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“Okay,” he raised
his hands in surrender. “You win.” He sat on Thea’s bed. “I’ll sit here and be a good boy,” he waved his hands in the air with a grin as he mimed my words.
“Thank you,” I croaked, and I meant it. In fact, I was kind of glad someone was here with me, but I wasn’t going to tell Cade that.
“Go to sleep, Rae,” he whispered.
The way he looked at me had my throat closing up. It reminded me of a time I’d tried to erase from my memory—of a boy that had stolen my heart and died with it.
***
“You like him, don’t you?” Sarah teased, swinging on the swing set in my backyard.
I tore my gaze away from where Brett was mowing the grass in his yard.
“What? No, of course not,” I scoffed. “We’re only friends.”
“Leave her alone,” Hannah defended me. “If she likes him that’s her business, not ours.”
Sarah and Hannah might’ve been my best friends—but Sarah was one person I couldn’t share everything with. She was a gossiper and if I admitted to having a crush on Brett it would be all over the middle school halls come Monday morning.
“It’s pretty obvious,” Sarah snorted. “But if you don’t like him,” she hopped off the swing set, “then I think I’ll go talk to him.” She tossed a smirk over her shoulder and sauntered through the field that separated my house from Brett’s.
I knew she was only doing it to get a reaction from me, but my feelings were uncontrollable. When Brett turned off the lawnmower to talk to her she put her hand on his arm, looking back at me. I saw red.
“Rachael—” Hannah warned, but it was too late.
I was already marching across the field, ready to drag Sarah back by her shiny platinum blonde hair.
“Sarah, what are you doing?” I hissed, leveling her with a glare. I’d never had the desire to claw a girl’s eyes out, but right then I was ready to pounce on her.
“I was just asking Brett if he’d like to hang out tomorrow.” She batted her eyes innocently.
“He can’t. He’s busy. We have plans,” I spat.
“Plans?” Brett piped in.
“Yes,” I maneuvered so I was in front of him, “very important plans that can’t be canceled.”
“Oh, well forget I said anything.” Sarah smiled victoriously and headed back to my house.
“What was that about Rachael?” Brett asked, closing his hand around my arm so I couldn’t leave.
I turned around and glanced sheepishly at my feet. I’d always been able to tell him everything, but this was different. I refused to jeopardize our friendship by telling him I liked him.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled.
His fingers grasped my chin, forcing me to look at him. His stare was intense and I squirmed, trying to get away.
“I really better get back to them.” I tossed a thumb over my shoulder.
He stared for a moment longer and released me. “Yeah, I guess so.”
I turned and started walking away, pushing the tall grass out of my way.
“Rachael!” He called.
I glanced at him over my shoulder. “Yeah.”
