Rule 30: Do not tell anyone that you have a crush on someone unless you know you can trust them not to tell your crush!
The early afternoon sunshine spilled over the porch railing as Raven swung slowly in the hammock. She chewed on the end of her pen, trying desperately to ignore the sound of a skateboard hitting cement across the street.
On her lap sat a journal, one she’d made at Scrappe a few weeks ago specifically for her lyric scribbling. There were musical notes glued to the front of the white notebook. Across the bottom of the cover, she’d drawn the words Musical Ramblings with a purple calligraphy pen.
So far, she had about ten pages full of rhymes and thoughts but nothing substantial. There were so many things she wanted to say in a song, but she wasn’t sure where to start. The major thing she was experiencing right now was heartache. She wanted Horace here, now, not thousands of miles away.
It’d been so long since she’d seen him (okay, only two weeks). She was finding it hard to conjure an image of him in her mind. And if she didn’t think it extremely dorky, she would have asked him to send a picture message of himself so she had something to look at.
She closed her eyes, daydreaming about Horace, when the front door of the house opened and Jordan clomped out in a pair of espadrille sandals.
“What are you doing?” Jordan asked, plopping down in one of the wicker chairs across from the hammock.
Raven sighed. “Trying to write a song. Something. Anything! But I can’t concentrate with all that noise he’s making.” She nodded her head in Blake’s direction.
Jordan smiled. “Yeah, because you really don’t get any enjoyment out of watching a hot skater boy get all sweaty and stuff.”
“Very funny.”
“Just admit it, you’re crushing on him.”
Raven put pen to paper but drew a blank. “I have a boyfriend, Jordan. I do not have a crush on Blake.”
“Having a boyfriend has nothing to do with it.”
Oh, it had everything to do with it because Raven having a crush was the same as Superman being exposed to red kryptonite. Raven would go bad in a second if she had a crush. She couldn’t let it happen.
Blake kicked off his driveway and rode out into the middle of the street. He did some sort of kick flip or something (Raven wouldn’t pretend to know what all those skateboarding tricks were) and landed smoothly on his board.
She sat up straighter in the hammock to watch him. It was hard to admire his body in all those baggy clothes, but she could see the intricate muscles working in his forearms as he balanced and then grabbed the board when he slid down the stair railing in front of Mr. Kailing’s house.
If that small part of him looked that good, then what did the rest of him look like?
Oh stop! she chided herself. Get it together.
“Hey, Raven!”
Raven jumped and lost her balance in the hammock. It rolled over, tossing her out and onto the porch floor.
Jordan erupted in a shriek of laughter.
Raven scrambled to her feet. “Shut up!” she whispered.
“Come on over!” Mil-D called, waving frantically.
“I can’t,” she said.
“Yes she can!” Jordan said.
“What are you doing?” Raven gritted her teeth. “You’re…you’re…such a meddler!”
Jordan stood, smacking her lips together. “I might be a ‘meddler’ but you’re crushing on him, and I like watching you squirm because of it.” She giggled again and shoved Raven off the porch. “See ya, sis.”
Grumbling to herself, Raven went across the street. She could feel Blake’s eyes on her as she passed him.
“Thanks for the invite,” she said, once she was in close enough range of Mil-D to have a normal conversation. “But I’m really busy right now.”
From here, Raven could smell something barbecuing in the back of the house.
“You’re never too busy for food, girl. Stay.”
Blake skated up behind Raven. “Yeah. Stay for just a little while. My grandpa skipped out on us for bingo so we’re grilling the goods he bought last night.”
“Umm…” Her stomach growled when she smelled the cooking food. It did sound good…
No, she was busy and Blake was…sweaty and looking extremely good. But she was starving and, really, what could it hurt? As long as she didn’t indulge in anything inedible, she was safe.
“Fine,” she said. “But just for a little while.”
Raven had expected to sit down at the table, eat, have light conversation, and then leave. What she got instead was a lot of insight into Blake’s life. It turned out, Mil-D was not, in fact, Blake’s uncle. He was Blake’s bodyguard.
“Then why did you say he was your uncle?” Raven asked as she wiped her hands on a napkin. They were sitting in Mr. Kailing’s backyard on his deck. The sun was still bright behind her, warming her bare shoulders.
“Because some people treat me differently if they find out I have a bodyguard.” Blake shrugged and tore apart another piece of barbecued chicken. “Besides, Mil-D’s been with me so long, he’s like family.”
