Page 176 of Releasing 10
“Can you zoom in?” he asked, hooking an arm around her to tap on the controller. “Make it go closer.”
“What—hey, no! Stop looking at Lara’s boobs.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not nice.”
“Hugh looks at her boobs.”
“I don’t care what Hugh looks at—”
The shrill sound of our doorbell chiming echoed through the air, bringing with it a sudden jolt of electricity straight to the heart.
Tossing the rugby ball down on my bed, I sprang to my feet and dove for the bedroom door, ignoring Gibsie’s request for more sweets from the kitchen.
He had two perfectly good feet.
When I reached the top of the landing and heard her familiar voice, the electric jolts in my chest morphed into full-on shocks throughout my entire body.
Finally.
I’d been checking the time all evening. Thankfully, I managed to the take the stairs two at a time without cracking my neck. Slip-sliding off the second-to-last step, I slid across the hallway tiles in my socks, not stopping until I had my hand pressed to the glass frosting of our front door.
“Nice moves, lover boy,” Caoimhe snickered, grinning down at me. “That was someRisky Business–style sliding you had going on there.”
My brows furrowed in confusion. “Huh?”
“Eighties’ reference, kid. Never mind,” she replied with a chuckle, stepping aside to reveal the only girl who could conjure electricity in her mind and shoot it into me. Because that’s what she did.
Liz grinned up at me, eyes twinkling with mischief, and I had to stifle a groan. Looking at her was getting more and more complicated because with age came beauty, and with beauty came hormones, and with hormones came urges. While I tried to conceal it as best as I could, I had some seriously strong urges directed solely toward this girl.
My girl.
“Hey, Hugh.” Snatching up my hand, she quickly moved to my side. My body burned with heat when her skin touched mine, and I had to repress the urge to shiver. “Thanks for inviting me to your sleepover.”
“You can always sleep with me, Liz,” I replied, feeling flustered. “I mean, you’re always welcome to my sleepovers.”
Normally, I would wait around to see my mother off, but tonight, I bolted upstairs with my girlfriend instead.
Call me petty, but I had no intention of patting my father’s head and telling him what a good boy he was for making the effort. Not when I knew in my heart that it would be months before any such effort would be repeated.
“Wait,” Liz whisper-hissed, yanking me away from my door before I opened it. “Do you have your phone?”
“Yeah.” I slid my hand into my pocket to retrieve the Nokia 3210 mobile phone I got for Christmas. “Do you have yours?”
“Yep,” she replied, grabbing my phone while handing me hers.
“You know, our mams probably went shopping for these together,” I mused, while I stored my number in her contacts and Liz stored hers in mine. “Claire and Gibs got the exact same make and model as us.”
“Probably,” she laughed, swapping phones again.
We both grinned at each other before tucking our phones away. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Not if I call you first,” she shot back with a wink.
“Fair enough.” Chuckling, I shook my head and moved for my room. “But you better be fast because the early bird catches the worm.”
“Wait,” she called out, grabbing my sleeve and pulling me back to her. “I have something for you.”
