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In my bedroom. On my fuzzy rug, an astrology magazine splayed beside me along with a gel pen. I’m only wearing an old, oversized Superheroes & Scones tee that stops at my thighs. No shorts on underneath.
I’ve caught Donnelly’s blue eyes flitting down to my bare legs a couple times already.
He’s not on the floor with me. Right now, his hands are gripping the desk behind him. He’s sort of half-leaning on the edge in a relaxed way. But his story came out strained in parts.
“He didn’t act like nothing happened,” Donnelly explains. “Because he didn’t drive me back.”
“Nooo, he didn’t do that.” I scrunch my eyes shut. “Imsosorry.” I slur the words together, my heart racing imagining my dad saying, you can find your own way home, bucko.
Okay, he wouldn’t say bucko, but he’d probably top it off with his dry half-smile.
“It’s alright. Coulda been worse.”
“That’s true, I guess. Of all possibilities among the celestial alignments of our lives, my dad pulling a petty find your own ride move is about as good of an outcome as we could’ve hoped for today,” I nod once, and I hang on to the rise of his lips.
His smile is alluring, and so is the carve of his tattooed bicep, flexed in the position he’s leaning. We’ve been slipping these quiet glances to one another, as though silently exchanging a remembrance of last night.
Of Donnelly kissing me.
My heart only knows how to race around him. It’s set to lightspeed right now, and I try to take a breath. “How’d you end up getting back to the gated neighborhood?”
“I took the bus.”
The bus? I frown. “I would’ve picked you up.”
“I thought about it, but I didn’t want to bother you.” He runs his fingers through his chestnut hair, looking uncertain. “Didn’t you have some college thing?”
I had to meet up with Harriet for another portion of our lab assignment. The professor was giving us extra credit that I wanted to politely decline, but Harriet was adamant we do it. I couldn’t say no to her, but I would have for Donnelly.
“Yeah, I did, but I would’ve picked you up,” I repeat stronger this time. “I’m not sure what we are to each other, but I don’t really need a definition in order to give you a ride.”
His eyes are gentle on me, and I wish I had telepathy right about now. He slips a cigarette behind his ear. “Next time, I’ll call you and hitch a ride.” Donnelly reaches behind him on the desk. “Do they use phones on your planet?”
“Uh-huh.” I’m watching him hook his fingers through a plastic bag. He brought that in my room when he came home, but I’m not sure what’s in it.
He’s coming over to my fuzzy rug in the middle of the room. “This seat reserved for Zarek of Demos? ‘Cause I’ll fight an alien for it.”
“No aliens are occupying any seats beside me at the moment.”
“At the moment, damn,” he grins while lowering onto his ass next to me and opening the bag. “If any are listening in, get away from my space babe.”
His space babe.
I try to restrain a bursting smile.
“This is for you.” He passes me a wrapped sandwich and a carton of banana pudding. “Figured if we were gonna have the talk tonight, we might as well eat while we do it.”
“The talk,” I say softly, unsure of what the talk entails. I unwrap the sandwich.
“What we are to each other.” He licks mustard off his thumb from his leaking hoagie, then watches me pick off a shaved strip of roast pork. “They were out of tomato pie at this one place, which was my first choice. Who runs out of tomato pie, right?”
“Tomato pie thieves at play.” I drop the roast pork strand into my mouth, which makes him smile for some reason. Maybe he thought I wouldn’t like it. “I can pay you back for the food.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I wanted to buy you dinner and dessert.”
Giddy feelings are swarming me. I smile into my next bite of juicy meat, provolone, and bread. Tastes better than any sandwich at Lucky’s Diner. “Where’d you get the pork hoagie?”
“This bad boy isn’t a hoagie.” He bites into his, then chews and swallows. “It’s a roast pork sandwich. I got it from John’s.”
I take a bigger bite and mumble, “That’s a place?”
Donnelly nods, watching me for another second. “I’ll take you there someday.”
He’ll take me there. “Does that mean…we’re like…?” I didn’t think this part would feel like I’m rocketing to another galaxy, but here I am, dizzy as I leave Earth’s atmosphere. “Are we dating?”
He pops the cap off a beer with his lighter. I’ve never seen anyone do that before. His eyes flicker up to me. “What do you think?” He’s volleying this back into my stratosphere.
