We said goodbye, and I walked up to Aaron. “Sorry. Have you been waiting long?” I asked as I stuck my stuff in the back.
“Nah, it’s cool,” he said, setting his stuff down next to mine.
I made my way to the driver’s door, and he opened my door for me. I stepped in.
“Thanks,” I said, wondering why I felt so nervous all of a sudden.
He closed the door, and I focused on taking a deep breath.
Aaron was just being a gentleman. That was all.
Inhale…
Exhale…
No need to freak out right now.
When he got in the passenger side, the first thing I noticed was how good Aaron smelled. Apparently, he had showered after practice, which he didn’t usually do.
Was it weird that I knew that?
Why did I know that?
It was weird, definitely weird.
I pulled out of the school.
All I knew was, that with Aaron in the car, I had to focus a little harder on the road and which way to go.
“Thanks again for giving me a ride,” he said, breaking the silence in the car.
I kept my eyes on the road, not sure how my concentration would do if I met those captivating honey-colored eyes of his. Sometimes I debated whether they were my favorite thing about him. “Of course,” I replied. “Like I said, it’s no problem.”
Why was I talking so much?
We came to a red light, and I snuck a quick glance at him.
His hair was wet and perfect. His mouth was set in a serious expression, but all I wanted to do was—
“Light’s green,” he said, turning to me.
“Oh,” I replied, quickly pressing on the gas and silently chastising myself for being a dork. “Sorry. Long day. I’m kind of tired.”
Was it me or was Aaron’s voice deeper these days? And I wasn’t about to ask him, but he had to be a couple of inches taller too.
He just got cuter and cuter with every summer that went by.
Because we’d known each other forever, I still thought about him as a kid sometimes. The image of him from back then was so clear, but it seemed like every year he morphed more and more into a freakin’ male model.
It was crazy. I mean, no wonder I…
Nothing.
But my mind continued to swirl with thoughts about him.
What was it about the Garcia brothers and the ridiculous glow-ups they went through? It had to be in their genes.
Their jeans and their genes…
I chanced another glance at Aaron, who gave me a small smile.
Why was he so cute? It would be easier to not crush on him if he wasn’t so darn cute…
I tried to focus on the road again.
We were juniors now, but what would he look like during our senior year? When he was in college?
For sure I could forget about our connection or whatever it was because, like Ben and the rest of his brothers, he could have any girl he wanted.
He wouldn’t crush on his best friend’s dorky little sister forever…
Ben broke the silence again. Uh oh. I was being weird again, wasn’t I? “How are your classes going?” he asked.
Things had never been weird between us, but things had been weird since the winter dance and each of us finding out how we felt about each other.
We talked about school and homework and how the basketball season was going so far. Oh, and that one school’s cheer squad who had mistakenly thought they were starring in a Bring It On movie.
Aaron laughed out loud. “That girl’s face when she saw what you guys could do… She literally turned white. Her jaw fell to the floor.”
We cracked up over that.
“I don’t know why she didn’t see how amazing I obviously am,” I joked, glad we were laughing and the tension had eased.
Aaron’s voice turned kind of quiet. “Most people don’t.”
I almost missed the turn into our neighborhood because of that comment.
David’s car went off the shoulder a little, and I quickly corrected, hoping the damage would go unnoticed.
“Sorry,” I apologized, mortified.
Aaron held on for dear life. “It was my bad,” he said, starting to laugh again. “I keep distracting you.”
We became quiet again.
I tried not to think about what he’d just said.
Then he told me, “I missed talking to you, Rach. Just us.”
Oh goodness. Why did he have to go and say something like that?
I wanted so desperately to let him know that I missed talking to him too.
So much.
But I didn’t. I had no idea what to say.
Instead, I pulled into my driveway and put the car in park. Then I turned off the ignition, finding it impossible to look anywhere but in front of me.
Aaron opened his door. “Thanks for the ride home,” he said, sounding kind of odd. “I appreciate it.”
Then he was gone.
A minute later, I grabbed my stuff and stepped out of the car, wishing I’d at least said bye.
See you later.
I miss you too.
Something.
But Aaron was long gone, and so was my chance.
6
In the cafeteria the next day, Aaron walked by our table, lunch tray in his hand and a serious expression on his face.
I wasn’t sure if he had seen me, but I had definitely noticed him.
And apparently, my friends had noticed me noticing him because Nora’s mouth curled slowly up into this evil sort of grin.
That girl had Maleficent vibes.
With that thousand-dollar mega-watt smile of hers, she leaned forward. “I see someone still has it bad for a certain Garcia brother.”
Right away, I went back to picking at the lasagna in front of me. “We’re friends, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah,” she replied, sitting back in her seat again. “You’ve only said it like a hundred thousand times.” She crossed her arms. “But we know what goes on in that head of yours.”
Scarlett smiled to herself but didn’t say anything.
Audrey picked up her sandwich. “You two talking yet?”
So that had been obvious too? The distance between Aaron and me lately?
I picked at the peaches on my plate. “We’re neighbors. And he’s friends with my brother, so yeah. We talk sometimes.”
