Page 71 of Don't Love the Boy Next Door
My face is so hot I need a cold bath. “Stop,” I say as I press my hands to my scorching cheeks. “I’m not that great.”
“It’s like Eric wrote those lyrics for you,” Cody says. “Like you get it. I can’t imagine anyone singing the song the way you did.”
My eyes flit to Eric. He gives me a warm smile.
“Oh shut up, everyone,” I mumble with a smile as I put the mic back in the stand.
“See you all tomorrow,” Eric says, swinging his guitar off his back and walking over to its case.
My heart pounds in my head. I was so confident while I sang the song, but now…?
No. I can do this. I want to be happy. I want to be strong. Throwing my chin up, I march over to Eric, but he suddenly turns around and I nearly ram into him.
“Katie, hey.”
“Hi.”
We’re quiet.
He clears his throat and opens his mouth to say something, but then he shuts it.
“Sorry for almost crashing into you,” I say. “I’m so clumsy.”
“You’re not clumsy.”
I give him a look. “You don’t have to be so nice to me. I’ve done some pretty clumsy things.”
He shrugs. “I think it’s cute.”
Cute? As in an adorable little kid or like…like an endearing potential girlfriend?
I shake that away and take a deep breath. “I’m not usually like that. At least not in front of normal people.”
His face clouds with confusion. “Normal?”
“Not that you’re not normal,” I quickly say. “I’m not the normal one.”
He looks even more confused.
“I mean, I normallyamnormal. Just not in front of guys I…like.”
He stares at me, his eyes growing wider and wider by the second. “What…?”
I lower my gaze to my shoes before slowly returning them to his face and putting on a brave smile. “I like you, Eric.”
His face washes over with relief and joy. “Really?”
I laugh nervously. “Yeah.”
“I like you, too.”
“You do?”
Now he laughs nervously. “Yeah. I just didn’t say anything to you earlier because…”
“Because I freaked out by our first kiss scene.”
He pushes some hair away from his face. “I just didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
