhood and doing extra chores for my parents. My dad must have asked me at least five times if I was sure I wanted to spend all the money I had worked so hard for on one thing. When the one thing was Tweet, the answer was a definite yes.

After several seconds I saw a flicker of recognition cross her eyes. “You’re kidding?!”

Shaking my head, I answered, “Nope.”

As she launched herself off the table I instinctively opened my arms to catch her. Stumbling back, I lost my balance, landing us both on the ground with Tweet straddling me. We were both laughing so much it was hard to catch our breath. The combination of her body, her laughter, and the excitement in her eyes had me “excited”
in record time.

“Noah Stewart, you are the bestest best friend a girl could have.”

“I
am
pretty awesome, aren’t I?” I cocked an eyebrow and shot a flirtatious smirk up at her.

“Yes you are,” she said in a low breathy voice.

Tweet squirmed slightly on top of me. This, of course, made me even harder than I was already. Our faces were so close that if either one of us puckered our lips they would have been touching. My gaze moved up and down her face before it froze on her eyes. Tweet had the most amazing eyes I’d ever seen. They were big, greenish blue, and my favorite things to look into. Her dark brown lashes made the unique color pop even brighter. The curves of her face were soft and smooth—from her high cheekbones, to the slope of her nose that turned up at the end, down to the little dimple in her chin.

She had to have felt how hard I was but she wasn’t freaking out about it. After a few seconds when she didn’t move I allowed my attention to focus more on how her body felt against mine. Her hands were between us, holding her up slightly, but I felt her boobs against my chest. Several months ago Tweet’s body started to change or maybe I just started to notice. That’s when my world flipped upside down and confusion took up permanent residence where Tweet was concerned.

The first thing that caught my eye was her ass. It was round, firm, and the way it curved out from her body drove me crazy. Then one day out of nowhere she got her awesome boobs. They were perky, full, and next to her eyes, my favorite thing to stare at. I especially enjoyed it when the top of her boobs peeked out from underneath her shirt. Tank tops and low cut T-shirts were the best. All the parts of her body fit together perfectly and felt fantastic on top of me. Glancing down at her pink lips caused a tremor to run through me. My tongue darted out, wetting my bottom lip. Her hair had fallen from behind her ear and brushed the side of my face. It was soft and as usual smelled like vanilla and raspberries. The tips of my fingers tingled as they trailed the length of her hair, tucking it back behind her ear.

“You were extremely sure of yourself, getting those tickets without asking me first. What if I didn’t want to go with you?” she said, teasing.

“Impossible. I know my girl too well.” We exchanged smiles. I wanted to kiss her so much right then, but I was too scared. I didn’t know how to really kiss a girl.

She’s not a girl. She’s Tweet. Your best friend.

I couldn’t take her being this close to me any longer. Clearing my throat, I said, “I guess we better get up.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry about that.” Her cheeks turned deep red.

As she rolled off of me her thigh slid over my dick, causing my eyes to shut tight. I sucked in a deep breath. The friction felt amazing. Pulling my knees up, I rested my elbows on them, and lowered my head. I needed a minute. Tweet must have gotten the message because she sat quietly next to me.

Once certain parts of my body relaxed I was able to stand up. Tweet slipped her hands into my outstretched ones, and in one fluid movement, I helped her off the ground, pulling her into my chest.

“That was fun. What would you do for tickets to see Green Day in concert?” I asked, smirking down at her.

Her body pressed up against mine had my head spinning and the rest of me vibrating. As we stood there the look in her eyes shifted from warmth to what looked like sadness. I felt a heaviness in my chest.

Should I have kissed her? Was she sad because I didn’t? Couldn’t she tell I wanted to? Maybe she was scared I was going to.
She was probably grossed out by how hard I was and just didn’t want to hurt my feelings by jumping away.

I opened my mouth to say something but my mind was cloudy. I wasn’t ready and by the look on Tweet’s face neither was she. I took in a deep breath and stepped back.

“I guess we should be getting home.” I paused. I’d always been able to read Tweet so easily, knowing her thoughts like they were my own. It was getting harder and harder for me to figure out what was going on in her head. “Unless you have something you want to tell me.”

Chewing on her bottom lip, she glanced down, twisting the edge of her shirt around her finger. “I was just going to say the same thing about getting home.”

I waited a second for her to let go of her shirt so that I could take her hand. Her head tilted up, but her eyes were focused over my shoulder. A shy smile flashed across her face before she turned and walked away. As the distance between us grew so did the tightness in my chest. Something had happened. I didn’t know what it was, but I saw it in her eyes. Things between us were no longer changing, they had already changed.

Travis collapsed against the set of lockers, clutching one hand over his chest. “Be still my beating heart.”

I looked around my locker door at him. Chuckling, I said, “What’s your deal, man?”