“Hm-hmmm,” Nora said, her voice full of playful suspicion and her eyes all squinty.
Scarlett took a drink of her water. “So I heard your brother can’t play basketball until further notice.”
“Yeah,” I replied, explaining it to everyone. “He hurt his ankle pretty bad at practice the other day. So he’s going to be out for a while.”
Scarlett frowned. “That sucks.” Then she quirked a brow. “Although if it means that he’s out of the picture a little bit—“
Audrey raised a finger. “—because fate is in your favor—”
Nora’s eyes gleamed. “—then so be it.”
I crossed my arms but rolled my eyes playfully. “You guys are the worst. Would you like to hatch up any evil plans while you’re at it?”
Nora grinned wide. “That’s actually not a bad idea… Maybe fate could use some prodding, if you catch my drift.”
Audrey and Scarlett laughed.
I flicked her forehead with my fingers. “No! No evil plans,” I insisted. That girl was the youngest of all of us, but she had the brains of an evil genius. I knew not to underestimate her.
She rubbed the spot where I’d flicked her. “Ow. Okay, okay. Noted. But I mean, if you two happen to come closer as a result of your brother’s injury… I’m just saying. Maybe this is all happening for a reason. A reason we’ve all been waiting for,” she said, her voice trailing off in a fake innocent, hilarious way.
Audrey snorted from trying to keep her composure.
“Friends!” I reminded them, holding back a grin myself.
Scarle
tt ate some more of her sandwich. “Friends. Fine. But how’d the ride home go yesterday?”
She had to bring that up.
I gave her a stare, but Scarlett gave me her best innocent look. That girl knew what she was doing.
Meanwhile, Nora gave me another one of her wicked grins. “You’re giving him a ride home? Like every day? What a neighborly thing to do. I love it. I’d bet money you guys will be stealing kisses in between classes within a month.”
Scarlett and Audrey began giggling.
I felt my neck turn hot at the thought of that. No way. “I’ll take that bet!”
Nora glanced back at where Aaron sat several tables away. “I’m telling you. The universe is pushing you two together once and for all. Since you two won’t go willingly…”
I grabbed one of Audrey’s napkins, rolled it up, and threw it Nora’s head.
She dodged it like a pro, though, yelling, “Ha!”
Instead, it hit our vice principal just as she happened to walk by.
Not only that, but I quickly realized the napkin had gotten caught in her impossibly high up-do.
She froze and slowly turned my way, clearly feeling something in her hair but too shocked to do much else.
I gasped, covering my mouth. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Karev. Total accident.”
I jumped out of my seat and carefully plucked the balled up napkin out of her hair.
She looked at the napkin in my hand, jaw still open and eyes wide. Clearly too disgusted to speak, she left without another word.
All I could hear was my friends’ peals of laughter.
I sat back down, heart pounding knowing I could’ve ended up in some serious trouble. “You guys are the worst! You’re lucky I didn’t land in detention.”
Nora was still laughing like a hyena. “I mean, what are the odds?” she said in between laughs. “There’s a reason you became a cheerleader and not a softball player.”
I couldn’t help it. I started laughing too. “Remind me why we’re friends again when you guys constantly harass me and make me resort to acts of violence to get you guys to stop.”
Audrey nudged me playfully. “Because you love us.”
Scarlett winked. “And the idea of you and Aaron together. We’re not about to let you pass him up that easily when you guys are obviously crazy about each other,” she said.
I glanced down. What she was talking about, I wanted too, but they just didn’t get how impossible it was.
Nora reached across the table and touched my hand. “Seriously, Rach, what kind of friends would we be if we didn’t do something about this?”
I was going to cry if they kept saying stuff like that. I didn’t want to cry, though.
So I leaned toward her. “Just you wait, Nora Webb! I’m sure there’s SOMEBODY you like too. And when I find out, get ready because payback’s coming.”
She laughed. “What can I say? High school boys… eh. I’ve got my drums. I’m good.”
I studied her and gave her a skeptical look. “Uh huh. We’ll see. One day you’re going to crush hard on someone, and I’ll be there. Just you wait.”
She crossed her arms and gave me her most confident smile. “I’ll take that bet.”
7
Aaron and I only had a couple of classes together this semester.
In English, we had assigned seats so we never really talked in there anyway.
However, we also had chem together, and Coach Collins let us sit anywhere.
Usually, Aaron sat near the back, and I sat in the front corner desk. I didn’t have any close friends in the class, so it was usually pretty boring.
But that day, after lunch, he saw the empty seat beside me and he sat down. The bell hadn’t rung yet, and the classroom was only half empty.
“Hey,” he said, setting his bag down on the floor near his feet.
I glanced around, wondering why he’d chosen to sit next to me today of all days. The most he ever did was say hi or give me a wave from across the room. “Hey.”
For some reason, even though we’d been riding home together the past few days and that wasn’t weird or awkward anymore, this still felt that way.
We never really hung out anymore, not in class or after sports games. I’d kept my distance until now.
