Page 69 of Before We're More Than Friends
An unfamiliar feeling fluttered in my chest, my own cheeks growing warm.What the heck?“Of course I make everythingbetter.” I opened my backpack, trying to shake off the feeling that had just come over me. “And I’m about to make things even better.”
Dallas’s eyebrows lifted. “You got a kitten in there?”
“Now, I’m not made of magic.”
He frowned. “I’m heartbroken.”
“I’m sorry. But what I have for you is still good.” I pulled a notebook with puppies and kittens on the cover and a pack of Paper Mate pens out of my backpack. “I felt bad for not giving you a gift at your birthday party.”
“Caleb gave me a paper towel to clean cake off my chin and said it was my gift.”
I snorted. “I’m not surprised. He stole a blue pen from the shelter’s front desk and gave it to me, saying it’d be unique in my collection.”
“I know some of us are broke, but sheesh.” Dallas grinned as I handed him the notebook and pens.
“As if his loaded parents don’t give him an allowance. Have you heard of the app Connections? Their software company created it.” The Branches lived next door to the Naysmiths, and their house was almost as big as ours, with a massive pool in the backyard. With four kids living at home, they definitely needed the space.
“Wow,” Dallas said. “Then he really doesn’t have an excuse.”
I nodded. “Hayden told us you didn’t have a notebook to keep your songwriting in, and I’d made some notebooks a few months ago, so I decided to give one to you as a present. And pens. It’s cruel to gift someone a notebook and not give them new pens.”
“I’ll write that in here.” Dallas flipped through the pages of the notebook. “How did you know green was my favorite color?”
“Well, your backpack is green, your watch is green, your jacket is green, and your eyes are . . . brown.”
He laughed. “Maybe I should wear contacts.”
“No, I like them.” His deep brown, almost black, eyes carried the warmth of his personality. My reflection sparkled in them. “They’re beautiful.”
On cue, the redness in his cheeks deepened. “Thanks. Yours are beautiful too. Like a winter sky.”
“Thank you. I got them from my dad.” I adjusted my bracelets, including the one Alex had made me. I shouldn’t have been wearing it, given how he’d ghosted me when I needed him the most. “My stupid dad.”
He nodded. “Thank you for giving me a thoughtful gift when you’re going through a hard time. Not that I assumed you wouldn’t be considerate.” He fiddled with the spiral of the notebook. “You know what I’m saying, right? I hope I’m not making it worse.”
A genuine smile spread across my face. “You’re not. Actually, I appreciate how considerate you’ve been when we’ve only known each other for a week.”
“We don’t need to be friends for a long time to care for each other.” He bit his lip, fiddling with his watch now. “About that.”
“Yeah?” Worry filled my chest. Had I done something wrong already? My mind raced with possibilities of what I could’ve done. “Do you not like my sense of humor?”
“That’s definitely not the issue.” He laughed, though his face stiffened as he stroked his curls. His chest was rising and falling faster than it’d been before.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, the worry in my chest turning into panic. “Are you having a panic attack?”
“It’s just that . . .” He swallowed. “When you get older, you have a lot of guilt over things you’ve done in the past, you know?”
“I understand.” I had no freaking idea what this had to do with gift-giving or being friends—unless he was talking about the Saturn Frenzy incident—or why it suddenly had him so shaken up now. “Some things mess with you more than they did when we were younger.” I thought about Mom’s drinking addiction, wondering if her guilt toward her parents’ divorce had plagued her during that time.
I wondered what had happened to Dad for him to make his bad decisions.
Dallas gripped onto the table as if he was about to pass out. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” I blinked. “What’s going on?”
“Sorry I’m late, everyone.” Mrs. Bennett walked into the classroom with her clacking heels, decked in her usual overkill of makeup. “I had a meeting during lunch period.” She put her purse on her desk. “Let me do attendance, and we’ll jump right into today’s lab.”
“What are you sorry for?” I asked Dallas.
