The Crushes

by Pamela Wells

  “Yeah,” was all he said.

  “We’re out.” Todd waved at Drew to follow him out of the kitchen.

  Drew didn’t hesitate. He surged forward, passing Kelly. She watched him go and couldn’t help but notice his scent lingering just behind him as he left.

  The smell was that familiar Drew smell—no cologne, no laundry detergent, just Drew. It was like clean water and home-baked food. Or something. She just knew it by smelling it, describing it wasn’t quite so easy.

  She wished she could curl into him and stay there for hours, his arms wrapped around her. She hadn’t had a guy hold her since Will. That was like seven months ago now. She was practically a nun.

  Of course, if she really wanted a guy, she could probably go out and find one. She could probably talk Adam into holding her at the very least. But she knew, deep down, it wouldn’t be the same. Not if it wasn’t Drew.

  Later that night, as her parents watched the evening news, Alexia said she was going out for a walk but called Ben before she left and told him to meet her at the park.

  This was officially the sneakiest thing she’d ever done.

  It took her a good twenty minutes to walk to the park from her house. Seeing Ben there, she wanted to burst into tears and scream with giddiness all at the same time.

  It seemed like it’d been forever since she had seen him last.

  She ran across the parking lot and over to the bench he sat on beneath a huge oak. He got up, held his arms out, and she jumped into him.

  “Umph,” he said, tightening his hold on her. “I missed you, too.” He kissed both her cheeks and then her lips. It started out as a peck and then grew into something more heated.

  Soon Alexia was tingling all over.

  Ben was the one to pull away. His lids were heavy with contentedness. He dropped down to the bench and pulled Alexia down with him.

  “So, Houdini, what’s with the Great Escape? Your parents know where you’re at?”

  She giggled. It felt good to laugh.

  “I told them I was going out for a walk,” she explained.

  “Impressive.” Ben propped a foot up on the bench and rested his arm on his knee. “So how’ve you been? Your parents letting you out enough? Getting you some sunlight? I hope they’re feeding you.”

  Alexia playfully shoved him. “Yes, they’re feeding me. And I’m fine.”

  “Really?”

  She licked her lips, tried to squash the weak feeling in her chest.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’m not fine, exactly.”

  Truth was, she was miserable. She couldn’t understand why Ben had chosen Pepperdine out of all the colleges that had accepted him. Did he want to get rid of her? Maybe this was his easy way out?

  “Come here,” he said softly, pulling her on his lap. She nestled into the crook of his neck, liking his arms wrapped around her tightly.

  “It’ll be okay,” he said. “I promise.”

  He’d read into her emotions without her saying a word. That’s how close they’d become. Did it have to end already? Because it would probably end no matter what Ben said.

  Long-distance relationships just didn’t work.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Rule 27: Do not keep crushing on a guy if it turns into an obsession! His loss if he can’t see the jewel that you are!

  Rule 41: Do not crush on a boy who has a girlfriend!

  Raven’s shift at Scrappe started in thirty minutes. It would only take her five to drive from home to the shop, but as soon as she saw Blake outside on Mr. Kailing’s porch with Mil-D, she put on her shoes, grabbed her bag, and headed out.

  She made sure to slam the door loudly so Blake would hear. And then she descended the stairs slowly and practically went at a snail’s pace down the driveway to the curb where her car was parked.

  When she reached the car, she even made a show of dropping her keys, hoping to stall. She sighed dramatically and scooped down to pick them up. She straightened, shooting a glance across the street.

  Mil-D waved to her. The magazine in Blake’s hands fell just an inch and his eyes flicked across the street for one brief second.

  He didn’t wave, however. He didn’t even smile.

  Raven sighed and got in her car.

  What was his deal? Had she gone too far with the cold shoulder? Whose stupid idea was it anyway to use that rule?

  Uhh, yours, she thought. It was your stupid idea to use the rule when really you shouldn’t have been using the Code at all.

