I watch her.
The Hawthorne House boys’ voices are in my head as I watch her, and the boys are right. I cannot ask her to be my girlfriend yet. Not when she has just gotten her life back. She needs the night. She needs Saturday with Gianna to reconcile and not have to explain that I dove in headfirst and asked her to be my girlfriend. Maybe I should even ask for Gianna’s blessing, since she’s the one who didn’t want this to happen in the first place. Yeah, I’ll do that.
She puts her school stuff away in her desk, and then she pulls a small paper bag out of the drawer. “Bens.”
“Yeah,” I answer.
“I still have the candy bars you gave me.”
“What? You didn’t eat them?”
She shakes the bag and says, “There’s only one left. Wanna split it?”
“Which one is it?”
She looks in and grabs it. “Milky Way. I’ve never had one before.”
I scoff. “Open it and take a bite before you offer me half.”
She smirks and opens the wrapper. She takes a bite of the end. She chews. She nods.
“Yeah?”
She nods and holds it out to me. “You can have it.”
“No, that’s for you.”
She looks at me carefully. “You don’t want to eat chocolate because you have a game this weekend?” She steps towards me. I look down at the chocolate bar and then at her.
“What’re you doing?”
She smiles. “Open your mouth.”
She’s holding the Milky Way out toward my mouth. My mind runs blank at her demand. I look down at the Milky Way and open my mouth. I take a bite, and she smiles. Then she sits down next to me on the bed.
She takes another bite and asks, “Is this weird for you?”
“What?”
She shrugs. “Sleeping with your sister’s roommate.”
I laugh once. “No.”
She takes another bite. I steal another.
“Me and Gianna like similar things,” I say.
She laughs at that.
“I’m serious. My only rule is that she can’t date Stan.”
“Your only rule is Stanley?” she questions.
I think about it and shake my head. “No. My rule is she doesn’t touch anyone on the team. She’s known that since she came here.” I grin.
She looks at me like that’s interesting. I get uncomfortable under her glare.
“She’s not, right?” I ask, starting to worry why she’s looking at me like that.
