A Stupid, Hopeless Crush

Chapter-20 A New Leaf??

I just stare at Brandon as he looks back at me, the look on his face a bit concerned.

"Kylee? You okay? You look like you're gonna have a seizure."

I blink, and suddenly, I burst out laughing. I laugh out so loud that I have tears in my eyes, and my sides ache. People are probably...no, definitely looking at me weirdly, but I couldn't care less.

Brandon, on the other hand, looks confused. "You okay, Kylee?" he asks, probably worried that he might have to take me to a hospital, or maybe a mental asylum.

"Oh, Dashner, you kill me!" I choke out, and then take a deep breath as my laughter finally begins to subside. "Okay, I'm good now. Tell me, what did you really wanna talk about?"

He blinks, and frowns at me. "I just told you."

"Seriously, Brandon. Jokes apart; what is it?"

"I'm serious, Kylee!" He says indignantly. "You're the one who's treating this as a joke."

"Because it is one!" I say, and then look at his serious expression, a bit unsure. "...isn't it?"

He shakes his head. "It's not. I don't wanna fight or quarrel with you anymore. You broke my arrogance, and I've learnt my lesson. I'm really sorry for whatever stupid stuff I did during this revenge thing, and I have no more hard feelings." He suddenly chuckles awkwardly. "In fact, I was wondering if we could start over. I've always been kind of an ass to you, and I was simply wondering if we could put that behind us and be...friends?"

My jaw drops open at that.

"You wanna be...you...you wanna..." I'm at a loss for words, so I just move my hands around in haphazard motions, my mouth opening and closing continuously.

"You know, you look like a fish out of water. You could either say something or just sit there gaping at me," he says, leaning back with a smirk. "I don't really mind the latter, but you're scaring the other customers."

Aah. Now he's back.

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head and suffer from a concussion on your way here?" I ask.

"I'm sure."

"Prove it then." I narrow my eyes at him.

He rolls his eyes. "Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George. W Bush, Bill Clinton, Geor--"

"What are you doing??" I ask, looking at him weirdly.

Yup. Brandon is definitely losing it. The poor dear.

"I'm proving that I don't have a concussion. Reciting the names of all the US presidents backwards."

Ohhhhhhh.

"Yeah, oh," he mocks, not even paying attention to the fact that I didn't mean for it to slip out. Again.

"But you...you want us to...okay, wait. What??!" I say, scrunching my nose, asking for justification.

"You're really slow for someone who's never gone below an A+ grade in her life," he drawls, and noticing the hard look I give him, he sits up straight and awkwardly runs a hand through his hair. I suddenly get the urge to run my hand through his hair as well, but then I control my emotions.

Brandon sighs. "I just realized that...I've known you since middle school only as the annoying, strict, nerdy Kylee. Then in senior year, I suddenly find out that you're my best friend's twin sister! We've spent so much of our time quarreling that we never even thought about getting to know each other as friends. And I realized...this is probably the last year we get to see each other. Do you wanna spend it fighting and quarreling and revenge-ing?"