  She started up the car and pulled away from the house, checking across the street just once more.

  And this time…she was almost certain she caught Blake watching her.

  Rain pelted the front windows of the coffee shop. Thunder rolled off to the west just seconds after a flash of lightning streaked across the darkened sky. It was only six o’clock, but looking outside, Raven could have easily mistaken it for ten.

  Because of the weather, the coffee shop was buzzing with activity. Most of the tables and comfy chairs were taken. Conversation mixed with the soft jazz music playing on the stereo. Raven brewed a few shots of espresso while Horace threw ingredients for a frappé in the blender. He turned it on, and the ice crunched loudly.

  When he turned it off, Raven realized the latest Kay-J hit was playing on the radio. Horace shot Raven a look.

  She tried to ignore him as she stirred the freshly made latte. She handed it to the waiting customer and took the next order. As she poured two shots of French vanilla syrup into the cappuccino, Horace came over and nudged her.

  “What?” she said.

  “You’re singing along.” He smiled and shook the reddish-blond hair from his eyes. “You sound good. You’ve been practicing.”

  She blushed. “Yeah, well, it’s not nearly as much fun as singing for the band.”

  The band hadn’t played in almost three months now. First Horace was gone visiting his father in Detroit, then in July, Hobbs’s family went on vacation out west, and now Dean was grounded for getting caught drinking.

  It’d been so long since Raven played with October that she was beginning to think it had all been a dream.

  “The band will play again soon,” Horace said, keeping his voice low so only she could hear. Her mother wasn’t at the shop, but it was habit to keep band talk low-key.

  “Yeah, but what if I win the contest, then what? Not that I even think I have a chance…”

  “I think you do and if you did win and you went away for two months or whatever, the band would still be here when you got back.” He popped a cinnamon candy in his mouth and grinned at her. If they were alone and not in the middle of a coffee shop with fifty billion eyes on them, Horace would have kissed her just then. He had that look in his eyes. Raven’s stomach fluttered thinking about it.

  They went back to making their coffees, the conversation on hold for now.

  As the rain relented and the thunder dissipated, the coffee shop crowd thinned out. Raven finally had a chance to sweep and clean up. She was emptying out the garbage cans when the front door opened and Blake walked in.

  With A Girl.

  Raven faltered and Blake caught her.

  He didn’t smile or grin wickedly. Or any of that male chauvinistic stuff.

  Instead, his eyes swept swiftly over her as if he didn’t see her at all.

  The girl looked at Raven, too, but her eye contact lasted a bit longer. She was extremely pretty in a sweet girl kind of way. She had long blonde hair with honey blond highlights and chestnut lowlights.

  She wore a cute pair of khaki shorts and a white T-shirt with a pink silhouette of a hummingbird just above her chest.

  When Blake set his hand at the small of her back, her face instantly glowed and the smile that echoed would have put any dental commercial to shame.

  Blake said something to her and she laughed. It was light and airy, musical.

  Even Raven was charmed.

  Horace took their orders, and they sat at the table of
f in the corner.

  Privacy, Raven thought. Blake wanted privacy.

  Raven scooped up the garbage bags, and embarrassment colored her cheeks. She felt like the world’s lowliest time-clock slave. The bags were suddenly cumbersome in her hands, banging against her legs. She wrestled them to the back room and then the Dumpster outside.

  The cool air left over from the storm felt good on her hot cheeks.

  Was Blake trying to make her jealous? Because he was doing a good job of it.

  Or maybe Raven had read the signals wrong. Maybe Blake had never liked her in the first place. Maybe he’d always intended to keep their relationship on a strictly friends basis.

  And why did she care anyway? She was freaking out and they weren’t even boyfriend and girlfriend!

  It was like she was an obsessed fan or something.

  Back inside, wanting to keep herself busy, she grabbed a lint roller and went around to the upholstered furniture. When Horace was finished waiting on his last customer, he came over.

  “Have you thought about New York yet?” he asked.