Last semester had been a completely different story, though. We had had three different classes together, we’d almost always sat together, plus I’d been at all of his football games due to cheer. We had been pretty much inseparable.
At first, David and a few of his friends had kind of eyed us a little, but he’d never really said anything. We all just spent a lot of time together because of football.
But now everything felt different.
We’d gone from being close friends to only having my brother in common.
Before, I’d thought that maybe things could be different between us.
That we could be close, and it wouldn’t be a problem. That maybe David would get used to the idea of us, little by little.
So we’d gotten pretty close.
But it had definitely caused problems or Aaron wouldn’t have sent that message the day after the winter dance.
I’d learned that this was how things were supposed to be.
So what if he had technically been my friend first?
The fact was that he was David’s best friend now.
That mattered.
So beyond a, “Hey,” I didn’t really know how else to feel or react to Aaron sitting with me in class again.
What was he doing?
Class began, and Coach Collins had us do a lab to help us learn the difference between physical and chemical reactions.
Aaron turned to me, an easy-going grin on his face. His long legs almost reached the whiteboard a few feet away. “Want to be my partner?”
Umm… I fidgeted with my pencil. “Okay.”
“Cool,” Aaron said, and left to pick up our supplies.
A few minutes later, I was trying to relax and not overthink things. Aaron had the instructions and I didn’t want to get too close so I just followed his lead from across the desk.
He measured out baking soda and vinegar and let me pour the ingredients into the beaker.
In an instant, the frothy bubbles overflowed from the beaker onto the table, quickly heading for the edges. I screamed and got up, not wanting the mixture all over my favorite jeans.
Aaron jumped up too, looking somewhere between shocked and horrified. “Whoa!”
We watched the bubbly mixture spill onto the floor, heading for our backpacks. Aaron moved them out of the way in a flash.
I covered my hand with my mouth, not sure what to do or how this had happened.
Coach Collins came over and looked disapprovingly between us and the mess. “Guys! What is going on here?”
“Sorry,” I replied, taking another step back. “I think we put in too much of the ingredients or something.”
“Ya think?” the teacher replied in an annoyed tone.
Aaron looked at the sheet with the instructions. “Oh, I see…” He looked at us sheepishly. “Yeah, I definitely messed up the amounts.”
“How?” the teacher asked in disbelief, hands on her hips.
I looked around. Nobody’s else experiment had gone all over the floor. So much for keeping my distance to avoid trouble.
Aaron blushed a little. “I didn’t really check the instructions. I just put in a cup of each.”
“Aaron!” I took the sheet from him. “Did you even read this?
He gave me a sheepish look and held up the beaker he’d used to measure. “What? I thought that’s what these were for.”
The teacher’s mouth dropped. “They’re to hold the mixture.”
Aaron held up the other beaker. “So one wasn’t to measure and the other to hold it?”
We both stared at him.
“Oh,” he said lamely.
Aaron Garcia was cute, but clearly, reading instructions wasn’t his forte.
I shook my head, trying my best not to laugh at him. “Okay, you’re not in charge anymore.”
Coach Collins pressed her palm to her forehead and closed her eyes. “That would be wise. Please clean this up.” Then she walked away, still flustered, to help another group. “Become a high school teacher, they said. It’ll be fun, they said,” I heard her mumble.
I choked back a laugh, and so did Aaron. “I think you just broke our chemistry teacher,” I quipped.
We probably spent a solid thirty seconds just laughing as silently as we could.
Finally, Aaron got us tons of paper towels from the boys’ bathroom, and we began mopping up the mess.
I couldn’t help it, though. I started laughing again just replaying the whole thing against in my mind, first a little bit and then so much that I couldn’t breathe.
Aaron laughed too.
I blinked back tears. “I can’t believe you put in a cup of each,” I said, trying to catch my breath between laughs. “Your face…”
Aaron laughed too, and we just sat there for a moment. “What can I say?” he asked with a shrug. “Cade got the brains. I just got the good looks.”
He gave me one of his playful grins, and I smacked his shoulder. “I knew I should’ve picked another chem partner.”
But I didn’t mean that, and we both knew it.
I went to go back to cleaning up the mess we’d made, but then Aaron met my eyes and my heart leaped.
Was it me or was there some kind of crazy chemical reaction happening inside me?
No!
This was science. Two classmates completing a science experiment.
That was it.
So Aaron was cute.
Extremely cute, even.
I mean, he was a Garcia brother.
The boy was born handsome.
But that was it.
We were friends.
Heart, I told myself, get yourself under control.
8
I sipped my latte, savoring the taste of caramel. “You never buy David Starbucks as a thank you,” I teased Aaron.
We had gotten out of practice not that long ago, and he’d insisted on stopping on the way home.
He grinned. “That’s what he gets for playing dirty when I’m beating him one-on-one.” He took a careful drink of his coffee too. “Besides, it’s freezing out today. I needed to warm up, and it’s the least I could do after what happened earlier in chem class.”
Dating Aaron & Other Forbidden Things (Garcia Brothers Book 2) Page 3
