To Keep You Off My Mind

Chapter 11

Lily's POV

As we got all the groceries out of the bags, Locke turned on some music. We got all the supplies and began making chocolate chip cookies. I read the recipe to Locke and he started putting things into the mixer. I noticed that he forgot to put in a cup of flour, so I grabbed a pinch of it and threw it at him. He flinched as it hit him, and looked up.

"Um, what was that for?!" I smiled.

"You forgot another cup of flour." He looked at me with a look of revenge. I smiled wider. He grabbed the whole cup of flour and threw it at me. I let out a high pitched squeal as it hit me. "Oh, that's it! You're dead!" I grabbed an egg and cracked it on his shirt. He backed up and grabbed some butter to throw on my head. I caught his arm before he could throw it and turned it back on him. I started laughing hysterically.

"Oh, you think that's funny, Lils?!" He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him, while cracking an egg on my head. I ran into him and we slipped on the flour on the ground, causing both to fall. I landed on top of him and we both started laughing. We were covered in baking materials, laying on the ground, hysterically laughing. We must have looked like dorks, but we didn't care, we were having fun. He looked up at me and stopped laughing. I looked down straight into his beautiful brown eyes. My heart told me to kiss him, but my brain told me to get up. My brain won and I rolled off of him and tried to stand. I slipped and fell back on the ground while trying to get up. "Lils! Are you okay?" He stood up and reached his hands out to help me up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just covered in cookie dough ingredients!" I smiled.

"Hey, you started it!" He replied. I tried brushing off the eggs and flour but had no success.

"If you would have remembered the flour, I wouldn't have had to start anything!" He grabbed a handful of flour and threw it on me.

"There's your flour!" He said busting out into laughter. I crossed my arms and stamped my foot pretending to be angry.

"Rude." I looked around at the kitchen to see that it was a complete mess. "Oh my gosh. Your mom is gonna kill us." I gave him a worried look.

"Not if she doesn't find out! Help me clean it up." He began sweeping up all the flour and egg and I grabbed a sponge to clean the counter. After cleaning up the surroundings, we finished making our cookie dough. We placed the tray in the oven and walked into the living room to pick out a movie, not realizing we were still covered head to toe in flour, eggs, and butter. "Oh, gosh. Look at us. We can't sit on the couch in these clothes!" He turned around and started walking upstairs to his room. I stayed were I was not wanting to intrude on him changing. He turned around as he walked up the stairs. "Are you coming, or are you just gonna stay I those clothes?" My heart skipped a beat and I ran upstairs to catch him. We walked into his room and he picked out a T-shirt and pair of basketball shorts for me to wear. I grabbed then and walked to the bathroom to change.

The shirt he gave me was obviously a shirt he'd grown out of, because it fit me almost perfectly. The pants were pretty baggy, so I used one of my hairties to bunch them up in the back. My hair was coated in flour, so I brushed it out with my fingers and pulled it up into a bun. When I walked out of the bathroom, Locke was already downstairs getting the movie ready. I walked down the stairs and he turned to look at me as I walked into the living room. "Not fair." I stopped dead in my tracks as he stared at me.

"What?" I asked curiously.

"You even pull off my clothes better than me!" I felt my face turn red. I smiled shyly and walked over to the couch to sit down. His pressed play on the movie and came to sit next to me. He sat down and I felt myself fall into his lap. I apologized and scooted half way back to my seat, still only inches from Locke.

The movie began and I quickly realized it was a horror movie, my least favorite type of movie. Evrytime something jumped out, I squealed and buried my face in my hands. "Wow, you really are jumpy!" Locke said as he glanced over at me.

"Yeah, I kinda forgot to mention I hate horror movies." He smiled and pulled me closer to him so I was wrapped in his arms. His arms were muscular, but not over the top, he had a perfect ratio of muscle and arm. His skin was soft and warm, and I felt safe, although I keep digging my face into his chest every time something scary happened. After about 15 minutes of the movie, the timer for the cookies went off. Locke stood up and walked into the kitchen to pull them out of the oven. Without his body heat surrounding me, I started shivering. I grabbed a blanket sitting on the edge of the couch and threw it over myself.

Locke came back in with a plate of cookies and two glasses of milk. He handed me a glass and sat down next to me. He pulled the blanket over himself and pulled me closer to him again. I wasn't sure if this meant that he was interested in me or not, but I didn't want it to end, so I didn't complain. We finished the movie and decided to play a board game in his room.

We walked upstairs and he showed me the game he wanted to play. I had no idea how to play, but I agreed anyway. We played for about 20 minutes before he beat me. "Wow, you kinda stink at this game." He smiled.

"Well excuse me, Mr. I-play-this-game-everyday! I guess some of us aren't as talented as you." I said sarcastically. He smiled and cleaned up the game. I stood up and looked around his room. His walls were covered in posters of all different comic books and movies, and his shelves were packed with books. "You're room is pretty cool." I said as I looked at a movie poster.

"Thanks. I've spent years collecting posters and books from all my favorite movies and comics." He seemed a little embarrassed, but I thought it was cute. I walked back over to his bed and sat down. "So, now what?" My brain started imagining scenarios in which he grabbed me and kissed me right there, but it didn't happen.

"No idea." I looked around his room to avoid eye contact.

"Lils, can I ask you something." My heart jumped, what did he mean by 'something'? Was he going to confess his undying love for me? How about how much he wanted to kiss me? Or, how much he didn't like me? My head was spinning as I replied.

"Yeah, anything." I let out a weak smile.

"It's about the Sadie's dance. I know you just broke up with Chris, and you were supposed to go with him, but now you aren't, and you aren't going with anybody. I really don't wanna go with Julie, so I was wondering if maybe we could go together, you know as friends." I smiled. The plan had worked. After all the pain and sorrow I'd been through, I'd finally get to go to the dance with Locke! I thought about what Julie and Chris would think.

"Don't you think Julie would get mad?"

"To be honest, I really don't care what Julie thinks. She's a brat and deserves to get stood-up." We both smiled. "So I'll take that as a yes?"

"Not so fast there, mister. It's a girl ask guy dance, remember? I'm supposed to ask you! So, Locke McLaughlin," I scooted off his bed and got down on one knee. I grabbed a bouncy ball that was laying under his bed and held it up for him to see. "Will you go to the Sadie's dance with me?" He covered his mouth with his hands and started fake crying while nodding his head. He used his hand to dry his 'tears' and grabbed the ball. We both started laughing and I stood up.

"Of course I'll go to the dance with you, Lils! But I must warn you now, I have crazy good dance skills, so beware." I smiled.

"Well, I have horrible dance skills, so also beware!" He laughed.

"You can't be that bad! Here, show me what you got!" He stood up and stuck his arms out, waiting for me to fill his empty hands. I did. I stepped closer and clasped his right hand in my left hand and placed my right hand on his shoulder. I felt his left hand gently settle on the small of my back. We were standing pretty far apart to be dancing. "Okay, you have to get a little bit closer than this, Lils." My heartbeat doubled it's normal rate as I took a step closer. "Closer." I felt him pull me towards him until there was only centimeters between us. "Okay, ready?" He looked down at me and smiled.