My Boyfriend's Best Friend

Chapter Twenty

Connor

I stood in front of the kitchen window, staring at the outside of my house, pondering the mysteries of the universe. Well, not exactly; just the mysteries of the female mind – which was pretty much the same thing. I hadn’t spoken to Tara since our fight on Wednesday and she had ignored all my text messages and calls. I was beginning to feel like some lovesick boyfriend with the amount of times I had tried to get in contact with her. Seriously, though, what was her problem? I know it was a lot to ask her to trust me with something like that, but she didn’t have to get so pissed off about it all. Honestly, I’ll never understand girls. I sighed and scooped up a heap of vegemite onto a spoon. I was about to put it in my mouth when I heard a voice from behind me.

“Connor? What are you doing here?” asked Rylie. I spun around to face her and ended up staring at her, awestruck. My mouth was open and I had the spoon of vegemite halfway to my mouth and I couldn’t help but drool as she filled up the kettle and switched it on. She was wearing a pair of pink and white cotton pyjama bottoms that only just covered her butt, emphasising her long, tan legs. She stood on her tiptoes and reached up to grab a mug from the cupboard. I gulped as her shorts rose up ever so slightly, giving me a glimpse of the soft skin beneath them. My eyes slowly travelled up past her bum and got caught just below her armpit, where I could see the side of her boob peeking through the armhole of her loose pink tank top.

“Connor?” she asked again, looking over her shoulder at me. My eyes snapped to her face. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh. Um…” I remembered the spoon in my hand and flicked my eyes to it. “We ran out of vegemite,” I said, knowing that it explained everything.

Immediately, her nose wrinkled. “God, I can’t believe you still do that. That’s disgusting.”

“Disgusting?” I snorted, snapping out of my stupor. “Are you kidding me? I’ve been deprived of this stuff for three years. If you want to talk about disgusting, try marmite.” I shuddered at the memory. “Nasty stuff.”

“That,” said Rylie, pointing at the spoonful of black spread, “is gross. Nutella, yes, but vegemite? No way.”

An idea started to form in my mind and a sly grin made its way onto my face. “Gross, you say?” I said, slowly walking towards her. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion and she backed up slowly until her back hit the counter. Her eyes widened as she realised she was cornered and I dashed forward with the spoon of vegemite outstretched before me. Rylie shrieked and hopped up onto the counter to put more distance between us and keep me from getting her with the spoon.

“No, Connor!” she shouted, her hands pushing against my chest. Her strength was dismal compared to mine and I easily got past her, swiping the spoon of vegemite down her cheek and leaving a trail behind. Rylie slapped my arm away and it got me in the face, the vegemite spreading all over my chin before the spoon clattered to the ground.

“Oh now you’ve done it,” I growled jokingly, pushing forward so that I stood between her legs. My hands grabbed her sides and I started tickling her.

“Stop! Connor!” Rylie yelled between laughs. She was squirming all over the place and I couldn’t help but laugh at her. Her messy hair was going crazy as she shook it in protest, trying to hit me. A few strands whipped me in the face but it didn’t faze me.

After a few minutes of squealing and threats, I finally stopped. My hands rested on the bench on either side of her and as I looked into her blue eyes, still crinkled from laughter, it suddenly dawned on me how close we were. All I had to do was lean forward and we would be kissing. My heart beat quickened and my breath hitched slightly. Rylie realised our proximity and she watched me, awaiting my next move. Her lips parted ever so slightly and I saw her eyes flicker down to my lips. I made up my mind. I was going to kiss her. I went to move forward and –