  Raven peeled a sticky layer off the roller and ran it over the cushion of the pumpkin-colored chairs in front. “No. I mean, I could drive myself if I really—”

  “No,” he said quickly. “You’re not going to the city by yourself.”

  She warmed at Horace’s obvious protectiveness. She didn’t deserve someone so good to her.

  “Could Sydney or Alexia or Kelly go with you?” he asked.

  “Syd could probably get away without her dad noticing, but she’s working at the hospital a lot.”

  Horace plopped down on the couch as Raven moved onto the next chair. “I wish I could take you, but that’d be too noticeable if I asked for time off around the same time you did.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Maybe…”

  Horace looked up. Raven turned around.

  Blake stood just behind her.

  “You need to get to New York?” He pushed up the brim of his hat so that Raven could see his eyes better.

  “Yeah.” Horace got up. “There’s a contest there that Ray wants to enter.”

  “Well, I don’t want to enter…”

  Blake cut her off. “I can take her.”

  “Yeah?” Horace raised a brow.

  “Yeah. I was supposed to be in New York on the fourteenth, but I can switch the schedule if I want.”

  “The auditions are the fifteenth,” Horace replied.

  Raven set the lint roller down. “Look, I really don’t need a ride—”

  “Cool,” Blake said. “I’ll just reschedule, and we can go together.”

  “This is great, Ray,” Horace said, finally letting her in on the conversation.

  “We’ll leave early the fifteenth, then,” Blake added.

  His girl friend (not officially girlfriend until Blake said so!) came up behind him.

  “Ready?” he said to her. She nodded, a lock of hair falling in front of her eyes. She was so shy it was almost cute.

  “I’ll call you later, Rave,” Blake said. He held out his hand to Horace. “Later, man.”

  “Yeah.” Horace shook. “Thanks, by the way. This means a lot to us.”

  “No problem.” He waved and led his girl friend out the door.

  “This is great,” Horace said, leaning over quickly to peck Raven’s cheek. “Everything is working out.”

  Raven watched Blake out the front windows of the coffee shop. He held the passenger-side door of his SUV open as his friend climbed in.

  This was great? Hardly great at all. Raven was going to spend several hours in the car with Blake driving to New York. That was great for all the wrong reasons.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  After a hard day at the animal shelter, Kelly came home, took a shower, and plopped down on the couch. Her mother was in the kitchen baking cookies for some charity event she was going to. Her dad and little sister were in the den playing a heated game of Uno.

  Kelly flipped on the TV and clicked through the channels. MTV played reruns of yet another season of Real World. Snooze. VH1 played some stupid “celebrity” show. Bravo had on their popular cooking competition, but it was an episode Kelly had already seen.

  Since there was nothing else on, she left it on Bravo and slumped against the cushions. It was hard to focus, though, when she could hear her brother and Drew down the hall in Todd’s bedroom.

  Kelly tried to tune out the boys, focusing on the TV instead, when she noticed new picture albums lined up on the entertainment center shelf. Her mom had been talking about buying matching albums all summer.

  Evidently, she’d stopped talking about it and actually did it.

  Kelly grabbed two off the shelf—there were a total of five—and propped her feet up on the coffee table. She opened the first one and was greeted by a family photo from Christmas several years ago. Kelly looked about eleven or twelve. The pictures went on for a few pages and then pictures of spring and summer popped up.

  She stopped on a picture of Drew and Todd when Drew sauntered out of the hallway. He hesitated there, looking from her to the kitchen, obviously weighing the safer option. Hang out with Kelly’s mom in the kitchen? Or risk sitting with Kelly?

  She wanted to tell him to sit, but they were still on shaky terms. After all, Kelly had told him they couldn’t be friends. She’d been bluffing, of course, and Drew probably knew that, but the situation was still awkward.

  This whole thing was an elaborate dance Kelly knew none of the steps to.

  “Hey,” she finally said, trying to smooth out some of the discomfort.

