Boy Charming

Chapter Seventeen: Sneaking A Boy Into The House 201

Morgan walks farther into my room, shaking the leftover snowflakes off his curls. His hair is even more wavy now from the moisture than earlier today.

“I hate curls.” He says, running his fingers through his thick, dark hair. “That’s why I used to slick my hair down. I wanted it to be straight.”

“Really?” I say, adding my ‘many words’ to the conversation. So far I have hardly been able to put together a sentence, let alone keep a conversation.

“Yeah, I always thought curly hair was too girly.” He tussles his hair some more then gives up. I want to tell him that girls love curly hair (well I do at least) and it looks great on guys, but I can’t seem to form words and say them.

I’m still looking at Morgan’s hair, wondering what it would feel like to touch it, when he moves away, his attention elsewhere. He has noticed Viros sitting on my desk.

“This must be the infamous Viros.” He smiles, about to pick up my little laptop. Then he stops and looks over at me. “Can I pick her up?”

I nod yes.

He unplugs Viros, picking her up gently, and walks over to my bed to sit down.

“How has she been running?” He asks, setting her on his lap.

I walk over too and sit down beside him, but not too close.

“Really good, but I leave her on all the time because the start up is so slow.”

Morgan nods and opens a file called “msconfig”. He clicks through the options faster than I can keep up. My shoulders relax a little. The way he handles Viros, so carefully, gives me a tingling feeling. It's like he is touching me when he touches Viros. His fingers glide over the keys, typing fast but gentle. I can barely hear the keys being pressed.

“There.” He announces, startling me I jump back a little.

Morgan laughs at my reaction, watching me as though he’s trying to figure me out.

“I disabled some of the start up processes, that should help a lot,” he says, watching me a moment longer then setting his attention back to Viros. “Want to watch something together?” He asks, logging into his Netflix account now.

There is a shuffling sound in the hall.

I recognize that shuffling sound.

Morgan searches through Netflix movie titles, obliviously to any sounds. I spring into action, grabbing Viros out of his hands and surprising him. I throw her aside on my bed then jump forward, pushing and shoving Morgan to the back of my bed, where it’s against the wall. He pretends to protect himself like we’re play fighting.

“Morgan,” I hiss “my Mom is coming!”

I cover him up with my blanket and every pillow in reach. Then I throw my teddy bear on top for good measure. Just as I’m picking up Viros off the bed the door opens.

“You’re still up?” My mom says with concern in her sleepy eyes. She looks up at the ceiling where the lights twinkle. She no longer looks tired all of a sudden. “Where did you get those?”

“A friend got it for me for my birthday.”

“Oh.” Her expression changes. “I’m sorry, it was so busy at work and then we cleaned all evening here. I think you inspired us. I guess I completely forgot about making the cake like we planned.”

“It's okay Mom.” I smile at her. "I'm actually really glad we cleaned instead."

“Tomorrow night after work..” her voice trails off and I become stiff. Did she see Morgan? “Did you nail all the lights into the ceiling?” She gasps, then sighs. “We’ll talk about this tomorrow. Now go to bed…” Then as she turns to leave she adds, “and keep your bedroom door open, you’ll freeze in here with all those big windows!”