Page 47 of Love Thy Neighbor

Not anymore.

We ruined that.

She pops the top on her own drink and takes a sip.

I catch the color of the can from the corner of my eye.

“I thought you said we ran out of lime.”

“We did. Just now.” She shrugs, taking another drink.

“And I thought you were a good friend.”

Do good friends kiss each other?

“Iama good friend. Case in point: I didn’t stop being your friend when you told the entire ninth grade class I had mono from practicing kissing on the water fountain.”

“I totally saw you using tongue on that thing.”

She rolls her eyes. “Just start scrolling.”

I navigate to the comedy section and flip through the movies until something jumps out at me.

I pause on one and we watch the preview.

A light chuckle from her, nothing from me.

Pass.

We do it again. Then again. And at least five more times.

Until finally we settle on something that gets more than a chuckle from both of us.

Just as we’ve decided on a movie, the doorbell rings.

“I’ll get it!”

She bounces from her seat, running toward the door like she’s starving.

I watch her talk to the delivery guy.

I watch him scroll his eyes down her body and stare at her for far too fucking long.

I clench my jaw tightly, trying to resist the urge to do something dumb like walk over there and put my arm around her waist.

Like she’s fucking mine or something.

I sit here stoically as it takes way longer than it should to get the pizza, doing everything I can to not listen in on their conversation.

When she finally closes the door, I snap my attention back to the TV, even though nothing is playing yet.

“You are never going to believe who that was.”

“Who?” I play along.

“Remember that guy from the bookstore who’s always in there when I am?”

“The stalker who wants to bang you?”

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