Presently Perfect (Perfect #3) (11 page)

“Then I’ll start.” I kept my voice steady and strong. I got up off the bed and slowly walked toward her. “You’re the first girl I’ve ever noticed and the last girl I’ll ever notice. My first kiss was the greatest first kiss in the history of first kisses because it was with you. I can’t stop thinking about you.”

As I got closer she took a step back, bumping into the dresser. My eyes zeroed in on gorgeous teal ones. Standing directly in front of her, I placed my hands on either side of her hips, securely planting them on the edge of the dresser.

She wasn’t getting away from me this time.

Heat radiated off both our bodies, causing the temperature in the room to rise to the point of suffocation. I leaned in closer until my lips barely touched her temple. She smelled awesome as usual. My fingers dug into the dresser as intense vibrations shot through me. A rush of air coming from my partially opened mouth caused tiny wisps of her hair to graze my lips as they moved down to her ear.

Running the tip of my nose lightly across the shell of her ear, I whispered, “I want you to be more than my best friend. I want you to be my girlfriend. What do you want, Tweet?”

Her warm breath floated over the side of my face. It took all the strength I had not to look down. If I did, I’d have another unobstructed view of her boobs, only this time they’d be moving up and down with heavy breaths. My dick was already so hard standing was becoming painful.

Tweet whispered, “I want you.”

When her words hit my ears I thought I was going to explode. My heart slammed against my chest as every part of my body pulsated. There’d been so many days and nights spent thinking about her, wanting to touch her, and kiss her. I’ve wanted to kiss her again for so long. Now I was a second away from finally living the dream.

My gaze didn’t go any lower than her pink lips before rising up to meet her eyes. “God, you’re beautiful.” I sighed.

As she tilted her head slightly, Tweet’s eyes fluttered closed. The room felt like it was spinning the closer I moved to her. Our lips touched for a millisecond before I applied pressure. Out of nowhere, a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot reverberated around the room.

“Dinner!” The booming deep voice of Mr. Kelly barreled through the closed door.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

I immediately jumped back, causing Tweet and the dresser to rock forward. Turning, I faced the wall, my back to the door. If Tweet’s dad caught me in this condition I’d lose my dick before I ever had a chance to use it. My breaths were coming so fast I was a second away from hyperventilating. I glanced over my shoulder at Tweet.

“Don’t worry. He won’t come in,” she said, as her hands smoothed over her hair, tucking stray pieces back into place.

Turning to the wall, I hung my head, rested my hands on my hips, and breathed deeply in an attempt to put the beast within back in his cage.

The room was quiet for several minutes. My heartbeat and dick were finally calming down. Then with the clearing of her throat that sounded a little like a moan and a few innocent words, things changed.

“Noah, are you coming?” Tweet sounded all breathy and sexy.

My chin sank deeper into my chest as I raised my index finger, hoping she understood I needed a few more minutes. She did because the next thing I heard was the clicking of the door as it closed.

Supper was awesome. We had spaghetti with a side order of squirming Tweet. It gave me an enormous amount of pleasure watching her get all flustered whenever I whispered in her ear or touched her skin. She was so thrown off balance that she skipped her favorite dessert, chocolate cake, opting instead to go to her room and work on a paper. At least, that’s what she told the parental units. I gave her a little time to simmer down. Seeing as how I was the cause of her missing dessert, I figured the decent thing to do was to take her what I knew she was craving and the cake. Ever since we were little kids, Tweet and I solved most of life’s problems over a piece of chocolate cake with extra frosting. Whether it was getting hurt after falling off our bikes or not doing as well as we expected on a class project, chocolate cake seemed to make everything better. I was hoping it would work its magic and help me get my girl.

Looking at her closed door I thought how quickly things change. Two hours ago I was standing in this exact spot breathing heavy because of nerves and now I’m breathing heavy because I’m about to kiss my girl, finally. I knocked on the door lightly.

“Yeah?” Her voice sounded weird, raspy.

I opened the door just enough to allow my hand holding the cake through. I let it float there for a few seconds so that Tweet could take in all the deliciousness headed her way.

Poking my head in, I smiled and said, “I brought you some dessert.”

I stepped in, tapping the door closed with my foot. She was sitting on her bed, legs crossed, cheeks still flushed a deep pink.

Her intense gaze followed me while I walked toward her and placed the cake down on the nightstand. Neither of us said a word as I sat across from her on the bed. The corners of my mouth curled up slightly when I held up the fork already loaded with chocolate frosting. Our eyes never left each other’s.

Taking the fork, she raised it up to her lips and slowly slid it between them.

Holy shit, that’s hot.

The tip of my tongue swept along my bottom lip as I watched Tweet suck the fork clean. Beads of sweat popped up all over my skin and my mouth watered. I swallowed hard a couple of times as the fork slowly slipped from her lips. Not being able to take the show any longer, I reached over and took the fork from her. As I went to place it back on the plate, my lips brushed her cheek. She smelled like chocolate and raspberries.

Leaning back slightly, only half an inch away from her mouth, I whispered, “You have a little frosting in the corner of your mouth.”

We sat there completely still and silent. I couldn’t concentrate on anything except Tweet’s mouth, the little blob of frosting in the corner, and how much I wanted to lick it away. I didn’t care that both our parents were just a few yards away at the other end of the house. I was finally going to be with Tweet and she was officially going to be mine.

My vision became blurry and my breathing shallow as the temperature of my body burst off the charts. With each slight movement toward her I noticed she was leaning away until there was a huge gap between us.

Pulling back, I stared at her. I didn’t understand what was going on. Earlier she said she wanted me. I hadn’t imagined that and just now, she let me get almost on top of her and lick her face.

