That Boy by Brooke Bradley (cool books to read txt) 📕

if I had even seen it at all. I decided I did.

"Hey. Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. It just kind of freaked me out."

And then I thought that he probably needed a ride home.

So I asked simply, "Need a ride?"

"Actually, yeah. Thanks." So I nodded toward the passenger seat and he got in.

"So what way?" I asked him.

"Your house." Did I hear him correctly? Because I was almost sure that I hadn't.

"W-What?" I stammered.

"Your house." He said again.

"Um, why are we going to my house exactly?"

"To work on the project. It seems a little hard, so we should start early. And it gives us a little bit to kind of get to know each other, before Friday."
Huh. Well that kind of made sense.Well, it couldn't hurt. Right?

"Oh. Okay. My house it is!" I said with a shaky laugh. God. I was so stupid. But when I looked over, I didn't see any teasing in his eyes, or rudeness. But what I saw, was care. And kindness. Not teasing at all. That was nice.

"Mind if I turn on the radio?" He asked me politely. He was really nice. I liked him.

"No, go right ahead." He turned it on, and an up beat kind of song came on and when I looked over, he was moving his lips to the words, but silently. He's shy! He didn't have to be shy around me. And I knew the song anyways so I turned it up really loud, rolled down the windows, and started singing along laughing at myself as I did. Wow, I thought. He makes me happy. And silly. I really, really like him. And when I looked over once again, he was smiling at me before he finally joined me and was sang and laughed until I pulled into the driveway and pulled the keys out of the ignition. I smiled as I looked over at him. He was smiling too. We were so comfortable around each other. There weren't any of those well known and hated awkward silences. It all just came naturally.
"So just a heads up before we go in. My mom is a little hyper so you can just ignore her. And my step dad, Phil, will be home soon. He's really weird. Trust me." I explained to him. He laughed. I was serious though.

"Sounds normal compared to my family. Their crazy. Not weird. Probably crazier than your parents. I'm willing to make a bet about it."

"A bet, hmm? That could be interesting…," I trailed off. This was gonna be fun.

"20 bucks?" He offered.

"Alright. But let's make this interesting. Loser pays 25 bucks and buys Ice Cream!" Making things interesting.

He changed the position he was standing in kind of putting his hip a little to the side and putting one hand on his cheek and the other under his elbow like he was considering turning this perfect offer down. He was obviously joking around. Finally, he straightened up and said,

"Your on." I smiled.

We just stood there for a few minutes joking around having a great time until we heard somebody.

"Brooke? Is that you out there?" My mom called.

"Yeah mom, it's me. And a friend from school. We got assigned to do a project together."

"How wonderful! Please do come inside. I'll make you some snacks!" She exclaimed cheerfully.

Oh. My. God. Could she be any more embarrassing?! Snacks? I felt my face turn redder than a tomato. When I look at Drew though, he was chuckling. And then he looked at me and saw that I was embarrassed.

"Hey. My mom is the same way. No need to be embarrassed. Especially around me." Why did he make me like him?!

"Alright. Should we go inside now?" I asked.

"Sure."

So we walked up the front steps into my house. On the outside it looked like a mini White House. Yeah. We did live in one of those houses. We were what you considered rich. Thankfully he was the first person i've had over that went to our school, so as long as he didn't have a big mouth, nobody would know. As I was thinking this I looked over at Drew to see what he was thinking. He didn't look like he was in awe like most people usually were. He looked like he was just walking into any others persons house. That was a first.

I honestly couldn't stop myself from asking, "So what do you--" Just then my mom walked up and greeted us.

She walked right up to him and offered her hand, saying, "Barbara Greene. But you may call me Barbara." With her picture perfect smile.

He shook her hand smiling, replying with, "Andrew Briggs. But I go by Drew." With the same picture perfect smile. Jeez. At least they get along.

"Well, Drew and I are going to go work on our project." And with that I grabbed Drew's arm and hauled him up the stairs and to my room.

My heart started beating a little fast when I shut my door, turned around and saw him laying on my bed with his hands underneath his head looking around my room. It was pretty clean. I cleaned before school that morning thank god. But if I hadn't the maids would have. Actually no they wouldn't have. I banned them from my room. We didn't even need a maid. They were so unnecessary! But the maid have also banned me from several spots in the house. As have my parents. There bedroom, their personal office, pretty much anything that was theirs. Which was a little weird in my opinion. But I didn't argue with it. I glanced over at him fast and then quickly turned away when I realized he was looking at me again. I blushed. Since when did I blush out of embarrassment? Usually I just blushed when I was mad. Why was I changing so much because of him? It was really frustrating. So I quickly grabbed our bags and set them in the middle of the floor. I went to the activity room, (Yes we had one of those.) and grabbed a poster board and some markers. When I got back he was on the floor with my laptop researching for our project. We started some conversation, laughed like idiots, smiled till our jaws cramped, and actually got a lot of work done. We were almost done with our project. We decided to take a break when my mom knocked on my bedroom door.

"Would Drew like to stay over for dinner?" She asked, a little too hopefully.

I looked at him. He shrugged. I was taking that as a yes.

"Yeah. Thanks." I replied. I waited until I heard her footsteps wandering away.

When I looked back at him he was making the ugliest face, I couldn't help myself from laughing. Like a fool. We both blushed and looked down. When I looked back up he was closer than I remembered. I knew what was going to happen. And I wanted it to. So I closed my eyes and leaned a little forward. Giving him permission. I felt my lips touch his in what was an almost kiss until someone knocked on my door informing us dinner was ready.


* * * * * * *


Drew and I have started a routine. We hung out at school all the time, we went on what we called, "Almost Dates", he'd come to my house after school, we would study until we got bored, and he usually stayed over for dinner. And sometimes, we would kiss a little. Not very often though. Once or twice a week. But I still remember our first kiss.


It was a Tuesday night and we were at my house doing our homework together. Well we were mostly goofing off but our homework always got done. So we were sitting on the floor leaning against my bed. And we had our books and papers on our laps. I was laughing super hard at something that he had just said, that was so stupid it was funny. When I finally got ahold of myself and sat back up and smiled at him he was smiling too. We looked into each others eyes, and I guess we got lost in the moment because suddenly nothing else in the world mattered. Just him and I. We leaned closer and closer until our lips were just barely touching. And one of us moved forward and then we were kissing. My hand moved and cupped his neck. He did the same to me. After a few seconds we moved apart and looked at each other. I could see so deep into his eyes… pain, loss, love, regret… And then his walls went back up before I could see anything else. I wonder why. I didn't want to suspect anything so I closed my eyes smiled, blushed, and looked down. He lifted my head up so he could see my face. He smiled. And when I looked into his eyes this time I only saw happiness. And after that we kind of just forgot about our homework. We talked and laughed all night long. It was the best.


And it wasn't like a total make out session. It would be like a simple kiss. I'm not sure how it felt to him, but it was almost everything to me. It took my breath away every time. It was probably nothing to him. Or thats what I thought until tonight when we kissed….


It was a typical Tuesday night. We were ing my room studying, having a good time until we looked at each other and the laughs faded. We both leaned forward and our lips met. It was like fireworks. I moved closer to him and grabbing some of his hair in my hands, holding him closer as we kissed. It almost broke my heart that it was going to be over soon. But as we kissed, I noticed some different things. Usually these were twenty to thirty second kisses. We'd been kissing for two minutes now. I could't resist. So, as much as it killed me, I pulled back. He opened his eyes and looked