He laughed and then hung up the phone. I shook my head, smiling, as I continued to pull my skinny jeans on and an old soup kitchen volunteer t-shirt over my head.
The rumble of his car purred when I opened the front door and disarmed the alarm. His maroon Charger’s hood glistened from the light of the moon, and when I pulled open the door and saw Ollie leaning back in the driver’s seat with his hat on backwards, I fought a grin. Butterflies swarmed my belly. Being near Ollie suddenly had me feeling like I was on top of the world. I couldn’t believe I’d pretended to hate him for so long. Time was robbed from me.
“Hey,” I said shyly, sliding into the passenger side. The door slammed shut, and Ollie’s hand was suddenly wrapping around my face. He brought my lips to his and kissed me like he hadn’t seen me in years.
My back arched, my chest puffing out to hit his. I almost climbed over the center console just to be closer to him, but he let go at the last minute.
He sent a look my way that made me shiver. “Sorry, I just really needed to kiss you.”
I smiled. My cheeks felt like hot embers from a burning fire. “Don’t be sorry.”
He placed his hand on the stick shift. His sharp jaw was all I could focus on. “I didn’t call you for a booty call, though. That’s not what this is.”
Part of me was disappointed. “Then, what is this?”
He smiled in my direction, and I swore, even though it was pitch black out besides the glow of the moon, I felt like I was touched by the sun it
self. Ollie’s smile was my favorite thing about him. “I’m taking you out. What do you want to eat? What’s your favorite food?” He sighed and shook his head. “I feel like I should know this about you.”
I laughed and put my seatbelt on, hearing it click into place. “We know all the nitty-gritty details about each other, not the light and fluffy stuff that most people learn while in a relationship.”
He smirked as he crept onto the main road. “And that’s exactly why we already have an advantage in this. No hidden secrets.”
His smile fell briefly, but it was back before I could dissect it. “Now tell me, what’s your favorite food?”
I laughed, looking out the window. “Well…”
He gave me a side glance. “Don’t tell me.”
“What?” I giggled again.
“Fucking chicken nuggets?”
A loud laugh came from me as he grinned. “Did Hayley get you stuck on those? She did, didn’t she?”
I nodded, relaxing into the seat. “What can I say? They’re good.”
“I had never seen two girls eat so much before that night.”
Ollie was referring to the night that Hayley got attacked at a football game. He and I rushed to the nearest pharmacy, and we spent over one hundred dollars on medical supplies in an attempt to clean her wounds. That was one night he and I had worked together instead bickering back and forth.
“Do you remember that night?” he asked, driving down the road.
I checked my phone and made sure I didn’t have any missed calls from my parents. After the party at Ollie’s on Saturday, I began checking my house for cameras, too. It wouldn’t have surprised me if my parents started putting cameras up in our house to see if Jason was snooping around. I didn’t find any, but I was still a little paranoid.
I came out of my thoughts, putting my phone back down. “Of course I remember that night. It was terrifying. It scared me to see Hayley like that.”
Ollie nodded as he turned his blinker on. The sound of some band was drumming through his speakers. “I was in awe of you that night.”
My head turned to him, surprised. “Me? Why?”
He glanced at me for a quick second. “I don’t know. I guess because you acted fast, and you weren’t letting on how frazzled you were. How frazzled we all were. You cleaned up her cuts like you were a trained nurse or something.”
I sunk back into the leather seat. “That’s because I was used to it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean”—I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, staring at Ollie’s grip on his stick shift—“I’ve cleaned Jason up many, many times. Cleaning wounds is my specialty.”