Page 62 of Just Friends Forever
“I thought you were pretending to be me and I was pretending to be you,” he says, still in the fetal position, his face full of adorable mischief.
I sock him in the arm. “You are the… meanest little boy!”
He grins like I just gave him a compliment.
I hold my hands up like they’re around his neck and pretend to strangle him. But it doesn’t satisfy me, so I do the only thing that perfectly straddles the line between violence and non-violence, between torture and fun. I tickle him.
Laughing uncontrollably, he writhes and rolls to evade me, but I’m pure determination. I follow him wherever he goes, tickling his armpits, his neck, his stomach. Again, not CGI abs.
Once he’s understood the depth of my dedication and depravity, he abandons his efforts to get away and instead launches a counterattack.
This was all a fatal error on my part. I thought of tickling precisely because I knowI’museless against it. It’s like Achilles shooting all his enemies in the heel.
I curl up in a ball, trying to protect myself, but Troy wrenches my arm up to get access to my armpit. I gasp for breath between laughs, and he’s laughing right along with me.
“Mercy, mercy!” I eke out.
He stops, dropping back onto the ground next to me like he just depleted the last ounce of his energy. His chest rises and falls as he stares up at the sky, our shoulders pressed up against each other.
My breath comes in quick, uneven gusts, and my abs and cheeks ache from laughter. It’s been a very long time since I’ve laughed this hard. I look over at Troy, whose hands are on his stomach as he smiles up at the stars.
My throat thickens. It almost hurts how much I care for him. I so wish I had made different choices when I was younger, that I hadn’t been so beguiled by my own vanity and need for approval.
I have no one but myself to blame. All I can do is be grateful for what Idohave, and I’m sure glad I have Troy at all.
“I’m so glad you texted me that day,” I say.
He looks over at me and smiles. Our faces aren’t far apart. I haven’t been close like this to anyone but Curtis in a long time. It sends my heart into my chest.
“Me too.” His eyes search mine.
My breathing should be slowing by now, but it’s not. Am I the only one thinking how simple it would be to just…?
No. It wouldn’t be simple. It would be so complicated. And so wrong. “Thank you for tonight,” I say. “I really needed this.”
“Of course. And now you can go out on your date.”
I swallow. Right. This has all been about making sure I can go out with Maggie’s cousin.
“Yeah, as long as he can handle a rousing round of parkour first.”
“Hey, you deserve someone who’s willing to do that and more for a date with you, Stevie.” At my side, his pinky brushes mine, and I can’t breathe. Is he talking about himself?
Isthisa date?
Nope. It’s not. He’s with Lyla, and he’s far too standup a guy to do anything even close to cheating.
But why is he looking at me this way, then? And why can’t I stop looking right back at him and hoping he’ll kiss me?
A dog barks in a nearby yard, and I blink. I lied again.Thiswould be the worst-case scenario paparazzi shot—me staring into Troy’s eyes, willing him to kiss me when he has a girlfriend.
I sit up. “We should go.”
He sighs and sits up more slowly. “Yeah. We should.”
21
TROY
