Kiss

Chapter 7

We laid in the shade of an old oak tree in the park. Although... there wasn't really the need for shade anymore. The sun was starting to disappear behind the tall oak trees. The sky reminded me of a circus, mainly because the sunset made the sky blue and the clouds pink like cotton candy. I looked up at Josh thinking he must have fallen asleep, but he still had his nose buried in the book I had handed him at the bookstore. I chuckled as I sat up.
"What is it?" he asked me not even looking up.
"I win," I whispered as I smiled triumphantly. He looked up at me then and his now almost permanent smile appeared from behind the pages.
"Curse you," He laughed playfully as he got to his feet. "What horror must I read next?" He quizzed me as he held out his hand to help me up.
"Twilight," I gave him a devilish grin. I loved that series but knowing Josh...
"Ugh," He groaned rolling his eyes. "Do you hate me Casey?"
"Yes," I replied teasingly. "I wish for you to suffer." we walked together back to his Mclaren. The drive home was quiet. I dozed off every once in a while and while I was awake I listened to the radio. Finally we pulled into my driveway. At this point there was only about fifteen minutes of sunlight left.
"I'll come pick you up tomorrow," Josh told me as I unbuckled the seat belt. "You seemed a bit uncomfortable on the bus."
"Thank you," I whispered as I leaned over and trapped him in a bear hug for a moment. Well actually I just tried to give him a hug. He was the one that trapped me. "I love you," I murmured quietly.
"Not as much as I love you," He replied.
"Do you like starting challenges that you'll never win?" I asked teasingly. Before he could reply though I heard my front door slam shut.
"Casey is that you?" My mother sounded a little angry... actually she sounded like she was ready to stake me.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Josh let me go so I could get out. I opened the car door.
"If my mother doesn't kill me tonight," I muttered so only I could hear as I left the safety of the car and closed the door behind me. Josh backed out of the driveway and sped off.
"Where have you been?!" My mother's glare was all I needed to know I was in trouble unless I gave her a good story fast.
"What do you mean?" I asked innocently. "I normally go out with friends after school..."
"Lyle called," She wore a smile that said I win! I win! But she hadn't yet. "He said you disappeared after lunch."
"Lyle," I pretty much spat his name. Of course. "Yes I left after lunch," I told her making myself frown like I was upset. "Josh, took me to a bookstore." she knew who Josh was. She gave me a confused look.
"You said Josh ignored you at school," She looked so very unsure of herself that I knew if I didn't make any flaws in my excuse I would get away with it. I sighed.
"I'll explain inside." she nodded in agreement. The night was freezing. We hurried inside and we both sat on the couch.
"Now explain," she demanded.
"It turned out he ignored me because he likes me," I would tell her most of the truth. "His friends didn't like me much though... now they do though... but when he told me I guess Lyle heard. And I guess he likes me too. He got mad and yelled at me, because I like Josh too," she had known that. "so I got really upset and so Josh took me to the bookstore to try to cheer me up." I shrugged. "and that's it." My mom took a few minutes to process it all and then she sighed.
"Okay, go to bed, but next time tell me so I don't freak out."
"I will." I promised and then I dashed up the old squeaky stairs to my room. I win! I win! Now it was my turn to wear the triumphant smile.

