Too Close

Chapter 6

Olivia's P.O.V

"Can you knock?" Tyler strolled into my room like it wasn't his first time stepping foot in my bedroom. It had been a few weeks since he started living here and it was the Friday night of Frank Dylan's party.

"Aren't we supposed to be getting to know one another?" He sat down next to me on my bed, his voice feigning hurt. "I'm trying to be nice here."

"I'm watching something." He looked like he had no intention of leaving and instead looked at the plate I held on my lap. I had a plate of freshly cut red apples with a jar of peanut butter next to my legs.

"Are you eating apples with peanut butter?" He scrunched up his nose, which wrinkled the freckles that were scattered there.

"Yesss," I said, stretching out the word and I picked up the butter knife to apply a thick spread of peanut butter on one of the apple slices. "And?"

"Nothing, just...interesting."

"Have you ever tried it?"

"It looks...wrong. Is it even healthy anymore?" I held the slice out to him. "Nah, I'm good."

"Just try it." He looked down at the slice in my hand then back up to me. I felt my cheeks warm and I looked away from him to calm the butterflies piling up in my stomach. I felt him take the apple from my hand.

"Not bad," he chewed.

"It's better than 'not bad', it's amazing."

"What's that?" He looked at something over my shoulder. I turned my head but didn't see anything so I turned back to face him. He started smirking with the remote control now in his hands as he changed the channel.

"Hey!"

"You snooze, you lose."

"Give me my remote back."

"No."

"Give me the remote. You can watch TV in the living room." Other than on Monday night when a new episode of NCIS was on, which apparently he was a huge fan of, or when everyone came over to hang out by the pool, we went our separate ways. He usually watched sports or went out when we weren't in school so I had been spending a lot of time in my room.

"Nope."

"Give it!"

"Uh—no," he said and landed on some action movie. I put my plate down on my nightstand next to my bed and attempted to grab it from him but I ended up smacking it out of his hands and it rolled a few feet away from us on the comforter. He was caught off guard with a playful look on his face when I reached over and picked it up. He attempted to retrieve it from my hand but his force knocked us down on the bed and suddenly, I was on my back and he was hovering above me, a few feet in between our bodies.

"What are you doing?" I shoved at his chest and managed to push him off me and again tried to pick up the remote. I flipped through the channels and found the show I had been watching.

My leg was grabbed from the back and pulled out from behind me. The motion knocked me down on my stomach in a flop and I couldn't help but let out a surprised laugh. I shrieked when I felt his strong arms around my waist and I was flipped onto my back then he pinned my arms down to the sides of my head. Tyler hovered above me again, but this time our bodies were closer than before and he pointedly kept his eyes on me.

The butterflies happily erupted and pushed at my chest, and I couldn't do anything but stare back into dewy milk chocolate eyes. I noticed for the first time that tiny dark flecks surrounded his pupils like embers. He lowered himself even closer and studied my lips.