Him by Carey Heywood (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

the empty cars on the track, I have to fight my way through them as he barrels towards me. I scream but manage to get away. I look back at him, and he winks at me. That boy. He comes right up behind me, and I cut over to the right, turning the opposite direction before he can get me again. Now I'm behind him. He grimaces as he tries to get away from me, but it's no use. I laugh loudly as I bump him into the tires lined up the middle of the track. He hangs his head in shame before whipping around to come after me again. This time, I have nowhere to run, and we're nose to nose while he bumps his car into mine. We're both grinning as the music and cars turn off.

"Waterpark?” he asks as we walk out.

"Waterpark!"

We're at a bank of lockers inside the entrance of all the water rides, changing.

When I take off my tank top, he stares at me. "You're wearing a bikini."

I cross my arms over my chest, suddenly shy.

"I've just never seen you in one before," he continues.

"Stop looking at me."

"Sorry." He looks away, putting his hand out for my tank top.

I step out of my shorts and hand him those as well. He pulls his shirt off, and I mentally drool just looking at his chest. I bend down to pull my towel and flip flops out of my bag when I feel a hand smack my ass.

"Who knew Miller had a nice rack?" Josh Jamison, one of Will's friends, jokes.

"JJ, touch my ass again, and I'll chop off your hand," I huff.

"He touched your ass?" Will looks at me. He doesn’t give me a chance to answer and gets in JJ's face. "You touched her ass?"

"Chill, man," he says, taking a step back.

"That's not cool. Say you're sorry."

"What?" JJ and I both say at the same time.

Will takes another step towards him, and JJ shrugs.

"Ah, sorry, Sarah. I was only joking."

I peer around Will. "Don’t do it again." I shake my finger at him, but I'm smiling so he can tell I'm not really mad.

He smiles but frowns when he looks back at Will. "I'll see you guys later," he says, taking off.

Will still has his back to me. I grab his arm, surprised by how tense it seems, and pull him back over to the locker. His whole stance and face are just hard, like he's furious.

I tug on his arm. "Will?" He doesn't react. "William."

I see the corner of his mouth pull up a little bit.

"I think I like you better in a one piece."

"What the hell does that mean?" I pick up my backpack and shove it into the locker.

"You just look really nice. I'm seriously thinking about kicking his ass."

"Oh." I knock the side of my hip into his. "It's just JJ. He's harmless."

"He still shouldn’t be touching you."

I groan and roll my eyes.

He shrugs. "Just saying."

"Whatever. Slides, wave pool, or lazy river?"

He chews on the side of his lip. "It was a long," he dips his head on the word long, "walk over here."

"Lazy river it is." I grin. He knows it's my favorite.

We wade into the water, tubes in hand. Once we're floating, he rests his foot on my tube so we stay right by each other. He's never done that before. I'm trying not to read anything into his actions, but I am. It just seems like he's touching me more than normal, and the way he freaked out on JJ, I can't help but feel a tiny spark of something in the pit of my stomach. I'm lost in my own little day dream. I don’t even hear him.

"Sarah."

"Yep, sorry."

"What are you going to do when I'm in Italy?"

"Ugh. I don’t even want to think about it."

He grins. "You're going miss me."

"Shut up." I look away.

"I wish you could come with."

"What?" My mouth drops, and I look back at him.

"It'd be fun."

"I'm sure your mom would love that."

His mom is not my biggest fan. Probably has more to do with the neighborhood I live in than me but still. Before he had his Jetta, she used to give him crap for riding his skateboard or bike over. She just didn’t think it was safe. I offered to go to him, but he didn’t like hanging out at his house. It was always kind of weird over there.

"My mom likes you," he halfheartedly argues.

And while I can admit she does not actively dislike me, she most certainly does not like me.

"Doesn't matter. Not going. You'll have to eat extra gelato for me, per favore." I throw please in Italian at the end, remembering his CD.

He drags his fingertips through the water, then flicks some onto me. I wrinkle up my nose at him and remind him this is the lazy river. I know it probably drives him nuts. He's usually always moving, always tapping his fingers, or chewing the side of his bottom lip. He needs to relax. As the river curves around the park, we pass under a small footbridge that leads to the inner part of the park. A group of guys from our school is hanging out on it as we pass under it.

"Hey, Will. Who's that girl?" One of them calls out.

Squinting, I lower my sunglasses to see who it is.

"Oh, shit! That's Sarah Miller."

My cheeks redden as I push my sunglasses back up and cover my face.

"Will, you hitting that?"

He takes his leg off my raft and my mouth drops, but before I can say anything, he reaches out and grabs my hand in front of all of them.

He looks back at them and smirks.

"Damn. Go Price is right, man," another one calls after him.

I pull my hand out of his, and he looks at me like, what?

"You just made them all think we were together."

He drops his head back so the top of it gets wet before sitting back up and looking at