Crash And Burn

3. Falling In Love

I sat up from the bed as soon as I heard my phone began to ring. Startled by my sudden movement, James got up as well, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, nothing.” I shrugged as soon as I saw the caller ID – it was Pete, probably feeling bad about the weekend and at the same time wanting me to go out with him.

“Come on, then.” He leaned back on the bed, gesturing at me to join him, clearly so we could continue making out like we had been just before my phone had decided to ring.

“Give me a second. I’m looking at something.”

I checked a couple of other messages – a couple from my friends Elle, Iris, and Meredith wondering where I was, one from Pete, and a couple others from other friends who were either wondering where I was or wanted to chat. I told my close friends I was with James – they didn’t need to know all the details of what we were actually doing – and ignored the rest, not wanting to deal with rejecting date offers and listening about girl problems.

Instead of lying back down on the bed with him, I scooted over until my back was against the wall, and I patted the empty spot beside me so he’d join me. He pouted when he realized I had no intention of picking off where we’d left of for now, and I giggled at his face as he finally gave in and sat beside me.

“A couple of friends of mine from another school are throwing a party this Friday. Would you come with me?”

He held my hand in his, tracing random patterns on the back of it and traveling up to my arms and shoulders as well. I closed my eyes and smiled at the feeling. The tingles in my arms distracted me for a second, and it took a bit too long for me to finally answer.

“All right, perfect. Tell me when you know more details or anything.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Ah, wait – we have that date with Ben and Elle.”

He frowned. “Yeah, you’re right. Crap. I’ll have to cancel on them.”

“Sorry.”

My phone vibrated again once, indicating a new text message. As soon as I saw who it was from, I groaned.

“What’s the matter?”

“Pete.”

“What about him?”

“Remember I told you that he’s been consistently asking me out? Well we sort of had a disagreement at the party this weekend, because he was being all annoying and acting as though nobody would ever be a good fit for me except for him – relationship-wise. And I don’t want anything with him.”

“I thought he would’ve gotten it by now. Isn’t it enough to reject him?”

“If that were enough I would’ve gotten rid of him a long time ago. Now he’s just saying that he actually thinks he’s falling in love with me, which is utterly ridiculous.”

“And what have you said to that?” He was smirking, clearly realizing that one of the reasons why I wasn’t responding was him.

I shrugged. “That I’m not interested for now – but who knows, maybe sometime in the future I’ll like him.” I winked at him.

“I hope that’s not what you answer when they ask you about me – that you’re not interested for now.”

“Oh, of course not.”

He grinned.

“I say that I’m definitely not interested – and I never will be.”

“Hey! That hurts. Besides, it’s not good to lie.”