He harrumphs, then rests one ankle on his opposite knee and begins to shake his leg.
I wipe the popcorn crumbs off my fingers, then clap his pulsating leg. That makes him freeze. It also makes me freeze, because I’ve never touched a boy’s thigh, and although this isn’t a date, it’s Ten. I have weird chemistry with this guy. I snatch my hand away and dig back into my bucket.
He uncrosses his legs and sinks lower into his chair, which makes his legs flop open.
I try to concentrate on the movie, but the side of his knee brushes my leg. I shovel popcorn quicker into my mouth, then try to angle my body away from his, but the boy doesn’t have normal-sized limbs.
He shifts again, and again his knee sidles against my thigh. I swipe my water bottle from the armrest and chug most of it down, hoping it will cool me off. It helps a little. That is, until the hero and heroine make out on-screen. Then every inch of skin that Ten is unintentionally touching burns hot.
Ten leans toward me. “Only a dude hoping to score would take a girl to see this piece of crap.”
“He’s a smart kid, then. I’d totally fall for a guy who’ll sit through a chick flick with me,” I volley back.
Ten goes rigid, seemingly appalled by my confession.
I go back to watching the movie but have trouble enjoying it what with his unrelenting twitching. Seriously, he’s worse than a tweaker.
I lean toward him. “Why don’t you go hike around the mall or something? I’ll text you when the movie’s over.”
He stills, looks at me, eyes incandescent in the glow of the screen. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, right.”
He rams his hands into his zip-up fleece’s pockets and glues his spine to the backrest, doing his best not to move. I can tell it’s an effort from the tension crimping his brow. This is torture for him.
For some reason, that makes me grin. And then I’m laughing, and it’s really inappropriate, because someone’s just died in the movie. I garner many unhappy glares from the people sitting in the row in front of us, but my uncontrollable giggling loosens Ten up, so it’s worth it, if just for that.
He slings his arm around the back of my seat. “If you don’t calm down, you’ll get us kicked out. And I want to know what happens next.”
“What happens next? Have you even been following the story line?”
He stares at me so intently that I sober up. “Maybe I’m not talking about the movie.”
My stomach feels as though it’s been beamed right out of my body to make more room for my expanding heart.
Ten tips his head toward where Nev and her date are sitting.
He wasn’t talking aboutus.
My stomach resurfaces, heavy with popcorn and disappointment.
I turn toward the screen and spend the rest of the movie pretending to be absorbed by the plot when I have no clue what the heck’s going onanymore. Even though Ten doesn’t lean toward me again, his arm stays locked on the back of my seat, radiating warmth and his salt-and-spice scent.
The worst part is that I don’t even think he realizes it’s there, while I can’t think ofanythingelse.
45
Humans Aren’t Reeds
“I dreamed of spring rolls all night. No joke,” Laney says over lunch on Monday.
She and her mother ended up coming to yoga and Golden Dragon with me and Mom yesterday, because Laney’s father was out of town at a real estate convention.
“Did your mom join the book club yet?” Rae asks.
Laney mops up the extra oil on her pizza with a paper napkin. “Jade invited her.”
“Get ready to hear your mom speak ofonlythat.” Rae twirls the ends of her blonde hair. “I swear, it’s like a cult.”