Travis and I met over the summer at baseball camp and had hit it off from the start. Even though he was a sophomore and I was a freshman he always acted cool about hanging out together. I followed his gaze. The hallway was crowded with students slamming lockers, talking, and rushing to their next class. He didn’t need to tell me what had grabbed his attention. She was tall, blond, and very curvy. She walked down the hall with confidence, acting like she owned the place—head up, shoulders back, hips swiveling from side-to-side, causing the slightest bounce of her ass. The snug shirt she wore outlined the curves of her back, stopping at the top of her painted on low rise jeans. As she swayed, a little of her skin was revealed at the small of her back. I felt a twitch in my pants. My gaze stayed glued to that ass until it disappeared around the corner.

“Hey Amanda.” The sound of Travis’s voice knocked me out of my daze.

Glancing back I caught Tweet’s beautiful teal eyes looking directly at me. I quickly lowered my gaze, turning back toward my locker, and pretended to be searching for another book.

“Hey Travis,” she said. I jerked slightly when I felt her hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay, Noah?”

My throat closed up. I didn’t know why I felt weird. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I looked at a girl’s ass. There was no crime in that. Tweet wasn’t my girlfriend. Since the day at our spot when I showed her the tickets, I had tried to hold her hand again, but she avoided my reach. I wanted to touch her all the time, that hadn’t changed, but things between us had. At times she acted nervous and shy around me. This was a good thing. I had no business touching her or thinking about touching her.

Clearing my throat, I snapped, “I’m fine!”

“Damn, you don’t have to bite my head off,” she huffed.

Stepping back, I closed my locker. “I’m sorry, Tweet. I’m just stressed about the Science test I have after lunch.”

“You answered all the review questions perfectly last night when I quizzed you.” She gave me a sweet smile.

My heart dropped into my stomach. Not only had I looked at another girl, I was lying about it. I was a lying ass-looker. I needed to get ahold of myself. It was becoming clearer that Tweet didn’t want anything more than a friendship with me. She wasn’t a freak like me. My head and heart kept arguing. My head tried to convince my heart that it was wrong to think of her as my girl but my heart knew better.

My eyes spent the first half of lunch period nervously darting around the cafeteria looking for “her”
.
It wasn’t that I wanted to see “her”
really. It was more like I wanted to see certain parts of “her”. When I spotted “her”
walking down the hall I didn’t get a look at the face. I wondered if the front was as curvy and large like the back. I shifted in my chair, adjusting myself. Even though I had every right to look at any girl I wanted to, I still felt uncomfortable doing it in front of Tweet.

We had only been in school for a week but it had become the norm for Beth, Tweet, and I to eat lunch together. Tweet and I sat beside each other as Beth’s rapid-fire babble flew across the table. Every few minutes Beth would take a breather, look at me, smile, wink, and then go back to talking. I needed to focus on something other than the girl next to me, the girl across from me, or the girl whose ass had me disoriented. Taking out my notebook, I buried my face and concentrated on studying.

A chill ran over me. I shifted my gaze to Tweet. Tension rolled off of her as she stared straight ahead. I glanced up for a split second to see what had her so anxious. It was
her
and she was bouncing right toward us. I kept my head down trying to ignore my surroundings.

“Yay! I found y’all.” Her southern drawl was squeaky and high.

“Hey, Brittani, I saved you a seat,” Beth said.

My knee bobbed up and down under the table at a steady pace. The sound of the chair across from me scraping the floor caused my mouth to go dry while sending a stinging sensation down my arms to my hands. I could feel the stares aimed at me from my side as well as directly in front of me. I needed to get out of here.

Just play dumb, man. Like you’re clueless that she’s sitting across from you.

I lifted my head at the clearing of a throat.

“I’m Brittani Monroe.” Her hand was extended toward me and it was right in line with her massive chest.

Focus on the hand. Focus on the hand. Wow, her shirt was really tight and low cut.

I took her fingers in my hand and shook. “Um… hey. I’m Noah Stewart.”

I heard a sharp intake of breath from beside me when my hand touched Brittani’s.

I turned toward Tweet with pursed lips, a slight smirk, and eyebrows raised, attempting to look as innocent as possible. Her expression mimicked mine except she didn’t look innocent. She looked pissed. The fingers of her right hand started drumming on the table as she chewed her left thumbnail and shifted her gaze back to Brittani.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Noah. I’m so glad Beth asked me to join you for lunch,” Brittani interrupted.

My eyes moved back and forth between the two girls. Tweet’s eyes shot daggers at Brittani while Brittani’s eyes stayed glued to me. I was getting more uncomfortable as the seconds ticked by. I heard muffled voices as I turned facing forward. I guess it was the girls talking. I was too focused on getting the hell out of there. Then it happened. Brittani leaned in closer and propped her boobs up on the table.
She squirmed a little in her seat squishing them together even more. I was going to look away, but I couldn’t help myself. This was the closest I’d ever been to real ones that were almost unwrapped. These were halfway out of the package.

Suddenly a stabbing pain shot into my ribs. “Ouch! What was that for?” I asked, rubbing my side.

“You mentioned that you needed to get to class early,” Tweet said, smiling innocently at me.

“Yeah, I guess I better go.” I closed my notebook and shoved it into my backpack.