Probably not, because he continues sweeping up the popcorn like nothing happened.
“I’m such a klutz,” I mumble as we continue cleaning up. “Sorry. I thought I saw a bug and that’s why I threw the bowl in the air.” A complete lie, but it’s better than the truth.
“Nah, it’s okay. We’re almost done.” He stands. “We should probably vacuum. Where is it?”
“What? You want to vacuum?”
He shrugs. “I took care of the vacuuming back home, and I vacuum at my grandma’s.”
“Oh.” We usually have a housekeeper who takes care of that. “You don’t have to do that. It was my fault, my mess. I should clean it up.”
He waves his hand. “I don’t mind. Where is it?”
“Um…I don’t know?”
“What?”
I laugh, hugging myself like I want to hide in a hole. This is kind of embarrassing. “I don’t know where we keep it. But I guess we can look for it.”
I expect him to be all judgy, but he’s not. He actually seems pretty cool about the whole thing as we check different closets and the basement. When we finally find it, he plugs it in and begins vacuuming the carpet.
“It’s my mess, I feel bad that you’re cleaning it up,” I yell over the noise.
He motions that he can’t hear me. Liar. He totally heard me but is pretending not to. Why is cleaning up my mess so important? I really, really don’t get him.
When he’s done, he puts the vacuum away and we settle down on the couch.
“Thanks, that was very cool of you,” I say. “But you really didn’t have to.”
He shrugs. “Artemis, I told you I don’t mind.”
Why does my heart pound when he says my name?
I don’t bother making us more popcorn—it’s not like we’ll eat it, anyway. We continuethe movie, and like before, I can’t take my eyes off him. He’s so…into it. Wow. I don’t know a lot about guys, but don’t they usually hate this sort of movie? I remember how Jenna had to pull my brother by his teeth to get him to watch a romance movie with her.
My palms are resting on the couch, in the small space between Ryan and me. Ryan’s hands are on his knees. We’re so close, but so far. I wonder what it would feel like if I were to…
No. I can’t.
“So what did you think?” I ask once the credits roll down the screen.
He turns to me, eyes squinting. “So you like that kind of guy? Like Darcy?”
“Um, I don’t know. Why?”
He shrugs. “Just wondering.”
We look away from one another.
I reach for a bag of chips at the same time he does. Our fingers tangle in one another, and I can’t pull mine out.
He looks into my eyes and I stare into his. My stomach does a few flips like it suddenly turned into a gymnast. There’s so much in his eyes, but I can’t make sense of any of it.
I pull away, pushing my fingers through my hair. “Um, I think my parents will be home soon.”
He nods, getting to his feet. “Yeah, I should probably head home.”
“Want to do something tomorrow?” I blurt. “I mean, I’m free. We can, uh, do homework. If you want. No, homework’s lame.” There I go babbling again.
