“Fiala,” Matt calls across the room in a singsong voice, “where’d lover boy go?”
Imbecile.
“Andrew,” I say, glaring at him, “went to go get the pizza, remember?”
“Luurv pizza!” the three boys mock squeal in unison.
“Matt, Aaron, and James. Do not make m-”
“Pizza’s here!”
Andrew jaunts in, completely ruining my threat; I smile in spite of myself.
I stand up and take three of the boxes (we ordered six because of the boys huge appetites) and place them on the counter. Maria walks over as I’m opening the first cheese box and sniffs.
“Hey Maria, what’s up?”
“It’s Jewel. You know, like the singer?”
Oh right, her most recent fad.
“How many calories are in a slice?” She asks.
“I dunno. Why?”
“Uhm, so I don’t get fat, duh!”
“Jewel, you’re a cheerleader and you weight about a hundred pounds. How could you ever get fat?”
“It’s possible. I mean, I don’t wanna, like, end up like you! No offense, of course,” she says, “but you have got to be, like, one fifteen, and that’s just...”
Her sentence trails off as she sees Andrew walking over to us, the last three pizza boxes in his hands.
“Oh hey, Andrew darling,” She purrs, throwing her arm around his waist.
I grab the boxes from him and try to block out Maria’s blatant flirting. Why do I care? It’s not like we’re together, we’re just friends. So why is my heart dropping to my toes? I have no idea why the fates are making this happen but I can’t find the will to curse them because...well, for reasons I am not yet able to admit.
“Hey Fia,” Andrew pries himself away from Maria’s perfectly painted nails, “Do you remember the homework for Math?”
“Yeah, It’s in my binder but I don’t-”
“No, shhh,” he puts two fingers over my mouth, “I was just trying to get rid of Maria. Oops, I mean Jewel.”
He laughs and slings his arm around my shoulders. I can feel relief pooling up inside of me. So he doesn’t like her. Good.
Andrew walks away and I smile after him.
“You are so full of it.”
“Huh?”
I spin around to see the voice behind me; Matt.
“You totally like him, why won’t you go after him?” He says, shaking his head.
“What? No...I don’t like Andrew.” I blush; the godforsaken curse of the redheads.
“Uh huh, sure you don’t.”
Matt crosses his arms and stares me down. I take this lovely moment to stare at the orange and red walls.
Oh look, there’s that hole from when we tried par core... I smile to myself, forgetting that Matt was watching me until he clears his throat.
“I wasn’t thinking about Andrew!” I blurt out.
You lying liar, you will burn in hell.
“I never said you were.” He replies with a triumphant grin.
I turn around and see Andrew joking around with James in the living room. The girls are turning on the television, probably trying to find MTV. A couple seconds later I hear, “E.T.” playing out of the speakers accompanied by three shrill squeals.
“Ok, listen,” I say quickly, turning back around, “even if I do like Andrew, which I’m not saying that I do, why would I do anything about it? We’re fine as friends and me making any sort of move would just make things really awkward.”
“Awkward?” Matt guffaws, “He's head over heels for you. You make a move and he’ll be proposing in a day.”
Then, on that frighteningly appealing note, he turns away and saunters into the living room.
Head over heels? That couldn’t be possible. Well, I mean. . . It just doesn’t. . . how could he. . . ohmygodhelikesme. Why does this idea make me feel so exuberant? Shouldn’t I be worried? Scared? Totally freaking freaked out?
Barley conscious of my feet, I feel myself move forward and walk into the living room just after Matt. I walk in to see Amanda, Sam, and Maria pooling over issues of Teen Vogue on the carpeted floor. Amanda is singing along, loudly and a little- a freaking ton- off key to “Perfect” and James and Matt are in a heated discussion on one end of the couch.
“I can totally fit five slices in my mouth.” Matt boasts.
“Oh, you’re on,” James goads him on, “Can’t wait to see you barf!”
Andrew, on the other end of the faux leather couch that stretches around a third of the room. Andrew is looking at me and grinning. He lifts a hand at me and motions me to come over. I leap over hid dogs, Abby and Hannah, who are trying, futilely, to lick my feet. I plop down right next to Andrew, causing the cushion to deflate a bit.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“What were you and Matt talking about?”
“You jealous?” I tease.
“Psssh, no...” He turns his head away.
“Andrew!” I half laugh, not sure if he’s actually upset or not.
He looks back at me with doe eyes. His face is burning red -he blushes an awful lot- and he’s smiling, bashfully.
