The smell of Seb all over the hoodie made my toes curl.
We ended up outside on the balcony.
My favorite place to be.
A place he never used until I showed up.
As I walked by him, he grabbed me and sat me down on his lap.
My cheeks turned bright red.
“Problem?” Seb whispered.
“No,” I said. “Not at all.”
“How long have you wanted this, April?” Seb asked. “To just sit down on my lap like this?”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Oh, wow. You think you’re all tough and cool now? Because you got into my panties?”
“You’re not wearing any panties right now. I know that for sure.”
“I was when this thing started.”
“Okay. You don’t have to talk to me about it then. I get it.”
“Seb, you know I’ve had a thing for you from the second I saw you,” I said. “Do you really want me to talk about it? For what? To inflate your ego?”
“Maybe a little,” he said.
“You know what? Fine. I’m living in a dream,Sebby. I’m sitting on your lap and it feels good to do. Oh, and the hoodie? I’ve wanted to wear your hoodie like this for a long time. Actually… I did once before.”
“You did? When? I don’t remember.”
“You wouldn’t remember. I stole your hoodie once.”
“You stole my hoodie, April?”
I nodded. “You were at practice. You left it at our house. So I grabbed it, ran to my bedroom and wore it.”
“Did you smell it?”
“Of course I did,” I said. “A crush like that has no boundaries, Seb. You wouldn’t understand.”
“You think that? For real?”
I snorted a laugh, then took a sip of coffee.
I stared out to the ocean.
After a few seconds of silence, Seb said, “It wasn’t all one-sided.”
“Yeah, right, Seb. You don’t have to do that. I know how I looked when I was younger. Some people are just good looking and tackle puberty with pride. I was like a piece of gum run over by a dump truck every hour on the hour.”
“Don’t forget the braces,” he said.
“Exactly. No way you thought anything of me. Other than me being a pain in the ass. And dorky.”
“Come on, babe, give me some credit. The mouth full of metal? The messy hair? The weird clothes.”