Before I could do anything to stop it, I felt my cheeks heat up. I wanted to say how thoughtful that was of him and tell him what a great boyfriend he was, but instead I said something else. “If my mom finds out about this, she is so going to kill you.”
Blake chuckled and pulled his warm hand away from mine. “Eat up, Violet.”
I lowered my gaze to the food in front of me. Tentatively, I picked up a chicken nugget and took a little nibble from it. The taste was indescribable and left my mouth watering for more. Blake laughed as I quickly stuffed the rest of the nugget into my mouth.
“You know what this means, right Vi?”
I shook my head as I munched on my mouth full of chicken nugget.
“It means that you’re no longer a fast food virgin.” His eyes twinkled brightly as his grin widened.
Despite the food in my mouth, I snorted at his comment which immediately led to the mostly chewed up nugget sliding down my throat. My eyes bulged as I began to cough hysterically while banging my fist on the table in front of me.
Blake’s eyes widened in surprise, He jumped up from his spot across from me and slapped his hand to my back until I stopped coughing. “Are you all right, Violet?”
I nodded, placing my hand to my chest and breathing deeply for a moment before I responded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just wasn’t expecting that,” a sheepish smile crossed my face.
Blake sighed and rubbed my back in small circles. “Sorry, Vi. I didn’t mean to catch you off guard.”
“It’s okay, I’m good.”
He nodded slowly, discreetly checking me over to make sure I really was all right before he returned to his seat. Blake ate his burger daintily while I shoved nugget after nugget into my awaiting mouth. I finished my meal a few minutes before he did and even stole a few of his fries. I sighed in content as I sucked up the strawberry chunks through the straw and was immensely happy that Blake had gotten it for me. Who knew that I was missing out all these years? Wheatgrass shakes can’t compare to strawberry shakes.
Blake watched me as I drank my milkshake with a small smile adorning his handsome features. Once we finished the whole meal, Blake and I left with full bellies and our hands intertwined.
Chapter 13
My bare feet padded lightly across the hardwood floors. I was careful to avoid any creaky floorboards as I walked. My shoes dangled from my hands; the laces swaying from side to side with every step I took. As silently as I could, I snuck up the staircase and slipped past my parent’s bedroom door. Once inside my room, I pushed my door closed, set my stuff down in a pile on the floor, and flung myself onto the bed.
With my hair fanned out around my head, I let my eyes slip closed. My heart was slamming against my rib cage as I thought of the things my mom would do if she found out I had eaten at the fast food restaurant that she hated the most. I know it sounds dumb, but small things that may not seem like such a big deal to most people are the types of things that anger Rose Forrester the most. In her eyes eating anything that isn’t whole grain, low cholesterol, sugar-free, organic, and doesn’t fit into any specific food group is equal to doing drugs. A deep sigh escaped from my mouth as I rolled over onto my stomach, stuffing my face into the pillow that was closest to it, and within minutes I was fast asleep.
A gentle vibration coming from my night stand interrupted my nap. Without moving my head from the now flat pillow I lifted my hand and slid it around the bed until I realized that my phone was out of reach. The phone continuously buzzed, steadily growing louder as it moved across the top of my wooden night stand. With an aggravated sigh I pushed myself up into a sitting position and stretched my arm over to the nightstand. A quick glance at the screen showed an unknown caller.
My thumb hovered over the end button for a moment before I disconnected the call. When my phone began to vibrate for the second time less than five minutes after, I didn’t hesitate before answering although it was the same number that I did not recognize before. I pressed the phone to my ear and was met by the sound of heavy breathing.
“Hello?” Came a familiar voice from the other end of the line.
I mumbled an incoherent word that sounded a lot like, “Yeah,” before yawning, clearing my throat, and then answering again.
