The corners of my mouth twitched, pulling up slightly at each side. Dean's open attitude was unlike anybody I'd ever met. I couldn't help responding. Thankfully, he was looking down at his backpack and missed my lapse.

"What time do your parents get home?" he asked conversationally as he pulled out a chemistry textbook.

"Why?" I asked sharply, suddenly aware of how alone we were. Maybe he was hoping to score as payment for paying attention to me. I knew girls put out for a whole lot less, so I wouldn't have been surprised.

"I need to know if my jeep is in the way," he said, looking puzzled at my sharp tone.

"Oh," I said feeling like a complete dip. "My parents are separated, and you'll be long gone by the time Donna gets home."

"Donna? You call your mom by her first name?"

"Uh, yeah, it was a sort of a compromise we made when I was thirteen."

"Does she always work such late hours?"

"She goes right to church from work every day," I said, reaching for my phone. "You want a snack? I can order a pizza," I asked.

"Sure. I'm a guy, I'm always hungry," he said, patting his flat stomach.

I nodded like I knew all about the appetites of the opposite sex, when in actuality I didn't have a clue. My dad had been a stranger before he ever moved out. All my other experiences with the opposite sex hadn't involved food.

Pulling my thought away from the road I didn't want to travel down, I dialed Al's Pizza Palazooa.

"Al's Pizza," a familiar voice answered.

"Hey Al, can I get a large pepperoni?"

"Sure thing, Madison. Chuck just walked in, so your order will be the next to go out. Do you need me to send a couple cans of Coke?"

"No, I have some. Thanks."

"No problem, sugar."

"Family?" Dean asked when I hung up the phone.

"No, I've just been a loyal customer. I order from Al's a lot."

"So your mom really goes to church every night? That's effed up," he said, sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table.

Foreign laughter bubbled up in my throat and erupted before I could cap it off. Hearing someone else justifying my feelings about Donna's obsession with her church was gratifying. I clamped a hand over my mouth to cut off my laughter.

Dean looked at me with an expression that was hard for me to discern. "You have an amazing laugh," he said softly.

"You should really stop taking drugs. They're seriously screwing with your brain cells," I retorted, unsure how to accept his compliment.

"You know, it's okay to accept a compliment every once in awhile," he chided. "Anyway, so why does your mom go to church so much?"

"I don't know. She always has. When my parents were still together they'd both go. I spent the majority of the evenings when I was little in some form of daycare. I put my foot down when I hit junior high. I flat-out refused to step foot in the church again. I'm pretty sure they were relieved. I guess you could say not being as devoted as the other members was a thorn in their side."

"That's whack. Any church that requires their members to attend every night borders on crazy."

"Truth," I said, sitting on the floor beside him. He grinned at me before turning back to his book so he could work on some sample problems. Following suit, I opened my own math book. It'd been years since I'd actually done any homework. It didn't count in the grading module the school district had adopted, so I took that as my excuse to bow out. Teachers still assigned homework to help prepare students for the summative testing, but they couldn't force the issue. They pretty much relied on the parents to police the homework. Needless to say, Donna didn't police anything I did.

Dean and I worked in compatible silence until the pizza arrived.

I grabbed a twenty from the kitchen drawer and headed for the front door. Dean was already there handing over his own twenty.

"Hey, Chuck," I said, taking the pizza from the delivery guy.

Tags: Tiffany King Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net