Boy Next Door ✔

chapter thirty-one

C A L E B 

Finally, the holidays had begun and I could get some time off of studying and work. Which was why I had been doing nothing but laying on my bed and texting Dustin throughout the entire day. I only managed to get up so I could take a shower and eat. 

It was around half past six in the evening and I was still texting Dustin when I heard a knock on my door. I let out a groan of frustration and rolled over onto my side, ignoring it and hoping whoever it was would just go away. They knocked one more time a few minutes later and I chose to ignore it yet again, which was when I heard a familiar voice shout - "Caleb, I know you're in there!"

My phone slipped from my hands and dropped onto my nose at that and I let out a pained yelp before getting onto my feet and lazily sauntering over to the door, pulling it open and ignoring the way my heart began to do flips when I saw him. 

"What is it?" I questioned, trying my hardest to sound monotonous. 

"There's a water leak at my place and I called the plumbers over, I don't feel comfortable staying in there with them because they keep asking me questions about my sex life. Can I crash at yours for now?" he questioned sheepishly, tilting his head at me like a lost puppy. 

"How long are they going to be there?" I inquired, crossing my arms across my chest, struggling to maintain eye contact with him. I still couldn't understand why I felt this way around him. 

"Does that really matter?" he began. "Maybe around five more hours."

"Five hours?" I gasped. "Geez, that's gotta be a terrible leak then. Come in."

He nodded and I stepped to the side so he could come in. I shut the door behind us and watched as he took a seat on the couch and leaned back against it with a distressed sigh. That was when I decided to question him about the whole R&B situation. 

"Hey," I began, taking my seat beside him. "So.. the night before yesterday."

"I played R&B, yes," he stated simply. "I figured you were growing tired of waking up to Chase Atlantic at three in the morning."

"I'd prefer not waking up at all at three in the morning, but thanks for being so considerate I guess," I snorted. "Anyway, you're going to be here a while and we can't just sit and gossip. So, what do you want to do?"

He looked at me with features that evinced amusement, "I don't know. What do you have in mind?"

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you, idiot," I scoffed, rubbing my temples out of frustration. 

I was expecting him to laugh it off or disregard me completely. However, what I hadn't been expecting was for him to lean closer and secure his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him. He leaned in and in a whisper, he spoke, "Don't you work in a coffee shop? How about you teach me how to make some coffee, then?"

With my cheeks burning and my heart pulsating, I pushed him back and feigned disgust, "Why are you getting all touchy-feely? Anyway, I just work at the counter. I don't make the coffee, stupid."

"Don't act like you didn't enjoy it," he commented, pulling my now red cheeks before I could complain. "And you're awfully mean to someone who let you stay over at their place when you were caught in a difficult situation."

"Serves you right for telling me to fuck off that day," I humphed. 

"I apologized for that," he complained with a pout. "Anyway, were you eating before I came or something?"

"No," I began before realizing that I had indeed downed an entire slice of cake by myself before his arrival. "Oh wait, yeah. I had a slice of cake, why?"

"I knew it," he chuckled before beginning to extend his hand out towards my face. I immediately scurried back, looking at him in confusion.

"What are you trying to do?" 

"Stay still, idiot," he began, crawling closer to me. "There's icing on your lips."

"I can get it myself," I protested, beginning to rub at my lips furiously with the sleeve of my sweater. He looked at me in disappointment for a brief moment before sighing in annoyance, "Just let me do it for you. You're never going to get it off at this rate."

"I'll just go to the mirror and-" I began, but was rudely interrupted by him crawling impossibly closer so that he was basically pinning me against the couch. He dropped his voice to a whisper yet again and averted his gaze to my lips, reminding me eerily of the situation that had happened at his place. 

By then, my heart was already racing a thousand miles per second. My thoughts and emotions were all over the place and my whole body froze underneath his menacing gaze. 

My words were stuck in my throat as well, so I could barely protest. So, he swiftly swiped his thumb across my lower lip and got off of me with a victorious grin, "Got it!"

I then watched, bewildered, as he full-on stuck his thumb into his mouth and sucked the icing off of it. 

"Gross!" I complained, flinging a pillow at him which made his topple over and fall off the couch. I refused to make eye-contact with him and hid my face behind my hands instead, cursing the burning sensation on my cheeks. 

It was then that everything made sense. The reason as to why I could never look him in the eye for more than a second, the reason as to why I always found myself smiling around him, the reason as to why I always felt sparks of electricity rush through my entire body when he even did so little as to brush his shoulder against mine and the reason as to why my heart always began to perform crazy stunts in his presence. 

I had feelings for him.