“Forrester, are your parents home? I got into a little argument with my parents and I can’t be there right now. Can I spend the night at your house? I promise it’ll just be until tomorrow. I just can’t take it anymore! Ever since that damn accident everything has been all about her! It pisses me off! So I can stay right? I’ll just find somewhere to go tomorrow.”
My mind reeled, and for a moment I was more confused than I have ever been in all of my seventeen years of existence. “Lenny, slow down! What happened?”
There was a pause on the other end of the phone, and for a moment I thought that she had hung up until her voice filled my ear again. “You know how I got sent to the office this morning for punching Brianna?”
I nodded, but then remembered that she couldn’t see me and quickly muttered something so that she would continue her story.
“Well, I got suspended for three days because of the school’s no tolerance policy for fighting. My dad had to come and pick me up from school and he was really pissed off about having to leave my mom home alone just in case we had a repeat of last year. So when we got home he gave me this long lecture about my responsibilities, and it really pissed me off. The way he said it was like I hadn’t already done enough to help out everyone. He acts like I’m the cause of everything in the first place, you know what I mean?”
I sighed, combing through my hair now tangled hair with my free hand. “Not really. What do you mean when you say “the cause of everything”? What happened last year?”
Lena hesitated before she replied. “It’s nothing. I’ll call you later. I can just sneak into our shed later tonight and sleep there.”
“You have to talk about it sometime. Maybe it’ll make you feel better to let it out?” Oh crap, now I’m starting to sound like my mother. She was a firm believer in talking out your feelings, which probably had a lot to do with her psychology background.
“Maybe. I just don’t like talking about it. It happened last year, and I prefer to leave the past in the past where it belongs.”
“Okay, just know that I’m here for you if you ever need someone to talk to.”
“Thanks.”
An awkward silence settled between us, but I broke it easily. “I’m sure my parents won’t mind if you spend the night. If they were willing to take an animal like Brianna in then there is no doubt in my mind that you would be allowed to stay for a day.”
“That’d be great. I have overnight stuff in my backpack. I’ll be there in a few minutes then.”
“Okay, just don’t mention the fight with Brianna. My parents love her, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why.”
A soft chuckle passed through the receiver. “Let me know what it is when you find out, because I’m lost on why Gabriella likes her too.”
“Maybe she has some sort of love potion that she’s using on everyone, but us.”
“Maybe. Either way, I’ll avoid Brianna while I’m there, and if I bump into her then I’ll be on my best behavior.”
“Good,” I conceded, content with her response.
On the other end of the phone, Lena sighed deeply. “Thanks again, Violet,”
“It’s no problem.” I was silent for a mere second before I questioned, “Whose phone are you calling from? I didn’t recognize the number.”
A light chuckle met my ears as she said, “I’m using Gabriella’s phone. I couldn’t find mine so I just took hers off of the kitchen counter. You should see some of these text messages! She tries so hard to fit in with Brianna that it’s actually kind of sad. I think Brianna may be using her. You have to see some of the things she says to her.”
I shook my head, “Brianna uses everyone. Her face was hilarious when you punched her. She definitely was
n’t expecting that. She looked so shocked. As if she didn’t know why you punched her.”
“I had the element of surprise, and karma on my side.” She sounded smug. “Karma may be a bitch, but I’m a bigger one.”
I laughed into the phone speaker, “What did you say to her when she bent over?”
Lena giggled and just before she hung up, she answered, “Nothing is better than revenge.”
Chapter 14
“He’s going to get us!”
“Run!” screeched Lena as she ran off with her hair billowing out behind her like a red cape.
Laughter caught in my throat as I watched Lilly and Lena run across the back yard with their arms flailing wildly around them. It was adorable how much fun Lilly was having playing hide and seek with Lena, Blake, and me. Her cheeks were red from all of the laughing that she had been doing and her hair had fallen from the loose bun it had been twisted into. Her little hands were covered in pink gloves that matched her pink and black coat perfectly. The hat and scarf that she had been wearing when we first came out to play was lying in a small pile near the tall privacy fence that surrounded my backyard.