“We can’t do this. I can’t be your girlfriend,” she choked out. Tears were filling her eyes as she bit down on her bottom lip in an attempt to stop it from quivering.

All the oxygen and blood rushed out of my body. It felt as if I had been punched in the gut. I couldn’t believe she was doing this. I knew Tweet. Things had been weird and unpredictable between us lately, but deep down I knew she wanted me to be her boyfriend. She wouldn’t fuck with my feelings like this.

I turned away from her and rested my elbows on my knees. “Why?” I was barely able to say the one word.

“I’m afraid if something happened to cause it to end, then it might fuck things up so badly you wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me after that.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“No it’s not. You remember Tyler Evans? He and Emily were close friends. Not as close as we are, but very close. They decided to cross that line and date. It lasted six months and ended badly. They couldn’t even stay friends. Emily and I saw him at the mall over the summer and he was so ugly toward her. I can’t have that happen with us.”

“We’re not them.”

How could she compare what we have to anyone else? We weren’t like anyone else. She knew that.

“I know, but Emily does everything perfectly. If she couldn’t make it work, I sure as hell can’t. I have to have you in my life. I won’t cross that line with you. It’s too risky and I won’t chance it, not with us. I’m sorry about tonight. I never should have let things go that far.”

“I’m not sorry about what happened between us in here. Except that you won’t be with me.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that I don’t want to mess up our friendship. Besides, you deserve better than me, Noah.”

“There isn’t anyone better than you for me,” I said, looking over my shoulder at her.

“These feelings will fade away and things will get back to normal. Our bodies are going through a lot of changes. Hormones are flying all over the place. We just need to control ourselves and ride it out. I can’t lose you, Noah.”

Her eyes filled with tears. I was so in shock at how things changed in just a few minutes. I went from having the girl of my dreams to being in a nightmare. I needed to try one more time. Tweet gets in her head too much and overthinks everything. I knew she wanted me. She wanted me to kiss her and she wanted to be my girlfriend. She was just scared.

“You’d never lose me, Tweet. I’ll always be here if you need me.” I raised my hand to her face and let my fingertips trace the outline of her jaw down to her chin.

Shaking her head, she leaned away. “Please, Noah. I can’t.”

The look in her eyes was sad, hurt, and determined. Anger ripped through me. I had to get away from her before I said something I would regret. In one movement my hand dropped, I stood, and headed to the door. I grabbed the doorknob before her words stopped me.

“I’ll see you in the morning when Mom and I pick you up for school, right?” she asked in a gravelly voice.

I couldn’t turn around and look at her. “I don’t need a ride tomorrow. Coach called a meeting for the team before classes. Travis is going to give me a ride.”

“I’ll see you at school then.”

I couldn’t comprehend how she could turn her feelings off and talk about school as if nothing happened between us tonight.

“Maybe. See ya around, Tweet.”

I clicked the door shut and leaned against it. After a few seconds I heard the sound of muffled sobs before walking away.

It felt as if I were living behind a glass wall. Everyone was going about their business, living their lives while I just stopped. I was completely numb. I didn’t think, feel, or say anything for the next couple of days. I also didn’t see Tweet very much. This was the first time in our lives that we didn’t have contact with each other. It sounded pathetic, but I literally didn’t know how to get through my day without her. I decided that maybe part of the reason I couldn’t get her out of my system was because I was around her all the time and that the best course of action was the
out of sight, out of mind theory.

She called and texted several times a day but I never responded. My plan was to completely ignore her until these feelings I had for her were gone. I tried like hell to stay away and not speak to her. I did okay for the most part, although there had been a couple of times at school when my legs had a mind of their own and carried me over next to her. I said
hi,
but that was it. I didn’t want to look at her either but failed at that too. She looked as lost and hurt as I felt.

Tweet lived in her head too much, analyzing every angle of a situation and its outcome. If I had only followed her back to her bedroom right after supper instead of waiting the other night, I had no doubt she’d be by my side now. I gave her too much time to think. Every time I thought how she compared us to Emily and that douche-bag Tyler Evans I got more and more pissed off. I didn’t understand why she doubted us so much. I thought not being constantly around Tweet would help me get control of my feelings, but the longer I stayed away from her the more I wanted to be with her.

I was sitting in the family room staring blankly at the TV while Beth jabbered at my mom. I vaguely heard her tell my mom that she stopped by because of something to do with her dress for the stupid dance.

“Noah, do you like the color?” Beth asked.

I ignored her, pretending to be too caught up in the
Everybody Loves Raymond
rerun on TV.

“Noah!” Only the stern voice of my mom could penetrate the glass wall I currently lived behind.

“Huh?” I grunted.

“Beth asked you a question. Turn the TV off. You have a guest.”

I huffed out a loud sigh and aimed the remote at the TV.

“I have to run to the grocery store. Beth, from the way you describe it, your dress sounds beautiful and the color is so pretty,” Mom said.

“Thank you, Mrs. Stewart. I just love it to pieces.” She clutched a tiny piece of cloth to her chest.

“It will look great next to Noah’s black suit,” Mom said.

“Hold up. What do I have to wear a suit for?” I snapped.

“To the dance silly,” Beth answered.

Fucking dance. Fucking suit. Fucking Raymond.

“Mom?”

Standing, my mom smiled, and crossed over to me. “You’ll look so handsome.” She bent down kissing the top of my head and then placed her palm on my forehead checking to see if I had a fever.

Walking around like a zombie over the past couple of days had both my parents thinking I was coming down with a virus. Since I came right home after school and Tweet hadn’t been around, they must have put two and two together. They never asked what was wrong. They were waiting for me to come to them and talk when I was ready. Mom still checked my temperature whenever she was near me just in case I was coming down with something more than a broken heart and shattered ego.