Him (4 page)

His blue eyes me
et mine, and he clears his throat. "My dad passed a couple years ago."

I pu
t my hand on his arm. He glances down at it. "I'm so sorry, Will. I didn’t know." Once I had moved away, I made a point to avoid news from home.

"
He had a heart attack."

My hand was still on his arm
. "How is your mom doing?"

"Not good, you know, but better. I moved in with her after it happened."

"You're a good son."

He shrugs
. I slowly pull my hand back, putting it in my lap.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

We both look up at the attendant now next to us.

I ask
for a ginger ale, and he gets a cola.

Bef
ore taking my first sip, I raise a brow at him. "No making me laugh this time. Deal?"

He smiles
, eyes crinkling in the corners. "You still ticklish?"

Back when we were in school
, he used to come over all the time. We would watch TV, and he would eat everything in our house. For some reason, he used to always tickle me until I was lying on the floor panting, and then he would sit back down on the sofa like nothing had happened.

I gape
at him. "You wouldn’t."

He chews his lip like he's thinking it over and reaches out suddenly. I cringe
, setting down my drink and bringing my arms up to block him. He chuckles and taps my nose. "Maybe another time."

I exhale
, catching his amused look, and roll my eyes.

He looks
at my drink. "I only drink ginger ale when I'm sick."

I shrug
. "Helps my stomach when I'm flying."

"Motion sickness
?"

"
Sometimes, a little bit."

He nods
. God, this is surreal. I am sitting here, on a plane, talking to him. What are the odds? When he sat next to me in English class, I had felt like the world had shifted on its axis. It was like he had stepped out of one of my dreams. Our teacher, Mrs. Hall started calling out the roll. I remember going stock still, paying attention. I had to know his name. Name after name was called, alphabetically by last name. When my name was called, he looked at me when I said here. I still remember the two names called between mine and his, Kyle Nelson and Mariah Osborne. Then there was his name, William Price.

"Will, h
ere," he had said.

Will.

I blink away the memory. "I'm sorry. What?"

His finger smooth
es away a bead of condensation from his glass. "I asked how long you would be in town for?"

I catch
myself mimicking his movement on my own glass, pausing when I see him notice. I gulp. "Not long. Just one week."

"Why Denver?"

"Huh?"

He chews
on the corner of his lip. "What took you out to Denver?"

Him.
I can’t say that, but after that night, I did what any self-respecting wuss would do. I ran. "I've only lived there two years. I traveled there for work and liked the city so much I moved there. Before that, I lived in New Jersey with my Uncle Chip. Remember him?'

"Was he the one that
used to sneak us beers?"

I nod, grinning
. My Uncle Chip is kind of my favorite person on the planet. "He lived out there at the time and had always said I could live with him. He got sick of the cold and moved to Florida before I moved to Denver."

"It was just like one minute you w
ere there and then…" He shrugs.

Why didn’t you come after me
? That’s all I can think as I spin my thumb ring.

He grabs
my hand. "I can't believe you still have this ring," he says, looking up at me, eyes wide.

I start at his touch. This is bad, the way my
body still reacts to him. I cannot let him do that, even though I want it more than anything else. I pull my hand away from his and cover it with my other hand.

He had given me the ri
ng in ninth grade. He had gotten it out of a quarter vending machine from the Food Lion by my house. He was trying to teach me how to skateboard, and we stopped to get sodas. I had exact change. He had a quarter left over. I told him to buy a gumball, but he bought a ring instead. "Don’t say I never got you anything," he had teased, dropping it, still in its plastic bubbled container, down my shirt. He laughed at me while I pulled my hand inside my sleeve to retrieve it. The ring looked like something you would buy from a trendy boutique, not something that came out of a quarter machine. It makes me laugh every time someone asks me where they can buy one. I just shrug and say it was a gift. The ring is a simple plastic one, smooth, with silver and gold squiggles across the top. I treasure it, have worn it on my thumb ever since. I spin it whenever I'm nervous.

"Yep, still
have it," I say in a small voice. Time to change the subject. "So what brought you to Newark?"

"
This is just a lay over. I was in Vermont. There was this picture I took." He pauses. "It won an award, and the ceremony was there. So what about you?"

I'm not surprised
. During school, Will always seemed to have his camera nearby. "That's really cool, Will. Congratulations. Me? I was just wrapping up a retirement plan for a hardware chain."

"Do you like what you do?"

Who asks that? "Um, it pays the bills. Keeps me busy." Self-preservation, keeps me moving.

"Must make it hard to settle down."

I look down at my hands, spinning my ring again. Had he just read my mind? "I guess."

My hair slips
out from behind my ear again. When he reaches up, I shake my head, and he lowers his hand. I unclip my hair, and brown waves tumble over my shoulder. It had been damp when I had twisted it up this morning and had dried that way. The smell of my conditioner drifts around me. Will leans toward me, inhaling."Your hair smells really good, like pears. It didn’t look this long when you had it up."

"I
really need a haircut," I say, examining a chunk. "Can I put my drink on your tray for a minute?"

"Sure."

"I just want to grab a different clip." I lean forward and pull my purse up into my lap. Finding my other clip, I push my hair to the side and pin it, dropping the first clip into my purse before stowing it again.

Will si
ts there quietly, looking at me.