The grass shown a bright green, and most of the lawn was covered with newly fallen leaves. The smell of hot dogs wafted over the fence from a few yards down, making my stomach grumble for food. The leaves crunched under my feet as I jogged after Lena and Lilly who were currently looking for a good place to hide where Blake wouldn't find us.
The four of us had started out playing freeze tag, but had eventually moved on to hide and seek due to the fact that Lilly and I kept getting tagged and Lena was tired of unfreezing us. The only problem with our current game choice was that despite the enormous size of my backyard, most of the space was taken up by the pool and the shed so there weren't many good hiding spots left. It's a good thing that Lena was getting creative with new places to hide in, because Lilly was insistent on hiding in the same spot each time.
With a loud huff I came to a stop near where Lena was crouching with her hands pressed flat to the ground and her head held low as she peered under one of the lawn chairs with her face squinted up as if she were focusing on a hard math equation.
“Do you think Lilly can fit under here?” She tilted her head up at me, shielding her eyes from the sun with her perfectly manicured hand.
My eyes shifted to Lilly where she stood stock still with a small smile adorning her delicate features. Just as I was finished sizing her up, Lilly spoke for herself.
“I fitted under there last time I tried. My head got stuck, but that's okay.” She twisted her arms behind her back as she said, “If we smush together real tight then we can all fit, maybe.”
Lena stood up straight, motioning with her hand from Lilly to the chair. “Go ahead, squirt. Forrester and I can hide somewhere else.”
Lilly shrugged her little shoulders before dropping down to the ground. With her stomach flat against the concrete she began sliding into the narrow space beneath the lawn chair.
Trying to gain my attention, Lena gripped onto my arm and pulled me to face her.
“We can hide in the space behind the shed.” When she spoke, the sunlight made the wires in her silver braces shimmer brightly.
In response to her suggestion, I shrugged, realizing that we hadn't hidden there yet. “It's kind of an obvious hiding spot, don't you think?”
“Exactly. It's perfect. Knowing Blake, he'll probably over think it.”
Lilly giggled from under the chair. Glancing down, I smiled at her and stuck the toe of my boot under the chair. I felt her poke my toe and I laughed.
“Lilly, remember you have to be quiet or Blake will hear you.”
My response was met with another chorus of giggles which I took as an answer to my statement before Lena and I trudged over to the shed. Lena squeezed in first and I followed behind her. Once we were hidden behind the shed I heard Blake call out, “Ready or not, here I come!”
I felt Lena poke me in my ribs. “He's coming,” she whispered suggestively.
Although I was unable to turn my head toward her due to the lack of space, I already knew that a smirk would be imprinted on her freckle covered face.
“Be quiet or he'll hear you,” I whispered while gently elbowing her in the side.
As soon as my arm made contact with her, she hissed in pain. “That was my boob, Forrester!” she squealed.
“Well maybe that will teach you to be quiet.”
“Whatever. Thanks to you, my boobs are going to be lopsided now.”
“They already were. I just evened them out a little.” I replied smugly.
I felt her poke me in my ribs again. Although this time the poke was a little more forceful. “We might wear the same bra size now then.”
“Shut up,” I whispered, taking no notice of what she had just said. “I'm going to check and see if Blake's found Lilly yet.”
Slowly, I began inching my way toward the narrow entrance that led to our hiding spot. My back was pressed up against the side of the privacy fence that lined our yard and my face was extremely close to a spider web that was against the back of the shed. Trying to ignore the fact that I was extremely uncomfortable in my current position, and that it felt as if I had a splinter in my butt, I peeked around the edge of the shed.
