How to be Cool

Lesson #12: Walk away from Petty Arguments

As much as I hated waking up to the annoying sound of my alarm, today I dreaded it even more. I remembered Derek mentioning that he was coming over this morning, but there was no telling what time exactly that would be. I woke up late, due to the snooze button looking so appealing while I was still half asleep. Now I had only an hour before school, so I hurried up and hopped in the shower. I could have stayed in there all morning if I wasn't worried about Derek coming over soon. After standing under the hot water for a few minutes too long, I shut it off and dried off, then wrapped the towel around my waist. 

I knew I should have considered the possibility, but I was not prepared for Derek to be sitting on my bed when I walked back into my room. There was a brown paper sack next to him, and he sat with his legs crossed as he scrolled through his phone. He slowly looked up, his eyes meeting mine only after scanning my body from my legs, up to my face. "Hey, good looking," he teased, a bit of a smirk on his lips. "You don't look too happy to see me."

"I need to tell my dad to stop letting you inside the house," I complained, tightening the towel around my waist as if that would make me less revealing. "I'll make your ass wait in the car next time." 

Derek laughed, making me squirm. "What? You're telling me you don't enjoy walking into a room half naked with the most gorgeous man you've ever laid eyes on sitting on your bed?" he retorted, his eyes staring into mine. "That's like a dream come true for me."

Now it was my turn to laugh, but it was accompanied by an immense feeling of comfortableness. "Who says you're the most gorgeous man I've ever laid eyes on?" I shot back, raising an eyebrow. Derek's jaw dropped, but he had no response. "Can you, like, turn around or something? I have to get dressed."

Derek sighed, but scooted around until he was facing the wall. I quickly dug my clothes out of the drawer and got into them before he could turn around again. "I brought you breakfast, just like I promised."

"I see that," I answered, moving closer to the bed. "You can turn around now." He turned around immediately, grabbing his paper bag to pull out the contents. 

He handed me my breakfast as I sat on the bed next to him. "So I was thinking," he started, glancing at me in a shy way that I'd never really seen from him before. "Well, since Lydia kind of knows that we're friends now, maybe we can talk more at school."

I almost choked on my french toast, so Derek put his hand on my back, a worried look on his face. "I'm okay," I mumbled with a small laugh, taking a drink of a water bottle next to my bed. I cleared my throat before looking at him again. "So, you really want to talk at school? We can actually. . . you know, be friends? For real?"

I couldn't tell, but it looked like Derek was. . . blushing? That was odd. "Yeah," he half whispered. We finished our breakfast soon after that, then it was time to rush to school before the first bell. Derek didn't even park in the back of the parking lot this time, which made me feel good. Though, we parted ways quickly after entering the building. Baby steps, I guess. 

Scott met up with me at my locker, leaning back against the surrounding lockers. "How's it going?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "I noticed you and Lydia disappeared last night," he said quietly, inching closer.