Rule 23: Leave some things to his imagination!
“I miss you,” Raven said through her cell phone.
“I miss you, too,” Horace answered, his breath sounding soft through the phone. Raven flopped back on her bed and closed her eyes, imagining his arms wrapped around her. Why did he have to go away for the first half of the summer? At least he wasn’t going to be gone for the whole summer.
“So what have you been doing?” Horace asked.
The first thing that popped into Raven’s head was Blake. She hadn’t been able to get him out of her head since she met him. There was something about a skater boy that…well, she couldn’t describe what it was, he just had it. Maybe she could describe it as the cool factor. Skateboarding was one of those sports that was well known enough to make you famous, but not so well known that you lost who you were because of the money and attention.
Skaters were real.
“Ray?”
“Did you hear me?”
No she hadn’t. Because she’d been thinking about skaters. And a particular skater boy.
Quit it, she screamed in her head. Focus on your boyfriend. The guy you love.
“Sorry,” she said. “Jordan was making faces at me from the hallway.”
“I said, I have to go, but I’ll call you later, okay?”
She sat up in bed and sighed. “Yeah, okay.” They’d already been talking on the phone for thirty minutes and had pretty much used up all their conversation starters.
“I love you.”
“Love you, too,” she replied and said good-bye.
“Hey, Ray!” Jordan yelled through the house.
Raven came out of her bedroom. She found her little sister in the living room in a hooded zip-up sweatshirt and cutoff Abercrombie sweats. “What?”
“Want to go for a walk with me?”
Raven had been cooped up in the house all day. A walk would do her good.
Outside, the sun was beginning to set, turning the sky bright orange and pink. The day’s heat had retreated and Jordan zipped up her sweatshirt. Raven was in a long-sleeve shirt, the material thin enough to let a bit of night’s breeze through.
The neighborhood Raven and Jordan lived in was a small subdivision with light traffic and a lot of outdoor activity. As they headed down Alpine Drive, they passed a father and son in their front yard playing catch with a baseball. A woman speed-walked past them, her rottweiler surging ahead of her on a retractable leash.
Raven looked across the street at Mr. Kailing’s house but saw no lights on in the windows.
“So,” Jordan began, “I got the job at Bershetti’s.”
Raven raised a brow. “Really? Are you excited?”
Jordan nodded her head emphatically. “Totally. I mean, have you seen Nicholas Bershetti? He’s like Milo Ventimiglia’s twin brother. He’s so hot and I’m going to be working with him!”
Raven smiled while envy knotted in her gut. She missed that crush/pre-relationship excitement.
“So when do you start?”
“Tomorrow, at eleven in the morning. It means I have to get up early, but that’s cool because Nicholas works the same shift. I checked the schedule when I was there yesterday.
“What do you think I should wear?” Jordan mused.
“Maybe—”
Raven was cut off by the sound of skateboard wheels rolling across the asphalt. Blake flew past. He headed straight for the curb and Raven tensed, thinking he was going to crash. Instead, he jumped the curb, flipping his board as he did. He landed perfectly on the sidewalk and whirled around, tipping the board up with a foot.
“That was awesome!” Jordan said, clapping.
Raven agreed, but she wasn’t about to say so out loud.
“Wait up, son!” someone called behind them.
Raven glanced over her shoulder to see Blake’s uncle saunter up. He was so big that his arms stuck out like tree branches at his sides. He wasn’t fat, just extremely bulky.
Blake grabbed his board and slung it beneath his arm. He was wearing baggy black pants and a white T-shirt with a black tree printed from the shoulder down to the hem. He had on a black DC hat today, but the same white DC shoes. Raven noticed a diamond in one ear.
“I’m Blake,” he said, extending his hand to Jordan.
She shook. “I’m Jordan.”
“Nice to meet you. You must be Raven’s sister?”
Jordan nodded.
“You two look alike. You’re both beautiful as hell.”
A blush touched Jordan’s cheeks. She looked at the pavement.
“Come on, Jordan.” Raven linked her arm through her sister’s. “We have to go.”
“Already?” Blake set his board down and kicked forward, following them as they turned back toward their house.
“We just started our walk,” Jordan said.
Raven gave her sister the shut-up look, but Jordan just shrugged.
“Hey, Raven,” Blake began, coasting beside them on his board, “why are you giving me the freeze-out?”
“She’s just like that,” Jordan said.
Raven frowned.
“Does she warm up once you get to know her?”
Jordan nodded.
“Hey, Mil-D!” Blake called to his uncle. “Keep up, man.”
“Mil-D?” Jordan furrowed her brow. “Is that his name?”
“Yup.”
Mil-D trotted up, his chest heaving. “It’s my nickname. Short for Milton Downs.”
“It’s cute,” Jordan said.
Mil-D grinned wide. “Well, thanks.”
“You’re going to make him blush,” Blake said, punching Mil-D in the gut.
“Come on now, son!” Mil-D rubbed his plump stomach.
Blake gave himself a few more pushes on the board so he could catch up with Raven. “So, Raven, what do you do for fun around here?”
“I work.”
“That’s it?”
“She does music.”
Blake raised a brow. “Does music?”
“Writes it, sings it.” Jordan nudged Raven. “Tell him.”
She’d rather keep her personal life to herself. The more she shared with Blake, the more he’d know about her and the more he knew…the closer he’d be.
Wasn’t that one of those new rules from the Crush Code? Something about leaving things to the imagination. Maybe she should tell him about herself…that way she’d be going against the Crush Code.
No, she should keep quiet, that’s what she should do. How would she feel if she found out Horace was in Detroit hanging out with some random chick? And having conversations about their music? Raven would be jealous, and she’d feel betrayed. Not that she didn’t trust Horace—she trusted him completely—she just didn’t trust other girls. Horace was a cutie, and he was extremely good to Raven. Any girl would kill to have him.
And Raven didn’t want to lose him.
When they reached the house, Raven started up the front lawn.
“Ray!” Jordan called. “Where are you going?”
“I have things to do.”
Raven heard her sister say, “No she doesn’t. She’s just trying to get away from you, probably because she thinks you’re hot and she has a boyfriend and feels bad.”
Raven tensed. How did her sister know all that? Was Raven that transparent? Or did Jordan just know her that well?
“Anyway, I should go,” Jordan said. “See you guys around!”
“Later,” Blake said. His skateboard hit the ground and he zoomed off down the road, Mil-D trailing behind.
Raven watched him round the corner to the next street, from the hopefully inconspicuous spot on her front porch.
Why were the Forces That Be screwing with her like this? Why did a hot guy have to move in across the street from her at the very moment in her life when her boyfriend—whom she loved—was out of town for a month?
Did she have to lock herself in her bedroom? She could already feel that early crush feeling sneaking up on her. Things were not looking good.