Chapter Five
I like her.
I really like Sam. She's acting nervous around me. I'm not sure whether it's due to a returned interest or just because I'm her friend's older brother. Is going to this dance crossing a line? It's hard to know how someone's feeling until you actually get to spend time with them. Sure, it would be nice if there was a way to know what she's thinking before the dance. That way I could know whether to slap on the charm or keep a respectable distance.
"Hey," Olivia appears standing in the doorway of my room. "Do you like Sam?"
"Huh?" Her presence and blunt question take me off guard. "Yeah, of course I do. We're friends."
"No, I mean do you like Sam?" She tips he head to the side with an arrogant smirk on her face.
I feel trapped. What is the right way to answer her question? I open my laptop and concentrate, pretending I've just received an urgent message needing my immediate attention.
"Oh, so you do. That's good, because I found out today she likes you, too." Olivia laughs and before I even snap my head up to look at her she's gone.
Sam likes me? That is some spectacular news. I grin folding my hands behind my head lying back on my bed. It looks like Valentine's Day could be the start of something for us. The night could have a few turns in it and if I play my cards right. It might end with... endless possibilities fill my head. Some hot fantasies start to play out in my mind. After about the tenth passion filled scenario in my head comes to an end my laptop signals an incoming call through video chat. I sit back up in the bed and position the computer to take the call.
My stomach spins and my mouth goes dry. Shannon Rose. I click the call answering it without even having time to process. It's just an automatic reaction. Her face appears on the screen and she sniffles with red swollen eyes.
"Brian, I'm so glad you answered," she cries.
"Oh, hey." I'm not really sure what else to say. What else is there to say? If I had taken a second to think this through I wouldn't have answered the call at all. But now it's too late. I'm face to face with the girl who broke my heart, watching tears stream down her cheeks. I'm not really sure what to do.
"Brian, I miss you so much."
She misses me? I saw her in the hall today and she didn't even look in my direction. I raise my eyebrows suspicioulsy and wait to hear what she has to say next.
"Can you meet me? We need to talk," Shannon says.
"That's, um, that's probably not a good idea," I stammer out and look nervously at the door to make sure no one in my family is overhearing this call. If they did it would be bad news. They all weren't crazy about Shannon before everything happened with us. Afterwards, when they found out what she had done, well, they didn't exactly hold back all the ill-will they were feeling towards the girl.
"Please, Brian, please," she pleads with me. "How can you say no? It's almost Valentine's day, don't you miss me? Don't you remember last Valentine's day?"
"Hold on." I get up from my bed and walk over to shut my bedroom door. Hidden where she can't see me I take a deep breath. Last Valentine's day I bought Shannon a large bouquet of roses and we took a long walk down to Sherman Park. I pushed her on the swing and she tilted her head back laughing with her beautiful red hair swinging in the wind. We kissed in the shadowy breezes underneath the large willow tree. It's seem ridiculous now that at the time I thought we were happy and we'd be together forever... or at least until the prom.
I sit back down on my bed and position the laptop on my legs.
"So, will you meet me?" Shannon lowers her voice to a sweet innocent tone. "Please?"
"I don't think so," My eyes lower away from her face on the screen. The call needs to end before I say or do something I might regret. Shannon has always known exactly how to work me with the right words, a look, her voice.
"Brian, I want you to meet me at the park. You know which one I'm talking about right?" she purrs. "The one with the willow tree, Sherman park. I'll be there in one hour."
It takes too long for me to get the words I want to say out. Not that it matters, by the time my voice finally starts working Shannon's disconnected the call. I close my laptop and pace my room.
After a forty-five minute debate with myself on why meeting her should be out of the question. I grab my jacket and keys making a run for the front door
