Page 29 of Fall of Us
A smile spread across his face, and little fireworks exploded in my stomach. Either that sandwich was a huge mistake or he really had a way of making me feel all sorts of things with just a look. He always had. I regretted not giving him a chance sooner.
Andrew leaned in close and whispered something to the girl. She looked over and grinned. Her wave made me feel uneasy, like she knew what was going on. Andrew wouldn’t have told her, would he? We said we wouldn’t tell anyone.
When he left the pharmacy, the person in front of me let out a groan. “Are you kidding me? How much longer is this going to take?”
I wanted to snap at him. Andrew worked really hard whenever he was here, and people needed to learn how to be more patient. The man scoffed when Andrew approached me and grabbed my hand, pulling me to the side.
“What are you doing here?”
I wanted to throw my arms around him, throw caution to the wind, and kiss him. Public be damned.
“Can’t I surprise you?”
Andrew’s smile grew, and my stomach did that flip thing again. He looked around us before pulling me to a more secluded spot. Once he was sure we were out of sight, his lips were on mine and my toes curled. Would I ever grow tired of kissing him? His spicy cologne overwhelmed me. I held onto his shirt in tight fists, reluctant to release my grip, but he was here for work and when he pulled away, I chased his lips before I got ahold of myself.
Torture.
“You’re always welcome to surprise me. It’s just hard to keep it a secret.”
I laughed before I pulled him into a hug, burying my nose in his neck. He smelled so damn good, and I wanted to soak him in just a littlelonger.
“Andrew?” The girl came around the corner and I jumped back so fast that I crashed into the wall.
There was a flash of hurt in Andrew’s eyes. I needed to stop doing that. We’d only been hugging. Eventually, he was going to get sick of my shit and I didn’t have an answer why I wanted this to stay between us. I’d waited so long to be his, and now I was afraid of jinxing it.
As I rubbed at the back of my head and righted my glasses since jumping had knocked them askew, Andrew stared at me for a second. He finally turned to the girl. “What can I do for you, Rebecca?”
She blushed and fidgeted, looking back and forth between us. “Todd is sort of pissed that you walked off...”
Andrew rolled his eyes. He’d mentioned Todd a few times, and I knew enough that he didn’t like the guy, which made me not like the guy.
“I’ll be back in a minute. Cover for me?”
Rebecca gave us a shy grin and nodded. She had to know something was going on and I didn’t like the feeling of it. It made my skin crawl and made everything feel slightly less special.
Once she disappeared around the corner again, Andrew leaned in to give me a quick kiss, but I turned my head away, giving him my cheek. He frowned and stood, looking at me with disappointment in his dark eyes. I hated how I’d just reacted to him, clinging to that worry he’d told her our secret.
“Brandon?”
“I’ll see you later, okay?”
I ran off before he could grill me.
Chapter 19
Andrew
Our friends packed Brandon’s living room. I liked how we could all still get together like this, that we hadn’t let graduation and life get in the way of our friendship.
“Can you two put, like, ten feet between you or something?” Nathan dropped onto the couch between Aiden and Joe and glared at Joe. Aiden stood, rolling his eyes, and went into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge.
“What’s the matter, Nate?” Shawn asked as he popped a cap on a bottle of beer and sat on the floor next to Daniel. Daniel looked over at him with a glare and scooted away, muttering something to himself about not understanding why Shawn had to get so close.
There wasn’t anything in particular that brought us all together for the evening, except just to hang out. Brandon came in a few minutes later, bags of food dangling from his fingers. I rushed over to help him set them down, and he gave me a confused look, as though I’d done something wrong by doing it.
There was hiding things, sure, but he was taking it a little too far. I wasn’t acting any differently than before we’d agreed to change our relationship. Brandon was being paranoid, and I was trying myhardest not to be irritated with him, but his behavior was grating on my nerves.
“What’d you get to eat?” I asked as I set out Styrofoam containers on the counter. It all smelled amazing, but he said that he wanted the food to be a surprise. We’d all learned early on that it usually wasn’t a great idea to trust Brandon with surprise dinners. I was used to his quirks, but not everyone was into trying the vegan place from down the street.