I quickly scanned the backyard until I spotted a tall figure dressed in faded blue jeans and a short sleeved band shirt for The Rush, a band we liked. My mother had not approved of his clothing choice when he arrived earlier. I rolled my eyes as I remembered the look that had crossed onto her face when she first saw him. After her long lecture about how he was unprepared for the cold weather and should protect himself from the harsh winds, she went to the hall closet and pulled out all of my dad’s winter coats. Despite her attempts at trying to keep Blake warm, he had insisted that he was fine and had politely refused to take any of the coats that she had offered to him. The horrified look on her face as she watched us leave the house was priceless.
The sound of Lilly’s giggling reached my ears, pulling me out of my mental reverie. Blake was slowly walking in a circle around the chair Lilly was hiding under. He was tapping his finger against his chin and although his lips were moving, I wasn’t close enough to hear what he was saying. In one fluent motion he dropped to his knees, slapping his hands against the ground and peering under the lawn chair.
Lilly’s laughter got louder as she began wiggling out of her hiding spot. As Blake helped her off of the ground and hoisted her up onto his back, her little brown pigtails bounced and her smile grew wide. From her position on Blake’s back she held onto his head with one hand and with the other she pointed over toward the shed. Moving my head back so that Blake wouldn’t see me, I slid over and told Lena that not only had Blake found Lily, but that Lilly had told him about our hiding spot.
“That little munchkin! I told her that if she didn’t tell him where we were this time, I would give her a piece of candy,” she grumbled under her breath.
“Let’s just go,” I chuckled. This had been the fifth time that Lilly had told about our hiding place so it wasn’t anything new.
I slid out from behind the shed a few moments before Blake got to us. I watched Lena emerge after me, and laughed as she instantly began swiping at her face. Lilly began laughing and was joined by Blake and I. Lena was jumping up and down as if she had to use the toilet and her hair was whipping around her face in an orange whirlwind that reminded me of the bonfire that I had attended at camp two summers ago.
Her hands smacked at her face repeatedly as she began to screech, “Spider!”
“Lenny!” I shouted, trying to stifle my laughter but failing miserably. “There is no spider! It was only the web!”
Lena stopped freaking out and hesitantly moved her hands from her now red face. Lilly and Blake continued laughing, and when Blake set Lilly back onto her feet they both began reenacting Lena’s freak out.
“It’s not funny!” she harrumphed whilst crossing her arms. �
��Spiders are gross.”
“It was so funny! You should have seen your face!” Blake countered.
Lilly clutched her little tummy and doubled over in another fit of laughter. “I laugheded so hard!” she managed to screech in between her giggles.
Lena squatted down, pulling her coat tighter around her torso before poking Lilly in the stomach. “I thought we had a deal munchkin. If you didn’t tell Blake where we were hiding, I was going to give you a piece of candy.”
Lilly stopped laughing and a devious smile stretched across her face, making her little red nose crinkle up. “Blake gave me two candies.” Her words were said in a sassy tone, and she had even put emphasis on the word two.
Lena looked up a Blake. “Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater!”
I laughed as Lilly poked Lena in her knee and said, “Only babies say that,” before she turned around and ran to gather up her hat and scarf from where she had discarded them when we had first come out. “I’m cold. I wanna go inside!” she yelled back to us.
Lena and Blake shrugged as I said, “It’s getting dark anyway and I haven’t done my homework yet.”
As we walked back toward the house, Blake draped his arm over my shoulder, pulling me closer to his surprisingly warm body. I snuggled into his side, sighing in content. When Blake kissed the top of my head, Lena feigned a gagging sound which made me laugh.
Ahead of us, Lilly trudged into the house through the back door, leaving it open for the rest of us. As we entered the house, the warm air instantly began to warm my body. The overwhelming aroma of baked chicken and mashed potatoes filled my nostrils. The smell was so powerful that it was almost as if I could taste it. Being the forever hungry guy that he is, Blake pulled me along with him into the kitchen where my mom was stirring a pot on the stove and my dad was looking into the oven. The hairnet that my mom forced him to wear whenever he helped cook was holding back his thinning brown hair, making him look extremely feminine.
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 33