“Aww,” Mil-D said, “thank you, son.” He gave Blake a hearty pat on the back.
Blake laughed, shaking his head.
“So,” Raven said, looking between the two guys, “he’s your bodyguard because you’re actually a somewhat famous skater?”
Blake gave a half-hearted shrug.
“Yes he is,” Mil-D filled in. “You should see him when we go to New York. The boy’s like a mini Tony Hawk or something. Little high school girls fawning all over him.”
Blake slapped Mil-D on the arm. “Shut up, dude. They do not.”
When Blake turned his back, Mil-D looked at Raven and nodded.
Raven leaned into her cushioned patio chair, biting her lip. How had she managed to not notice there was a semifamous celebrity living across the street from her? And more importantly, how had Jordan missed it? She was usually on top of celebrity news.
“You know what else?” Mil-D said. “My boy here, he’s sponsored by some pretty big names. Red Bull, Volcom, Etnies…kid’s sick.”
Raven raised her brow. “Really?”
Blake pulled the brim of his hat down even more as if to hide beneath its shadow. “Dude,” he muttered.
“Sorry, son. I just like to brag about you. Can’t I be proud?”
“Wow, that is cool,” Raven added reluctantly. She didn’t want Blake to get a big head, but still…what he did and how successful he was at it had Raven more than impressed.
Maybe being around Blake wasn’t so bad after all.
Alexia scraped spinach dip from a plastic dish and slopped it in the garbage. The stuff looked like mushy seaweed in a creamy dressing, but she had to admit, with bread, it tasted really good.
She’d been at Cherry Creek Specialty Store for over a week now and she felt like she was finally getting the hang of it. Of course, there were still many things she didn’t know. Thank god for Jonah.
He was always patient with her, no matter how many questions she asked. He’d been at the store the longest, which meant he knew everything. Even some of the employees who’d been there for months occasionally had to ask him questions.
Bella came into the kitchen, her hair mussed at the top, wispy strands floating around her forehead. “You’re doing great,” she said to Alexia. “We sure had a rush today.”
Alexia nodded and set the plastic dish in the large industrial sink. “Saturdays are always busy in here, huh?”
“They are.” Bella turned the oven off, then grabbed a pan of cooling bread. She set it on the countertop to slice. “It dies down in the wintertime.”
Jonah pushed through the swinging doors at the front of the kitchen. “Can I take my lunch, Bella?”
“Sure. Why don’t you go, too,” she said to Alexia.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. We can handle it.”
Jonah grabbed a sandwich from the refrigerator. “Alexia, you want one?”
“Umm…sure. Turkey, please.”
He grabbed her a turkey and brought it over to the sandwich counter.
“Want to come with me outside?”
“Sure.”
They headed out the back door and to the small patch of grass on the store’s lot. There was a metal table there with four bistro-style chairs. Alexia sat and Jonah picked the seat across from her.
A line of elder maple trees kept the hot afternoon sun at bay. A slight breeze cooled the sweat at the nape of Alexia’s neck.
“Nice day, huh?” Jonah said.
“Yeah. I wish I wasn’t working, though. So I could really enjoy it.”
Jonah laughed. “Yeah. Don’t we all.” He ripped his sandwich in two and took a bite. “For some reason, my girlfriend works, despite not having to. She’s odd like that.” He smiled as if his girlfriend’s eccentric qualities were her most endearing.
“How long have you guys been together?”
“Two years.”
Alexia widened her eyes. “Wow. That’s a long time.”
He nodded before taking a drink of his soda, then, “I love her a lot and maybe it’s old-fashioned of me, but I’d like to think there’s only one love of your life. I think she’s it.”
“Really?”
Alexia wasn’t sure if she agreed with having only one major love, but she liked that Jonah admitted to being old-fashioned and romantic. She admired that. Ben was romantic. Too bad he wasn’t old-fashioned. If he was, he’d want to wait until they were married to have sex. That would save her a lot of stress. She could spend the next five to ten years (okay, maybe not ten) blissfully relaxed while she waited for her marriage to come along.
Then she wouldn’t be constantly thinking about It and worrying about Ben breaking up with her if she didn’t do It.
He didn’t seem like that kind of guy, but Alexia was definitely not like the other girls he’d gone out with. What if he realized he missed having sex and found someone else?
Her friends would say that she didn’t need Ben if he turned out like that anyway, but Alexia really loved him. Maybe she didn’t need him, but she sure did want him.