"We will be making our descent
into Hartsfield-Jackson International airport. Local time is two pm and local temperature is eighty-five degrees. Please turn off any electronic devices and wait until the fasten seatbelts light is turned off to move about the cabin. Be cautious opening overhead storage as items may have shifted during the flight," a flight attendant announces over the intercom.

He passes
our now empty drinks to the attendant collecting trash.

"Someone picking you up from the airport?"

I shake my head. "I was going to take a cab."

"My car's here. I could take you home."

I gulp. "I wouldn’t want to put you out."

"Seriously
, Sarah." He tilts his head, giving me an exasperated look.

"Fine, whatever
," I mumble.

He elbows me, raising his brows.

"I mean thank you, Will. You are so kind," I deadpan.

"That's more like it
," he says, putting up his tray table.

I roll my eyes. Part of me already feels like this is a mistake.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I grip the armrest between us as we land, my eyes popping open when I feel his hand cover mine. He looks at me, chewing the side of his mouth. I look down at his hand, his thumb drawing a lazy circle on the side of my pinkie. I tell myself to move my hand. People around us are unbuckling their belts and starting to stand. I don’t move for a couple reasons, first one being this far back on the plane there is no point standing until everyone else ahead of us has already gotten up and grabbed their bags. And secondly, because I just don’t want him to move his hand from mine.

Chapter 4

Past

"Won't Jessica be pissed that you picked me up first?" I ask
, finally getting into Will's car. I'd only had to run back into my house once this time for my chapstick.

He shrugs.
Way to non-answer, bucko. Last thing I need tonight is her to be mad at me before we even get to the Multiplex.

He looks at me
. "Is that dress new?"

I shake my head.

"I've never seen you wear it."

I laugh
. "Because I wear dresses all the time."

"You look nice."

I wait for the punch line, offering one for him when he doesn’t provide one. "For a tomboy, right?"

He looks back at me
. "You don’t look like a tomboy tonight, Miller Lite."

I fiddle with the hem of my dress. Part of me feels like I'm trying too hard. Kyle hadn't even officially asked me out tonight since it was Jessica that set the whole thing up. I was probably reading too much into the whole thing
, and he wasn’t even interested in me. I just had to hold out hope that someone could occupy the space within my brain where Will resided. Not where he was my friend. He would always be my best friend, but where I held all of my hopes and dreams that someday he would care for me more than just as a friend. I had to accept that wasn’t going to happen because, in almost the same breath of mentioning breaking up with Jessica, he threw out there that he liked another girl. That didn’t leave much hope for me that he would ever look at me differently.

We drive to Jessica's house first. It really ma
kes no sense that Will picks me up before Jessica or even Kyle for that matter. They all live fairly close to one another. My house is the furthest from his. When he parks, I get out and move to the backseat before he honks. Jessica is all smiles for Will, but they disappear when she sees me. I bet she is wondering why he picked me up first as well. She leans over and kisses Will when she gets in the car. I turn to look out the window so I don’t see the kiss, but I still hear it.

After buck
ling her belt, she turns to me. "Hey, Sarah. I just love your dress." I doubt that, given her tone. "Where'd you get it?"

Great
. Jessica and all of her friends all shop at Abercrombie and Nordstrom's. "Um, Target, I think."

I can see Will looking at me through his rearview mirror. When Jessica isn’t looking
, I stick my tongue out at him and look out my window again. When we pull up to Kyle's house, I start to feel pretty nervous. I'm not even sure why he wants to go with me. Will honks, and we wait for him to come out. He doesn’t take long and jogs up to the car. He's not as tall as Will but still taller than me and boyishly cute with his blonde hair and hazel eyes.

"Hey
, Sarah," he says getting in, flashing me a smile. He has really straight teeth. "You look really pretty."

I blush, glancing up to meet Will's eyes in the rearview mirror
. He's chewing the side of his mouth. I look back at Kyle. "Thank you."

Jessica fiddles with Will's radio on the way to the Multiplex. She stops on a song I know he hates
, and I almost giggle. This is going to be interesting. There is a small line to buy tickets. Kyle is standing really close to me. I'm not sure how I feel about it. When it's our turn to buy tickets, it gets awkward when Will tells Kyle he’s buying my ticket. Jessica just stands behind him, shooting daggers in my direction. I nervously play with my thumb ring. Kyle, trying to break the tension, asks me about it.

I look at Will
. "I love it. Wear it every day."

He grins at me, though his smile fades a bit when Kyle buys me candy and an
Icee. Will orders an extra-large popcorn that I know he'll share with me. When we get into the theater, I end up sitting between Will and Kyle. The seats have the kind of armrests that you can push up. My heart starts thumping when Will pushes the one between us up. Then I feel silly when he sets the popcorn there, whispering in my ear that Jessica hates popcorn in my ear. I'm an idiot, I think to myself. I have a kind of cute guy here for me, and all I can think about is how good Will smells and how his breath on my ear makes my pulse race.

There are a couple of times during the movie that we reach for popcorn at the same time. Each time
, we look at each other and smile. He has the most beautiful smile. After we eat all of the popcorn, I wonder if he'll lower the armrest. He doesn’t, but he moves the now empty container to under his seat. When he sits back up, he rests his hand where the container was, his pinkie just barely touching my thigh. I look at him, but he just stares straight ahead. Will has to know he's touching me. It's barely the side of his finger, but to me it feels like a hot poker, radiating heat all around it.