The New Boy

Chapter 8

I knocked on Henry's door and he opened after what seemed like five minutes.

"Hi." He greeted with an uplifting smile and I mirrored it.

"How are you?" I asked him.

"I am well thanks and yourself?"

"I'm good Henry, now let's get to work."

"Don't you want a drink? I don't want my mother saying that I'm a bad host."

"Water will be fine." I told him.

He brought a glass, I gulped it down and gave it to him to take to the kitchen. After that, he directed me up to his room. He told me that nobody was home. I had never been left alone with a boy before and I felt slightly uneasy even though Henry was literally my other half.

When we got upstairs, I emptied my backpack and romance novels fell on the floor. Henry looked at me in surprise.

"What?"

"What are we going to do with that?" He asked, eyebrows still furrowed.

"Eat on them." I answered sarcastically and he rolled his eyes.

"You want me to read all those? You can read and summarize for me. As for me, I do my research on the internet- like a normal person." He said the last part out loud and I rolled my eyes.

"Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen- said to be a wonderful classic about love." I said as I picked it up from the floor.

I never really noticed how neat Henry's room was. His walls were painted in a dark shade of blue, he had a small black couch that faced the window, his wardrobe was black and and the wood was beautiful. I loved it.

"Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James. I'm sure you've seen the movie so I won't say much about it. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, there is no way you haven't heard of that one, there is a movie based on it too and I love it. After by Anna Todd and The Fault in our stars. We share these books and read them and summarize what love meant to these characters and also jot down the things these novels have in common. I guess that's the first step of our project." He let out a deep breath and I felt like he was getting bored.

"I'll tell you what they have in common; love. This overrated feeling that everybody desperately wants a piece of." He said it so casually, as though no matter how many arguments I would throw at him, he would still stand with his word. I threw the books I had on the floor and threw my body on his couch, it was so comfortable.

He stood up and told me that he was going to make popcorn and I just nodded.

He came back a while later and said, "I hope you still like  caramel."

"Of course I do." The fact that Henry still remembered all my favorite things made me happy. It made me feel that I was just as important to him as he was important to me. Now that's how a friendship was supposed to be, not one-sided.

We talked and laughed, played video games and did everything else except the project, which was the reason I was there in the first place. I enjoyed the time I spent with him, it kind of made me forget of the overwhelming school work and the situation with Kylie. It was nice to know that Henry was still fun to hang around and our bond was tighter than ever before.

"How are you liking Clayton and Clayton High?" I asked.

"It's going well so far. No bullies, welcoming teachers and well, everybody is just fun to be around."

I then told him that my mom took away my screen time privileges and also grounded me. I was only allowed to leave because of this project, it really saved me. I also told him that the next time we were going to a party, there would be no going for burgers because I got in trouble the last time. He laughed at me and I threw a popcorn at him, purposefully missing.