“Ok, so maybe I’m a bit jealous.” He admits.
“Of Matt? Matt Walker? Oh, dear child,” I put my hand on his shoulder, “I happen to like my guys with brains.”
“Hey, Matt is intelligent!”
“Oooooooooh! Dude!” James exclaims.
Matt just attempted to cram five slices of pepperoni and mushroom pizza down his throat.
“Yeah, I feel the intelligence radiating off of him.”
He snorts,
“Maybe this is the wrong time to be discussing his intelligence...”
We both laugh and he tousles my bangs with his hand. They fall infront of my eyes, I blink, and raise my hand to brush them back but Andrew beats me to it. Carefully, as if my hair is a fragile piece of art, he sweeps his hand across my forehead. Our eyes meet and I loose my breath. He moves closer to me, tucks another piece of hair behind my ear, and rests his hand on my cheek. I swear to goodness, he is about to kiss me. This is actually about to happen but I begin to loose track of my thoughts as I find myself only able to concentrate on Andrew.
“Hey, Saturday movie night! the girls shriek.
“Wanna watch Pirates of the Caribbean?” Amanda calls out, startling us our of our reverie.
I hear Andrew quietly sigh as he removes his hand but stays just as close. Matt and James shout in agreement so the girls turn the lights off, pop in the movie, and gracefully settle down on the couch, filling the gap between the boys and Andrew and I. I turn to face Andrew and I see that he is barley an inch from my face.
“Boo.” he whispers.
“Muah.”
Startled, he flinches back a little bit.
“What?” He asks.
“Oh, nothing, nothing.” I whisper.
I turn my head to face the movie while humming along to the theme music. I glance over at Matt and he rolls his eyes at me. “Just kiss him already” he mouths. Damn. He’s more intelligent than I thought. Slowly, I turn my head to face Andrew who is watching Johnny Depp swagger on screen with mild interest. There is a slight smile on his face and I resist the almost overwhelming urge to trace the lines on his face.
The rest of the group is commenting on the movie loudly and laughing but as Andrew turns to look at me, the rest of the noise is drowned out by the blood pounding in my ears. Immediately, I reach up and skim my fingers over his face. Down from his ear and to his chin, over his nose, around his lips. . .
Then Abby jumps up between us and furiously starts licking my face, pushing me back from Andrew with her paws. I sigh and pet her, trying to make sense of what just almost happened. I hear myself think that I wish we were alone and I feel the ache to be that close to him again. Something registers in the logical part of my brain that makes me beam broadly. Andrew wants to kiss me. Of course, I knew that before but, for some reason, now it clicked. I push Abby off of me and turn to face the movie. I look to Andrew and whisper,
“I want to show you something. Hold you hand out in front of you, palm facing your face.”
He complies. I slip my hand into his, smile, and turn my head back to the flashing screen. I feel him squeeze my hand and I honestly cannot wipe the grin from my face. The rest of the movie passes by fairly quickly due to my disengagement.
Maria yawns and soon after everyone else is yawning too.
“It’s ten, my dad wants me home soon.” Aaron calls out.
A chorus of “yeah, mine too” and “woah, it’s really late” echos that statement as Andrew and I stand up, dropping our hands.
The group meanders painstakingly slow towards the door and one by one, they make their way to their cars. Sam and Aaron jump into his red convertible, undoubtedly to go off and make out at every stop light on the way home. Matt and James are still arguing over who won the pizza bet as they wave their hands to Andrew. Amanda and Maria flit off but first Maria taps Andrews nose and motions to her cell before flouncing off to her solid black sports car, giggling with Amanda. I smirk. Oh the things they don’t know.
It’s late but my dad would have fallen asleep by eight anyway. We walk back inside and there’s an awkward silence.
“Where are your parents, again?” I ask.
“Vacation. Skiing in the Alps.”
“Oh, right.”
Convenient.
“So...,”Andrew starts walking towards the living room, “I should probably turn the DVD player off.”
I follow behind him thinking the opportune moment to kiss him has long since passed. Yet, the instant we are both in the living room Andrew spins around, grabs my waist, pulls me towards him.
“Hi.”
“Hi” I whisper, barley able to speak.
He raises on eyebrow at me and smirks. Oh my goodness. He’s going to make me do this. But he doesn’t think I will...
I reach up to wrap my arms around his neck, I pull his face close to mine, and breathe,
“I like you.”
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