The Project

Chapter 14

Kate's Point of View

"Hey, do you wanna come over right now?" I ask Johnny after the bell rang to dismiss school.

He raises his eyebrows. "Just the two of us?"

I chuckle, nodding. "Why not?"

He thinks for a second, gathering his stuff into his backpack.

"Sure," he agrees, zipping up the old backpack and swinging it over his shoulder. "What are we gonna do?"

"Doesn't matter," I respond, walking out of the room with him. "Whatever you want."

Johnny turns red, and I notice it, but choose not to say anything. It's cute though.

"Okay, I just have to stop at my locker," he informs.

I nod, following him to his locker a hallway away. He seems to be in a rush as he shoves some books in the small space, and slams it shut.

We walk next to each other to the front doors of school.

Honestly, I was glad not to have ran into Benny. He would've gotten weird knowing I was hanging out with a boy without him there.

He always does that, and I'm glad he's protective and all, but it definitely does irritating.

It's not often I hang out with boys that aren't him, so I was excited and curious to hang out with Johnny without Benny and not having to do homework.

We walk to my house, and my mom is in the kitchen when we walk inside. She's holding a pad of paper and scribbling down words.

I try to sneak past her with Johnny, but she drops everything to come over to us.

"Hi! You're not Benny!" She greets, making me roll my eyes. "Kate, who is this?"

"Mom, this is Johnny," I introduce, trying not to sound as annoyed as I was. "Johnny, this is my mom."

Johnny, normally shy, happily sticks his hand out for my mom to shake.

Mom smiles, shaking his hand. "It's great to meet you."

"You too," Johnny replies.

His voice sounded confident which was something that I had never heard and frankly, it confused me.

"Okay you two, I have some work to do," she informs. "So have fun, but not too much. And don't be loud."

Johnny is blushing again, and I have to grab him by the wrist to pull him away from my mom and into the living room.

"Wow, so much freedom," I start, sitting on the couch. "What do you wanna do?"

"I don't know," Johnny answers. "You choose."

I lean back against the couch and think. What would I do with Benny if the two of us were hanging out?

Play cards, listen to him rant about baseball, listen to music, watch a movie. The drive-in!

"We could go to the drive-in," I suggest, and Johnny doesn't react. "If you want."