  “Hey.” He sat down beside her, glancing over her shoulder at the photo album on her lap. He laughed when he saw the picture of him and Todd. “I remember that. That was the day we played a huge prank on Kenny.”

  “The one where we all waited around the corner of his house and then pelted him with flour bombs?”

  “His face…” Drew shook his head and chuckled. “The look on his face was awesome.”

  “Yeah.” Kelly turned the page and the entire spread was of the neighborhood kids covered in flour and dirt. Kenny got it the worst. Flour turned his black hair white; it stuck to his eyelashes.

  “That was my idea, you know,” Kelly said.

  Drew snorted. “It was my idea.”

  “No, I just let you think it was your idea.”

  He hung his head back. “You always were manipulative back then.”

  Kelly dropped her jaw. “I was not!”

  “Then how do you explain talking me into marrying you when we were eleven? I didn’t feel I had much choice, you were so pushy.”

  Rolling her eyes, Kelly tried to remember the year they were eleven. Had she pretended they were married?

  She vaguely remembered something about it.

  “Well,” she began, “maybe I did talk you into an early marriage, but back then, I had the biggest crush on you. And I remember telling my mom that I wanted to marry you when we were older.”

  Drew grinned. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” She nervously tugged on a hunk of blond hair. “I mean, it wasn’t a crazy obsession or anything…”

  “Sure.”

  He paused then and ran his fingers through his unruly hair. He still hadn’t gotten it cut. It now hung in layers over his forehead and along his temples. Kelly thought it fit him well.

  “You want to hear a crazy confession?” he said.

  Kelly raked her teeth over her lip. No, she thought. This is dangerous territory again.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “I had a crush on you the moment I first met you.” He tapped one of the photos of them, their arms around each other’s shoulders. “I still remember that first day we met. You and Todd were playing in the driveway with sidewalk chalk and he kept writing Kelly smells over and over again. He spelled smell wrong.”

  They both laughed.

  “And then I came over,” he continued, “and you were the first one
to say hi. I remember thinking your voice was squeaky.”

  “That’s because I was nervous,” she replied.

  “So was I.”

  Somehow, the distance between them had lessened and Kelly could feel the heat of Drew’s breath on her cheek, could smell his familiar smell.

  Excitement, nervousness, and apprehension mixed in her belly. She leaned forward, cleared her mind, and tried to feel the moment.

  Drew leaned in, too, and kissed her.

  The contact was like an electric shock to Kelly’s body. Every nerve seemed to tingle with the after effects.

  When she didn’t pull away, Drew threaded his fingers through her hair, along the back of her neck. A shiver went up her spine as his tongue slid softly over her lips.

  Butterfly wings in her stomach beat to a fervent drum in her chest. And when Drew pulled away, she was actually breathless.

  Drew’s eyes were heavy-lidded. “Kel,” he said.

  God, she’d been dreaming of that kiss for years.

  “Kel?”

  She reined in her focus. “Yeah?”

  “You okay?”

  “More than okay.”

  For now anyway. Later she might be a mess when she realized what they’d just done.

  But for now she just wanted to enjoy it. Enjoy everything.

  “I’m ready,” Todd called from his bedroom. “We’re going to Bershetti’s before poker, right? Cause I’m friggin’ starving.”

  Drew looked from Kelly to the hallway. “Yeah,” he answered Todd. To Kelly he said, “You want to come?”

  “To Bershetti’s?”

  Drew nodded.

  “Would I be…I mean, I don’t want to interrupt guys’ night out.”

  “You won’t.” He took her hand in his and squeezed. “Besides, I want you to come.”

  “All right.”

  Drew dropped Kelly’s hand when Todd came out of the bedroom.

  “Kelly’s coming with,” Drew said as he scooped up the keys to his truck.

  “What? Dude!”

  “Dude,” Drew said, “I want her to come.”

  Kelly couldn’t help but grin. She was so used to her older brother getting his way. It was nice to see someone else telling him how it was.