Page 11 of Going the Distance
I was right by the front door, at the bottom of the staircase, holding the filthy bundle of Brad’s laundry, when the doorbell rang.
It was probably Cam or Dixon, sent in Lee’s stead to make my evening of babysitting more bearable. It was definitely too late for Girl Scout Cookies. I fumbled at the latch with my shoulder, pressing my elbow down on the door handle, and once it was unlocked, I nudged the door open with my foot.
“What areyoudoing here?”
Levi raised his eyebrows. “Nice to see you, too.”
I blushed. “Sorry, I just…I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Lee called me and said you wanted some company babysitting your brother. So here I am. I did text you to say I was heading over?”
“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t hear my phone.”
A couple of seconds passed in silence. Levi took in the bundle of muddy clothes in my arms, then looked back at me expectantly. He was wearing a thin, waterproof coat with the collar turned up against the fine drizzle that was falling. His hair was damp, the curls flat. It was a cute look on him.
Noah always managed to look hot whenever he got caught in the rain. I, however, usually looked like a frizzy mess.
“Can I come in?”
“Oh, right! Yes…of…of course. Sure.” I stepped aside, making way for him. He brushed his sneakers off on the welcome mat before coming inside. I gestured with Brad’s soccer clothes. “I’ll be right back—I just need to sort these out. The living room is just there. Make yourself at home.”
“Thanks.”
It was amazing how Levi had integrated into our group so easily. He shared a lot of the same interests and had the same kind of sense of humor as the rest of us—it really didn’t feel like we’d only known him a week.
Levi was charismatic. He was even getting to be kind of popular. But we still didn’t know that much about him. His social media was pretty void of information, so most of what people had to say about him seemed more like rumor than fact—which only made people talk about him even more. He didn’t talk about himself too much, either. The mystery only seemed to add to the novelty of him being a new kid at school. (And an attractive one, too. Objectively speaking.)
But he was easy to hang out with, and he made for a decent study partner when Lee ditched me for Rachel.
When I got back from the laundry room, Levi was stretched across the couch, flipping through TV channels.
“We’ve got ravioli for dinner,” I told him.
“Sounds good.”
I put dinner on and fetched us both drinks. I found Levi had settled onThe Lego Movie.I put our drinks down on the coffee table and sat at the other end of the couch.
Brad came downstairs soon after and did a double take upon seeing some strange guy there. He looked at me uncertainly, and I pulled a face at him to warn him to be nice.
“Uh, hi.”
Levi turned to look at my younger brother hovering in the doorway and smiled easily. “Hey. You must be Brad.”
“Yeah. You aren’t Lee, though.”
“Brad! That’s not polite.”
Levi was laughing. “I’m Levi.”
“The new guy?”
“I may have mentioned you a couple times,” I said by way of explanation to Levi. “Lee couldn’t make it tonight, Brad. Sorry, bud, I know you were looking forward to seeing him.”
“What about the other guys? Like Cam. Or Warren. Warren’s fun. He taught me how to swear in French.Merde.See?”
“Brad!”
“What? I’m justasking.” Brad started to take a seat and then realized we were watching a movie. He scowled at me. “You promised me this morning I could play video games.”