Beep... Beep!... BEEP! I groaned and slapped at my alarm clock, still half asleep, until I finally managed to make it shut up. I rolled out of bed like a log would roll down a hill, and then scrambled to my feet as I hit the ice cold wood. For a minute I just stood there, not wanting to deal with school, and then I remembered Josh was picking me up this morning. I shrieked as I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. With the speed of a bullet, I dashed to the bathroom and into the shower. Ten minutes later I hopped out, wrapped the warm towel around me, and headed back up to my room. As I dug through my drawers and scanned my closet, I decided I needed new clothes, but that would have to wait for another day. I finally went with a hot pink turtle neck sweater, patterned, Aztec-ish leggings, and my fluffy winter boots. After what felt like an hour later, I was able to get all the knots out of my hair. I put it in a plain braid and skipped down the stairs and to the kitchen.
"You're in a good mood today." My mother commented as I poured myself a bowl of cheerios, humming quietly.
"Mhm," I mumbled as I scoffed down a spoonful of cheerios so big it took me a good minute to swallow it. After I licked the bowl clean I put it in the dishwasher and hurriedly brushed my teeth. I was debating with myself whether or not I should put on lipstick or not when I heard my mother shout to me from the living room.
"Someone just pulled up in the driveway. Was someone picking you up?"
"Yeah," I replied as I sped walked to the living room and gave her a quick hug goodbye. Then I snatched my book bag from the coach and headed out the door. I stood on the porch step puzzled for a second. It was Josh, I could see him in the car, but it wasn't his Mclaren. It was a truck- I didn't know the exact name. I wasn't that good with cars.- It was a jet black with light blue flames starting at the front and ending a little past the first door. I shrugged to myself mentally and walked to the car. I climbed into the passenger seat, and closed the door behind me. "New car?" I asked as I got buckled.
"No," Josh replied with a yawn. "I leave the other one at school. This is the one I normally drive." ah, yes, his family was rich. As we pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road I looked over to him. Something seemed wrong though. His face was paler than normal, his hair was a mess and not in the normal cute way, his eyes had dark circles under them, and his grip on the steering wheel was loose like he might let go at any second.
"Are you okay?" I questioned him worriedly.
"What? Oh. Yes.. I'm fine," his words were short and choppy and the slightest bit jumbled. "Just... still waking up." Yes sure you are, I thought sarcastically to myself.
"When was the last time you got some sleep?" I interrogated him without mercy.
"One... two days ago. Casey I'm fine though really." He tried to stop me from questioning him farther.
"You look like a zombie Josh," I told him skeptically raising an eyebrow. "You need to get some rest."
"School..." He started to object.
"Who cares about school? You'd fall asleep in one of the classes anyway." I pointed out with perfect logic.
"So I'm guessing," he paused to yawn again. "You aren't going to school either today?" I gave him a smile that said 'you know me so well'.
"Nope." I told him. "If you dropped me off at school you wouldn't have anyone to talk to on the way back, and you'd end up crashing."
"Wouldn't want to ruin the car," He agreed teasingly. I rolled my eyes and let out a small laugh as he turned the car around and headed in the direction to his house.
"That would be just awful wouldn't it?" The sarcasm in my voice was very strong.
"Definitely," he agreed with a small nod. We had reached the house by then, but instead of going up the main road we took a dirt road around to the back of the house. We stopped in front of something that looked like a smaller house... which turned out to be a huge garage.
"This is the size of my house," I told him, amazed.
"It's not just a garage," he replied. "It has a gym in it too."
"Oh," That was all I could say as we entered the garage... gym... house thing. There were about ten cars, and although I didn't know many cars, I was pretty sure they were really expensive. Josh stopped the car near the back wall and turned it off.
"Are these all yours?" I asked a bit confused. Who needed that many cars?
"No," He assured me chuckling. "One is for Jen whenever she passes her driving test... so in twenty years, and the rest are my parents."
"Okay," I hoped out of the truck and closed the door behind me, careful not to slam it. Josh led me through the garage, into the mansion house, and through at least twelve hallways before we finally reached his room. I started laughing, probably more than I should have, when I saw the bed was still pink.
"Yeah... doesn't wash out," Josh shook his head disappointedly at the bed. "but I kind of like it like that."
"Pink is a pretty color," I nodded with a smile. "now get some sleep."
"Fine, but who let you become my mom?" he challenged me as he enveloped me in his arms.
"You sort of did," I murmured. "It's your fault you look like a mess."
"Really?" he sounded surprised.
"Yup." I nodded pulling away from him. "Now quit trying to distract me. I have homework that I forgot about." Josh laughed.
"I'm not going to take you out of school every time you forget about an assignment," He told me as he sat down on the pink bed.
"I know that," I replied in a 'duh' sort of tone as I found a beanbag to plop down on. "and I didn't go because I wanted to make sure you made it here alive. Not because of homework..." I trailed off as I realized he had already fallen asleep. I chuckled at him quietly, shaking my head. I pulled out the math I had forgot about and unhappily started trying to figure out what looked like Chinese to me. I gave up on trying to explain why A+B=C about a minute after I started. Why in the world were there letters in math anyway? I had a hard enough time trying to figure out what 7x8 was... 46? The next question asked me to graph a linear function. I just sketched a strait line through zero... at least I could do that. The rest of the problems took me about eleven minutes each to figure out. So one hour and fifty minutes later I had all twelve problems done. Yeah I was not very good at math. I had finished schoolwork and for a minute I made a mental plan of what I would do to keep myself entertained. I finally decided on a very good plan. 1. Read 2. Read another book, and if I had time for 3. Start on a third book. That would be amazing. It took me four and a half hours to finish the first book though... with a few five minute breaks. It was five hundred pages though. The next book was only about two hundred pages, and so I finished that pretty quickly. It was about 4:45P.M -school started at eight- by then and I decided to give my eyes a rest for a while. I was just about to doze off when I heard something. I opened my eyes and looked over to where I had heard the muffled sound. Josh was still dead to the world, but I realized the sound what him sleep talking. Every few seconds he would mutter something quietly to himself and then become as silent as a rock. I smiled and let the world start to disappear again.
"No," I opened my eyes again and looked back over to Josh. He was frowning now which worried me a bit. Should I wake him up? I wondered to myself. I would be happy if someone woke me up from a nightmare, but he needed the rest. No. I decided, but I couldn't stand listening to him upset so I dragged the beanbag out into the hallway and sat down there. The walls were pretty thick so I couldn't hear him muttering to himself anymore.
"I'll wake him up in an hour," I whispered to myself and this time I did fall asleep.