AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ah. Just admiring then?”
“Honestandfull of it,” I said with an eye roll, but his teasing attitude loosened a bit of my tension. “I was thinking.”
“About?”
There was something about the openness of his expression that nearly had me being honest, if only to see what his reaction would be.I was thinking about kissing you. “Well—”
The side door Josh and I had walked in from shuddered open, making me jump. A girl hiked up from the little steps that led out into the garage, and she shrugged her backpack straps off. It took me several embarrassing moments to realize who I was staring at.
Cindy LaVore.
“Oh, hey,” she greeted, stepping away from the door without shutting it. Her curls were pulled off her face by an elastic today, a bright pink one that I caught a glimpse of as she bent to unlace her shoes. Even coming from a seven-hour school day, she looked pretty. I usually looked like I’d gotten hit by one of the buses. “I didn’t realize you guys were here already.”
She’s not surprised to see me, I thought, even as I gaped at her like a fish out of water.There’s no way—no way—that she’s—
Josh’s voice cut through my stuttering thoughts. “Great, you’re home. Ava, have you met my step-sister, Cindy? I know Brentwood’s a big school.”
“We’ve met,” Cindy answered quickly, offering me a smile. It did nothing to soothe me now.Cindywas Josh’s sister. It made sense, then, why Reed and Josh acted as if they knew each other, even a little bit. Because Reed was hanging out with Josh’s sister.
More than just “hanging out.” They were going to homecoming together. Despite Reed’s denial about the other day, they’d probably kissed at least once. Maybe even more times.Don’t think about it.
“Hey!” Cindy turned toward the side door and raised her voice. “You coming? You’re letting out the AC.”
“Coming,” a familiar voice answered, and my blood turned to ice.
Oh, heck no. No way. I forced my attention to the black TV, staring at my reflection inside it. It wasn’t just mine that I could see—Josh sat beside me, his head turned toward where Cindy stood at the edge of the couch, and the reflection clearly showed another person walking into the frame.
“Hey, Paparazzi,” Reed greeted, coming up to the couch and stepping into view. “Fancy seeing you here.”
I wasn’t sure whether to feel annoyed or alarmed.
“Sit down, guys,” Josh said cheerfully. “I made popcorn. Do you want your own bowl?”
Alarmed. Definitely alarmed.
By way of an answer, Reed sat down on my left side, on the side that faced the TV straight-on. He was so close that not even my backpack would’ve fit between us. “I’m down for popcorn,” he said, reaching across me to grab a handful of popcorn from the bowl Josh had brought out for us. “There’s enough to share, right?”
“I’ll grab us a bowl from the kitchen,” Cindy said, and Josh stood up, too.
“I’ll just make another bag,” he said, tapping me quick on the shoulder. “I’ll be back.”
And that left Reed and me in the homey living room with the TV reflecting back at us. Reed grabbed another handful from the bowl in my lap, and when I smacked it away, kernels went flying. “Are you serious?” I hissed.
“Hey! Don’t waste the extra butter!”
“What are you doing here?” I held the popcorn away from him, glaring. “You’re—you’re interrupting.”
Reed tilted his head in that annoying way of his. “What, exactly, am I interrupting again?”
“Reed.”
He popped a piece into his mouth, awaiting my reply with a smirk.
I gritted my teeth in frustration, because any second now, my voice would pitch high enough that it’d definitely be audible from the kitchen. It didn’t matter, anyway. Cindy came back into the living room with a bag of shareable M&M’s. “He’ll bring in the bowl when it’s done,” she said, sitting opposite of Reed. Without hesitation, she laid her legs across Reed’s lap, sinking low into the couch and getting easily comfortable. “We can watch whatever, but if it’s a superhero movie, count me out.”
The déjà vu of the moment hit me with the weight of a freight train. I wondered if Reed’s mind took the same route that mine was—yesterday, we’d been in that exact position. My legs in his lap, his hands tracing patterns on the blanket covering my shins. If I concentrated, I could almost remember what that fingertip felt like, how something so silly and small could take my breath away.
Except there was no blanket on Cindy’s legs—his fingers were on her skin.
