18
THAD’S BIRTHDAY CONTINUED
“You okay?” he asked after seeing I was obviously still a little upset.
“I’m fine.” I was trying to be, at least.
“Where are you going?” demanded Thad as we passed my street.
“What do you mean? I’m taking you home.”
Did he want to go somewhere else? Sure, it was only one in the morning. But everyone in my house would have been asleep. And my mom had to work the next morning. If she had fallen asleep on the couch, the creak from the side door would definitely alarm her to my presence if I came in any later.
His eyes looked back and forth as he squeezed my hand, the anxiety pushing through his blank stare. “Could I maybe stay with you tonight?”
Could you stay with me?My back tightened. I didn’t know what to say. Yes, of course I wanted him to stay over. And no. No. There would be too many questions posed by my family. I’d never had a guy friend stay over, not to mention someone I was falling for. And now that my mom knew, it was out of the question. Where was he going to stay? We had a spare room in the basement, but I wasn’t going to throw him down there. It was like a dungeon. Maybe he could stay in my room with the door closed, and I’d sleep on the couch. I’d fallen asleep there countless times. Nobody would question finding me on the couch.
“Um. I…” I began, pulling my hand away from him to grab the wheel.
“I’m sorry,” he said, cutting me off. “It’s just that my dad has been blowing up my phone the entire night. Maybe he needs some time to chill before I go home.”
“Yeah. That’s probably a good idea.”
Instead of pulling into the driveway and potentially waking my mom, I turned the headlights off and parked on the street in front of my neighbor’s house. I told Thad not to exit the car himself since he was still drunk and a little clumsy. I got out first and closed my door as silently as I possibly could, then did the same on the passenger side as I held on to Thad. He wasn’t really that drunk, but his body felt right leaning against mine. And I think he liked it too since he kept his arm around me.
We were able to sneak in through the side door unnoticed. Then took our shoes off and tried our hardest to remain inaudible as we climbed up the two steps to the kitchen.
“Shit,”I whispered.
“Ooh look…” Callum began to speak, but I reached my free hand out to stop him from continuing.
“Shut up. You’re going to wake Ma,” I whispered into his ear, then pulled my hand off his face. “What are you doing?”
“I was getting some water. Sheesh. What areyoudoing?”
“None of your business. Go back to bed.”
“None of my business, eh? Ten bucks and I wasn’t here.” He held out his hand.
Callum was the mischievous one of the twins and had been slowly turning into an opportunist. He was learning how to handle himself, which perplexed me since he was only ten years old. Niall was still naive and took everything at face value.
“I’ll give it to you in the morning,” I said. I didn’t have any cash on me and didn’t have the time to run to my room and grab money from the stash in my sock drawer.
“Fine. Fifteen then. Night, Thad.” He waved and exited the kitchen with his water.
That son of a…
“I like him,” whispered Thad as we tiptoed through the kitchen.
“Take him then.” I shook my head.
I slowly closed my bedroom door to try to minimize the squeaky noise that normally resonated from the hinges. I wouldn’t have given any thought to this on a normal night. I would have even left the light on and my door cracked open if I wanted to stay up on my laptop. This time was different. This time I needed my privacy and I needed to make sure no one else woke up.
Once the door was closed, I placed a large book in front of it so it would stay closed, then turned to see Thad sitting on my bed. He motioned me to come sit next to him, patting the covers. I stood motionless, watching him watch me, my mind spinning and trying to think of how to handle the morning and what would happen, depending on who was home when I woke up.
I sat on the edge of the bed with my legs crossed. I couldn’t believe we were on my bed, in the middle of the night. This time I made the first move. I placed my hand on his upper leg, which he flexed as I gazed into his eyes. I’d never wanted to be next to someone more in my life. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted him to put his arms around me and lay me down on the bed. I wanted to feel the weight of his body on top of mine. Is that too much detail?
My heart was racing, pumping adrenaline through my veins. I felt more out of breath sitting with him than I would have felt running a 5k cross country race. He was perfectly still, staring into my eyes as he smiled. He seemed so relaxed. Had he done this before? Who hadn’t by the time they were seventeen? Well, I hadn’t. But I was determined to change that. He put his arm around me and pulled me in further, so the tip of his nose was touching mine.